Gemma Collins was left devastated after trolls secretly filmed her at the gym and posted the footage online with vile comments.
The 39-year-old reality TV star revealed she no longer works out at a gym because she was so traumatised when she discovered she had been covertly recorded and the footage posted with the caption "look at this fat pig".
Speaking on ‘The Gemma Collins Podcast’ for BBC, she explained: "I often go for walks but the newest thing I’ve done – and fallen in absolute love with it – is bike riding.
"I bought myself a bike in isolation and a helmet and I love it. It’s built my confidence up because not everyone is confident to exercise.
"I’ve been in gyms before and people have recorded me on their mobile phones and uploaded it on Facebook and said ‘look at this fat pig’ which has been really traumatic for me to see."
Gemma also revealed that when she first found fame on ‘The Only Way Is Essex’, she was encouraged to lose weight and was packed off to bootcamps.
She said: "When I first became known in public I was sent off to bootcamps. I was thrown into all this madness of weight loss and weight gain and I was made to feel ashamed of my body.
"It’s something we couldn’t speak about back then but I’m telling the truth. It’s something that now probably wouldn’t be allowed to happen.
"I can remember I lost three and a half stone weight loss. It was painful, it was excruciating, it was hell. I had to exercise eight hours a day. It was very tiring, very exhausting. I came away seeing exercise as punishment.
"There was something in my brain when it came to exercising – my stomach would churn, my heart would go and beat funny. I’d be like: ‘I just don’t want to do this’.
"I’d get a mental block. I do like exercising. It makes you feel good and gets the endorphins going. So I decided to do low impact exercise and exercise I enjoy."
However, Gemma – who has lost three stone due to controversial Skinny Jab injections – has finally started to enjoy exercise and has been working out during the Covid-19 lockdown.
She said: "I’ve got super healthy in quarantine, I’ve been going on bike rides. I’ve been riding a bike for an hour a day. I did try Joe Wicks’ one, but on the TV it said to say Pikachu… Pokémon or something, I dunno… Then I realised I was doing the kiddie version. Never went back to it."
Gemma Collins devastated after trolls filmed her at gym and posted footage online
