Peter Kay revealed the 'shameful' moment that made him focus on his weight lossduring an honest discussion at a recent event. The beloved comedian underwent a drastic weight transformation in recent years, with fans left in awe when he stepped out looking noticeably slimmer during a 2023 stand-up performance at the O2.
A photo with musician Bryan Edery sparked a frenzy online, with some fans barely recognising him. Even though he was dressed in a casual black tracksuit, it was clear that Peter had shed a significant amount of weight. In 2020, Peter joked about his experiences with Slimming World as he discussed his dieting.
He quipped at the time: "If you don't know what Slimming World is, it's like Weight Watchers, but a quid cheaper. I went once, Methodist Church Hall in Bolton, all the women were sat around in a semi circle."
He went on to say: "'Big round of applause for Debbie, she's lost a pound'. I said: 'A pound? I s**t a pound, what's that? '" One pound! Big deal!"
The comic had audiences in stitches with a routine featuring "Carole in the back", noting her near-miss on getting a "half-stone sticker" and her diet-breaking fry-up mishap.
Peter quipped: "Carol, take the 'c' off chips, what do you get? It's up to you love, I can't do it for you."
While he has cracked jokes about his weight in the past, Peter has mainly kept his private life away from the spotlight. However, at a recent event, that changed as Peter revealed the source of his eating habits before he made the lifestyle changes.
During the In Conversation With . . . event hosted by Sara Cox at The Lowry theatre in Salford, Peter was asked whether he ever tried to lose weight.
According to The Sun, the star revealed: "Only for the first 48 years of my life. Yeah I had to, eventually, because you start thinking about your health and things like that, don’t you?
“I tried everything. Good God in heaven. I mean, you go to flaming weight-loss groups and stuff like that. I joined Slimming World and WeightWatchers. I did all of them.”
He went on to reveal the eye-opening moment that made him turn his life around. He didn't specify when the moment unfolded, but revealed he was at the cinema with his wife Susan.
They were watching The Green Mile and he suddenly had food cravings during the three-hour movie. After lying to Susan that he was heading to the toilet, he nipped out to buy a hot dog.
“I was doing really well with this diet, but I’m so bad with willpower. I had this hotdog and I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in, ironically, a framed poster for Babe," Peter admitted.
“I thought, look at you — what are you doing? You’re doing really well on this diet, you should be ashamed of yourself. And I got it and threw it in the bin — and just as it was about to hit the bin liner, I grabbed it and still ate it.”
Peter also revealed at the event that his eating habits started when he was a baby, explaining how his mother, Deirdre, would place a "meat pie from the market hall and put it on my knee, and I’d be there eating it."
“My mum used to bring pies in for me at primary school. She’d go in and she’d say to the dinner ladies, ‘Can you give this to Peter?’" he continued.
“Everyone would be queueing up and the dinner ladies would be like, ‘Your mum’s been in with a pie’.”
His mum is now "obsessed" with people's weights and "properly judges everybody by it". Meanwhile, when he was a child, she would 'hide the biscuits in the house' but Peter still knew where they were.
"I used to have me mates round for a brew and I’d reach inside the tumble drier and get a packet of digestives out, like it was normal," he said.
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