Claire Richards, one of the five-member girl group Steps, has opened up about experiencing an eating disorder in the Nineties, before she joined the band.
The singer, 45, said she went on a restrictive diet that only allowed her to eat 900 calories a day, with her meals comprising of just “fish fingers, peas and baked beans”.
Appearing on Vicky Pattison’s The Secret To podcast on Thursday’s (20 July) episode, Richards claimed she was told she had to lose weight even though she was a UK size 10 to 12 at the start of her career in the music industry.
She added that Kate Moss’s “heroin-chic” thin look was what people aspired to at the time when it came to body image, which in turn encouraged her dieting.
“It happened when I was in TSD,” Richards said, referring to her first band, The Scan-Dolls. “They did it to all of us because we were all quite curvy girls. I was probably a [size] 10 or a 12 and wasn’t big at all.
“But in the music world, and at that time, that whole Kate Moss, heroin-chic, was a thing and they wanted everyone to be really, really skinny.
“So, we were all put on a diet. That diet was interesting because we were encouraged to eat fish fingers, peas and baked beans and have like a 900-calorie diet.”
After she auditioned for Steps, Richards claimed she was still under pressure to lose weight.
“The audition for Steps was [in] 1997 and by that time I had cut my hair really short, stupidly, and I was wearing this stripey catsuit which I wore in the video for ‘Last Thing on My Mind’,” she explained.
“And I always used to tie a hoodie around my waist because I was really conscious of my bum because I thought I had a massive bum… They sat me down, did my audition and they said, ‘Oh, we really like you. We want you to be in the band, but you’re going to have to lose weight’.
“It set me on a pathway of not really eating for four-and-a-half years.”
Richards said that the years spent worrying about her body image damaged her confidence so much that she has never managed to fully regain it.
“I think I’m much better than I was,” she reassured listeners, but added: “But I don’t think I ever will get rid of it completely because it’s played such a massive part of my life for such a long time.
“I think I probably was anorexic. You know, I manged to kind of stop what I was doing to myself, but that went from not eating at all, to overeating.”
The “It’s The Way You Make Me Feel” singer said she went from being “dangerously thin” to weighing 16.5 stone (104kg) at her heaviest.
Richards has previously spoken out about her struggle with disordered eating and expressed how anxious she was about image filters that are popular on the internet today.
Last May, she appeared as a guest on Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Spinning Plates podcast and said: “I’ve gone from being dangerously thin to obese and I honestly do believe it’s all part of the same… if it’s an eating disorder, it’s one extreme to the other.
“There is a massive lack of understanding, generally, and I think especially on the overweight side of it. I think people just look at anybody who’s overweight [and think] that they’re lazy and have got no discipline.
“I’m not lazy and I definitely have discipline but I found myself in that position,” she continued. “I struggle everyday and I’ve managed to maintain a good size now for a long time but it’s a battle everyday and people just don’t understand that psychological side of it generally.”
For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this piece, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040.
