Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones says she has battled with her weight all her life
Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones, says she's been "in a battle" with her weight all of her life.
The co-creator of the popular BBC sitcom, which is returning for a one-off festive special, explained that while she doesn't like the word "struggled" when referring to her weight, she has always "battled" with her size.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast with mother-daughter duo Jessie and Lennie Ware, alongside her co-creator James Corden, the actor said: "I have been in a battle with my weight all of my life, as long as I can remember. I can't remember ever being slim."
Jones, 58, spoke of a previous weight loss attempt in which she attended a workshop with hypnotist Paul McKenna in a bid to give up chocolate. "Chocolate was my main thing," she explained. "So he said he was going to show us a technique to help us stop eating it for good."
While she admits to being a bit cynical she went on to say that what she believes to be a form of "aversion therapy" initially worked for her.
The Fat Friends actor explained that McKenna had asked her to think of something you would hate eating, which for her was mushy peas.
"And what you do is you think of eating that, then you think about eating the chocolate and you keep alternating. Anyway it worked completely. I did not eat chocolate for five years. I couldn't stand the smell of it."
The star added that when she and Corden were writing in hotel rooms she would "test herself" with chocolates left on the pillows by housekeeping to see if she wanted them, but says she didn't. However, after unsubscribing to the workshop emails, she says the very next day Corden says he came out of the bathroom to find his co-creator with a chocolate "hanging out of her mouth".
Hinting that she is now back consuming chocolate, the actor, who plays Nessa in the sitcom, says her favourite is a milk chocolate Lindt bar with hazelnuts.
Elsewhere in the episode, Jones discussed her friendship with Corden and the famous cliffhanger at the end of the 2019 Christmas special, in which Nessa tells Smithy: “I loves you with all my heart.”
"The reason I feel it’s so emotional is because me and James have been on this journey for a long time," Jones says.
"We’ve known each other since 2000 doing Fat Friends, and because Gavin and Stacey has been such a massive part of our lives, and that was going to be the last episode – we filmed that scene in the middle of the night as we were filming during summertime, but it was set at Christmas, so it had to be dark.
"We were there, just the two of us, on that road that had meant so much to us, and I just, as Ruth, was looking at my dear friend James, and when I said, 'I loves you with all my heart' I was saying it to you (James)."
Gavin And Stacey: The Finale will air on BBC One from 9pm on Christmas Day and will also be available on BBC iPlayer.
Read more about weight:
15 ways to keep your weight in check this Christmas (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
The two words that inspired mum's 13st weight loss (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
Alison Hammond reveals why she is 'frightened' of weight loss medications (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)
