Fitness fanatic Mel Skyes opened up to Closer Magazine about the real reason she turned to exercise, how she battles anxiety and insecurity and what she’s learned about raising an autistic child.
If you're 46 and still have a killer size 10 figure after two children, it’s hard to believe you could look in the mirror and have anything critical to say about yourself.
But when Closer meets Melanie Sykes - faultlessly manicured in skinny jeans, gold heels and a peplum nude top – she rapidly shoots down any idea there’s a ‘secret’ to looking good, explaining: “I don’t look like this every day, I don’t have access to professional hair and make-up and am usually in gym clothes.”
After finding fame as a model, Mel has spent most of her adult life in front of the camera hosting daytime TV shows and appeared in I’m A Celeb in 2014. Some of her most recent modelling work saw her strip off into swimwear for her 2017 calendar – in aid of autism charity, ipAn – a condition her youngest son Valentino, 11, has. Ahead of photo shoots, Mel says she cuts out carbs from her already strict diet and continues to do four hours of exercise a week including tennis, yoga, ballet barre, but she admits even she has hang ups about her body.
She says: “Of course I have insecurities, I don’t need to tell everybody and I deal with it. It’s all a mental thing. The things we tell ourselves aren’t necessarily true, so it’s all psychological. Do you not think men feel like that as well? I don’t think being insecure is a women-only territory. We’re all a little bit insecure and we don’t see ourselves in the way that other people see us. I’m not telling you I’m perfect because I’m not - it’s not that important to be.”
Having previously admitted she has had anxiety her whole life, Mel turned to exercise eight years ago as a way to “keep her sane” managing work and a hectic family life while married to actor Daniel Caltagirone – who she has Valentino and 15-year-old Roman with.
She says: “Anxiety is one of our human conditions, some people breeze things, some people need to meditate and some people need to do yoga. I use apps for meditation and I do yoga when I can.
“I started training eight years ago, now it’s part of my life - it keeps me sane and balanced. I was about 38 and decided to just start maybe getting a couple of hours a week away from my work, husband and children and just doing something for myself and it grew into something I love.
“I don’t eat dairy and reduced my sugar and alcohol intake and eat good carbs. I know what me and my boys are eating every single day and I prepare my meals because I’m a mum. But I have five to six cups of Lyons coffee a day, and I really like Nutella and yes, I do eat it straight from the jar!” she laughs.
Mel, who dated Bros star Matt Goss in her 20s, has regularly hit the headlines for her rollercoaster relationships. Following the end of her marriage to Daniel in 2008, she met toyboy Jack Cockings in 2012 after he asked her out on Twitter and they made headlines when they sent sexually explosive Tweets to each other. They married the following year but split six months into the marriage when Mel was arrested and cautioned over an assault against Jack, her name was later cleared and the assault caution was removed from police records. The divorce was finalised last year with Mel previously saying she was married to the “wrong person”.
And as the big 5-0 approaches, Mel is just as confident about ageing as she is about everything else. She says: “I’ve had a nice life, but I’m not nostalgic – my best days are to come.”
Melanie Sykes is the face of Lyons Coffee Bags, perfect for coffee on the go. Visit lyonscoffeeuk.comfor more info
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