I was fat-shamed at 19 – I won’t have anyone telling me to lose weight for a job now, says Steps Claire Richards
STEPS singer Claire Richards was still a teen when she first realised her appearance mattered as much as her talent.
The wannabe star quickly learned that her belting voice wasn’t enough — she had to look the part, too.
When she auditioned for the group in 1997 as a slim size ten, Claire reveals she was told: “We love you, we want you to be in the band, but we need you to lose weight if you want to be in it.”
She says: “It wasn’t right then and it absolutely isn’t right now.
“But when you are young and you’re being offered that kind of opportunity — and the only stipulation is that you lose half a stone — I think any young girl would.”
Desperate to be included in the line-up, she caved in and agreed to shed the pounds — to the point where she became “dangerously thin”.
Claire, 46, says: “I wasn’t fat or big — I was a size ten or 12 — but I got skinny for the band.
“It was a polished pop group — everyone had their own idea of what people should look like. It was as close to perfect as anyone could get.
Kardashian-style curves
“But the older I get and the more I think about it, of course it affected me because it just sent me on a spiral for years.”
Claire, who shares children Charlie, 16, and Daisy, 13, with her husband Reece Hill, 47, believes her pre-fame figure would be embraced today, when stars shell out thousands to achieve Kardashian-style curves.
She recalls: “I was really small on the top, with little boobs, but I had a bum and thighs, which is a figure that people pay money for now.
But we were of that era of ‘heroin chic’ — everyone had no hips and no boobs.
“I had shape and I remember I was aware of my bum in tight outfits. I would tie a hoodie around my waist, which probably made it look a lot worse.”
Now older and wiser, Claire understandably feels bitter about the way she was treated.
She says: “For somebody to say, ‘You are great at your job, but you are not going to get it because of the way you look,’ that’s not right.
“I can’t imagine that would happen today. Someone would probably get sued.
“I do look back at pictures of those days and I remember how I felt.
I remember looking at myself in the mirror and thinking, ‘Oh my God, I look so fat’ and I wasn’t.
“Now I’m like, ‘I wish I was that ‘fat’ now’.”
Steps — originally launched as a line-dancing group with their infectious 1997 debut, 5, 6, 7, 8 — became an instant hit.
And despite a nine-year break in the Noughties, Claire and bandmates Lee Latchford-Evans, 48, Lisa Scott-Lee, 47, Faye Tozer, 47, and Ian “H” Watkins, 47, are still going strong, scoring four UK No1 albums in their 25-year career.
Although Claire’s body image suffered, she can’t help wondering if her success would have been short-lived had she refused to lose weight.
She says: “When I started out, anybody in the public eye was expected to look a certain way.
“It’s all part of the process, especially when you are that young and are part of a manufactured pop group.
“Pete Waterman, our co-producer at the time, had the idea that we were ‘Abba on speed’. And had I not been told to lose weight, would I have had the same path? I honestly don’t know.”
Constructive advice
After the group split in 2001, Claire says she became “obese”, going up to a size 20 and weighing 16 and a half stone.
It led to the release of her 2008 fitness DVD, 5 Step Fat Attack, which saw her lose five stone and drop five dress sizes.
Earlier this year, Fabulous exclusively revealed that thousands of children as young as four were shamed as “overweight” or “obese” by government-backed watchdogs.
A Freedom of Information request to every council in the UK revealed at least 5,000 mums, dads and carers had received letters telling them their child was “overweight” or “very overweight” since September last year.
But Claire isn’t opposed to the idea, as long as the advice is constructive.
She says: “I think it’s important for people to have a healthy diet and try to do some exercise.
“I’m not going to say, ‘Eat what you want and sit on your bum and don’t do anything’ because you are not going to get anywhere.
“But I don’t think anyone has the right to tell someone else about their weight — certainly not for a job.
“It’s not right to do so because it doesn’t fit into their idea of what someone should look like. If it’s for health reasons — if it’s a doctor telling you — that’s one thing.
“But if you were at a job interview and they sat down and told you, which is what they basically said to me, ‘We love you, we think you’re really great, we want you for this opportunity, but we need you to lose weight if you want to be in it’, then that’s not right.
“It wasn’t right back then, and it certainly isn’t right now.”
Fast forward to today and Claire says she believes her early experiences of being body-shamed in the music industry have made her stronger.
The singer, who has recently celebrated the release of her second solo album, says, “I think if I hadn’t experienced everything that I experienced back then, I wouldn’t be the person who I am now.
‘Longer shelf life’
“If I walked into a room now and someone told me to lose weight, I would absolutely tell them where to go — even if I thought I needed to lose it — or if I didn’t.
“I turned 46 this month and I feel great.
“I’m not new to the game — I’m confident.
“Since going solo, I have never felt like anyone has made me feel as though I look like a haggard old witch, as much as I feel like it myself sometimes.
“Everyone is very kind and says I look great.
“I think the pressure almost comes from ourselves more than anything.
“I do spend a lot of time and effort and money on trying to keep the appearance.
“I want to look fresh because I want to feel good when I’m on stage.”
Claire adds: “I do feel like we have a longer shelf-life now, thanks to people like Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Lopez.
“Those women look absolutely incredible for their age.
“I remember being a teen and my mum turning 40 and I thought, ‘God, you are so old!’
“But I don’t feel it now — I don’t know if it’s because we have got a lot more at our disposal these days.
“We know a lot more about skin and staying healthy, and what makes us look younger and stay younger.”
So what’s the secret to looking so young and wrinkle-free?
Claire reckons it’s down to three simple steps.
She says: “Find a good moisturiser, don’t be in the sun too much and drink lots of water — which I have to do because I am a singer.
“It’s all about learning what the right — and the wrong — things to do are.”
- Claire released her album Euphoria last week, and new single I Surrender is also out now