Alison Hammond sobs on 'This Morning' as she opens up about obesity struggle
Watch: Alison Hammond cries on This Morning
Alison Hammond broke down in tears on This Morning as she opened up about her struggle with obesity.
The presenter, 47, became emotional after a woman called in to discuss her own daughter’s eating issues.
Unable to hold back tears, Hammond said she had suffered with obesity all of her life and that the NHS needed to see it more as a disease.
“A lot of people don’t realise that obesity is a disease,” she went on.
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“You can’t help wanting to eat all the time.”
“Sorry, because I just think people look down on people just because they are so big and they can’t actually help it when you’ve actually got a disease,” she cried.
“In obesity your regulation system is out of whack…when you are in it you want to eat and you want all the bad things and you know you don’t look great.”
Hammond’s co-host Dermot O’Leary and the ITV show’s agony aunt Deidre Sanders stepped in to comfort her, as the star said people like the caller’s daughter needed help.
“The NHS needs to see it more as a disease,” she said.
“People help people who are anorexic but they don’t help people who are overweight.”
“It’s so hard and people don’t realise… I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.
The show cut to an ad break and when it returned Hammond apologised to viewers, although O’Leary assured her she didn’t need to.
Hammond said: “It’s tough because when you are big people think you are lazy and you eat loads and loads of food but they don’t realise there are actually chemical reactions and hormones that change and things like that.
“It just got to me, I felt like I was at home watching the show and I lost it.”
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“You are an inspiration and I’m very proud of you,” O’Leary told her, saying Hammond's words would have helped people in the same position watching at home.
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