Vanessa Feltz's mum's cruel remark about her weight that has stayed with her her whole life

Vanessa Feltz has written a new autobiography in which she has opened up about her relationship with her mother and her own difficult relationship with food

Vanessa Feltz has candidly discussed her mother's harsh remarks about her weight struggle. The Daily Express columnist, who is known for her openness about her personal life, has a dedicated fanbase that has stood by her through thick and thin.

Now, the 62-year-old has given an insight into her childhood with her older sister Julia in her new autobiography, Vanessa Bares All: Frank, Funny and Fearless. In her revealing book, the broadcaster delves into her relationship with her mother and her complicated relationship with food.

Vanessa shared that her mother always had a "weight problem", which often led to tension at home. However, it wasn't until she was nine years old that it started affecting her own relationship with food.

She said: "When my body began to change, my mother thought, 'Oh my God! Vanessa is going to get fat!' I was nine and fitted comfortably into clothes for nine-year-olds."

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"Nevertheless, my mother began to curb, quite drastically and publicly, what I was allowed to eat."

By the time she was 18, she was a size 10, had a loving boyfriend, and had even secured a place at Cambridge. Despite being excited about her future, her mother was worried that she would put on weight once she left the family home.

Vanessa recalled: "In December 1979 when Trinity College rang with the news, my mother's reaction, 'You know you'll fill up on chocolates! " And it's fair to say her weight gain at the end of the year didn't go unnoticed.

She recounted: "When I went on at the end of term, my mother said, 'Shall I bounce you in? You're a great, big, pumped-up beach ball! ' I was a size 10 to 12, curvaceous and bosomy. I was fit, fanciable and a normal size for a girl from a dumpling-shaped family."

Vanessa admitted that she always felt under her mother's scrutinising eye when it came to her body. At family meals, her mother would often remark, "Vanessa, you could be so pretty if you just lost weight. Why are you doing this to yourself? " Even as her career took off, her mother's comments about her weight persisted.

She added: "[I was] invited on to the radio for the first time to discuss an article, I was funnier than I'd ever heard myself be."

"I charged straight to my parents' house. 'Mum, Dad, did you hear me? What did you think? ' My mother said, 'I've told you before, you must lose weight'. I replied: 'Lose weight? I've been on the radio'."

"The official PR pictures when my show, ITV's Vanessa, launched in 1994, showed me at 32, excited and optimistic, on the cusp of adventure."

"My parents were on holiday, saw the pictures and rang to tell me they hated them. I looked huge. My grin was inane. If ever there was a moment to lose weight, this, surely, was it."

After her mother's death at 57, Vanessa discovered a healthier lifestyle that suited her, and she is now thriving with the support of friends and family.