Inside Catherine Tyldesley’s off-screen life with incredible weight loss, birthday scandal and difficult pregnancy
ACTRESS Catherine Tyldesley is best known to audiences for her role as Eva Price in Coronation Street.
The actress began appearing in the soap in 2011 before quitting in 2018.
Since then, she has become a regular in the Channel 5 series, The Good Ship Murder alongside fellow former co-star, Shayne Ward.
Catherine even had a spin on the Strictly dancefloor in 2019.
Now, with the news that the actress is set to make an epic Cobbles comeback, fans will be left chomping at the bit to discover what has been going on with Eva Price.
But away from the TV screens, the 41-year-old has lived a rather colourful life.
Catherine’s Weight Loss
The star, who is a mum-of-two, has been open and honest about her image and body overhaul after shedding eight stone.
Catherine had vowed to stay healthy and “keep weight off to stay alive” for her children.
After welcoming her son Alfie, she told OK magazine that she was keen from them on to ensure she kept the weight off.
Having dropped from a size 22 to a size six – the actress admitted she was motivated to “stay alive” as long as possible.
“For me, the biggest motivation was staying alive. I was obese and we know that obesity is connected to mortality,” Catherine said.
“I want to be on this earth for as long as possible because I love my life and then my little boy came along and even more so.
“I thought ‘wow, I have a huge responsibility’ and I want to be here for him for as long as possible. That’s my biggest drive – staying alive.”
The actress has been very open about staying healthy and in 2019 she underwent a 12-week Ultimate Performance transformation.
It includes superset weight workouts targeting compound exercises and bigger muscle groups, and a nutrient-rich diet.
Catherine used to weigh 15 stone and was a size 22 at the age of 18, before a decade ago she started focusing on losing weight.
She said in the past that she dropped all the weight by ditching Coronation Street’s pies and bacon butties.
Cakegate scandal
Corrie actress Catherine was involved in one of showbiz’s most surprising and bizarre feuds of recent years when events firm NVRLND, working on instruction of Catherine, attempted to persuade a small bakery to make 100 cupcakes and a full-sized birthday cake for free in exchange for exposure on her social media.
It all kicked off when the bakery shared the email enquiry as well as their own response declining the proposition because ‘social media likes can’t pay their employees’ wages’.
It led Catherine to release a video in which she denied wanting free goods and said she hoped the bakery got “the publicity they craved”, which drew criticism.
However, Catherine faced an intense amount of backlash for turning the blame around onto the small bakery by claiming they were desperate for publicity by using her name.
Catherine took to social media to address the claims at the time, joking: “Cake gate. What? Um, utterly bizarre, I don’t really know what to say.
“I mean, I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving.”
She was understood to be blindsided by the claims when they first surfaced online.
Catherine later cancelled the bash altogether after the scandal soured plans.
Pregnancy struggle
Earlier this year, Catherine spoke out about the struggles she faced whilst pregnant and how life was different for her after giving birth to her second child.
Speaking to Prima, she admitted she felt ‘unfit, weak, and vulnerable’ she revealed she had suffered from chronic sickness and pregnancy insomnia.
“I was just losing my mind, mental health-wise, trying to manage on two or three hours of sleep each night.”
Catherine added: “My relationship with my body is probably like most women: up and down.”
“I found it very difficult after my second child. I hate the words ‘spring back’ because you’ve achieved something so amazing. But I’ll be honest: I didn’t feel like myself.”
Gruelling health issue
In February 2020, Catherine began to feel unwell – which was soon revealed to be as a result of her time on the Strictly tour.
Having found herself dealing with “horrendous headaches”, it was revealed that a cause was by a drop in oestrogen levels following a gruelling Strictly tour that she had to withdraw from after injury.
“I was put on HRT to get my oestrogen back up and to stop the headaches, but it made me feel horrendous.
“I gained over a stone, my body thought I was pregnant so I had morning sickness, none of my bras fitted and I cried at the drop of a hat.”
Then came Covid, which hit her family especially hard. Her parents fell seriously ill with the virus and her grandad, Derek, died from Covid-related complications in May, aged 90. The culmination of everything caused Cath to crash.
“When we lost my grandad, it was the last straw for me and I had a couple of very dark weeks. I’ve never suffered with depression before – I’ve been really lucky – and so if it can happen to me.
“Thankfully, my dark weeks were over quite quickly, but for people who experience this all the time, it must be hell. So I made a point of trying to learn more about mental health and trying to use my platform, because so many people really struggled last year.”