Gordon Ramsay is one of those guys, right? By that I mean… I don’t like him, I don’t watch his shows, and from what little I know about him, he seems like a rage monster. But I still would. I would bang him. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone after the fact and I would definitely be ashamed of it, but he has some bizarre appeal, right? Or is it just me? I’ve been known to be attracted to deeply troubled dudes. Anyway, Gordon Ramsay is happily married, and he recently talked about his marriage to wife Tana in an interview with The Times. Apparently, he lost 50 pounds over the course of his 12-year marriage just because he wanted to “keep” his wife.
Gordon Ramsay is revealing the very personal reason behind his body transformation. In a recent interview with The Times, the celebrity chef, 51, admitted that his fear of losing wife Tana, 41, pushed him to shed over 50 lbs. after she told him that he needed to take care of his body or risk ending their 12-year marriage. Calling himself “fat” and “overweight,” Ramsay recalled having a conversation with his wife about his weight, even viewing old photos of his fuller physique.
“Tana was not impressed with the way I was,” the Kitchen Nightmares host said. “I was overweight, 18 stone [252 lbs]. I looked like a sack of s—. I look at the pictures and think, ‘How did Tana stay around?’ Because Tana has got better-looking and more gorgeous. And there she is, getting in bed with a fat f—.”
The couple has four children together: 19-year-old daughter Megan, 18-year-old twins Holly and Jack, and 16-year-old daughter Matilda. Ramsay, who attributed his weight gain to snacking during long work hours and a busy schedule, also shared how he felt self-conscious when he looked at his reflection in the mirror, even comparing himself to close friend David Beckham.
“I didn’t have a figure. I didn’t feel that good,” he said. “‘It was painful. I used to look at myself in the mirror and think, ‘Holy s—!’ So it was a big wake-up call.’
By cycling and training for triathlons, Ramsay said he went from weighing 18 stone (approximately 252 lbs.) to shedding four stone (approximately 56 lbs.) and currently weighs 14 stone (approximately 196 lbs.). In addition to his wife’s alarming warning, Ramsay focused on his health due to losing his 53-year-old father to a heart attack.
“That’s only a couple of years’ time. I’ve got this reminder to get fit, it’s scary,” he said. “I get the fear on a daily basis. I may have not got on with him, but I still miss him. I miss everything I could have had from him if he was still alive in his 70s.”
I’ve always heard that both men and women tend to gain weight when they get married, possibly because they no longer are “on the hunt” for a mate, so they start to relax and they visit the gym more infrequently or what have you. I can totally see how a professional chef would end up gaining weight without realizing what was happening – food is constantly around, the hours are weird, kitchens are stressful and people stress-eat. I’m glad he did it for his health and he seems to be living a healthier life now. All that being said, it sort of sounds like his wife fat-shamed him? Like, what did she do, create a PowerPoint presentation about how fat he is and how he needs to lose weight? It’s a fine line between “wanting your spouse to live a healthier life” and “demanding that your spouse lose weight so they’ll be attractive enough to be seen with you.” Also: would we feel differently about this if a husband had created a PowerPoint presentation to fat-shame his wife? Yeah, we would.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Mr OriginalLala gained weight after we got married, about 20 pounds – but since he is the love of my life and I dont believe in being a dick to people I love, I just started cooking really healthy meals for us and making sure the kitchen was only stocked with healthy foods for him to snack on. I also started bringing him along for long walks in the evenings. He lost some weight, felt better and no one’s feelings were hurt.
This is very beautiful. It’s a sweet and great way to address the problem. You rock!
Men expect this of women all the time. There’s nothing wrong with expecting your spouse to look good for you, or wanting to look good for your spouse.
Exactly. How many times have we heard guys worry that their wives are going to get fat. There’s also this joke “fellas, if you want to know what she’ll look like when she’s old, look at her mom. If she’s fat that’s your answer.” We are practically instructed to look good for men and panic if we gain weight. The concept of looking good for yourself is pretty new. So it’s only fair that we expect some consideration from men. A few extra pounds are not a problem, but when they completely neglect themselves and don’t care, that’s what’s unattractive.
And it sounds like Gordon wasn’t happy with himself either and wasn’t feeling good. So if he needed that wake up call to become healthy, more power to him. You don’t need to have the perfect body. Just care about yourself and do the best you can. Letting yourself go is never attractive or good.
So instead of lessening the pressure put on women the answer is to put more pressure on men?
Also, that seems like a recipe for a healty marriage.
Already commented below about why I think this is toxic, but demanding a person to make an effort to be attractive for you when they are already struggling with self-care is insensitive and unhelpful, at best.
Why is it so difficult to understand that self-care comes from a place of self-esteem? Criticism doesn’t build self-esteem. Shame doesn’t build self-esteem. Fear of abandonment or rejection doesn’t build self-esteem. The best way to encourage someone to respect and care for themselves is to show them respect and care.
That’s not love.
Well said, Lillil.
Of course self-care is important, and I’d be concerned if I thought my husband was unhappy in himself and his body, but we certainly didn’t vow to stay hot until death do us part! (and for the record, I don’t think that’s what Gordon is talking about here)
Man or woman, it seems pretty toxic for anyone to demand a person’s body bend to their sexual preference, especially over the lifetime of a marriage where children, aging, disease and disability may each take a toll.
Well, his wife sounds like a gigantic a-hole.
He’s an a-hole too. And cheated on her.
Maybe she wanted him to look and feel better. Maybe he let himself go and she was concerned and not feeling attracted to him.
Kaiser, don’t worry, we all have one that we would hit it and quit with and never talk to anyone about lol
I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with this? Every couple sets standards for themselves, she saw that he was unhealthy and maybe she wasn’t as attracted to him anymore and talked with him about it. And like someone else said, men expect this of women all the time. Also, she looks healthy and fit herself so it seems she holds herself to these same standards
Yeah, it’s a fine line. ‘Need to take care of your body’, especially if your father dies of a heart attack at 53, is a perfectly reasonable thing to say. If she saw him eating his way to a heart attack, I can understand saying something.
I don’t see what is wrong with this. His father died at 53 and she could see he had excess weight on as well as working in a stressful environment. If you don’t make the effort for yourself you won’t do it for your spouse.
Given how Gordon felt about himself, I don’t think this is a problem. I saw a show where a wife was discussing her husband’s weight gain and she was very honest. While explaining that she did prefer him more fit, the real issue was that she could tell he was feeling bad about himself. He would no longer get in the mood for sex as often due to lower energy. He was just less spontaneous and romantic. All in all, it seemed his weight change caused his relationship to change. In that instance, I think it’s good to bring it up with your partner, tactfully of course. This partner ended up thankfully for the wake-up call or final push. However, if your partner is simply getting older or may not be into being as fit, there’s no need to bring it up or cause damage to their self-esteem. If they are happy, then you should be happy.
Or he doesn’t listen to a word she says and thinks any problem she brings up can be solved by him being more narcissistic.
It sounds like he’s being his usual blunt, dramatic self about it, but I suspect she was probably a little more discreet in her approach. I think it’s entirely fair for a couple to be upfront about each other’s appearance, particularly if there are health concerns, because they’re invested in each other. I do think it still needs to be respectful of the other’s person, especially if other health issues (metabolic disorders, disability) may be preventing their ability to regulate it. My two friends have had frank conversation about the weight gain they’ve both gone through due to the stress of their younger child’s health issues, but it’s not unkind or cruel – particularly since the husband is aware his wife has a history with eating disorders, so he’s very careful discussing it when she brings it up to him.
We don’t criticize each other’s weight. It’s so easy to feel like crap on daily basis already, plus we’re not stupid – – we know what we’re seeing in mirrors. We do, however, talk about eating healthy. We buy healthy and try to cook at home most nights. All that being said, we don’t live in the public’s eye so maybe she’s not as much of ‘beech’ as she might sound.
Gordon’s tough love shtick is taken too far some times, and much further in his US shows, but I wonder how much of that is just the character he plays for TV? If you see the original Kitchen Nightmares from the UK, and setting aside the dramatics in his US shows, he seems like a kind-hearted dude.
I’m not down for fat-shaming, altho I’d add the comments here sound like self-deprecation, blended with some humble-bragging about his beautiful wife?
252 pounds is a lot.
What’s the point in dancing around the fact.
Good for his wife to make him lose the weight.
You know, I will be honest. I told my husband that he needed to get healthier. I said, you lost your grandma to heart attack at 41. With genetics like that, you have to take care of yourself so you’ll potentially have a longer life. I got more healthy for the same reasons. Heart desease and diabetes are rampant in my family. I don’t want to be on meds at 40. I think for health benefits, telling a partner to lose weight is totally fine.
The way he said it, it sounded to me like she was more worried about his health. Like take care of yourself, it’s so important that I could be gone. It sounded to me like he projected all the material appearance stuff on himself.
Soooo she was 22 when they had their first child? Is she his first wife? Years ago he was allegedly busted for having a mistress…. One would think a wife might leave them for that!
I think ultimately this was his decision because he wasn’t happy with himself. And if more people thought like him, they would care more about their weight and health. The thought of dying young and leaving his kids like it happened to him was enough to help him change his ways.
I think lately we have this idea that it’s wrong to change yourself, but we must always strive to do better. Overeating and being inactive is simply not a good thing for you. Previous generations were more careful with that and lately people don’t care. And if they care, they are fat shaming themselves. It’s really not about that. It’s about giving yourself the best life possible, and when you’re overweight you simply don’t feel your best. Especially at his age he couldn’t even play with his kids.
I’ve read his autobiographies and from what I remember, his father-in-law also pushed him into doing something about his weight and got him into marathon running. I think the sentiment was, if you can’t look after yourself, how will you look after my daughter?
12 year marriage? I think they’ve been married a lot longer than that. Yep, just googled. They got married in 1996.
I’ve watched him a lot and most of it is for show, especially the US based shows.
He is awesome in the kid based shows, very kind and listens
Did you see the Little Gordon videos? Oh my god, I love them so much.
They seem to have frank and filter free communication in their marriage, so I have no problem with this.
That being said, if someone else said this that didn’t have that sort of relationship- it would be all kinds of wrong.
It may be only the filter of Gordon’s personality (and insecurity) that is making her look like an asshole, here. She may have had a compassionate talk with him about his weight and his health, but the way he relates that story back to the media infects it with his bluntness and turns it into something that sounds mean-spirited.
Happily married? She is an absolute doormat.
Also, he had a mistress, unknown to his wife, for eight years.
Ramsay’s a douchebag, but not as ragey as he appears on tv. I know someone who worked with him for six months, and Ramsay never bothered to learn his name. He just called him “the fookin’ paddy” the entire time.
That said, I totally would. Three times by morning.
I’m rather disturbed to hear he’s still with his wife. I thought they split up after her father stole all his money?
May be he saw the Chef Pierre Hermé, and got frigthened!