The 33-year-old has now spoken out saying she 'can't bear to look in the mirror' and that she's ashamed of her own body.
The confident character, who has been on the show since it began in 2010, has revealed that she put on 3 stone during her relationship with Rami Hawash.
Although Gemma has always been slightly larger than her TOWIE contemporaries, she is no 18 stone and wearing a size 22. On Sunday night's programme she revealed she is hoping to slim to a size 14 to look and feel better.
According to the star, who owns a plus size clothing range, her ex-fiance Rami would get angry if Gemma didn't want to eat with him, so she'd have takeaways or big meals just to please him.
But Gemma also admits she is partly to blame for her weight gain, saying she's lazy and chooses to go to the carvery rather than cook from scratch.
'In my last relationship, I started to believe that he was the only person that could love me as I am. I got more and more down,' says Gemma.
But now that her engagement is over, Gemma says: 'I have always been proud of who I am, but that relationship made me doubt myself.'