Kate Walsh

Before shooting to fame on The Apprentice last year, businesswoman Kate Walsh hadn’t once worried about her weight.But then she entered  the image-obsessed world of showbiz. And after meeting scores of Size 0 celebrities in the flesh as a presenter for Channel Five’s Live From Studio Five, she admits she now views her figure in a different way.

 

 Kate Walsh

Speaking to this week’s Closer magazine, she said: 'I’m a Size 8-10 and around 8st, which I thought was slim. 'But some of the stars I meet are just skin and bones and look like they’re wasting away. Zoe Saldana from Avatar is tiny and Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle has become too thin.Kate adds: 'Strangers kept telling me I looked much bigger on TV and I started to think about losing weight because they say the camera adds 10lb.

 

Then I thought, actually, I only look bigger because the celebs are so tiny. I realised I didn’t want to look like that, so now I don’t worry about my size – though I could do with toning up!'  Showing off her slim figure in an exclusive bikini shoot, it’s hard to see why Kate, 29, would want to change anything about her body. But she confesses that even if she did want to, she’d find it too hard!  I don’t have the willpower to diet as I love food!' she laughs.

 

But I wish I could tone up my tummy a bit – Phil boyfriend and fellow Apprentice star Phillip Taylor and I went to Italy recently and I lived in my bikini. Luckily, even if I’m having a fat day, he makes me feel sexy.'

In fact, it was Phil who talked Kate into doing the photoshoot, which recreates Liz Hurley posing in one of her own bikini designs. 'I was scared by the thought of trying to look like Liz Hurley, who has an amazing body even though she’s just turned 45. I’ve never modelled swimwear before, but Phil somehow persuaded me,' she says.On the subject of her boyfriend, Kate herself brings up the rumours that the couple, who have been together a year, have split – and promptly dismisses them.'We haven’t split up and are still very much in love. Every couple has their ups and downs and we did have a row. 'But despite rumours, it certainly wasn’t about Phil wanting to get married and have babies – he wants that less than I do!' she says.