"I still have food vices": Ricki Lake on shedding 11 stone and her return to British TV screens

"I still have food vices": Ricki Lake on shedding 11 stone and her return to British TV screens

Audience members would shout “Go Ricki!” as she lived her struggle to stay slim in front of millions.

Chat show host Ricki Lake never shied away from talking about her battle with the bulge.

But after going from 19st at her heaviest to 8st now, the 5ft 4in star is finally happy with her body.

Ricki, 44, says she hid a dark secret â€" one she kept for most of her life â€" behind her cheerful screen exterior.

“I was molested as a young child aged six and I think that is what contributed to my being overweight and obese in later years,” she says.

“I also had the worst eating habits. My family never sat down together and, when we didn’t eat out, I would eat alone.

"I was a secret eater and I would squirrel away sweets and chocolate and take them to my room.

"But the giveaway would always be the wrappers under my mattress.”

New shape: Ricki's back on our screens

 

Ricki, whose chat show is back on British TV for the first time in eight years, says she is happier than ever after marrying ­jewellery designer Christian Evans last year.

The mum of sons, Milo, 15, and Owen, 11, from her first marriage, says: “I still struggle with being happy with what I see when I look in the mirror.

“I beat myself up when I’ve even got a spot but it helps that I have got my new husband Christian by my side.

"No matter how much I weigh and how many wrinkles I get, I truly feel for the first time that I am loved ­unconditionally.

"He is always telling me how great and that is very reassuring.”

Ricki shot to stardom when, weighing 14st at the age 18, she won the lead role as dance mad teenager Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 John Waters movie Hairspray.

Two years later she was cast in another Waters film, Cry Baby, with Johnny Depp.

“If I hadn’t been overweight when I did Hairspray, I’d never h ave landed the part,” she concedes.

"My physicality has been a huge blessing in a lot of ways but I wish I didn’t have the struggle I had earlier in life.”

At 14st: In Hairspray

Ricki’s eating disorder started at an early age.

She was born to a Jewish family in New York, the daughter of housewife Jill and Barry Lake, a pharmacist.

She recalls her weight started to “creep up” around the age of nine and, as a teenager she got “bigger and bigger and bigger”.

Ricki says: “My mother had eating issues and she was weight obsessed.

"She was on the Cantaloupe diet throughout her ­pregnancy with me and gained about 11lbs.

"But in the late 60s, pregnant women were told to go on diets. I was a full-term baby and I was five pounds.”

Ricki’s weight peaked at 19st when she was 21. The roles started to thin out and her agent stopped returning her calls.

“I lost my house and I knew I needed to do something drastic so I went on a crash diet by going on the Atkins diet,” she recalls.

“It worked but I literally starved myself. I lost more than 7st in just over six months, but my extreme dieti ng came at a price.

"I kept fainting on the spot. I’d be standing up and then I’d black out.

“It was really not the way to do it. I’m not an expert on weight and I’d never recommend it.

"But I have managed to keep the weight off; give or take having children.”

Ricki’s original talk show started in 1993 and ran until 2004. After that she spent her time offering an advice service to parents.

Weight loss: Dancing with Derek Hough helped her tone up

Her weight was back up to nearly 10st when she appeared on Dancing With the Stars, the American version of Strictly Come Dancing, in 2011.

But teaming up with dancer partner Derek Hough - once linked to Cheryl Cole - helped her to shed nearly 2st and drop two dress sizes.

“I did lose quite a bit more weight by going on what I call the Derek Hough diet,” she laughs.

“I lost over five inches from my waist, and five inches from my hips.”

Ricki is enjoying a career renaissance with her new chat show but spends every spare moment with Christian.

The pair met through friends several years ago and got engaged in August 2011, marrying eight months later in April 2012.

“We were friends to begin with then suddenly one day it fell into place and we saw each other differently and fell in love quickly,” beams Ricki.

“We got engaged a year later and then eight months after that we got married.

“We tied the knot last Apr il on Easter Sunday and it was just the two of us and our dogs. We honeymooned in Ibiza.”

Supportive: With husband Christian Evans

Ricki’s first marriage to illustrator Rob Sussman ended in divorce in 2005.

“It was very tough and traumatic and my children were very young,” says Ricki.

“I was married for almost 10 years and I honestly did not think that I would ever get married again.” insists Ricki.

“I thought. ‘I don’t need a man. I am an independent woman. I am strong.’

“I was very cynical about marriage but then I met this amazing person and he changed my perspective on what a partnership should be and the value of sharing your life with someone.

“It was so worth taking the risk again and I am so madly in love with my husband. We have such a great relationship and it’s really easy.

“But for a long time I was involved in this very difficult marriage.

"I had all these struggles and a relationship filled with drama, which I thought was normal and healthy.

“But a marriage shouldn’t be drama filled. It should be loving an d based on a real partnership. And I feel like I have that for the first time.”

New show: Ricki's on satellite channel FOX in the UK

While no one on her new show shouts ‘Go Ricki!’ any more, she still makes sure she shares her own life experiences.

“On the show, I speak about my own issues, like my weight problem, but I think that is why people like me and relate to me because they feel like I am one of them.

"I really empathise with my viewers and I think people feel like they know me because I am candid about everything in my life; whether it’s my relationships or triumphs or hardships.

“And I am never going to stop. But unlike other hosts who come off like they have all the answers, I am no expert.

“We learn from our mistakes and I have been married and divorced but I definitely learned a lot from that break-up and I think I am better because of it.

“My weight has also made me who I am and it is something I have managed to conquer too, which I think is rare.

"Yes I still have food vices, bread is my weakness as is chocolate but everything in modera tion; that’s my motto.

"My goal now is to be healthy and I’ve managed to do that. I really take care of myself.”

Smiling, she sums it up simply: “I am in a very good place in my life.”

The Ricki Lake Show is shown on Mondays at 4pm on satellite TV channel FOX.