I’m happier as a size 18 than I was at an 8 – but body positivity isn’t all about ‘fatties unite’, says Scarlett Moffatt

She’s been every size from an 8 to an 18, but Scarlett Moffatt is finally content with her body – and she wants everyone else to be, too.

The 31-year-old is on a mission to get us all loving our bodies, no matter what the size.

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“The thing with being body positive and having body confidence is just celebrating everybody’s body,” she says. “I think sometimes people have this misconception that it’s like ‘fatties unite’.

“Genuinely, no matter what you look like, just celebrate you. As long as you are healthy, being yourself and you’re being nice to people, you do you. That’s the big thing that I want to get across.”

Scarlett knows more than most how important it is to be nice, having been on the receiving end of some not nice comments after she shed over 3st and released Scarlett’s SuperSlim Me Plan in December 2016.

The DVD was mired in controversy after it emerged Scarlett had achieved the weight loss by enduring a gruelling six hours of exercise a day at a Swiss bootcamp and consuming only 700 calories.

She has since said how much she “regrets” the situation, admitting that without a team representing her she had been vulnerable, and took none of the £100,000 fee.

Of course it was unsustainable and the weight crept back on. Now a size 18, she is happier and more content than she ever was at size 8.

“I have friends who are so aesthetically beautiful and they still pull themselves to bits. I just want people to not be so hard on themselves,” she says.

“People need to look in the mirror and give themselves a compliment. So many times in the past I missed out on things because I was self-conscious. I didn’t go to pool parties in Las Vegas three years ago.

I think back and go: ‘Why did I let that happen? Why did I let this bother me?’ I realised when I’m lying on my deathbed, I’m not gonna remember that time I got loads of likes and looked really good.”

Any time any bad thoughts about herself creep into her mind, Scarlett has a secret trick to banish them away.

“There is a really good TikTok trend where you [share] a photo of your younger self and whenever I’m nasty to myself, I remember I’m talking to her.

“The thought of looking at a six-year-old and going: ‘You are this, you are that…’ It’s awful. Just have this mini you in your head and try to be nice to them. It always helps me.”

The TV addict, who grew up in Bishop Auckland with her parents Betty, now 51, and Mark, 56, and little sister Ava-Grace, 15, remembers how plus-size presenters were virtually non-existent in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“It was a different time, wasn’t it?” she says. “TV was the land of the beautiful people. It’s important for everyone to get representation. I love how TV is more diverse now, because it’s so important for kids to see people who look like them.

“They know they can be on telly if they want, but also not look at themselves and go: ‘Is there something wrong with me?’”

Scarlett’s rise to fame came when she joined Channel 4’s Gogglebox in 2014, aged 23. The former student disability advisor was the breakout star and went on to be crowned Queen of The Jungle in 2016’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.

She’s since worked on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and hosted other entertainment shows, but now she’s moving in a new direction with her first documentary for Channel 4, Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates.

It’s a subject close to her heart, after she suffered from Bell’s palsy – a condition that causes facial muscle weakness or paralysis and tics – for several months when she was 11.

Genuinely, no matter what you look like, just celebrate you. As long as you are healthy, being yourself and you’re being nice to people, you do you. That’s the big thing that I want to get across.

“It was always on my bucket list to do a documentary,” she says. “But I wanted

to do it on a subject that really meant something to me. It took six years to get here as I think I had to get myself to a position where people could take me seriously enough to do a documentary.

“I like being people’s friend, but you’ve got to ask those hard questions. I did go into it thinking: ‘Do I need to angle myself a bit differently?’ But then I thought: ‘No, if they wanted Louis Theroux or Stacey Dooley, they would have asked them.’

“What they do is amazing. I tried to pick bits out of what they do, but also just be myself. Although I don’t think Louis Theroux has anything to worry about!”

During the pandemic, Scarlett noticed a huge rise in the number of people posting about Tourette’s and tics on social media. With both her and her parents having struggled to understand her condition, she felt it was the perfect subject to tackle.

“Great Ormond Street Hospital used to have four to six cases a year of young girls having mild Tourette’s or sudden onset tics, which is what I had. But then six months into the pandemic, all of a sudden they were having that many referrals in a week.

“Three out of four 13-19 year olds were experiencing mental health issues and one of the main triggers of tics is thought to be anxiety.

“I’d seen it on TikTok and instantly thought: ‘Why is no one talking about this?’ Obviously, during the pandemic our main focus was on vulnerable people and the elderly, rightly so.

“But I do feel like young children whose lives have been absolutely catapulted into craziness were forgotten about a bit. It’s only now we’re starting to see the effects of what that isolation has done to kids.

“And I thought: ‘Now’s the time to tell my story and try to explore why this is happening.’ I wanted to try and help those who were actually going through it, as well as their parents, family and friends to maybe understand it a bit more and not to feel alone.”

People need to look in the mirror and give themselves a compliment. So many times in the past I missed out on things because I was self-conscious.

Scarlett’s tics, which included continual blinking and problems breathing, as well as her mouth drooping on one side and problems closing her right eye, set in at a particularly stressful period in her life.

“When I was 11, I went through a really bad time. I hate talking about it as I don’t want people to think: ‘Oh, woe is me.’ But a car ploughed into me and smashed all my teeth. That was awful. I had no front teeth.

I was already being bullied and that gave them another reason to pick on me. It was awful. I’d never want to make anyone feel that way, so it’s probably made me a nicer person as I overcompensate, as I know how it feels to be made to feel crappy.

“But I was an easy target. My mam and dad were my best friends. Me and my dad would go metal detecting. I had a mono brow and no front teeth. I wasn’t a conventionally good-looking kid.”

Scarlett’s life got even harder when her beloved dad fell ill at the end of 2001.

“My dad got diagnosed with a rare skin cancer, which was wrapped around his spine. It was very stressful. I had never seen him cry before that.

“I would hear my nanny and my mam crying all the time. We didn’t know if he was going to make it home from hospital for Christmas. They had to operate on him and he could have been paralysed.

“He ended up having a skin graft and 110 stitches. It was a stressful time and I remember always having a knot in my stomach. And that’s when I developed tics.

“I had eye twitches and really bad breathing ones. I remember being in science class, age 11, and talking about how your lungs worked. And from that my brain just went: ‘Oh, your lungs aren’t getting enough air.’

“A lot of my teachers would tell me off and say: ‘Stop being silly.’ None of my family knew what anxiety was. It wasn’t talked about. I can remember it being so awful thinking: ‘Why can’t I get my brain to stop me from twitching my eyes or breathing funny?‘ The scary thing was I just didn’t understand it.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital used to have four to six cases a year of young girls having mild Tourette’s or sudden onset tics, which is what I had. But then six months into the pandemic, all of a sudden they were having that many referrals in a week.

Following her diagnosis of Bell’s palsy several months later, doctors told her all the stress she had endured had likely triggered it.

“I remember standing in front of the mirror literally screaming trying to stop it, trying to get my face straight.

“Luckily, my dad got better and was able to come back for Christmas. We were very fortunate and I think it brought us all closer together.

“I took a long course of steroids and I had speech therapy and the tics went, although the effects of the drooping are still there. Even now, my face isn’t symmetrical at all, but I don’t mind it.

“There’s a sort of mystery about sudden onset tics, because they just go away. We don’t really know why or how.”

Having hated the sight of her face growing up, Scarlett has taught herself to love the way she looks through taking pictures.

“I feel that’s why I take so many selfies. When I was younger, I didn’t take that many photos, so now I do it on purpose so I feel comfortable with myself.

“It’s harder for young girls now, because when I was a kid there was no social media and people didn’t think about their aesthetics as much. It really affects them now and it must be hard as we do live in an era where how you look matters.

“Honestly, if you told me as a kid that I’d have a job where everyone looks at me! My dream job was to be a bus driver and I remember thinking: ‘I can’t be a bus driver as so many people are gonna look at me to get their bus tickets’.

“Weirdly the industry has helped me, too, as I’m forced to look at myself. It [makes me sound] like a big head, but I really like myself. It’s taken a lot of years to get here and I wish that I had got there earlier.

It’s harder for young girls now, because when I was a kid there was no social media and people didn’t think about their aesthetics as much. It really affects them now and it must be hard as we do live in an era where how you look matters.

“Sometimes [the effects of the Bell’s palsy] do still bother me – if I get overly stressed or tired, I can’t close my eye. I have to sleep with a face mask. It’s because of that, I really try to look after my mental health. But honestly, it’s rare for me now to have a bad day, which is good.”

Her love life – with her policeman boyfriend of three years, Scott Dobinson, 36 – is also looking bright. So are wedding bells on the cards any time soon?

“I don’t know really,” she says. “We have conversations all the time about life plans and stuff…Those 3am chats. We’re just so happy. No matter what happens, if we have kids or if we get married, or we don’t, we are still gonna be just as happy.

“I feel like we don’t actually need anything to add value to our lives. We just like each other’s company. I like a party, so it would be fun [to have a wedding], but I don’t think it [getting married] would, like, make a difference to our life.”

While there will be more of Scarlett on screen with her BBC1 show Scarlett’s Driving School, one place fans won’t spot her is back in the jungle on the All Star’s I’m A Celebrity! spin-off.

ITV is planning to reunite previous fan favourites in 2023 to celebrate returning to Australia after two years of filming the show in Wales.

“I wouldn’t [do it again]. I absolutely love the show and my experience in there. I was euphoric, but I don’t think it could get any better and I wouldn’t want to ruin it,” she says.

“I’ll be watching it every night and I’ll be voting on the app. I would want Gillian McKeith back in there, Jacqueline Jossa, Dean Gaffney and Stacey Solomon and Swashy [Joe Swash] but not me. I couldn’t do it – there’s nothing that I would do differently.”

• Watch Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates on July 19, 10pm, Channel 4.

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