Girls bullied me at my private school for being fat, says Radio 1's new chart star
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The words across her school locker were usually scrawled in make-up and always ugly.
A bookish, shy schoolgirl, Jameela Jamil grew used to being called fat and unattractive.
But last week, the 26-year-old, a former pupil at £15,000-a-year Queen’s College School in London’s Harley Street, had the last laugh when she landed the coolest job in British broadcasting – presenting Radio 1’s Chart Show.
Radio 1's iconic Official Chart show host from 1979 to 1982 Tony Blackburn, pictured left, and new face Jameela Jamil, pictured right
Jameela, pictured, faced a long struggle with her body image after she was subjected to years of abuse as a schoolgirl
With her kohl-lined eyes, sleek black hair and pouting blood red lips, it’s hard to imagine that Jameela could ever have been seen as anything but a beauty. But the years of psychological abuse at school, compounded by a horrific car accident when she was 17, meant that Jameela faced a long struggle with her body image.
‘I look back at my old school journals and they’re full of self-hatred, full of me condemning myself for not being prettier, richer, more popular,’ she reveals in a frank column for Company magazine.
‘School was horrific for me, constantly an outcast for being a geek. I’ve been every kind of bullied – emotional, physical, racial. I’ve had my body battered and I’ve been called a ‘‘fat P***’’.
‘I’ve been the only girl in my whole year at school not invited to birthday parties. Why? Because I hadn’t kissed anyone, because I wouldn’t try coke in the toilets, because I dared to admit my mum Shireen was my best friend, or that I quite liked studying and my favourite music was jazz.’
Jameela, pictured aged 10 years old, continued to suffer after a car accident in her teens
Jameela’s nightmare continued when she broke several bones and damaged her spine in a car accident. She was confined to bed for two years and warned she might never walk again.
‘I was on steroids to help my recovery, and I gained five-and-a-half stone. The steroids made me so hungry that I was eating a loaf of bread with every meal. The weight gain completely changed the way I felt about my body, and I became very negative – I started trying to cover myself up all the time to draw as little attention to myself as possible.’
With physiotherapy, Jameela, who was brought up in Hampstead, North London, slowly recovered and began to lose weight.
‘I used to wear these big shapeless clothes and ended up just looking like a potato in a sack. I’ve learnt now to accentuate the bits that I’m happiest with. That’s probably my waist – a lot of my clothes go in at the waist and emphasise my hips, which I’m very proud of,’ she says.
‘I’ve got quite an old-fashioned figure. Back in the Sixties, girls had boobs, a tummy and wide hips, and bigger thighs as well. I think that’s sexy – to me, that’s what a woman looks like. I’ve got love handles – sometimes they’re passion handles! I’m built for comfort, not for speed, and I like that about myself.
‘I feel very strongly that if you’re curvy or slender, own it. Celebrate your body for what it is.’
Unable to sit her A-levels, Jameela worked in a video shop and then taught at a language school in London’s Oxford Street before becoming a model scout for top agency Premier Models.
She later auditioned successfully for Channel 4’s teenage show T4. She now also has a fashion line and her monthly column in Company magazine.
Jameela gained five-and-a-half stone after taking steroids to help her recover from the car crash, posed by models
She follows a series of famous names to present The Chart Show. Launched by Alan Freeman on October 1, 1967, it was originally called Pick Of The Pops. Since then DJs such as Simon Bates, Tony Blackburn and Vernon Kay have presented it. Jameela is the first female to do so solo.
Company editor Victoria White says: ‘It was a really big deal for her because it was such a prestigious job and meant she’d achieved something in her career. She certainly isn’t interested in the fame. She’s a surprisingly private person’.
The Official Chart Show is on Radio 1 on Sundays, 4pm-7pm.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2265203/Girls-bullied-private-school-fat-says-Radio-1s-new-chart-star.html#ixzz2IWgEfakv
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