Archive September 6, 2025

Top comedian Michael McIntyre has had some disappointing results in his efforts to lose weight.

Ever since Michael McIntyre burst onto the scene in 2006, he has established himself as one of Britain’s best-loved comedians.

The 49-year-old has since transitioned from being a top stand-up to a top entertainment company, presenting top programs like Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and The Wheel. Fans have noticed Michael’s shrinking frame over the years, but the father-of-two’s struggled.

The actor previously disclosed that he had spent a week at a £3, 000 weight loss clinic, which he had described as being “painless.”

Michael and fellow comic Paul Tonkinson traveled to the Mayr Clinic in Austria in 2017, but he acknowledged that it would take longer than six days to get there. His attempt to lose weight at the clinic succeeded, resulting in a 14-pound weight loss during his time there, but he endured intolerable misery.

READ MORE: Michael McIntyre pictured with rarely seen wife Kitty as he leads stars at WimbledonREAD MORE: BBC’s real rich list – as Stacey Solomon and Rylan Clarke missing from official report

He later admitted, “It was a week of pain.” They put little probes on the end of my tongue and told me not to eat apples, and all of them did.

Apples reportedly will cause me to feel extremely irritable and perplexed in my brain. Really, that’s the only thing I can take away from it.

Michael revealed in quotes from the Birmingham Mail that he had also been offered a gut-cleansing treatment with unpleasant outcomes. The entire clinic, which is full of wealthy fat people, rushes to the bathroom after you consume the Epsom salts.

He said, “I was so sensitive, depressed, and perplexed.”

Michael’s first weight-loss endeavor was not his. Since his son’s computer declared him “healer,” he underwent a lifestyle change in 2014.

READ MORE: Mock the Week star Milton Jones reveals he is ‘cancer free’ after undergoing surgery

Michael, who has two grown sons and his wife Kitty, admitted on The Graham Norton Show that “something happened in December that finally made me want to lose weight.”

For egotistical reasons, I thought while my son was in school I would check it out because Akinator the Genie guesses the famous people you’re thinking of by asking questions. It began to inquire, “Is it a man?” and “Is he American?” and narrowed it down to a dark-haired British comedian.

Kerry Katona, the star of Celebs Go Dating, has spoken out about various dark periods in her past, but admits that she “does not have regrets,” and that they have transformed her into who she is today.

Kerry Katona is well-known for her colourful past and traumatic childhood – and last week, she opened up once again about some of the more distressing elements of that past – including how she had been taken advantage of and nearly became an escort at 16. Speaking for the very first time about the shocking path she almost took as a teenager, the 45-year-old revealed that she had hopes of becoming a Page 3 model as she “wasn’t going to be a rocket scientist”.

She told Paul C Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, ”I had a great set of tits. Like, I’d been modelling since I was three… so I was, like, a really good-looking kid, you know, and I had these great boobs.” Her mum, she explained, she sent off her portfolio of pictures, with the photographer asking whether she wanted to do topless photos, Kerry admitting, as OK! reports, that the snaps were “her idea”.

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It was at this point that she confessed she was even thinking about being an escort. “I even was gonna sign up to be an escort. My mum took me into a sex shop. I didn’t end up doing it… Well, there was a photographer and Mum didn’t end up coming, that’s all I can say. And he convinced me to do open-leg shots – but I’ve gone back to doing it on OnlyFans, gone back to my roots – and that came back to haunt me then, when I became famous, he sold all those pictures.”

Fans on social media have heaped Kerry with praise since her jaw-dropping revelations – one calling her “truly amazing, strong and brave” and another, “so open and transparent”. Celebrity pals have also been full of admiration for the mum-of-five, including Christine McGuinness who commented, “Turning pain into power over pity – my kinda woman!” And Gemma Atkinson admitted Kerry had made her “cry”.

Kerry explains to us that, according to Paul C. Brunson, “someone tried to persuade me to become an escort.” That’s something I didn’t intend to discuss, but it did. I’ve never done it or anything similar, but I do recall the photographer trying to persuade me to take various photos that I didn’t want to. Although I was very young at the time, I didn’t do it, though. Because I currently only use OnlyFans, I don’t really like talking, which is completely different. That is my responsibility and is set up in my terms.

Although some of the darker chapters of the book are difficult to revisit, the former Atomic Kitten believes it is important to be honest about some of its darker chapters. She has lived a famously turbulent life. It has led me to where I am right now because you can’t live with regrets in life. Because I discussed a lot of things in my past, I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed and emotional since the podcast was released. Returning to that location is challenging.

Kerry, whose new romance with PT Paolo Margaglione is finally playing out on the small screen, also opened up about her tumultuous childhood. The star, who said she was a product of an affair, revealed her mum’s many relationships over the years. Now on the road for a UK tour with Katie Price, she may be in control of her life today, with a successful TV career and her own lucrative account on adults-only subscription site OnlyFans, but she admits, it’s not always been that way.

She tells OK! in detail about the photographer’s images of her as a teenager that “people have already taken advantage of me, like the person who took the open-leg photos of me when I was young.”

Kerry also discussed her relationship with her mother Sue, who she had been told was “sherbet” when she was 14 when she first tried drugs with. She admitted she was “terrified” of Dave and had witnessed “unspeakable” things as a child and was told that she and her mother were required to go under witness protection to protect herself from Sue’s abusive boyfriend, who later turned out to be Kerry’s biological father.

But in a tearful Instagram video, Kerry urged fans not to send her mum “hateful” messages, reiterating that “we all make mistakes”. She said, “It was a very, very long time ago and I love my mum dearly and my mum is not that person any more, she’s a much older lady now.”

Kerry continued, “So if anyone is considering sending her any hate messages, please don’t.” My mother’s terrible childhood, which happened in the past, helped shape me into who I am today.

Kerry has been raking over painful old-life experiences in particularly reflective form lately. It’s interesting that Kerry has been talking so much about her past recently, especially the part about almost becoming an escort, which she claims she has kept a secret for a long time and doesn’t intend to discuss, according to psychotherapist and author Clare Deacon (happyacoach.com).

“Talking out and having ownership for her story can be incredibly powerful. Sharing the truth begins to dismantle that which people have been forced to suppress because it wasn’t what they “should do or be” because it feeds shame and reinforces the idea that they are not worthy.

Clare goes on to say that it’s also about letting the narrative take control. Kerry is regaining control over her position by choosing to tell her story on her terms. She demonstrates to others that the growth we’ve experienced is not the end of our story; rather, she’s modeling it.

Diane Lloyd has revealed the heartbreaking reason she went to have her NHS doctor check out a mole and shared her journey with skin cancer.

Model Danielle Lloyd has revealed that her friend’s passing inspired her to check out an unusual mole. The model and TV star revealed to fans earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with skin cancer and was “shocked” by it.

In case any of her followers noticed “something funny” on their bodies or an abnormal mole, the 41-year-old said she made the decision to disclose her diagnosis to the public to raise awareness of the condition. The Liverpudlian just revealed she had additional surgery after discovering yet another abnormal mole on her torso just last month.

Now, in an exclusive interview with The Mirror, Danielle has revealed it was the death of her close friend, who had bowel cancer, which encouraged her to reach out to her NHS doctor. “I never, ever had anything on my collarbone before,” she said, adding: “I noticed this mole and started to grow, get bigger and turn darker, it was misshaped. I’d noticed it for a while, but it wasn’t until one of my friends died last year.

She left behind two very young children, and she had bowel cancer at the age of 35. I pondered, “You just don’t know, I thought I’m going to get it checked because it’s free.” Stop worrying about it and focus on learning.

“Thankfully, I did go because it turned out to be skin cancer in its early stages.” However, Danielle now claims to be recovering from her second operation and is doing “OK.” She continued, “I’m hoping for the best;] It has made me stronger as a person because I am a really strong person; it was traumatic at the time, and it was obviously very traumatizing to think about not having my kids grow up.”

Archie, George, Harry, Ronnie, and daughter Autumn are the children of Danielle and her husband. She immediately became aware of the news to her supporters. She said, “I don’t want anyone else going through this same experience as I, but it was when I just got home and said, “I’ve got to share this.” Danielle continued, “I didn’t believe it would occur to me.”

I only believed it to be true for fair-skinned, light-haired people. I was at that exact moment ready to share it. I wanted to raise awareness and didn’t want anyone else to experience it, but I wanted people to worry and think, “I’ve got this thing,” and not be checked. I wanted to let people know that anything can happen to anyone and that they should be checked and checked for safety.

Danielle claimed that she had been using the NHS throughout the trauma and that while the results may take longer than private medical care, her experience was “amazing.” She claimed that the Macmillan nurses who were on hand were “so lovely and great” but that she was “stressed” when she was diagnosed, which left her in shock. She praised the team, saying, “They were really good from the moment they told me it was cancerous until my next appointment, it took a few weeks.

Danielle acknowledges that she has learned a lot about herself since finding fame 22 years ago. She described her mental health struggles as “a lot of anxiety and depression,” and now I feel like I can control that. She does this by getting in shape, eating well, and being the best mother possible for her five children.

She no longer stresses over going to work and admits she only wants to watch her children grow up, despite previously putting off it. She said, “They won’t be here one day, they’re going to fly the nest, and I’m going to be gutted.”

Danielle has recently partnered with MyFitnessPal, a program she has used for years to track her calorie intake and food. She claims that the app now includes a meal planner when it comes to setting up meal times for the upcoming week.

She praised the tool, saying that you can essentially put everything your kids and you like in one go. And since it gives you a shopping list when you visit the store and purchase it, you don’t have any waste at the end of the week. You can include your budget, which is fantastic, in my opinion.

When Danielle and the children return from school, this tool has a big impact on her. Instead of going to a takeaway, she’s found that having the option to choose a different cuisine for dinner, such as Chinese food, is beneficial.

It’s no surprise that Danielle, a mother of five, finds a way to unwind after starting pilates last year. Just my brief period of rest and relaxation to adjust my body. I think I can stretch even more. You have the opportunity to close your eyes and enjoy that peace and quiet before I return to the rabble at the end of the class.

She praised the educational system for incorporating mental health into the curriculum today and is a huge fan of it. Children are encouraged to talk about their feelings to parents, siblings, and peers in order to gain more knowledge of the subject. She said that kids can be affected by strains.

People living with cancer and their loved ones can receive private support from The Macmillan Support Line. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.

Amanda Barrie, the coronation street icon and Bad Girls icon, talks to Jessica Boulton about turning 90, having plastic surgery, writing a spicy memoir, and having TWO life-changing operations in just six months.

It was just three years after VE-Day when 13-year-old northerner Shirley Broadbent first stood on the steps outside London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. In the tradition of the great Victorian actors before her, she said a prayer – not for fame, money, marriage, or even a home that was better than her current Soho boarding house. She had just one wish: to act. Anywhere and anyhow she could.

It was in that same theatre that she later sneaked into an audition, underage, and won her first major pantomime role. It was also there that she married the love of her life. Now, next week, after a phenomenal career, Amanda Barrie will once again return to to theatre’s Grand Salon – this time to celebrate her 90th birthday. A lot has changed in eight decades – including her name. But the Coronation Street and Bad Girls legend isn’t dreading the milestone – she’s simply relieved she’s still here.

Because today, she reveals that she has had two life-changing operations in the last six months, one to replace a heart valve with pig tissue and the other to replace her hip.

Had she been awake and had an allergy to general anesthesia not prevented her from hearing every bone-cracking sound the surgeon made, the second should have been straightforward.

“So far this year, I’ve appeared in two theatres,” Amanda smiles. “Both operating theatres. But I did have two marvellous leading men, to whom I was happy to relinquish top billing! With the hip, I could only have an epidural, so I couldn’t feel anything, but I could hear it. The surgeon was sawing and hammering away on the bone. It was like he was trying to dig another Channel Tunnel!”

As for the heart…. “They used a new non-invasive technique going up through the groin,” she explains. “The only weird part came when I was lying there – scared, wondering if the surgeon had had a good night’s sleep – and someone said: ‘What would you like us to do with your knickers?’ I’m on the table waiting for a heart operation, what exactly were my options? So I told them: ‘Put them on eBay!’”

Such talk would probably have made Corrie’s iconic Alma Sedgewick/Baldwin/Halliwell blush. But Amanda is approaching her health woes and upcoming birthday with the same dry trademark wit that she’s previously displayed on everything from Celebrity Big Brother to Hell’s Kitchen and The Real Marigold Hotel.

She only occasionally requires a crutch because she is already back walking. And not always for the reason you might believe. “I was out with it yesterday and people were so nice”, she laughs. They opened doors, smiled, and rushed to help me as I just waved it a little. I might keep it longer, perhaps.

She’s also sworn off roast pork, “out of respect” to her new heart valve. She sneers, “I can’t resist a bacon sandwich, though.” However, I do put my hand on my heart and apologize whenever I consume one. I’m sorry if it’s one of your cousins! ‘ I’ll say that.

It’s the thought that counts. And looking as fabulous as she does at 89, Amanda – born in Greater Manchester’s Ashton-Under-Lyne in 1935 – is definitely doing something right. She barely looks 70 yet has never even considered plastic surgery. “I once had an op on a tear duct for medical reasons and there was a complication,” Amanda explains. “It wouldn’t stop bleeding. I needed emergency treatment. The doctors told me afterwards that it was also an op available at cosmetic clinics. Had I been at one, they wouldn’t have had the equipment to save me. I would have been dead. So after that….”

Instead she has a different secret to ageing gracefully. She says, “It’s the fringe.” “And sunglasses.”

Amanda hits her milestone next Sunday, September 14, three days after another big day: the launch of her autobiography Amanda Barrie: I’m Still Here.

Her life has never not been eventful: expelled twice by 13, a cabaret showgirl in the midst of a gangster war at 16 (alongside Barbara Windsor), ending up naked on the set of Carry on Cleo (thanks to a grumpy Kenneth Williams) in her 20s, and hedonistic summers in Cannes in the Swinging 60s, ‘dealing’ “Purple Heart” happy pills to her pals (and the occasional sneaky laxatives to those who crossed her). Even before her two decades as Mike Baldwin’s on-off flame on Corrie and Stephanie Beacham’s partner-in-crime on Bad Girls, Amanda had lived more than a few lifetimes.

She says, “I don’t feel 90.” “Plus I’ve got to get there first. There are still more days to go. If I keel over and don’t make it, I’ll be very upset!” As she poses for photos against the theatre’s grand fireplace, she adds: “On the upside, at least we’re sorted for the obituary pictures now”!

Amanda’s relationship with death was more than just sporadic. A shockwave of a blast caused a tin of her father’s black market peas to fall on her head as a child during a wartime bombing raid, which gave her a limited chance of escaping. She’s also had at least four close shaves on set.

She says, “I’ve had this extraordinary sense of mortality sitting on my shoulders since I was five years old.” It’s actually better now that I’m older and my friends also have it, they say. One has only just realised she’s going to die one day. She anticipated a solution by now”!

It’s love, Amanda’s true source of joy, after all. Her closest friends always knew she was ahead of her time – attracted to the person, not the gender. From the 1960s until the Millennium, she and actor Robin Hunter were engaged in what might now be referred to as a throuple.

It was not until 2003 that Amanda made the decision to come out publicly – having fallen for former Mirror journalist-turned-bestselling crime writer Hilary Bonner, now 76, after working together on a Corrie story. Next Friday, they’ll be celebrating 11 years of marriage after tying the knot in the same Grand Salon where Amanda will be marking her birthday with a deluxe Champagne afternoon tea party.

The couple, who live between Covent Garden and Somerset, are amazed how much public attitudes have changed over the years. For Amanda’s adamant she could never have come out before Alma’s death on Corrie in 2001. “It wouldn’t have been the bosses who caused a problem so much as some of the other cast,” she reveals. ”My close friends like Helen Worth all knew the truth. But you heard other people say certain things….Not naming names.

“Now there are so many LGBTQI characters on the show I often joke they should rename it Canal Street! [after Manchester’s gay bar district]. What happened after I left? It’s not contagious, you know!”

Amanda is well aware she’s pushing the boundaries in these dangerous times of cancel culture. After fumbling what she was trying to say about Trans rights during her 2018 Celebrity Big Brother stint she found herself being heinously trolled.

She believes that a better understanding of the discrimination faced by the earlier generations would help. She was 33 by the time male homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967″. The only reason women weren’t prohibited was that Queen Victoria, who passed the law, was too preoccupied with John Brown, the Scottish man, to think about us, “Amanda quips.” He was always wearing a skirt, though!

She continues, “I lived in a time when people made you feel humiliated and shamed like you had something more than leprosy.” Suicide was committed by people.

Although, in Amanda’s circles there’s something far more shocking and outrageous about Hilary than her gender. She yelled “gasp!” a “Red Top journalist” People were shocked because for years I was terrified of interviews, “Amanda laughs.

Now, however, Hilary is the only person Amanda could trust to help write her life story. So after all the reminiscing it involved, is there anything Amanda wishes she could now tell 13-year-old Shirley on the theatre steps?

” I could tell myself today, the same thing I could tell myself when I was 13, “she admits”. To refrain from thinking and simply act. Every job I do still have a state before me. I have done all my life. I constantly feel like I can’t do it. I’m not good, either. If only one could cut out all that wasted time. “

To the outsider, it’s unfathomable. Amanda herself struggles to remember why she even hated her looks in her Carry On Cleo days. But she’s not one to look backwards for too long. Instead she’s focusing on what’s next: The Audience With Coronation Street tour later this month, where she’ll be sharing stories about life as Alma. Other than that, she has just one ambition left….“To carry on breathing,” she smiles. As ambitions go, it’s probably the best.

Amanda Barrie: I’m Still Here (published by Mirror Books, £22) is on sale on Thursday in all good bookshops. Preorder on Amazon here.

Amanda will be appearing on two dates of the An Audience With Coronation Street tour, beginning September 14.