Wearing a skimpy bunny girl outfit and with a broad smile on her face, Tina Malone happily strikes a pose on Closer’s photo shoot.
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It’s a look she never dreamt she could pull off, but the newly size 10-12 Shameless actress is delighted with the pictures.
“It’s so great to feel sexy again,” declares 5ft 1 Tina, 48, who also posed as ’60s siren Christine Keeler for Closer to celebrate her weight loss.
'It's so great to feel sexy again.'
The straight-talking Scouse actress, who’s played Mimi Maguire in C4’s hit series for the last six years, has lost a staggering 10st with the help of two gastric ops in two years.
Today Tina weighs 9st 4lbs – the lightest she’s been since her early 20s. And now the mum-of-one even hopes to have another baby with her new toyboy husband, and is currently undergoing tests prior to IVF.
She says: “Everyone I know seems to know someone who’s had IVF and got pregnant at 47, 48, 49… so I’m hopeful. But if it doesn’t happen, then so be it.
“This is something I could never even have attempted five years ago because I was so obese – I was simply killing myself. In the end, the surgery has meant I didn’t keel over and die – it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
But her weight-loss journey hasn’t been easy. At 19st 2lbs and a size 26 at her heaviest in 2008, Tina had a gastric balloon fitted to make her stomach smaller and curb her overeating.
“I just overate constantly,” she says. "I'd binge on chocolate and bags of crips- and I tried every diet going, but they just didn’t work for me, which is why I decided to have a gastric balloon.”
“I’d binge on chocolate and bags of crisps – and I tried every diet going."
She lost 4st 7lbs in just four months, but when the balloon was removed after six months, she returned to her old eating habits and piled back on 2st.
But then, spurred on by meeting her new husband, personal trainer Paul Chase, who at 28 is 20 years her junior, Tina opted to have a gastric band inserted in March 2010. The adjustable band reduces the size of her stomach, forcing her to eat only small meals.
When we last caught up with Tina in September, the effects of the band were clear to see. She was already down to 11st and could fit into a size 14.
Six months on and the difference is even more marked. She says: “I’m a size 10-12, but I want to be nearer to an 8 because that’s what I was in my early 20s, just after I had my daughter Danielle, who’s 29.”
And although she’s had to drastically reduce her diet she seems unperturbed, revealing that even once she hits her target of 7st, she plans to keep the band in place.
The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant says: “If I were to get pregnant I’d have the band loosened so I could eat more. The option’s always there – for instance if you go on holiday and want to eat a few steaks, you can have it let out, but I’m happier sticking with it.
“It’s psychological, but without the band I’d slip back to the way I was and pile all that weight back on. I must have the fat gene!
“I read a headline a few weeks ago that said, ‘Flabby, foul mouthed Tina Malone is now a slimline stunner’ and I laughed my head off. I stuck it on my bedroom door just to remind myself how far I’ve come!
“I’ve never been beautiful, but I now feel really good about myself for the first time in forever. I’ve felt like a fat pig for the last 20 years – I used to look like I had a huge a**e under each arm – like a club doorman carrying carpets!
“I didn’t have bingo wings, I had supersonic jets! Now Paul and I can have a bath together and spend an hour in there chatting, whereas before it was a squeeze!
“Everything from sex to walking the dog feels different because I have so much energy and feel so much better about myself. Paul loves that I feel better about myself too.”
The one downside to Tina’s drastic weight loss is the excess folds of loose skin, which she plans to have removed by The Hospital Group, who gave her the gastric band. Later this year the couple hope to start the IVF process, but first Tina says: “I’m going to have a tummy tuck, my boobs lifted and implants put in because my boobs are now like a couple of golf balls in socks! I’ll have the extra flab removed from under my arms too.
“I’m having surgery because I’ve messed up my body for the last 20 years and now I have to clear up that mess. I don’t want to look like a 20 year old, but I do want to look the best I can for my age.”
But while Tina is happy to go under the knife, she’s critical of celebs including Jordan who had surgery at a young age.
She says: “Jordan’s trying to escape from herself and she looks ridiculous with her huge lips and boobs! She had such a pretty face before surgery and she’s ruined herself.”
Now she’s happy with her body, Tina says: “I feel like I’ve got another chance at life and I want to learn to drive, go travelling, have more children and even run a marathon.”
And it’s clear when Tina puts her mind to something, not much gets in her way!
By Ally Oliver