Category Entertainment News

Comedian Peter Kay underwent a drastic weight transformation in recent years, with fans left in awe when he stepped out looking noticeably slimmer during a 2023 stand-up performance at the O2

Peter Kay revealed the ‘shameful’ moment that made him focus on his weight loss during an honest discussion at a recent event. The beloved comedian underwent a drastic weight transformation in recent years, with fans left in awe when he stepped out looking noticeably slimmer during a 2023 stand-up performance at the O2.

A photo with musician Bryan Edery sparked a frenzy online, with some fans barely recognising him. Even though he was dressed in a casual black tracksuit, it was clear that Peter had shed a significant amount of weight. In 2020, Peter joked about his experiences with Slimming World as he discussed his dieting.

He quipped at the time: “If you don’t know what Slimming World is, it’s like Weight Watchers, but a quid cheaper. I went once, Methodist Church Hall in Bolton, all the women were sat around in a semi circle.”

He went on to say: “‘Big round of applause for Debbie, she’s lost a pound’. I said: ‘A pound? I s**t a pound, what’s that? ‘” One pound! Big deal!”

The comic had audiences in stitches with a routine featuring “Carole in the back”, noting her near-miss on getting a “half-stone sticker” and her diet-breaking fry-up mishap.

Peter quipped: “Carol, take the ‘c’ off chips, what do you get? It’s up to you love, I can’t do it for you.”

While he has cracked jokes about his weight in the past, Peter has mainly kept his private life away from the spotlight. However, at a recent event, that changed as Peter revealed the source of his eating habits before he made the lifestyle changes.

During the In Conversation With . . . event hosted by Sara Cox at The Lowry theatre in Salford, Peter was asked whether he ever tried to lose weight.

According to The Sun, the star revealed: “Only for the first 48 years of my life. Yeah I had to, eventually, because you start thinking about your health and things like that, don’t you?

“I tried everything. Good God in heaven. I mean, you go to flaming weight-loss groups and stuff like that. I joined Slimming World and WeightWatchers. I did all of them.”

He went on to reveal the eye-opening moment that made him turn his life around. He didn’t specify when the moment unfolded, but revealed he was at the cinema with his wife Susan.

They were watching The Green Mile and he suddenly had food cravings during the three-hour movie. After lying to Susan that he was heading to the toilet, he nipped out to buy a hot dog.

“I was doing really well with this diet, but I’m so bad with willpower. I had this hotdog and I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in, ironically, a framed poster for Babe,” Peter admitted.

“I thought, look at you — what are you doing? You’re doing really well on this diet, you should be ashamed of yourself. And I got it and threw it in the bin — and just as it was about to hit the bin liner, I grabbed it and still ate it.”

Peter also revealed at the event that his eating habits started when he was a baby, explaining how his mother, Deirdre, would place a “meat pie from the market hall and put it on my knee, and I’d be there eating it.”

“My mum used to bring pies in for me at primary school. She’d go in and she’d say to the dinner ladies, ‘Can you give this to Peter?’” he continued.

“Everyone would be queueing up and the dinner ladies would be like, ‘Your mum’s been in with a pie’.”

His mum is now “obsessed” with people’s weights and “properly judges everybody by it”. Meanwhile, when he was a child, she would ‘hide the biscuits in the house’ but Peter still knew where they were.

“I used to have me mates round for a brew and I’d reach inside the tumble drier and get a packet of digestives out, like it was normal,” he said.

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

READ MORE: Amazon’s Prime Video confirms UEFA Champions League 2025/26 fixturesREAD MORE: ‘Phenomenal’ waterproof walking shoes worth £65 now reduced to £16 with limited time offer

Many fans have been shocked to discover the dark past to one of their favourite songs

Music is a universal language, but despite billions listening to their favourite tunes each day, many do not know the hidden stories behind them — and some are darker than others.

The Rolling Stones have amassed a legion of fans over several decades and are slated to tour next year, led by octogenarians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and the sprightly Ronnie Wood, 78.

One of the more obvious testaments to the band’s enormous talents is their modern-day relevance and popularity, becoming a British cultural staple and even clocking close to 30million monthly listeners on Spotify 61 years after their debut album.

Their 1969 effort, Let It Bleed, is considered by many to feature their best work, though there is ample selection to choose from.

The aforementioned album includes classics such as You Can’t Always Get What You Want, title-track Let It Bleed and its famed opener, Gimme Shelter, amongst others.

And it’s the latter track which has a haunting legacy centred around one of its more prominent attributes — the quite possibly greatest backing vocals of all time performed by Merry Clayton.

Merry’s powerful performance, which springs out from behind the song’s hypnotic groove, delivered largely via the superb guitar work of Keith Richards, captures the sentiment of the band at that time, dark and seemingly full of despair, as she repeats her lines, “Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away, just one shot away”.

So emphatic is Clayton’s howling that, at around the three-minute mark of the song, you can faintly hear Mick Jagger cheer in the recording studio as her vocal cracks from the intense screams.

However, as celebrated as this song is, racking up more than 730million plays on Spotify today and being recognised as one of the Stones’ finest works, it would result in tragedy for 20-year-old Merry Clayton.

In November 1969, weeks before the Let It Bleed release, a very pregnant Clayton received a call, telling in previous interviews how “I’m at home at almost 12 o’clock at night. And I’m hunkered down in my bed with my husband, very pregnant, and we got a call from a dear friend of mine and producer named Jack Nitzsche.

“Jack Nitzsche called and said… ‘Merry, are you busy?’ I said No, I’m in bed. He says, ‘Well, you know, there are some guys in town from England. And they need someone to come and sing a duet with them, but I can’t get anybody to do it. Could you come?’”

She added: “At that point, my husband took the phone out of my hand and got angry: ‘This time of night you’re calling Merry to do a session? You know she’s pregnant!’

“But Nitzsche succeded to bring my husband on his side. In the end, he managed to convince me: ‘Honey, you know, you really should go and do this date.’”

As previously mentioned, the recording session was intense, with Merry forcing every emotion she had into her vocals, but she would later claim it came at a costly price.

Shortly after returning home, she suffered a miscarriage, with many pointing to the session as a leading reason for the loss of her baby due to the emotional stress and intensity of the process.

Merry could not listen to the song, which is so highly commemorated, due to the link it had with her miscarriage and it took time to recover from this anguish.

“That was a dark, dark period for me, but God gave me the strength to overcome it,” she said during an interview in 1986, 17 years after recording the song.

Thomas Skinner, who is a contestant on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, admitted he has made “big mistakes,” including cheating on his wife Sinead just weeks after their wedding

Thomas Skinner’s mistress has claimed the salesman told her she “was the love of his life” during their fling.

But Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, 35, has also insisted she was the one who told his wife about his affair – and not the former The Apprentice star himself as he has alleged. Thomas, who is a contestant on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, confessed to cheating on his wife Sinead just weeks after their wedding.

And Amy-Lucy has today again stressed the three-month fling was far more meaningful than Thomas, 34, had made out in his interview with reporters. Amy-Lucy, who lives near Brentwood, Essex, said: “Thomas told me I was the love of his life and sold me an absolute dream. He told me that he was in a loveless relationship of convenience.”

Thomas, who was on series 15 of The Apprentice in 2019, has claimed his wife has forgiven him, and the salesman said he and Sinead, who share three children, have “moved forward together”.

READ MORE: ‘Thomas Skinner stormed out of Strictly interview in front of me – I heard what he muttered’READ MORE: JD Vance strikes up unlikely friendship with The Apprentice star Thomas Skinner

Amy-Lucy, though, has spoken out this week, claiming Thomas’ account of thing hasn’t quite been accurate. The beauty clinic boss told the Daily Mail she and Thomas were often out in public together and acted like a couple besotted with one another.

She added: “It makes me really angry that his narrative is that he told her. He did not tell her. I can’t believe he’s trying to make out that he did the honest thing. He did not, he tried to keep the lie up for weeks and was torturing me emotionally. He was playing me and Sinead off against each other. Telling me one thing, telling her another.”

The fling is understood to have lasted several months, beginning just six weeks after Thomas married Sinead in May 2022. Now, the timing of the revelations are awkward for Thomas as he is set to make his Strictly Come Dancing debut on Saturday.

And the dad of three has said he has become a “target”, and is “being portrayed a public enemy number 1” following the affair bombshells. In a lengthy statement on X, he wrote: “My life ain’t perfect…..far from it. I’ve made big mistakes, I’ve let people down, and done things I’ll always regret in my past.

“The worst was what I did to my wife three and a half years ago…..one stupid moment I’ll carry forever. It was nothing more and nothing less despite what is being said. I told her straight away. She had every right to leave me back then, but she forgave me…….and that forgiveness changed my life.

“Since then, we’ve built a new home, had two more beautiful children, and moved forward together. We are stronger. Family is everything to me. It’s what I do everything for.

Owen Cooper became the youngest male winner of an acting Emmy award on Sunday night when the young Brit was recognised for his role in Netflix drama Adolescence

Adolescence star Owen Cooper won’t take his Emmy to school – because he fears it will get pinched.

The teenager, who became the youngest male winner of an acting Emmy award on Sunday night, proudly held the gong at a press conference yesterday. When asked by a reporter if he would be showing the award off to his classmates, Owen said: “This will get robbed in my school. No chance. I am definitely not taking it to school.”

Yet fans chuckled on social media, with some pointing out it reminds them Owen is just 15 – and like any other British teenager – despite the resounding praise he and Adolescence has received. One internet user posted: “He seems like a nice grounded boy. I hope he does well in life, whether or not that includes acting.” Another shared: “This young man is super special and humble.”

And Owen is due back at school in Cheshire this week after flying back from Los Angeles with his parents. He posed with IT worker Andy and Noreen, a carer, following his triumph at the Peacock Theatre’s glitzy ceremony on Sunday night.

READ MORE: Adolescence’s Stephen Graham leaves fans ‘in tears’ with heartfelt Emmy Awards speechREAD MORE: Netflix drops first look at ‘addictive’ mystery thriller with Grey’s Anatomy stars

Andy, 45, and 52-year-old Noreen live in the terraced home in Warrington, Cheshire, which they raised their family over the past two decades. Owen’s brother Ollie, 21, and 31-year-old half-brother Connor – both electricians – also joined the actor at the event.

Neighbours, meanwhile, stayed up late to watch the glittering ceremony. June Shingler, 77, said she let out a cheer when Owen’s name was announced. She said: “We watched it on TV… I was like ‘Oh my God, he only lives next door but one.'”

Speaking to the Daily Mail yesterday, she added: “I’m really pleased he has won. I don’t think success will change him but I’m hoping he goes on to do other things. Owen is really nice but it is not just him, all the family are nice. His mum and dad have both worked hard.

“They are a lovely family, they really deserve it. At the end of the day all you want is the best for your children. It is marvellous. Everyone is pleased for them. His mum is absolutely wonderful. I am so happy for them. They have brought up a lovely young man. He is very lucky.”

Another neighbour Madeline, 79, said: “I’m delighted for him. He is such a lovely boy. I have known him since he was born. He used to call me ‘Nan Mad’ when his mum brought him over. They are a beautiful family. They are brilliant and he is so well grounded.”

The Emmys In Memoriam pays tribute to major television and entertainment figures who have recently passed away and this year it featured Ozzy Osbourne, Vince Gill and other stars

Fans of Gene Hackman were left fuming after the Hollywood legend was omitted from the In Memoriam segment at the 2025 Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

Hackman, 95, died in February after a journey with Alzheimer’s disease. However, the veteran actor was not featured in the Emmy tribute which honours major television and entertainment figures who have recently passed away. The montage was played during the ceremony in Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, and included nods to the likes of Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Ozzy Osbourne and David Lynch.

Viewers were puzzled – and outraged – at the omission of Hackman, as well as other major stars, such as Jonathan Joss, Connie Francis and Val Kilmer. They took to X, which was known as Twitter, to express their ire.

READ MORE: Inside Stephen Graham’s ethnicity as Adolescence star gives emotional Emmys speechREAD MORE: Adolescence star Owen Cooper scolded by on-screen dad Stephen Graham after Emmys win

One fan asked: “Where was Gene Hackman in the In Memoriam?” Another posted: “Did they leave out Gene Hackman? Ugh.” A third said: “Did I miss GENE HACKMAN? Was he included?” A further tweet stated: “Only turned it on to see the In Memoriam and they left out way too many people.”

While he wasn’t part of the broadcast tribute, Hackman is part of a more comprehensive list of fallen stars on the Emmy’s website. Other actors, including Polly Holliday and Graham Greene, are on that list.

But Hackman had an extensive career, which included significant TV credits such as the 1965 series I Spy. He won two BAFTAs and three Golden Globe Awards, including a latter for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in The Royal Tenenbaums in 2002.

The performer, born in San Bernardino, California, was also in blockbusters, such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The French Connection (1971), and is considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and had a career that spanned over four decades.

READ MORE: Chilling new detail in Gene Hackman wife’s autopsy after she was killed by rat-borne virus

Hackman and classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead and partially mummified in their Santa Fe mansion in February. It was revealed Arakawa had died from Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) in their bathroom days before Hackman passed.

Arakawa also had fluid accumulation in her chest and mild hardening of the vessels that supplied blood to the heart and body at the time of her death, per her autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press.

Ricky Hatton’s family paid tribute to their “beloved son Richard” after the former boxer was found dead at his home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, on Sunday morning

Ricky Hatton’s long-serving manager found the body of his great friend at the boxer’s home, it has emerged today.

Paul Speak, who was also Hatton’s “confidant”, is said to “deserve a little bit of love” following the grim discovery on Sunday morning. He let himself into the boxing icon’s home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, after Hatton, 46, failed to turn up to a boxing show on Saturday evening.

Boxing commentator Steve Bunce said last night: “He (Mr Bunce) filled me in on a few details about the Friday night and the Saturday night. On the Saturday night, Ricky hadn’t gone to a boxing show… Speaky had found out Sunday morning. Speaky went round and let himself into the house. In fact it was Paul Speak who found his great friend and the people’s champion Ricky Hatton.

“Speaky deserves a little bit of love. You can’t even begin to imagine. It’s a 25-year relationship they’ve had as his commercial and business manager, but more than that it’s his close friend. It’s his confidant… I can’t think of another relationship like it in sport to be perfectly honest. So Speaky was the one that found him.”

READ MORE: Oasis to honour Ricky Hatton with special tribute at upcoming Wembley concertREAD MORE: Vernon Kay says Ricky Hatton’s death has ‘hit’ him as he shares friend’s touching act

The family of Ricky Hatton paid tribute to their “beloved son Richard” yesterday. In the emotional statement released through police, the boxer’s family said it was “source of great comfort to see just how many lives Richard touched”.

Former boxer Stacey Copeland, a close friend of Hatton, spoke to the BBC Five Live for a special ‘Remembering Ricky Hatton’ programme which aired on Monday night. Ms Copeland said Hatton “dared to dream” and told how she saw Hatton last on Thursday at his gym.

Hatton, born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, was due to be in Dubai on Monday, to sign a contract for a fight he was due to have in December against United Arab Emirates fighter Eisa Al Dah, Ms Copeland added.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Copeland said: “He was saying he had a problem with his elbow. It was starting to hurt. We just had a bit of a joke, saying ‘you are knocking on now Rick’. That was it. To say it was a shock is a massive understatement.”

Greater Manchester Police said on Sunday 46-year-old Hatton had been found dead at his home in Hyde. The police said there were no suspicious circumstances. Tributes to Hatton, a former world welterweight champion, have been paid across sport and wider society, reports Manchester Evening News.

The athlete’s family said in a statement on Monday: “Richard was so much more than a world champion,” they said. “To us he was simply ‘Richard’, our son. A loving father, grandfather, and brother, and a true friend to many. He had a heart as big as his smile, and his kindness, humour and loyalty touched everyone who was lucky enough to know him.