Glenda Shuttleworth, an outgoing barwoman on Coronation Street has had quite a journey leading up to the British soap opera.
Jodie Prenger has encapsulated audiences since first stepping on the set of the ITV show in August 2022.
The 43-year-old's first brush with fame was actually back in 2006, when she appeared on a popular weight loss programme, The Daily Star reports.
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Despite her success on screen, one of the most challenging struggles she has tackled throughout her life has been managing her health.
She first hit the limelight when she won the second season of the hit Sky Living weight loss show The Biggest Loser, after taking home the pot containing £25,000.
In the space of half a year, she went from 18st 2lb to 9st 9lbs and dropping from a size 26 to a size 12.
Speaking to The Daily Star, she said: "Because I worked at night, I'd sit around in the day and make a sandwich for something to do.
"I couldn’t cook, so I'd eat in restaurants all the time and then after gigs I'd have a KFC or a cheese sandwich. I knew it was wrong, but it fed my hunger."
Although she learned the value of exercise, Jodie admitted that the lifestyle wasn't sustainable as she was in a house all day with nothing else to do, as part of the show.
She said: "I found it hard to keep the weight off, and it’s never helped that I am partial to a cheeseboard and a bottle of Prosecco. The main thing now is that I do enjoy myself and refuse to beat myself up about my weight.
"Size 10-12 just wasn’t sustainable. Besides, I'd gotten too skinny, I was happy to regain a couple of stone and get some curves back."
Romantically Jodie met company director Simon Booth after breaking up with boxer Chris Eubank.
However, her new partner had quite the appetite with the pair snacking more often.
Fast forward two years and she landed a role in the West End show One Man Two Guvnors, Simon asked to marry her, and her father Marty got kidney cancer, dying a few months later.
"I was drinking too much and eating whatever rubbish we could find at daft o’clock in the morning whether it was steak and chips in a posh café or a burger from a takeaway," the 5ft 3 inch star said.
After beginning the new show and seeing billboards of herself, she knew she needed to lose the weight again after adding on four more stone.
"I didn’t see it in the mirror, but blown up on a billboard, I looked larger than life," she said.
As she prepared to take on the role of Glenda on Coronation Street, she decided to put an end to her yo-yo diets after years of struggling with her weight.
Speaking to The Sun, Jodie told how her life has changed since she took a reprieve from the West End for the ITV soap.
She said: "My weight has been up and down like a bride’s nightie. Sometimes I'm alright with it and other times I'm not.
"But I always think, ‘God, I wish I was as big as I was the first time I thought I was big, you know?"
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