Let’s all be proud of our wobbly bits
Well done, Coleen Rooney for taking on the spiteful bodyshaming trolls who spread rumours that she was pregnant, just because in her latest holiday snaps she has a hint of a rounded tummy.
Coleen astutely hit back: “There’s probably someone 20 stone who is judging me online, so I just ignore it.”
This week I shared my stretch marks, scars and wobbly bits on Instagram to show that I’ve embraced my imperfections, leaving me to focus on what’s really important – living life to the full and being happy.
So come on girls, don’t be a “body shamer”. Get out those wobbly bits and be a “body embracer”.
Karma can be a bitch, as Sir Philip Green is currently finding out. The billionaire, who sold Bhs pensioners down the river when he flogged off the failing High Street chain for £1 to a serial bankrupt, must now be finding his own twilight years are not quite what he’d hoped for.
Unlike many of the workers he left in his wake, he’s hardly going to be worrying about how to pay the gas bill. But despite having a lovely £115million superyacht, I reckon he’s finding it hard to relax.
At the age of 65, his thoughts must be turning to what will become of the £3.8billion fortune he’s spent a lifetime racking up.
So imagine how Sir Shifty must have felt when his beloved daughter and heiress Chloe came out with the words guaranteed to put any father on red alert: “Daddy, I’d like you to meet my new boyfriend.”
Because it turns out that the object of her (many public displays of) affection is Jeremy Meeks, an ex-gangster whose CV kicks off with a nine-year prison stretch for grand theft, followed by two more years’ jail for gun possession and resisting arrest.
OK, in the 17 months of freedom he’s enjoyed since, he’s built a career as a successful model – launched after his pretty boy police mugshot went viral. And a big part of that is a fat Topshop contract “facilitated” by guess who – Chloe Green. But if I was in Phil’s deck shoes, I can tell you for sure that even if Mr Meeks now appeared to be a living saint who had spent every minute of his liberty helping orphans in India, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
The tycoon, who was dragged through a Parliamentary inquiry and threatened with the loss of his knighthood before finally agreeing to stump up £363million for Bhs pensioners, knows more than most about trying to salvage a damaged reputation.
But I’m guessing he also knows that whatever it says on the PR script, people rarely change overnight, do they?
And while I’d loved to have been a fly on the Lionheart sundeck when Sir Shifty got a shufty of those snaps of a bikiniclad Chloe straddling the shoulders of her new love in Barbados, I don’t much care if this overindulged rich kid’s dodgy life choices end badly for the Greens.
What really sickens me is that Meeks is a married father-of-three whose wife Melissa – the woman who stood by him while he was in jail – only learned she’d been dumped for a billionaire’s daughter from social media.
What kind of a man does that to the mother of his children? And what kind of a woman muscles in on someone else’s husband in such a brazen way?
But then, if you’ve been raised in a home where what counts is to get what you want without much caring about how that affects anyone else, that’s going to mould your character, isn’t it?
I reckon many of those ex-Bhs workers would bet their paltry pension pots on Miss Green proving a £25,000 a year education won’t stop you screwing up your life if you haven’t been taught the self respect, dignity and compassion that come free of charge.
So if he doesn’t want to upset his little girl, Sir Shifty had better swallow his pride and give the man known as “the world’s hottest felon” a place at the table. Somehow, I suspect the Greens will find that Meeks fits right in. I’m so thrilled for my friend and colleague Ruth Langsford who’s been named as part of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line up.
She says she’s excited but also very nervous. I don’t think she’s got anything to worry about.
I’ve seen her on the dancefloor at a few dos and I can tell you that once she gets those dancing shoes on and starts shaking those amazing hips of hers, people will see that’s she not called a Loose Woman for nothing!