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AS Gemma Atkinson prepares to turn 40, she will no doubt reflect on how far she has come since bursting on to our TV screens as a fresh-faced teenager.
For while the star, who celebrates the landmark birthday tomorrow, has emerged as one of Britain's biggest pin-ups, she has also been admirably candid about her journey to find happiness and body confidence along the way.
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Now, as she enters her fifth decade, the mum-of-two is in the shape of her life and looking more loved up than ever with fiance Gorka Márquez.
Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings tells The Sun: "While some women dread hitting the big 4-0, Gemma Atkinson is positively embracing it, looking - and seemingly feeling - the best she has ever looked."
Speaking to Closer about her 40th, Gemma, 39, said: "I’m going to have a big party in Manchester – all the Strictly crew will be there, all the old Hollyoaks lot, and my friends and family. I’m excited because I always say, ‘Go big or go home.’
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"If you’re not aging, the alternative is being dead!"
Becoming comfortable with aging and her body changing hasn't been easy for Gemma.
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The actress says she wasn't always body confident and felt like she needed to be skinnier when she starred as Lisa Hunter in Hollyoaks in the early 2000s.
“When I first started in Hollyoaks I put a lot of pressure on myself,” said Gemma.
Gemma Atkinson's Hollyoaks character Lisa Hunter shocks mum by sporting bikini on way to foam party
“I was only 15 so I had puppy fat and I was surrounded by all the glamour girls and I just thought I needed to be slim.
“I put so much pressure on myself, it was boring. I started to resent training and everything about it. Now I embrace it. It is not doing a diet or a training plan. It’s a part of my lifestyle now.
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“When I was younger, the more results I saw, the more I chased them. It wasn’t a case of I need to get better and better, it was more a case of if I got a tiny bit worse, I would feel I had let myself down.”
Not long after establishing herself as a soap star, Gemma's father tragically died from a heart attack aged just 52.
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Reflecting on her grief on podcast The Overshare, she said: “I was 17 when my dad passed away and it was very sudden. I have a big sister Nina, she is seven years older than me so I relied on my sister and my mum to get me through it, they were the matriarchs, the older ones."
After her loss, she continued to focus on her acting career and vowed to never be afraid to talk about her dad.
Like many soap stars of her generation, she turned to lads' mag shoots as a way to make money and keep her profile up.
The Emmerdale actress posed for Maxim, Arena, FHM, Loaded, Zoo and Nuts.
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In 2006, she told Maxim that she had a boob job taking her to a 32DD, which she said was getting them back to their original size and shape after losing weight.
And the actress has absolutely no regrets for stripping off to take the sexy photos.
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She told the Daily Star: "I am so chuffed about it. I always say it got me two houses."
And even her mum loved the risque pictures, with Gemma saying: "My mum has got about seven scrapbooks in the loft of all my Nuts, FHM, ZOO."
How Gemma revamped her mindset
By behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings
While some women dread hitting the big 4-0, Gemma Atkinson is positively embracing it, looking - and seemingly feeling - the best she has ever looked. So, what’s her secret to looking so sexy, confident and glowing as she turns 40 today?
Gemma is much happier with herself than she was earlier on in her career and her personal life. She has spoken about the pressure of needing to be slim during her role in Hollyoaks in the early 2000’s and the discomfort of comparing herself unfavourably to the more ‘glamorous’ stars. This created resentment to have to go on a strict diet and work out, a vicious cycle of complex feelings that simply served to reinforce her already fragile self-esteem.
Now she talks about exercise and her food choices as a ‘lifestyle choice’ – a much healthier and more positive approach to life, which has lifted her self-esteem and body confidence, allowing her not have to make those comparisons, but to simply accept her shape, recognising that not all body assets are the same and that she’s so much happier accepting hers and making good lifestyle choices which go way beyond worrying about those aspects you can’t change and inevitably end up making you feel more miserable.
She also worried about having not found the right relationship by the time she was 30 – those pressures that other people put upon us, making us feel like we’re not doing something right, because we haven’t yet found a lasting relationship or settled down. Her healthy mindset now understands that finding a great relationship, takes some people longer than others, and that waiting for a partner we truly feel connected with, is not about ‘right person, wrong time’ or ‘wrong person, right time’ but taking your time to find the right person at the right time.
So, she is in a great place personally and professionally and has an inspirational honesty about how she looks – acknowledging that stretch marks, weight gain and cellulite are a small price to pay, to having the amazing experience of becoming a mum.
She has fully accepted that her concerns about her appearance were based on unrealistic expectations and not having as much self-confidence or self-esteem as she would have liked. She realises – and that often only comes with age – that she has settled into herself, found what really matters to her and the confidence to speak out about it. As a result, she looks radiant, gorgeous and truly content with her life.
Gemma Atkinson shows her curves in I'm A Celebrity shower
At the height of her lads' mag fame, she also went into I'm A Celebrity where she wowed fans with sizzling shower scenes in 2007.
Her steamy moments have gone down as some of the sexiest in jungle history.
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But her glamour modeling days did mean that her soon-to-be father-in-law saw her saucy snaps before they met in person - thanks to Google.
On a podcast with fiance Gorka, she said: "I think everything is online now. But I loved the fact when I started going out with you (her partner Gorka Marquez), you said to your dad 'oh google her'.
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"And he did, so he saw these (her boobs) before he saw my face. So when I first met him I was like high-neck jumper going 'Hi, nice to meet you'."
Before her stint on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, Gemma had battled with feeling comfortable in her body as her weight would fluctuate.
Gemma Atkinson and Aljaz Skorjanec dance the American Smooth on the Strictly Come Dancing final
Responding to a fan who asked her how looking back at old photos made her feel now she was ripped, Gemma replied: "Cheesy as it sounds, with any picture I look back on, I don’t really look at my shape.
“I relate it to how I felt at that time, which can either make me smile or feel a little sad regardless of my shape.
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“This pic, for example, I was super lean, but a few months earlier, I went through an awful time personally, so when I see the pic, despite being in shape, I feel relieved that I’m not in that place any more (if that makes sense).”
She is very open on social media about her journey with body positivity, and in 2016 she shared how she had learned to love her body.
Gemma Atkinson shows off ripped six pack in a bikini on holiday with Strictly fiancé Gorka and their kids
She wrote on social media: "I will never be stick thin / be like the Victoria Secret models (not without being miserable and starving anyway) but that's ok. I've learned to love my body for what it is.
"Yes I have 'big legs' and yes I have broad shoulders and yes I'm tall for a girl (5ft 9) and NO, I don't have a 6 pack, but I feel athletic and fit and strong and mentally I'm in tune with my body."
Strong and healthy
The actress has also accepted that being heavier doesn't necessarily mean she's unhealthy.
Speaking in 2022 to Fabulous Mag shortly after the birth of her daughter Mia, she said: "I’m about 11st 5lb – the heaviest I’ve been in my life [apart from when she was pregnant with Mia, when she was a stone heavier] – but I’m also lean, strong and healthy. Weight doesn’t bother me.”
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While Gemma loves her body, it doesn't stop vile trolls from leaving nasty comments about how she appears "manly".
The actress takes it in her stride and often hits back with sarky comments.
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Recalling one incident, she said: "A dude told me I look like a man. I told him, if he lifted like me, he could too."
The 39-year-old told her followers: “Remember people like his will always exist.
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"Jealous and insecure because you’re doing something that they can’t. Full of self hate because you’re happy and full of self-doubt because you’re confident.
"Don’t let them stop you being you. Don’t let that stop you working on your health, your goals, keep doing what you love. Keep having fun even when they try to stop you."
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Another way she helps to stop herself from looking for flaws is to remember that other people won't dislike the same things.
She said: "When people say, ‘I have got bigger arms, bigger legs or a bigger stomach,’ that’s your body. What you don’t like about your body somebody else will find amazing.
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“Some people think the perfect physique is a body-builder type, some people think it is the hourglass or a Victoria’s Secret model.
“There is no perfect body, it is what you make of your own. You can’t change it, so why spend your entire life resenting it?”
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Becoming a mum to Mia, five, and Thiago, one, is another thing that has led to Gemma appreciating her body more.
Following the birth of her son, she told Mother & Baby: “I think it's so important for women to know the mechanics of their body when they're pregnant, and what a journey is actually going on.
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"Rather than just looking at myself and think I'm three stone heavier, I've got cellulite, I've got stretch marks, I'm fat, I was thinking, my body's working and doing what it needs to do to grow my little boy.”
And she also shared how she plans to make sure both her children always feel comfortable and confident in their bodies.
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She said: "I would never say to Mia, ‘Oh, my God, look at the size of your bum. Are those stretch marks on your leg?’
"I would never say that so I think why am I saying it to myself? It's ridiculous.”
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