14 DAY TRIAL // The latest issue of Marie Claire UK brings a very revealing interview with pop star Cheryl Cole who, despite her tiny size, admits to being no stranger to weight struggles. In fact, she says, she has clothes in various sizes just in case she gains a few extra pounds.
Cole, who is now getting ready for her music comeback and, hopefully, winning over US critics and audiences, talks to the magazine about an issue that's always been close to her heart.
She might be petite, but Cheryl definitely knows a lot about being bullied in the press either for being too skinny or too plump. She also knows she has issues with gaining and losing weight.
At the same time, she doesn't want to go on diets, describing the whole process as a vicious circle that's very hard to break out of.
Instead, Cheryl has found a very smart method of coping with weight gain: she buys clothes in different sizes and, the rest of the time, makes sure she eats right and gets plenty of exercise.
“I’m like any other woman, my weight fluctuates. I have a pair of jeans one size bigger than the other just in case that week I’m a little bit heavier. I work out and try to make healthy choices,” the stunning singer and television personality says.
In 2010, Cheryl came down with malaria and was, at one point, battling for her life. She emerged thinner and weakened, and had to put her figure second while she went through recovery.
Since then, she's been eating right and working out, trying to shed the final extra pounds she still carried.
“I try to avoid [diets] like the plague. That can get you into a vicious circle. I did when I was younger,” Cheryl reveals.
She's talking about how she shot to national and then international fame, on the talent show Popstars: The Rivals, which led to the creation of Girls Aloud.
Asked what kind of manager Louis Walsh was (with whom she later shared judging duties on X Factor), Cheryl reveals that he was among the first to call all the girls in the band “fat” – to their face and in the press.
“When I first got in the band I remember the first mean story I read where newspapers called us 'Pork Stars' - because the show was called Pop Stars: The Rivals. We were all fat... we were all fat! Not fat, chubby,” Cheryl says.
“And Louis Walsh had come out publicly and said, 'They're all fat. They all need to lose weight.' And the record label sent us all to have training,” she adds.