In an exclusive interview with HELLO!, Rivals star Emily Atack reflects on a life-changing year that has seen her fall in love, become a mother and land "the best job ever".
The actress, who plays the voluptuous, vivacious Sarah Stratton in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's 1980s bonkbuster novel, also says she feels sexier than ever after giving birth to her son Barney in June and is in no hurry to lose her baby weight.
"People keep asking me if I’m going to the gym, but I’m not," says Emily, who appears on screen playing naked tennis. "I'm a mum, I've got rolly bits, and I'm healthy, feeling sexier than ever and playing a bombshell in an amazing series. In my teens, all I wanted was to be a size eight or 10. Our value is always depending on what size we are, and it just shouldn't be that way.
"I've always been terrible at diets and I'm terrible at going to the gym. I forced myself to do it more for my mental health. I’ve realized that you're never going to please everybody, so I wish I could say to my 16-year-old self, to just be healthy and happy, and that you can be sexy and beautiful in so many ways.”
Emily, 34, who rose to fame as a teenager in The Inbetweeners and was runner-up in the 2018 series of I'm A Celebrity .. Get Me Out of Here, says of Barney: "I love him so much. He's got a big, gummy smile and every time he smiles, or I do something silly, and he laughs at me it, I feel like I've won the lottery. There is no feeling like that in the world."
And she tells of her happiness at finding love with nuclear physicist Alistair Garner, 39, who she has known since they were children because his father was married to her aunt.
“He’s such a special person and we work so perfectly together,” she says. “It has all happened very quickly, but I've known him for such a long time that it didn't feel like a new relationship; I feel like we've been together for about 20 years. He's so intelligent. He’s a scientist and works on optimizing the corrosion performance of zirconium alloys nuclear reactor cores.
“So, comparing our days is quite funny. I'm like, ‘What did you do today? How are the nuclear reactors?’ And he’s like, ‘yeah, good, how about you?’ And I say, ‘I tried to fit into some Spanx, and I couldn't.’ So, in that way, we couldn't be more polar opposite, but we are so similar. We have the same sense of humour and find the same things hilarious. I'm glad I’ve ended up with somebody who knows me so well and understands me completely and understands my life and my world.
“I thought I was always going to be that person who was unlucky in love, and I think once that narrative is painted, it's hard to break,” she adds. “I'm a very confident person, but I've had very low self-esteem in the past, forming bad patterns and habits. And then I got to a point where I was just like, maybe that's never going to happen for me. And then it just did.”
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
