Tina Malone still unhappy with her body
Tina Malone shed 12-and-a-half stone after being fitted with a gastric band in 2010, but she can "feel that fat girl still" from time to time.
Tina Malone "doesn't quite feel as good" with her slim body - despite shedding 12-and-a-half stone and dropping from a size 32 to a size six.
The 62-year-old actress can "feel that fat girl still" - despite feeling like a "different person" since she got thin after having a gastric band fitted in 2010.
Tina exclusively told BANG Showbiz at the 2025 Best Heroes Awards, sponsored by DFS: "I lost weight - 12-and-a-half stone. And so there is still some times I feel that fat girl still. I look in the mirror, and it doesn’t quite feel as good as I guess I should feel."
The Brookside legend does not feel upset when she looks at herself in the mirror.
Tina - who has a 12-year-old daughter called Flame with her late husband Paul Chase, as well as a 44-year-old daughter named Dannielle from a previous relationship - said: "I lost weight for me, nobody else. For my health, and to have my daughter [Flame]. At 50 years of age, I gave birth to this beauty."
The Shameless star thinks weight loss jabs should be on the National Health Service (NHS).
She explained: "I think they should be on the NHS - I don't want to get too political - because in the long-run, what diabetes, heart disease is going to cost the NHS. With diabetes, with everything else, let’s nip it in the bud, and save those lives.
"And listen, nobody wakes up to be fat, it's what takes you to that place. People need help.
"And you know what, we should all be tolerant and kind."
Tina took part in the 2009 series of Celebrity Big Brother - which aired on Channel 4 at the time - when she was a size 32.
And she deliberately flashed her "belly" on the social experiment reality TV show to attract the attention of surgeons while in the programme's house so she could be fitted with a gastric band - an adjustable, fluid-filled silicone band, which restricts food intake - for free to shed her then-weight.
Tina - who has also had skin removed from her arms, neck and thighs, and work done on her face - recently told the Daily Star: "We've all got flaws.
"I went in there thinking, I'm huge. I thought, well, if I show my belly off enough, someone will come along and give me gastric band surgery.
"Maybe they’ll say how bad my teeth were, and they can get fixed. And it worked. So, there you go."
The Clink actress has not had anything else done - including getting her hair done, unless for a photoshoot or an event - recently since her husband, army veteran Paul, took his own life in March 2024, aged 41, after a long struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
However, Tina would love to have some more work done in the future, including Botox - a non-surgical treatment which smooths out wrinkles - and getting her teeth done.
