Dawn French has claimed she suffers from a medical condition she calls "body blindness" that prevents her wanting to lose weight.

The 51-year-old actress and comedienne is just 5ft tall and a size 20 but told Woman's Weekly magazine she ignores health warnings about obesity because her size doesn't worry her.

Dawn said: "I can honestly say that it doesn't bother me, though I do worry that I'll get so comfortably fat that I won't be able to walk any more."

She continued: "Sometimes I'll get out of bed and think, 'Oooh, I need to do some exercise' - but that's probably about once a year, if that.

"I think the medical term for my condition is called 'body blindness'. I may ultimately regret not looking after myself more, and plenty of people would line up to tell me that, but it doesn't concern me."

Dawn, who was a size 16 at the age of 13, revealed she was left feeling tired and ill when she took a cocktail of pills and slimming injections to drop four dress sizes and fit into a size 12 wedding gown in a matter of weeks before she married fellow comedian Lenny Henry in 1984.

She said: "When we got married I lost a lot of weight in a very short time, all because I panicked that I shouldn't be a fat bride,' she confesses.

"But Len took me to one side and said, 'Who are you doing this for? I hope it's not me because it's not what I want.'

"Losing weight made me miserable and I was so cross with myself afterwards."

Fri 3 Jul