She revealed the shocking extent of her50-a-day sausage addictionto Closer three years ago, admitting she couldn’t stop eating bangers as comfort food when she fell into a dark depression. And despite later overcoming her food dependency and being in a happier place, Lisa Appleton has admitted that the strain of lockdown and living alone led her to relapse.
The 52-year-old former Big Brother star says, “I think I had a small dose of post-traumatic shock syndrome to start with. I felt complete fear and I didn’t sleep properly for weeks.
“It’s been very emotional – I was so worried about my family and friends. I had friends from my hometown who lost loved ones to COVID-19 and I think that triggered something in me. It felt like a living nightmare.”
Though Lisa hasn’t contracted coronavirus herself, she reveals her worry at the situation sparked a phase of binge-eating to cope with the stress.
“I relapsed and went back to my sausage addiction for the first three weeks of lockdown. I was probably eating about ten a day,” she says.
“Everyone was panic-buying toilet roll, but I was panic-buying sausages to stock up! I thought I’d rather make sure I had enough sausages to bring me comfort. I just went into a complete panic, so I was buying tons and freezing them. The temptation was too much.
“Although I wasn’t eating as many a day as during my last addiction, this phase went to a different extreme of me trying every variety of sausage – chorizo, chipolata, frankfurters, garlic, and pork and sage… I really got into the German sausage. It’s all in that first bite – it’s pure comfort food to me.
“I ballooned during April. I could see the difference in my body shape, so I thought, ‘Right, stop this.’”
Check out: Big Brother series two cast - where are they now?
Big Brother series two - where are they now
1 of 22Brian Dowling
Former flight attendant, Brian won the hearts of the nation and was crowned the series two winner.
2 of 22Brian Dowling
Brian rose to fame after his win, earning him a host of presenting jobs. He now has the perhaps unenviable job of hosting the Real Housewives of Cheshire's end of season fight / finale.
3 of 22Helen Adams
Helen Adams was most known for her saying, "I love blinking, I do." She gave us a juicy on-screen romance with Paul Clarke despite having a boyfriend on the outside.
4 of 22Helen Adams
Much to the BB fans delight, the pair later got together but split five years later. Helen now works as a hairdresser in Bristol.
5 of 22Paul Clark
Paul Clarke originally locked lips with Penny Ellis. But after she was evicted it didn't take long for his eyes to wander to Helen.
6 of 22Paul Clark
After his split with Helen in 2006, Paul returned to the career he had before the show and is now a car designer.
7 of 22Penny Ellis
Bumbling Penny Ellis was known for being the English teacher who went wild and stripped off.
8 of 22Penny Ellis
After she bared all, the school decided to let Penny go. After making it into panto in Porthcawl, she went back to teaching.
9 of 22Amma Antwi-Agyei
Coming in seventh place was Amma Antwi-Agyei, she took Big Brother as an opportunity to reveal to her deeply-religious mother that she was a £1,000 a night bisexual lap dancer.
10 of 22Amma Antwi-Agyei
Amma went on play Yasmin Shawcross on one series of Sky One's Dream Team. Now, she's rumoured to have returned to her stripping work.
11 of 22Dean O’Laughlin
Dear old Dean finished in third place and walked away with a broken record for building the highest sugar cube tower.
12 of 22Dean O’Laughlin
After the show, the Brummie music enthusiast teamed up with fellow housemate, Stuart to sell tea-bag bins.
13 of 22Elizabeth Woodcock
Elizabeth Woodcock entered the house as a website designer from Cumbria. She was a quiet soul who made it to fourth place.
14 of 22Elizabeth Woodcock
She left the house to discover that naked pictures of herself had been sold by her boyfriend to the Daily Star. She later split from him and made a documentary on motorbiking.
15 of 22Josh Rafter
Josh was the first ever BB contestant to be voted into the house through the Diary Room door after the series had already started. The fitness fanatic like to show off his buff bod, but it wasn't enough to keep him in the house as he came in sixth place in week eight.
16 of 22Josh Rafter
Josh is now a property developer who bought the company he worked for.
17 of 22Narinder Kauer
Narinder was best buds with Brian but she did NOT get on well with Helen. Narinder missed her wedding anniversary in the house but she was evicted on day 29.
18 of 22Narinder Kaur
Since leaving the house, Narinder has written a book about her time in the house and had two children with her husband. She still pops up on the telly.
19 of 22Paul 'Bubble' Ferguson
Bubble is perhaps best remembered for his collection of hats, which Brian once stole before starting a ridiculous argument (they loved a play fight). Bubble was the only person in the house who didn't drink, so we're not sure how he managed to survive when everyone else was sloshed.
20 of 22Paul 'Bubble' Ferguson
Bubble and Dean released the song Standing Tall which charted at 99 in the UK charts. He's also starred in pantomimes, an episode of The Office and in Dead Set.
21 of 22Stuart Hosking
Stuart Hosking was the oldest contestant in the house. He got a reputation for being a bit sly, and became known for winking when he was being dishonest. He was the second housemate to be evicted.
22 of 22Stuart Hosking
Firstly: Stuart is RIPPED. Now that's out of the way, we can also tell you that he runs a bin bag business with fellow housemate Dean and has had four children. He also put on a Big Brother pantomime.
Lisa began building up her daily walking and at-home dance sessions to lose the weight she’d put on.
“I curbed the sausages and started dancing to high-energy music for half an hour every day to pick me up. That motivated me to start doing more walking, aerobics, yoga and even just jogging on the spot indoors to burn the calories. I cut down on comfort snacking, like cakes and crisps, and ate much smaller portions, and the weight soon dropped off.
“I had put on about 2st, but now I’m back to a size 10-12. I’m always going to eat sausages, but I just control it now and keep it balanced with healthy stuff like salad and veg.”
Lisa was catapulted to fame when she appeared on Big Brother in 2008 alongside her then-boyfriend Mario Marconi. The couple married two years later, but when a fraudster pretending to make a TV show about them fled with all their cash in 2011, the pair were left homeless, and by 2013, their marriage had broken down.
Now Lisa is currently happy and loved-up with her “soulmate”, a mystery man who, at 49, is three years her junior.
“We haven’t seen each other for three months because of lockdown. It’s difficult because you want to see each other but you have to stick to the rules. We get on so well but we’re both really busy, so it wasn’t an option to start living together straight away when we’re enjoying taking it slowly. We’re keeping in touch with phone calls and FaceTime. For the first month or so, sex wasn’t even on my mind – I was just thinking about COVID all the time! I’m really looking forward to some romance and moonlight kisses.
“I call him my boyfriend. I believe we’re soulmates,” she says.
Watch: CBB secrets revealed by India Willoughby
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“You just know, don’t you? And I think this is definitely The One. It’s a very different type of relationship to Mario – a real, true, loving relationship. He lets me be me, he doesn’t judge me, he’s supportive – I’ve never had that before.
“He’s not after the fame. He just likes to see me happy and doing well. For once in my life, I’ve got my love life outside the media circus and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I would marry again. When you go through a divorce you say, ‘Never again’, but I wasn’t expecting to meet someone, so then you say, ‘Yeah, why not?’ if you’re happy and in love.”
After her marriage collapse in 2013 left her hitting rock bottom both mentally and financially, Lisa was briefly forced to live in a treehouse in 2018. And last year, stressed about making ends meet, she turned to sites OnlyFans and Cameo – which allow users to sell glamour-style pictures and videos to followers – to get back on track.
She says, “Living in the treehouse is what triggered me to start doing OnlyFans. I just thought, ‘Stuff it, I’m going to get my boobs out!’
“Making the Cameo videos for fans really helped me get out of my anxiety phase at the beginning of lockdown. I needed the fun factor back in my life. I was getting my bikini on and dancing to disco music and I just made myself laugh again. I did one dance in a bikini to Three Lions for a football fan.”
Being prone to bouts of depression – the worst being three years of deep depression following her divorce – Lisa now knows how to manage her moods and feel positive again. “I’m looking after my health and exercising again,” she says. “Rebuilding your life from rock bottom takes time. I was homeless and on benefits and, when my marriage broke down, I had a mid-life crisis – it was a real roller-coaster time. But you can rebuild your life again. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.”
Cook With Lisa: Essential Budget Cooking is available on Kindle, £6.50
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