15 April 2023 , 08:15
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Coronation Street 's feisty barmaid Glenda Shuttleworth has lived a life filled with many twists and turns before her soap role.
Actress Jodie Prenger, who plays Glenda, has made a name for herself as a leading lady for stage and screen over the past 16 years.
She boasts theatre credits including Shirley Valentine, Fat Friends: The Musical, Annie and One Man, Two Guvnors.
Jodie first rose to fame when she won the second series of the hit Sky Living weight loss show The Biggest Loser in 2006, where she dropped from a size 26 to a size 12.
She even released a weight loss DVD following her impressive win, reports the Daily Star.
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Corrie actress Jodie Prenge explained how she dropped from a size 26 to a size 12 (LIVINGTV PRESS OFFICE)
She won The Biggest Loser in 2006 (LIVINGTV PRESS OFFICE)The star admitted before she went on the show that she was eating too much of the wrong things at the wrong times.
She said: “Because I worked at night, I'd sit around in the day and make a sandwich for something to do.
“I couldn’t cook, so I'd eat in restaurants all the time and then after gigs I'd have a KFC or a cheese sandwich. I knew it was wrong, but it fed my hunger.”
After she finished the show, the 5ft 3in star would regularly work out for three hours a day to maintain her trim figure.
Jodie Prenger has starred in a West End production of Oliver (The Daily Mirror)
Jodie pictured in 2011 (Getty Images)Speaking to The Sun, she explained: “What that show did was teach me a lot about exercise and I enjoyed the process because we did it as a group.
“But it wasn’t realistic because they put you in a house and you did nothing else but that, so when real life comes in again, it’s not sustainable.”
As the years passed, the actress struggled as she adjusted to life outside of the controlled mansion.
Jode during her weight loss journey in 2013 (PA)
Jodie has since said she has stopped her yo-yo dieting (Getty Images for The National Lottery)She told Daily Star: “I found it hard to keep the weight off, and it’s never helped that I am partial to a cheeseboard and a bottle of Prosecco. The main thing now is that I do enjoy myself and refuse to beat myself up about my weight.
“Size 10-12 just wasn’t sustainable. Besides, I'd gotten too skinny, I was happy to regain a couple of stone and get some curves back.”
In 2012, following an explosive split from boxing legend Chris Eubank, the star fell madly in love with company director Simon Booth.
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Jodie Prenger joined Corrie in June last year (ITV)Unfortunately, her 6ft 4in tall partner had quite the appetite which lead to Jodie eating more.
Two years later she faced several life changes, after she landed a part in the West End show One Man Two Guvnors, Simon popped the question, and her dad Marty was diagnosed with kidney cancer which he died of months later.
During that difficult time in her life, the star confessed that her health and diet was the last thing on her mind.
Jodie explained: “It was the best of times and the worst of times rolled into one and my natural reaction was to keep busy and go out every night, so there was never time to confront my emotional turmoil.
“I was drinking too much and eating whatever rubbish we could find at daft o’clock in the morning whether it was steak and chips in a posh café or a burger from a takeaway.”
Jodie pictured during 2019 (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
She hit fame on both stage and screen (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)It wasn’t until she started the new show and spotted billboards of herself that she realised she needed to lose the weight again after she put on around four stone.
The actress confessed: “I was wearing a corset over a pair of Spanx over another corset, and even with all that the fat still managed to escape.
“I didn’t see it in the mirror, but blown up on a billboard, I looked larger than life.”
Jodie claims her weight has been up and down "like a bride's nightie'The soap star finally put an end to her yo-yo diets after years of battling with her weight.
Speaking to The Sun, Jodie explained how her life has changed since took a break from the West End for the ITV soap.
She told the publication: “My weight has been up and down like a bride’s nightie. Sometimes I'm alright with it and other times I'm not.
“But I always think, ‘God, I wish I was as big as I was the first time I thought I was big, you know?’