Nigella Lawson says she ‘doesn’t focus’ on what people say about her body when she is on TV, although she has been conscious of her body before.
The TV cook, 61, confessed to People that she has considered ‘holding her tummy in’ in front of the cameras but has become comfortable with herself as she ‘can’t do a lot about’ how she looks.
She also doesn’t ‘equate thinness with health’ after her mum, sister, and husband died of cancer.
She said: ‘A lot of people in my family have died of cancer, and I don’t think you can witness that and equate thinness with health. It’s quite alarming.
‘I don’t focus on what people say about me, even when I’m filming. I occasionally think, “Oh, why didn’t I hold my tummy in?” but it doesn’t last because I was trying to be something other than I am, which would make me feel even more uncomfortable.’
Nigella added: ‘The shape of your body, that’s where the flesh settles, isn’t it? You can’t do an awful lot about that.’
The TV star also opened up about dealing with grief following the deaths of her family members, revealing ‘some years are harder than others’.
‘A loss doesn’t magically go away. The wound is always there, but it’s not as raw,’ she said.
She sadly lost her mother Vanessa Salmon, 48, in 1985 to liver cancer, her sister Thomasina to breast cancer in 1993 aged 32 and her husband John Diamond to throat cancer in 2001 aged 47.
Nigella has previously spoken about not taking her health for granted given how cancer has impacted her life.
She told Good Housekeeping magazine: ‘I’m not a planner – apart from when it comes to food. But, to be completely honest, I’ve never been able to take for granted that I’d be alive by this age.
‘My mother died at 48 and my sister at 32. And then John at 47. So, even if I were the sort of person who planned ahead, I don’t think I would have seen myself here…I kind of think you can’t do anything about it so why complain?’
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