Alison Hammond shocked fans this week when she revealed that she achieved her staggering 11-stone weight loss without the use of Ozempic.
At her heaviest, the This Morning host tipped the scales at 28 stone but decided to shed the weight following the passing of her dear mother Maria. Alison’s mom had expressed worries about her daughter’s pre-diabetic condition, prompting Alison to take action.
Yet losing the weight was no mean feat for Alison, who has been vocal about her struggles with disordered eating.
The 49-year-old TV personality linked her struggle with weight to a distressing event from her early years and disclosed her battle with PTSD due to the hurtful remarks she endured about her body during her school days.
Detailing her experiences in her book, You’ve Got to Laugh, Alison shared that it was her father Clifford’s behavior that fueled her tendency to overeat. She recounted instances where he would intimidate her into finishing all the food on her plate by using threats of physical punishment.
Recalling an incident when she was eight-years-old, Alison explained: ‘Mum’s great cooking came into its own when she made her Sunday roast, but this Sunday I reached a point when I’d had enough to eat.’
Alison Hammond shocked fans this week when she revealed she achieved her 11-stone weight loss without Ozempic and she previously revealed that childhood trauma sparked her battle (left on Monday, right in 2021)
Alison previously claimed it was the actions of her father Clifford that led her to overeat, revealing he threatened to beat her if she didn’t clear her plate when she was eight years old
Alison’s father Clifford threatened to beat her if she didn’t clear her plate. The drug smuggler, who lived in Jamaica but would visit Alison in Birmingham often, died in 2020
While she claimed her mum had no issue with her leaving some food, she continued: ‘My dad looked up. “Eat the rest of your dinner,” he said sternly. I shook my head. “I’ve finished. I don’t want any more.”
‘“Eat your dinner, now.” His eyes bored into me and then he started taking his belt off.
‘My eight-year-old self did a quick calculation: If my dad beat me with his belt, my mum would try to protect me and he would overpower her. “I’m going to have to eat this food,” I thought.
‘To keep the peace, and out of self-preservation, I ate every last bit of my dinner.’
Alison revealed that when she recalled the incident to a therapist he suggested that it was the root of her issues of food.
She revealed: ‘When I explained what had happened, he suggested I’ve carried that moment through my life ever since.
‘I went away and thought about what he’d said. It made a lot of sense. I never leave anything on my plate, and that’s maybe one reason why I’m a big girl.
‘That Sunday lunch left a psychological imprint: I finished my food to protect myself and something about that experience set up a lasting link in my brain between eating and self-preservation.
‘Once you make a connection like that, you should be able to do something about it, and I think I’ve let it go… up to a point.’
Clifford – a drug smuggler who lived in Jamaica – passed away in June 2020, just four months after Alison’s mother Maria lost her battle with liver and lung cancer.
Alison was brought up single-handed by her mother, Alison still had contact with her dad, telling of one occasion he visited from Jamaica (pictured with mum Maria)
Alison shared: I never leave anything on my plate, and that’s maybe one reason why I’m a big girl. That Sunday lunch left a psychological imprint’ (left, in 2002, right in 2017)
Alison also revealed that she suffers from PTSD after being bullied about her weight, saying that the boys at school would call her an ‘elephant’
In her book, Alison opened up about her relationship with her ‘shady’ father – who would visit Alison and her mother when he was in the UK.
Alison was raised by her mother in Birmingham while Clifford had another family that he lived with in Jamaica but imported trucks between the UK and the Caribbean,.
Reflecting on one of his visits, she wrote: ‘One day, he came straight to our house from the airport. See these boots?! he said, grinning down at his feet. “These are the most expensive pair of snakeskin boots in the world”. “Why are they so expensive?” my mum asked. He bent down, unzipped a boot and a load of ganja fell out.
‘That was my dad! Cliff was charismatic and charming, but he was naughty. He’d illegally bring drugs into the country in the days when people could get away with it, before they introduced sniffer dogs and body scans at the airport.’
Despite her fondness for her father, Alison confessed that she was ’embarrassed to admit’ that the rolls of cash that he gave her mother upon his visits were probably earned from ‘smuggling ganja’, with the star remarking: ‘So shady!’
In her book, Alison – who shot to fame on Big Brother in 2002 – explained how Clifford ‘definitely had the lifestyle’ and would shower her with gifts and treat her to Chinese takeaways, which at the time was be considered a ‘luxury’.
And while she was treated like a princess by Clifford, the businessman was treated like a ‘king’ in his native Jamaica, with his powerful presence leaving residents ‘uneasy’ – most likely due to the shotgun he carried around with him.
She said: ‘You could tell by the way people spoke about him that he was respected and feared in the community. They called him Mr Hammond and you could see the unease in their eyes when they spoke to him. I’m not surprised, either, because he drove everywhere with a massive shotgun tucked under his pick-up truck. He didn’t mess around.’
The star has been candid about her weight struggles over the years and previously admitted she was ‘so embarrassed’ by her weight when she weighed more than 20 stone (pictured in 2014)
Alison also revealed that she suffers from PTSD after being bullied about her weight.
She told The Mirror: ‘At school, when boys made nasty comments about my size, it mostly didn’t affect me because comedy and retorts were my armour.
‘I now though have PTSD over being repeatedly called an elephant. One time, a boy said, ‘I didn’t realise elephants were brown’ and it hurt me on another level.
‘Now, whenever I hear people talking about elephants, I panic, thinking they’re talking about me.
‘I went on safari and was looking to see if anyone was comparing the elephant with me. I haven’t got rid of that fear. Maybe I need a bit of therapy.’
The former Big Brother star opened up about her weight loss this week in a chat with Good Housekeeping UK as she explained that the key to her success was simply cutting out sweets, fatty foods and exercising with a personal trainer.
Admitting that weight-loss jabs weren’t for her, she shared: ‘I think that, for people who need to use them, they’re a good thing – but for me, as soon as I hear any scare story, I get frightened.
‘So I haven’t wanted to use them, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t in the future, and I certainly wouldn’t look down on anyone who did.’
Alison admitted she is trolled on a daily basis about her size but refuses to slim down for others as she likes taking up ‘a little bit of extra space in the world’ (pictured in 2004)
She added: ‘My mum had type 2 diabetes and she was worried for me, so when I then found out that I was pre-diabetic, that was frightening.
‘I thought: “I have to be an adult about this”. The sweets had to stop – and the fatty foods.
‘Twice a week, I see my personal trainer and I have a couple of weights in my bedroom. I walk, I stretch and sometimes I do a bit of yoga.’
Amid her body transformation, the broadcaster opted to sell off her old size 26 clothes earlier this year for charity in memory of her late mother, who passed away from Liver Cancer in 2020.
The star has been candid about her weight struggles over the years and previously admitted she was ‘so embarrassed’ by her weight when she weighed more than 20 stone, she joined Weight Watchers in 2019 to focus on her health.
Alison admitted she is trolled on a daily basis about her size but refuses to slim down for others as she likes taking up ‘a little bit of extra space in the world’.
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie Smith on the What If? podcast, Alison said she is going to try and eat healthier to avoid knee pain but added ‘we’re all going to die eventually’.
She vowed to live her life to the ‘fullest’ and promised that she was going to have a ‘wonderful life’ in the candid chat.
Alison, who is loved for her sunny disposition, said she wanted to prioritise her health and wellbeing whilst juggling her on-the-go lifestyle.
Alison, who weighed 28 stone at her heaviest, has now revealed that her key to success was simply cutting out sweets, fatty foods and exercising with a personal trainer (R, pictured in 2019)
Admitting that weight-loss jabs weren’t for her, Alison said: ‘I think that, for people who need to use them, they’re a good thing – but for me, as soon as I hear any scare story, I get frightened (pictured in 2021)
She said: ‘I want my journey to empower others to think about making changes to their lifestyle to become the best version of themselves.’
Alison, who replaced Matt Lucas as a co-host of The Great British Bake Off in 2023, previously explained how she now has a strict rule on cake tasting after gaining a stone while filming.
The TV presenter originally said she only agreed to join the show ‘for the cake’ – but now she’s realised she has to curb the tasty treats.
Alison has decided to self-impose a limit of sampling only winners’ creations and those bakes which are awarded Paul Hollywood’s famous handshakes.
She told the Off Menu podcast: ‘I just started filming Bake Off. I’ve never seen the tent so cold. It was freezing, absolutely freezing. I had my thermals on underneath my dress.
‘But I love that show for the cake. People don’t realise I am literally there for the cake. After every bake you’re allowed to taste every bake and last year I put on a stone.
‘It’s taken me a year to take that stone off.
‘So now I’m only eating if they get a handshake or the winner of a section. But anything else sorry, I’m not going there. As soon as it goes in my mouth I swallow it – I love it.’
