SHE once took “naughty” slimming pills in a bid to keep trim – but Helen Lederer reckons she has finally learned to accept her body the way it is.
The veteran comic and actress, who joins Coronation Street as Ken Barlow’s latest love interest next week, says: “It’s crazy the stuff I’d put up with just to try and lose some weight.
“But you just have to forget about it and get on with it.”
Helen, 69, who found fame as a comic in early Eighties and went on to star in TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, admits that had she been offered trendy weight-loss jabs Wegovy or Ozempic when she was an up-and-coming actress, she would have jumped at the chance to take them.
“The jabs sound like a dream come true,” she says of the diabetic medication that has helped celebrities including Sharon Osbourne and Oprah Winfrey lose weight.
“If only they’d had them when I was young . . .
I’ve not had a figure like a model, or an attractive actress type, so throughout my life I experimented with diets, including limiting myself to 400 calories a day.
“And if skinny jabs help people to be healthy, then great.
“Plus, it’s prescribed by professionals, as opposed to the naughty slimming pills I did.”
Weight-loss medication is now big news, with Morgan Stanley Research expecting the market for anti-obesity drugs to surge to £60billion by 2030.
And Helen, can well understand the appeal.
She says: “In life you always go, ‘Oh, if only I had the perfect legs . . . ’ You always just want the perfect body, so it makes sense why these have become popular.
“I’ve not had a figure like a model, or an attractive actress type, so throughout my life I experimented with diets, including limiting myself to 400 calories a day.”
The mum of one, who grew up in Eltham, South East London, adds: “I was no stranger to testing something out if I needed to lose weight, I didn’t care how I did it.
“I would manage to get slim but then got fed up with that so put on weight.
“It was a lot of ups and downs.
“If I had the skinny jab when I was younger, who knows? Maybe it would have helped me.
“It’s great that it works for people and it’s amazing how far science has come.”
Helen, who will be seen on Corrie next Wednesday catching the eye of Ken Barlow at a singles night, says she was thrilled to star opposite William Roache, 91, the Street’s longest-serving actor.
“Bill was such a charming, lovely man,” says Helen, who admits that she “dropped everything” when she was offered the role.
But while Helen might be more comfortable in her own skin today, she has spent decades battling with her body image.
At 5ft 2in, she has yo-yoed from a size 10 to a size 16 throughout her career and admits she used to starve herself to stay skinny.
“I have been in different phases with my body throughout my life,” she says.
“I would have phases of going on and off slimming pills for many years.
“When they worked, I thought they were great, but it wouldn’t be long before your heart was racing.
“I remember there was a comedy series I did in Scotland and I don’t think I ate any food once while taking them — I just drank a lot of wine.
“Now I look back and think, ‘How?’ But back then people just did this stuff and got on with it.
“It was truly like I was living the Ab Fab life: ‘I’m the muggins who’s really doing it’.”
Helen began her career as a stand-up comic at London’s Comedy Store, and she soon became one of the country’s most popular TV personalities, working alongside acts including French & Saunders, Rik Mayall and Harry Enfield.
I didn’t look particularly conventional and it is a bit of a burden being different
But being a young woman in the male-dominated world of comedy was not easy and Helen recalls how she had to develop a thick skin.
“Back in my day, a funnywoman who didn’t look normal or average was someone to be avoided,” says Helen — who releases her memoir, Not That I’m Bitter, on April 11.
She adds: “I didn’t have the looks, so I don’t think I was necessarily accepted that much via any group, because I didn’t fit a category.
“I didn’t look particularly conventional and it is a bit of a burden being different.
“But I suppose growing older, you just come to terms with it.
“If I am able to make people laugh, then I have just got to crack on where I can.”
Blighted by body insecurities, Helen says she would cover up with clothes that drew attention away from her physique.
“I would dress in a functional manner and not wear clothes where anyone could see my bosoms or my you know what,” says Helen, who has a daughter called Hannah, 33, with her first husband Roger Alton, a former newspaper editor she was married to from 1989 to 1991.
She says: “You don’t want people looking at it, especially when you are trying to be funny.
“People can’t help themselves with making comments.”
Despite career knockbacks Helen, happily married to GP Chris Browne since 1999 for 25 years, persevered and landed a semi-regular role on ratings giant Ab Fab as ditzy mag employee Catriona.
“I always wanted to work in comedy and I must have been so single-minded that nobody was going to stop me from doing that,” she says.
“I’m not saying that it was all plain sailing.
“It’s a competitive world and society was different back then.
“I was that large person in the class who was funny, so I played on that, which I think worked.
“I didn’t wear glamorous clothes and I never tried to. I understood that look wasn’t for me.
“I wore trousers rather than skirts and made sure I had things covering my crotch area.”
One thing Helen has always resisted is the urge to have cosmetic surgery.
“If people want to do tweaks that’s fine, but personally it’s not for me,” says the star, who also appeared on the 2017 series of Celebrity Big Brother.
“I wouldn’t agree with some people’s choices with what they do with their faces, but it’s each to their own, isn’t it?
“I stay away from judging. It’s not for me to do that.
“People who have had all this dental work done look more uniform now.
“Back in my day we were a rough old mix — we were probably quite ugly.
“It sounds awful, like back in the war, but it’s because we didn’t have the option to change ourselves. We just cracked on.
“But I think all of those things like cosmetic surgery are great — if they work.
“On the other hand, for me, there are areas that I have left untouched — probably too untouched.
“I don’t know if I should give it a go, maybe I should?
“I guess that can become something else to worry about.”
After four decades in showbiz, the actress, who has also starred on TV in medical soap Doctors and drama series Midsomer Murders, is showing no signs of slowing down.
She says: “I’m still going to continue with wherever life takes me.
“I love to have a party and certainly won’t be stopping those.
“My life motto now is just to carry on, and maybe to become more body confident.”
