An Eastenders actress has revealed she managed dramatic weight loss after deciding to remove one thing from her diet. Tamzin Outhwaite said that when she hit the menopause she took to drinking wine - and it had a big impact on her.
In an interview with Closer Magazine the 52-year-old said that it was over this period that she reckons she put on more than a stone in weight. However, she revealed it was appearing on BBC endurance show Feel the Fear that sparked a change in her approach.
She is now alcohol free - and it led to her eating much more healthily too. Tamzin said: “Let’s just say I put on a lot of weight when I hit the menopause - over a stone. I’ve never been one to diet but when I quit drinking, I lost the stone I’d put on and craved goodness like fresh salads and juices.”
The actress gave up alcohol completely for six months after Feel the Fear explaining she’d become a “lightweight” during the menopause. She told Closer magazine: “It hit me I couldn’t drink like I used to and decided the best thing for me was to abstain. I took a break last year for six months...I felt amazing!”
Tamzin who played Mel Owen in EastEnders says she now has “two drinks max once in a while”, sharing that she and her partner Tom Child are both “more mindful” of alcohol.
The actress has expressed her gratitude towards her boyfriend Tom, who she has described as being a “dream stepdad” to her two children. Tamzin has been in a relationship with the filmmaker, 32, for five years.
She was previously married to fellow Lucifer star Tom Ellis, 44, between 2006 and 2014. She appeared in Eastenders between 1998 and 2002 and when she left said: “I’m not sure what’s left for Mel to do after she’s been kidnapped, married twice burnt down a club and slept with her best friend’s husband.” Although she did come back in 2018 for a short while.
She played a military police sergeant in the BBC’s Red Cap, Wesley Snipes’ partner in the 2005 film 7 Seconds, a futuristic detective inspector in the BBC’s sci-fi drama Paradox and DCI Sasha Miller in the BBC’s long-running New Tricks.