Comedian Peter Kay reveals reason for dramatic weight loss in rare interview about health battle

The beloved comedian’s shocking transformation has left fans stunned as he opens up about the health scare that forced him to change his life.

Funnyman Peter Kay has opened up about his health battle and weight loss in a rare interview.

The British comedian sat down with BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox and shared more information about his slimmer appearance.

Kay spoke about his ambition to lose weight and get fitter while promoting his latest book.

He said: “Only for the first 48 years of my life. Yeah, I had to eventually, because you start thinking about your health and things like that, don’t you?”

“But I tried everything, flaming weight loss groups. I did quite well at one point.”

Peter Kay performing live on stage in London in 2010. Picture: Jim Dyson/Getty Images

The actor, 52, told one story, featuring his wife, about a time they went to the cinema when he was dieting in 2000.

“But I was sat there, and I thought, well, I fancy hotdog. So I said, ‘Susan, I’m going to toilet,’” he explained.

“So I nipped out, went down, bought a hotdog and I was doing really well on this diet. I had this hotdog and I am shoving it in because I had said that I had gone for a wee and caught a glimpse of myself.

The comedian looks dramatically slimmer in a recent sit-down interview.

“I thought, ‘Look at you, you should be ashamed of yourself’ and I threw the rest of it in the bin. And just as it was about to hit the bin liner I grabbed it and had another bite!

“Anyway, I went back in and ran up and sat back down and said ‘What have I missed?’ She said ‘You have had a hotdog’ and I said ‘I have not’ and she said ‘I can smell it on your breath’. That’s how bad it were, honest to God.”

Kay also recalled trying his mum’s Rosemary Connolly fitness videos, but failing to keep up.

He later signed up to a David Lloyd gym in his hometown of Bolton in Greater Manchester, however this was short lived too – because of “men just talking to you naked.”

Monday nights also used to be taken up by an aerobic class, but the actor quickly swapped this out for “proper old school” training.

Kay also showed off his weight loss last week on BBC series The One Show. Picture: BBC

“Honestly it were awful I used tell him I needed a wee and I’d go and sit in toilet and sob because it were like proper old school,” Kay joked.

Host Sara Cox also asked the comedian about his latest stand-up tour and how proceeds from Better Late Than Never are being donated to 12 cancer charities.

“Unfortunately, everybody knows someone who’s been affected on that list [of 12 charities] and I just hope people support it,” he said last week.

Kay told how one of his pals, a fellow star, is currently going through their own health battle.

Speaking more about his comedy heroes, Kay told Cox: “I have been really lucky because I have met them all. I met Ronnie Barker. I’d always absolutely adored Porridge, used to watch Porridge.

Kay spoke about his ambition to lose weight and get fitter while promoting his latest book. Picture: ShowBizIreland/Getty Images

“Oh. Anyway, I wrote to him, and he wrote back. I mentioned I loved Porridge, and I’d said how much it meant to me.

“One day, this letter came, and it said ‘prison’, and I thought, ‘Who’s written to me from prison?’ And I opened it, and it was Her Majesty’s Prison Slade, and he’d written to me in character as Norman Fletcher …. and he wrote this two-page letter all about being in prison.

“And I met Billy Connolly as well. I still keep in touch with Billy Connolly now and he’s not so good now, but he would still message and that. I think a lot of comedians in this country would not be doing what they did if it weren’t for him. I think so much of it is influenced by him, heavily. Amazing.”

This comes after a TV appearance last week on BBC series The One Show.

The kind-hearted Phoenix Nights star stepped out in a black polo shirt and matching blazer jacket.

Last month, the actor was forced to scrap two gigs due to health issues. Picture: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

The Bolton-born stand up – who recently postponed two shows after having surgery for kidney stones – was on the program alongside Hollywood stars Rebel Wilson and Kiefer Sutherland.

Speaking to The One Show anchors Vernon Kay and Lauren Laverne, he confirmed when his Better Late Than Never Again tour would end.

Peter said: “It’s finishing next year, and I am announcing the last lot of shows, but all the profits are going to cancer charities.”

Peter added: “Unfortunately, everybody knows someone who’s been affected on that list, and I just hope people support it.

“Come to the shows. That’s why I’m here.”