Lisa Riley’s body battle: The Emmerdale star’s struggle to maintain her weight
Her idea of perfection may have shifted, but Lisa Riley is finally learning to accept her body
Lockdown hasn’t been easy on anyone’s waistlines, and Lisa Riley says she’s no different. The Emmerdale actor admits she found herself eating more with not much else to do and, after battling with her body previously, 44-year-old Lisa is trying to accept her new weight.
Lisa lost a whopping 12st in 2017, taking her from a size 28 to a size 12. But in an exclusive interview with Woman’s Own, she says the last year has been particularly hard when it comes to eating healthily.
FUTURE PLANS
Fitness expert Laurel Alper estimates that Lisa has crept back up to a size 18, and while Lisa admits she’s struggled – ‘I think everyone’s been partial to a carb in lockdown, that’s for sure,’ she says - she’s trying to see the weight gain as a positive. ‘My face felt a bit gaunt before,’ she says. ‘I’m not built to be stick-thin. Now I feel that my body is the right size and shape for me.’
The former Loose Women panellist thinks that lockdown has helped us realise that there are more things to worry about in life than sticking to the diet. She adds, ‘No one has been remotely fanatical. Do you know what lockdown eradicated? That structure of the year, like, “Oh it’s Christmas, right indulge. It’s January, buy every DVD going.’ We don’t have that any more. Maybe that’s some personal awareness that people would like to take forward in the future.’
REFUSING TO CONFORM
Lisa made a welcome return to Emmerdale in 2019, after a 17-year break from the soap that made her a household name. During her first stint as mouthy Mandy Dingle from 1995 to 2001 she was famed for not conforming to what was considered normal in the industry - and it seems that’s something she still stands by.
She says, ‘We’re not all meant to be clones of each other.
‘And to me, that’s not a world I want to live in. I’m an advocate for unique. I’m saying this as a viewer: I like ugly on telly, ugly is great. I don’t want to be perfect on telly. If that comes under the ugly sample, then I’ll take that fully.’
LIFE AND LOVE
After working so hard to overhaul her body in the past, it seems that Lisa has decided that trying to maintain her figure is simply a waste of time. She says, ‘I think everybody has learned to stop striving for perfection because it absolutely doesn’t exist. Perfect is your perfect, it’s who you are. You hold that joystick yourself. Nobody else.’
But while any weight gain is far less of a concern for Lisa now, her health is still of utmost importance.
Following her mum’s shock death to cancer aged 57 and her father’s diabetes diagnosis three years later in 2015, Lisa is focusing on health over vanity. ‘Look at my mum, she wasn’t that lucky,’ Lisa tells us. ‘She hasn’t seen her grandchildren grow up. I don’t want to be that person. I want to live for today, live for now and be the person I am.’
And Lisa’s relationship with fiancé Al has only helped her confidence blossom even more.
‘We’ve been brilliant. Lockdown has cemented us, to the point of where it was sink and swim and we’ve been swimming together brilliantly.
‘I’m confident every day because I’m alive and I’m healthy. I’m doing a job that I love, I have a man in my life who I adore and my family who are my world. What else do I need? I’m living and breathing.’
That’s the spirit! ✣ Emmerdale, weeknights on ITV