‘Being fat-shamed gave me the wake-up call I needed’

After reaching a size 22 aged 17, Catherine Tyldesley overhauled her lifestyle. Now she tells Closer how she now maintains her size 8 figure

he starred as one of the S nation’s most popular soap characters, playing sassy barmaid Eva Price in Coronation Street – and Catherine Tyldesley’s enviable physique has previously earned her nominations for Sexiest Female Soap Actress.

But while she looks incredible now, Catherine, 35, who has son Alfie, three, with her fitness trainer husband Tom Pitfield, tells Closer that she has not always been confident about her looks. At her lowest point, she admits that as a teenager she was so overweight, she avoided communal changing rooms and the gym because she was so embarrassed about the way she looked. The star reveals she piled on the weight by eating junk food and, by the time she was 17, she was a size 22.

She says, “Basically, I was greedy and lazy. I was very unfit, too, and it got to the point where I couldn’t walk up the stairs without getting out of breath. I didn’t want to get undressed in changing rooms.”

Catherine, who first opened up about her weight battle in 2013, adds, “My parents always gave me really nutritious home-cooked meals, but when I got into high school, I’d go to the tuck shop or the chippie on the way home.”

WAKE-UP CALL

But the star – whose final Corrie scenes were aired in August after a seven-year stint – says the turning point came when she went to an audition for a musical theatre production.

She says, “I’d gone for the lead female role but the producers told me I’d always be the comedy character – the ‘fat, funny one’. I was super unfit, so they did me a favour in the long run. It was a big wake-up call.”

She then began her weight-loss journey and dropped seven dress sizes by cutting out junk food and starting a regular exercise routine. Now that she’s a size 8 and a healthy 10st 2lbs, Catherine admits she’s happier than ever. The actress tells us, “I massively started cutting down what I was eating. Slowly, I lost 5st over the course of a year. I didn’t do anything stupid because I had already tried all the faddy diets and nothing was sustainable for life. So I did it in a healthy way.”

Catherine reveals her rules for weight loss are to keep it simple, “remember portion control” and balance.

“Everyone can enjoy a little bit of what they fancy at times – I adore chocolate and I love Christmas and all those treats – but diets do not work, that is something I am extremely passionate about,” she insists.

“So it was a total lifestyle change. I started exercising very slowly. I did fitness DVDS at home because I was too embarrassed to go to the gym. As I started losing weight, I felt like a completely different person. I really noticed it in my clothes – I looked and felt better, and it was great not always having to buy in the plus-size section in shops. Just feeling more confident in myself all round. It was such a wonderful experience.

“Now, I aim for a minimum of three weight-training sessions a week. Some weeks it’s impossible and, if it is, then I try to walk everywhere and do my 10,000 steps a day.”

LONG JOURNEY

Catherine met Tom, 31, in 2014, and following a whirlwind romance, they discovered she was pregnant after only four months of dating. They got married in 2016, a year after Alfie was born.

She says, “Becoming a mum is about that little person, it’s not about you, so I wasn’t worried about going back to my old weight when I got pregnant. In fact, when I was pregnant, I was really conscious of everything that I ate and made sure I had all the nutrients for the baby’s development. I had 2st to lose afterwards, which is around average, and I did it slowly.”

She adds, “My weight loss has been a long journey and it’s all about lifestyle.

Now, I study nutrition alongside Ultimate Performance fitness, which is where I train in Manchester. I am really self-motivated, but my biggest motivation is Alfie because I want to be on this planet for as long as possible now! And I want to be a good example to him.”

And it helps that husband Tom is as fitness-mad as Catherine is. She says, “He’s super fit and healthy so we are both singing from the same hymn sheet in that way, and also with parenting. I had sort of given up on love and then Mr Wonderful came along – he’s amazing. It’s all fitted into place and I’m so lucky. I love family life.”

Which begs the question: would she like more children one day? She smiles, “Eventually. I love children. But it is tiring!”

‘It was a total lifestyle change – diets don’t work’