Ed Balls shares his body story and hits back at the body shamers: 'Being called fat and ugly can hurt'
ED BALLS SHARES HIS BODY STORY
Our very own Loose Man Ed joined in our Body Stories campaign and talked about his own experiences on the show.
'I’ve never worn this suit before, but I got it just in December, at the peak of my Strictly… and it’s um, it’s a bit tight,' Ed said. 'I’ve slightly thickened out. If you dance for 40 hours a week then you lose weight, and I can’t carry on doing that.'
Asked whether he was body confident, Ed told us: 'Everybody worries about are they getting fatter all the time, I worry about it partly because I want to be healthy.
'When you go to the doctor they always say, "If you lose a little bit of weight that would be better". But it’s also who I am. And my mum would say I’ve always been heavy-boned.'
And Ed talked about seeing a photograph of him warming up for a football match a few years ago in which he was body-shamed.
'The first time I saw this picture it was quite shocking,' he explained. 'But then I think it struck a chord with middle-aged men and their wives up and down the country, because that’s actually sort of what we look like really.'
On criticism about his body, Ed said: 'It all depends how it is done. Because if I see a picture it just looks like me, so it doesn’t hurt me. But if you then have comments around it saying, "He’s fat, he’s ugly, what the hell does he think he’s doing", then that can hurt.'
Watch the video to see Ed's full chat about body image, Strictly and more.
Read all our Body Stories .