Nadia: ‘My lumps and bumps are gorgeous’
Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha regularly shows off a bit of skin when she posts parodies of celebrities’ revealing photos, but she hasn’t always been so comfortable. At one point, her husband Mark Adderley wasn’t allowed to see her in underwear – but now he’s the one behind the camera as she shows off her bod on social media.
Nadia, 57, says, “I feel gorge! Lumps and bumps, cellulite and a peeling HRT patch has done nothing to dampen my spirits!” But it’s been a journey for Nadia to be so content. Years ago, she was hit with body shaming comments after she was photographed on the beach in her bikini as a size 14. “This f***ed me up for years… to the point where I literally never dared to go to the beach or by the pool again in a bikini without a cover-up on.”
The mum of two previously said she wasted time hating her body, sharing an old bikini pic and saying, “It leaves me feeling so sad when I look back and think about how much of that holiday I wasted with ‘stinking thinking’ and feeling ‘ugly.’ What a bloody waste of time. What a sacrilege.” She continued, “It makes me so cross and if I’m honest, leaves me a little ashamed that I was so unaware of the pointlessness of it all. Thank god I now have consciousness… one day at a time, I feel better.” Now, Nadia says, “Thank god those days are well and truly in the past!
I feel joyful and liberated.”
While her Instagram posts with her stripping down might be for comedic effect, parodying the likes of Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, Nadia still feels nervous before she shares them online. She said, “Some of my posts – before I send them out –
I am just completely beside myself with fear about it. But when I post it, and read all the comments, I cannot tell you how much strength it gives me.”
But a big part of the reason why she shares these photos publicly is for her daughters, Maddy, 18, and Kiki, 14. She added, “I actually do it for them. The reasons I’m doing all of this is because I want my daughters to have less stinking thinking than I had. That’s all I want. I have a dream that my daughter and yours won’t have to go through the body fascism so many of us had to.” Earlier this year, Nadia got emotional as she was named as one of the Top Ten females celebrities inspiring body positivity among women. Despite that, it is still a work in progress. “I work every day at being more accepting of my beautiful warts-and-all body. It is what it is, and I love it for being in good health (fingers crossed) and for birthing my babies,” she said.