Mark Labbett thinks previously being overweight made him single 'for over 20 years'
The Chase star Mark Labbett believes he struggled to get dates in the past as he once weighed 29 stone.
Mark Labbett thinks formerly being overweight "didn't" get him "a lot of dates".
The 59-year-old professional quizzer - best known as The Beast on the ITV1 game show The Chase - once weighed 29 stone at his heaviest, although he told OK! magazine in March he shed 10 stone.
And he thinks his weight played a factor in being a single man "for over 20 years" before he had relationships - including with his second cousin Katie Labbett, 32, who he married in 2014 and split from in 2020, as well as TV presenter Hayley Palmer, 44, in 2023, who he dumped in May 2024, just days after their first dating anniversary in a "three-minute" phone call.
Mark told BANG Showbiz at E4's Celebs Go Dating show launch party event at The Broadcaster gastropub in White City, West London, on July 24: "Prior to being on telly, I would say I’ve gone from being a beta male to an alpha male in that previously, because you were very heavy and very overweight, you didn’t get a lot of dates, which is why I was a single man.
"Suddenly, who knew being on your own TV show means you suddenly get a bit more practice."
Asked if he worried that being overweight at the time held him back from getting into a relationship, The Beast added: "Not really. You just got used to that."
Mark - who hopes to find his perfect match on Celebs Go Dating, with the help of the programme's dating agents, Paul Carrick Brunson, 50, Anna Williamson, 44, and Dr. Tara Suwinyattichaiporn, 36 - revealed that COVID-19 played a part in his weight loss.
The TV star - who has a seven-year-old son named Lawrence with his ex-wife Katie - explained: "One positive about COVID-19 was that I was running after my boy during COVID-19, lost weight.
"And the other thing is, I got what I think was COVID-19 – remember in the early days, you didn’t get tested unless you got so ill, you had to go to hospital. And I was ill, but not like that.
"And to a certain extent, it switched my appetite off, and it’s never come back.
"Even now, people who know me go, ‘You used to eat about three times that,’ and I’d agree with them.
"So that’s helped really. I lost about 10 stone."
Celebs Go Dating 2025 starts on Monday, August 11, at 9pm on E4.
