'I love my bikini body thanks to my big boobs'
Monday 08 June 2009
While most celebrities like to be at their slimmest to do a bikini shoot, Chantelle Houghton is actually glad to
be at her heaviest.
The 5ft 7 glamour model says: “I’ve put on weight and probably weigh about 9½st at the moment – it’s the heaviest I’ve ever been, but I would much rather have curves than be stick-thin with my bones showing.”
Extreme weight loss is a subject Chantelle knows about only too well. After she shot to fame in 2006 after winning Celebrity Big Brother, the star married fellow BB contestant Ordinary Boys singer Samuel Preston. But when their marriage fell apart just 10 months later, she suffered from bulimia and almost had a breakdown. She dropped from a size 10/12 to an 8, and weighed about 8st. 
But time, as they say, is a great healer and Chantelle, 25, is now curvy, healthy and feeling happy again.
“When I was skinny, I didn’t have a bum and didn’t feel very feminine. Having curves makes me feel much more womanly,” she says.
In an attempt to recover from her divorce trauma, Chantelle had a boob op in November 2007, taking her from a 32B to a 32E. But she admits that, in some ways, it’s a decision she regrets.
“I wanted a DD cup, but they ended up an E cup and have now grown to a massive F cup,” she says. “On a day-to-day basis I regret having them done as they really get in the way, and I’ve had to have physio for backache.
“I’d love to have them reduced to a D cup, but I’m too squeamish! When I got them done I didn’t realise I’d need more surgery later on to get the implants replaced. In fact, I didn’t really look too much into the whole thing as it was
a reaction to getting divorced. I was at a very low point.”
But there is an upside. When Chantelle goes on one of her frequent holidays – in the last five months she’s been to Dubai, Mexico and Marbella – her boobs “come into their own.” 
“I love my figure in a bikini now and feel a million per cent better in one because of my big boobs,” she says. “I’m a size 16 on top and a size 10 bottom – I feel like a woman. I love wearing bikinis and feel really comfortable in them. I’ve got 30 to 40 of them because I hate being photographed in the same one twice!”
As for her diet, Chantelle – who’s vegetarian – eats healthily. She says: “Breakfast is usually cereal and fruit, and for lunch I’ll have salad or a jacket potato. I’ll snack on a Twister ice cream for a treat. The week before going on holiday, I cut out carbs like bread and pasta, as well as fizzy drinks and chocolate, which all make me bloat. I also cut down on dairy and sugar to help lose a couple of pounds.”
But she does have her vices, including Nando’s, which she “lives and breathes for.” She admits: “I go twice a week for their vegetable pitta breads and chips.”
Chantelle, who is currently single, has also just had her lips filled with Restylane for the second time, at £500 a go.
“I like having big lips,” she says. “But I don’t know how I feel about having more cosmetic surgery. I think about Botox now and then, but I’m only 25, so I’ll see what happens in the future.”
Trying out a softer look for our Closer swimwear shoot was something new for the Essex girl, who wears £900 waist-length hair extensions and can’t go without regular sunbed treatments and manicures.
“I wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without make-up, although a lot of people say I look better without it,” she says. “But maybe it’s something I could get used to.”
Watch this space!
By Vicki Grimshaw
To read the full interview in which Chantelle talks about battling her eating disorder and her love split from footballer Jermaine Defoe, don't miss the brand new issue of Closer magazine - out now!