Loose Women proudly strip off for an unairbrushed underwear shoot that proudly flaunts their ‘stretch marks, cellulite and scars’
THESE ladies are on a mission to get women, no matter what shape, age or size, to talk about - and celebrate - their bodies.
And to kick off Loose Women's Body Stories campaign, they've stripped off for an exclusive, non-retouched photo shoot with rocker-turned-photographer Bryan Adams.
Here, Stacey Solomon, Nadia Sawalha, Saira Khan and Andrea McLean reveal how they have all learned to love their looks.
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Stacey Solomon: "I get skinny-shamed all the time"
Stacey Solomon, 27, is mum to Zachary, nine, and Leighton, four, and has been with her partner TV presenter Joe Swash, 35, since 2015. She says:
"While I’ve been the same weight most of my life, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some body hang-ups.
"At 27, I’m the only one of my friends with saggy, breastfeeding boobs, as they haven’t had kids yet.
"But in reality, everyone has something they don’t like. I’ve also got stretch marks and I remember once thinking my ankles were too skinny after someone told me I needed to put on weight. I tried to laugh it off, but subconsciously those comments make you think about yourself in a not very nice way.
"It wasn’t the first time someone had mentioned my body shape and I don’t think people realise there’s a real stigma against slim people. I always get comments like: ‘You need to eat more,’ or ‘You’re so skinny, you don’t look well.'
"They think it can’t be hurtful because they’re not calling me fat, but those words stick and I wonder if I do look unhealthy.
"When I’ve had discussions about it on Loose Women, some say: ‘Poor you with your skinny problems,’ but I don’t think there’s a difference between being told you look terrible for being too skinny or too big. Neither is acceptable.
"When I was a kid, I never worried about the way I looked as I was too busy having fun. I feel fortunate that I didn’t have the worries of social media growing up.
"These days, when I scroll through Instagram or Twitter, I see loads of perfect-looking people.
"I can recognise that it’s most likely down to Botox and surgery, but I worry many young girls can’t.
"That’s why when I do photo shoots, I get angry if there’s a lot of airbrushing. I feel a responsibility to be honest about who I am and say: ‘Sod it, these are my wobbly little muffin tops and I don’t particularly like them, but they are part of me and I’m proud of them.’
"I’ve never been on fad diets, I’ve got a healthy BMI and I remind myself that I have this body because I’m a mum and I wouldn’t change that.
"Joe says I’m perfect as I am, and thank god because I like to be hairy and make-up-free most of the time! Women need to remember that ‘flaws’ are what make you, you.
"So stop obsessing over them, and start loving yourself – there’s nothing more attractive than being happy with who you are.”
Saira Khan: "Child abuse left me ashamed of my curves"
Saira Khan, 46, is mum to Zachariah, nine, and Amara, six, and is married to business development director Steve Hyde, 52. She says:
“Growing up as a Muslim girl in Derbyshire had its difficulties.
"Because of my culture, I was taught from a young age that you should never draw attention to your body, and I was expected to wear conservative clothing like the rest of my family.
"I envied how friends were allowed to wear skirts in the summer. I longed to be more like them and never understood why I had to hide my body, as I wasn’t ashamed of it.
"Every morning, once I left for school, I’d hitch my skirt up a little. I got away with it for years before my dad caught me on the walk home when I was 13 and I got a big telling off.
"He said I was being sent to school for an education, not a fashion show, and from that day on made me wear a long skirt to school.
"But it was an incident later that year that really impacted my relationship with my body. One day when I was in my room doing homework, my uncle came in to say hi.
"Then the unthinkable happened – he molested me. I felt his hands go up my top and undo my bra. Then he started touching me. I thought if I didn’t acknowledge what was happening, it would stop.
"That one-off incident left me reeling. My parents taught me that if my body was covered I’d be respected, but I wasn’t.
"I felt like they had lied to me and everything I knew was smashed to smithereens in an instant. I became incredibly self-conscious about my figure, hiding my growing curves in baggy jumpers.
"I carried those insecurities with me for most of the next two decades. At university, when boys whistled at me, I’d think they were joking or looking at someone else.
"When I did get a boyfriend, being intimate was difficult because I hated getting undressed in front of anyone.
"It wasn’t until I met my husband Steve in 2002 that I opened up about what had happened to me – first to him and then my mum and brothers.
"This was only after my uncle had died. I later spoke about it on Loose Women last year.
"Over the years, Steve counselled me through it by encouraging me to love myself again.
"And it worked – I stopped hiding my body. Clothes are important and I don’t agree with covering myself up.
"When I look in the mirror I’m happy with what I see and am at peace with myself.”
Nadia Sawalha: "Overeaters anonymous was my lifeline"
Nadia Sawalha, 52, is mum to Maddie, 14, and nine-year-old Kiki-Bee, and has been married for 15 years to her TV producer Mark Adderley, 45. She says:
“I've been messed up about my looks since I was small. It wasn’t my parents’ fault – they didn’t talk about body image – it was my Jordanian extended family.
"I spent a lot of time with them, and they would constantly talk about weight while overfeeding me.
"‘Have another cake, but don’t get fat,’ they would say. I spent a lifetime trying to undo those patterns, and that’s why I am so conscious of it with my own children – I never use food as a reward.
"When I went to stage school aged 12, the pressure to look good was horrendous – we would even be weighed in front of each other.
"Looking back I had the perfect figure, but I still restricted myself to 800 calories a day, then I would crash and overeat. It really messed up my metabolism. I didn’t get a grip on my bad eating patterns until I was in my late 30s.
"While going to a family meeting with my husband Mark at The Priory for his alcoholism, I saw an ad for Overeaters Anonymous I didn’t even know that kind of thing existed, but they’re all around the world. I went to my first meeting and just sat there listening in awe to people talk openly about all the things that I had been through.
"It was incredibly powerful. After that I went every single day for a month, then weekly and now I pop in and out when I need. Like AA, you follow a 12-step program.
"It’s quite complicated, but it makes you pause and think why you’re eating what you are and how it’s going to make you feel afterwards.
"It completely changed the way I thought about food and without it I would have become fatter and fatter, or thinner and thinner.
"It gave me tools for life. These days, when I look in the mirror I can actually find nice things to say about myself. This incredible body of mine grew two children, ran two marathons and works hard every day.
"That said, when I stepped on to the set of this photo shoot and stood there in front of Bryan Adams in nothing but my Marks & Spencer bra and BHS knickers, I wanted the floor to swallow me up! I only got through it by thinking of my daughters.
"My eldest, Maddie, is gorgeous, but she’s always so down about her looks. Her generation is the first to deal with the effects of social media and I always remind her that who you are as a person, and not your size, is what’s important.
"When I look at these photos I think: ‘Yes, I’ve got a saggy belly and cellulite, but so the f**k what?!’”
Andrea McLean: "My scars are who I am"
Andrea McLean, 47, is mum to Finlay, 15, and Amy, 10, and lives with her partner of three years businessman Nick Feeney, 44. She says:
“I never fretted about my body until I had children. I knew it would change, but I never realised how much.
"When I had Finlay in 2001, I needed an emergency Caesarean, and I had another C-section with my daughter Amy.
"Both procedures left me with scars, and in 2011 I had surgery to correct an umbilical hernia, which left me with another unsightly line down my stomach.
"Suddenly, whenever I looked in the mirror, my eyes would dart straight to that area and I couldn’t help but feel unhappy with it.
"I tried to focus on being positive, but two years ago while on holiday, photos of me walking on the beach were posted online and the comments nearly reduced me to tears. People said I looked pregnant because the scar going from my belly button to just above my bikini bottoms is similar to a linea nigra [a line some pregnant women develop].
"One person wrote: ‘Eurgh, look at that mark down her belly.’ It really upset me, as they didn’t know what I’d been through. It was so tough going from never fussing about my body to being so self-conscious.
"The first time I got undressed in front of Nick was really nerve-wracking because I was panicking about my stomach.
"In the end, I took off my clothes and said: ‘These are my scars and this is who I am.’ Nick was gentlemanly and didn’t say a word, but he’s since admitted he was quite shocked as he’d never seen scars like mine before.
"In September last year, I had to have a hysterectomy because I suffered from endometriosis, which had spread to my bladder and intestines.
"Having so many procedures has left my stomach with a number of brutal scars, and this photo shoot is the first time I’ve revealed all of them.
"I was terrified beforehand, but afterwards I felt so liberated.
"There’s something empowering about baring everything and saying: ‘This is me, accept it or don’t.’
"Being body positive is crucial for women because sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.
"We have to appreciate that our bodies keep us alive, so there’s no point stressing over a few broken veins, scars or cellulite. I still have bad days, but I try to focus on how healthy my body is.”