Alison Hammond and Janet Street Porter clashed on This Morning today as the pair debated weight loss, honesty and whether calling someone “fat” is ever acceptable.
Alison joined Janet Street Porter, Nick Ferrari and Dermot O’Leary on the panel on Tuesday’s (July 28) show. They discussed a doctor’s suggestion that Britain should speak more openly about weight.
What sparked the Alison Hammond and Janet Street Porter clash?
The mood turned tense quickly when Janet said: “I’m amazed I can even say the ‘fat’ word. I said it a couple of years ago on Loose Women and all hell broke out! It’s a banned word.”
Alison pushed back at once. She said: “It’s just a describing word”, and Janet replied: “It is, but it’s like a poisoned word.”
Dermot then stepped in. He said: “It’s the context”, before Alison added: “And who delivers it.”
Janet widened the debate with a sweeping claim. She said: “The whole area is a minefield.
“I don’t know anyone who tells the truth about how they’re losing weight or why they’ve gained weight. It’s one of our contemporary massive, massive issues that we don’t want to confront.”
That comment hit a nerve. Alison has spoken openly for years about her own weight loss and has said she lost 11 stone.
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Alison Hammond has said she once weighed 30 stone.
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She has described a conversation with her late mother while her mother was in hospital as a turning point.
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Alison has said she went on to lose 11 stone.
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In interviews, she has said she cut out sweets and fatty foods.
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She has also said she trains twice a week with a personal trainer and includes walking, stretching and yoga.
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She later said she added Reformer Pilates and circuit classes to help maintain her weight loss.
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Alison has said weight-loss injections may help some people, but she has not chosen that route for herself.
She challenged Janet directly. Alison asked: “Why do you think people are dishonest about losing weight?”
Janet did not back down. She replied: “I don’t know anyone who tells you the truth.”
Alison pressed the point again. She said: “But how do you know if it’s [not] the truth when they’re telling you?”
‘I get frightened’
During the same discussion, Alison explained what pushed her to make changes. She said her late mother sparked that turning point.
Alison shared: “I’ll never forget when my mum, she was really ill in hospital. She looked at me – she’s never commented on my weight my whole life – she said Alison, ‘Don’t end up like me, try and sort out your weight’.
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Janet Street-Porter said on This Morning that the word “fat” had become a “banned word” in some television discussions.
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She referred to a previous backlash after using the word on Loose Women.
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On the This Morning panel, she argued that public discussion of weight is a “minefield”.
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She also said many people are not fully open about how they lose weight or why they gain weight.
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Her comments prompted pushback from Alison Hammond and a brief intervention from Dermot O’Leary about context.
“I was 30 stone that day. The fact it came from my mum, who was like my core values, that’s the day I changed, from her telling me.
“So if it’s done in love, you can see someone genuinely loves you and wants the best for you, and just wants you to start loving yourself, honestly it meant so much to me.”
Janet later turned to social media and weight-loss injections. She said: “Well exactly. On social media now we’ve got two problems – people who are presenting themselves as healthy who are not doing any exercise, just jabbing.
“And we’ve got the people who can’t put any photographs online without their skin airbrushed – smoothed, ironed – so the difference when you see the person in real life…”
Alison has also addressed weight-loss jabs, telling Good Housekeeping UK: “I think that, for people who need to use them, they’re a good thing – but for me, as soon as I hear any scare story, I get frightened.”
She has said she cut out sweets and fatty foods, trains twice a week with a personal trainer and adds walking, stretching and yoga.
More recently, she revealed that she had taken up Reformer Pilates and circuit classes to help maintain her weight loss.