Ben Ofoedu referred to his ex-fiancee Vanessa Feltz as a ‘chubby blonde’ after she opened up about her difficult battle with her weight and body image.
The singer, 52, and the television personality, 62, split in February last year after 17 years together when she discovered he had been unfaithful to her.
Reflecting on their relationship as it appeared in Shizzio’s show On Wednesday, Ben recalled the first time they met and discussed how Vanessa fit into “his type.”
He explained: ‘I met her through a good friend of mine, Keith Duffy from Boyzone, he did Big Brother with her.
‘We used to go out and he always drank in the bar, he never chatted with girls. I always found myself chatting with a chubby blonde girl at the end of the night.
‘Well, that’s what he told me, but I didn’t know! You know when you don’t know you’re doing it.’
Ben Ofoedu referred to his ex-fiancee Vanessa Feltz as a ‘chubby blonde’ after she opened up about her difficult battle with her weight and body image.
The singer, 52, and the TV personality, 62, split in February last year after 17 years together when she discovered he had been unfaithful to her (pictured in 2021).
Ben continued: “I was like, “Really? No, I’ll just talk to anyone” and he said, “they’re always chubby and they’re always blonde, why?”
Then he says, “Do you know Vanessa?”
“He introduced me to her and we got along well. We get along very well. We would see each other at various functions.
In a recent interview, Vanessa candidly revealed the struggles of her childhood and how she was put on a diet when she was just nine years old.
During an appearance on Loose Women she delved into her younger years and explained how she was put on her yo-yo diet, to promote her new book Vanessa Bares All.
The presenter admitted that her weight problems began when she was little, when she was put on a very strict diet, and she remembers that they only gave her half a grapefruit for dinner.
Delving into that moment, Vanessa told the panel consisting of Charlene White, Brenda Edwards, Judi Love and Kelle Bryan: “I was a little girl and I wasn’t one of those chubby girls who like to eat cake, I was the skinny guy who is not very interested in food.
‘Then I did something that my parents never forgave me, which is called developing. You start to have very small breasts. I was about nine years old and my mother rushed me to the specialist to ask: “What’s wrong with you?”
Reflecting on their relationship while appearing on The Shizzio Show on Wednesday, Ben recalled the first time they met and discussed how Vanessa fit “his type.”
In a recent interview, Vanessa candidly revealed the difficulties of her childhood and how she was put on a diet when she was just nine years old (pictured in 1995).
The presenter admitted that her weight problems began when she was given only half a grapefruit for dinner.
“They said, ‘Well, Mrs. Feltz, he’s developing,’ and my grandmother said, ‘That’s ridiculous, he’s only nine,’ almost like he did it on purpose, which, of course, he didn’t.”
“And then I think my mother thought my waist would go in and my hips would go out and I think she panicked because I would be fat. This is the ’60s, when everyone looked twiggy.
‘They also wanted him to be very marriageable and marriageable meant thin. But I was quite thin and from that moment on she started putting me on a diet.
Remembering a specific moment from her childhood, Vanessa told how she was given different foods than the rest of her family.
The announcer recalled, “So we’re all eating chicken noodle soup and some delicious dumplings and everything.” Vanessa is going to have half a grapefruit… and I was nine years old.
“I felt like I was being punished, but I didn’t know what I had done, and I wasn’t big, I was little. Pretty much from that point on my mom effectively became my kind of diet police.
‘Which is very difficult because if every time you put a fork in your mouth your mother looks horrified, what are you supposed to do?
“You’re really hungry and if someone gives you, say, an opal fruit, you can’t just eat one out of the package, you’re going to devour the whole thing because you don’t know when you’re going to eat.” to have the opportunity again.
‘This makes food a great thing. I really don’t think my mother did it on purpose, but the net effect has been a very public weight problem.
Vanessa revealed she jumped out of a moving taxi after discovering her ex-fiance Ben Ofoedu was cheating on her while the ex-couple headed to a party in Waterloo.
Vanessa confronted Ben in the car after a family dinner when her daughters, Saskia and Allegra, told their mother that an online troll had told them Ben was cheating on them (pictured in 2021).
She confronted him in the car after a family dinner, where the presenter’s daughters, Saskia and Allegra, told their mother that an online troll had tipped them off that Ben was cheating on them.
vanessa said The mirror: He was babbling, stuttering, protesting. I didn’t understand it because it didn’t make sense.
“I couldn’t take another second. I couldn’t take it. I opened the door of the moving taxi and jumped out.
‘My coat was torn. Blood flowed from a cut on my arm. I figured he would stop the taxi and follow me to see if I had survived the jump. He didn’t do it.
Instead, he allegedly mistakenly sent her a series of text messages intended for the other woman and then posted snaps of himself partying online.