Jordan Banjo opens up on heartbreak of being fat shamed by a stranger

Jordan Banjo has spoken about the hurt he felt at being fat shamed by a stranger who made a cruel joke as he drove past the Diversity dancer.

Banjo, 29, had gained three stone during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020 when he was barely able to leave the house for months.

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He has since shared his efforts to get back in shape, but in a special episode of Loose Women on Thursday, he told how a comment from a stranger on his changing shape had stung.

Banjo was a panellist with Andi Peters, Ore Oduba and The Chase's Shaun Wallace on the special Loose Men edition of the ITV chat show.

He said: “I put on a lot of weight and it took me ages to shift it again.

“I came out of my radio show and this guy pulls up in a van next to me. He puts his window down and goes, ‘Wahey – can tell you haven’t been dancing for a while!’ I was with my friends. As a group of lads, we’re all expected to go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s funny.'

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“He drives off and to him, he’s had a bit of lad banter and we’re all meant to be like, ‘Oh, that was cool.' But really? That stuff hurts. For the next month I didn’t want to go out. I was like, are people going to recognise me from being in Diversity, but think, ‘Oh, he’s too big?’

“It genuinely really affected me.”

Since then, Banjo has been back in training with Diversity and has turned his attention to his diet, too, which he often talks about while presenting BBC show Eat Well For Less.

Earlier this year, he posted before and after photos of his weight loss on Instagram and wrote: "Still shocks me when I see this. Way less dancing, no diet structure and a lack of motivation had me how I was in the first pic."