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She told TV Biz: "When I was that big nobody would have worked with me.

"I'd go to meetings and never hear from people again because you are not like they remember you.

"They'd use the phrase, 'She has let herself go'. It was crushing."

Claire was first told she would have to lose weight to join Steps aged 19. After signing up, she constantly compared herself to Lisa Scott-Lee and Faye Tozer. She said: "I had a really small waist but I didn't see that. Faye was much broader on the top, Lisa is smaller with big boobs but all I saw was my bum is huge.

"I didn't really exercise but I never ate. I didn't let on. I'd eat in public to try to make it look like there was no issue."

Her lowest point came on a rare day when she had been feeling confident, when the band launched a range of Steps dolls. She recalled: "There were hundreds of photographers all calling my name. I thought, 'Ooh, this is fun'.

But the next day a lot of the papers said I was pregnant because my stomach was sticking out. I was devastated. It took me a long time to get over it. It's not only hurtful, it's embarrassing."

Claire added: "I've come to realise you can be a size 10 and weigh 11 stone if you exercise. But in the fashion world they're obsessed with the weight."

In the programme, two magazine staff are overheard criticising her shape AFTER she has slimmed to size ten. One says: "Oh f***, has she got any knee definition?" The other replies: "Not much. Her top half is fine but her legs... no one's going to believe she's a size ten." And a photographer greets her with: "Let's hope we're not in heifer land today."

In Slave To Food, it is obvious that she thrives when around her family Charlie, four, Daisy, one, and husband Reece Hill. Reece grumbles about missing their romantic nights in restaurants, telling the camera: "I've always thought I just fell in love with the person, not the girl from Steps. Size 14 or size 10, she looks fantastic."