Inside Dawn French's 7.5st weight loss and message for trolls who judge her size

13 October 2023 , 14:42

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Inside Dawn French's 7.5st weight loss and message for trolls who judge her size

Beloved comedian Dawn French has been very open about her weight loss journey over the years after making the decision to overhaul her lifestyle in 2011. A cancer scare prompted the Vicar of Dibley star to lose 7.5 stone for surgery, and she has since said it was a completely 'practical' choice and not one based on her appearance.

The 66-year-old writer and actress, who is on The Graham Norton Show tonight to promote her new book titled The T**t Files, recently spoke out about people judging her weight in an interview. She shared her love for her former 'bigger' self and said lots of people have rudely commented on how she previously looked.

Over the years, Dawn has been honest about her journey (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

When people judge her based on her appearance now, she thinks 'f*** off' (Ian West/PA Wire)

Earlier this month, Dawn told The Times: "I have never rejected the bigger woman I have been. Lots of people do it and say, 'Oh, you look so much better - now you look well'. And I think, 'F*** off! Don't judge that other person who I loved'." She also stuck up for her friend Alison Moyet who has been "reduced to descriptions of her physicality" too. "She's this giant talent, why reduce her to that? I'm not taking any s*** from anyone about any of it," Dawn added.

Back in 2014, the comic revealed her weight loss transformation during a show in Sheffield. She explained: "I became quite ill about three years ago, with all kinds of hell kicking off in here, where I keep my lady plumbing." Doctors warned the comedian she needed to lose weight in order to have the operation with minimal recovery time. The Absolutely Fabulous actress then took up walking and began to count her calories.

She continued: "I eventually went to hospital, and my doc was so convinced I had uterine cancer, that he ordered a second biopsy to be sure, when the first one was clear. Even before the result of the second one, I decided to be done with my old enemy, my defunct reproductive stuff. It was curtailing my life."

TV doc Michael Mosley says of last meal of day time is cruical to losing weight

She added: "So, my womb and I parted company. Goodbye. When I was due to have my hysterectomy, the doc told me that if I could lose some weight before the op, they would be able to do it via 'key-hole', and I would recover in three weeks or so. Otherwise it would be big open surgery, and three months to recover. So, I set about dropping a few stone. No magic wand, just tiny, joyless low-cal eating and lots more walking for weeks and weeks. It was grim. I lost seven and a half stone. I could have the keyhole surgery. Great. That’s all it was, practical."

Dawn, pictured here in 2005, was warned by doctors over her weight (Getty Images)

She was advised to lose weight in order to have keyhole surgery (Getty)

In 2020, Dawn said she was "back to being an entire barrel" and didn't "give a f**k". She didn't reveal how much weight she had gained but said she refuses to dislike herself as she said in her podcast French and Saunders: T**ting About: "I've gone back to being an entire barrel but do you know what, I'm going to be 63 this year, I don't give a f**k, I really don't, so long as I can walk.

"I'm not going to be stingy to myself anymore. I never did dislike anything about my body, even when I was very, very fat. I refuse to be forced to dislike myself. I used to get really angry when I did lose weight, people going, 'You look so well,' as if you looked awful before - rewarding you for managing it, which is not easy, I accept that. But I didn't want people to give me approval. It's so patronising."

Dawn has kept details of her most recent weight loss journey private, but slammed claims made in a fake advert that she had achieved her weight loss without exercise. In June 2021, she called out the fake testimonial on Twitter, which read: "All I can say is that it works! I dropped a total of 6.4 stones in the course of five months! Beret the catch, with no exercise! I wanted to see if it would do as they claimed it world if I did no exercise and to my surprise it did". She shared a screenshot of the fake testimonial and wrote "b****x" on top before tweeting the image and writing: "Keto lies…."

Amy Denman