Right, this is going to be one of those stories where the tabloids got it completely wrong. Again. The Dawn French weight loss thing has been chewed over so many times that people forget what actually happened and why she told everyone to kindly mind their own business.
I’m not going to pretend I didn’t notice when the photos started appearing back around 2014. Of course, I noticed. Everyone did. She looked different, smaller, and the internet went absolutely mental about it. What most people missed was the bit where she had a cancer scare and needed surgery. Not quite the inspirational weight loss journey everyone wanted to plaster across magazine covers, is it?
What Actually Happened Before the Surgery
In 2011, Dawn faced a potential uterine cancer diagnosis and needed a hysterectomy. Her doctor gave her a choice that was pretty stark when you think about it. Losing some weight before the operation, and she could have keyhole surgery with about three weeks’ recovery. Keep the weight on, and it will be a major open surgery requiring three months to heal.
So how did Dawn French lose weight in the end? She did it the old-fashioned, utterly miserable way. She described it as “tiny, joyless, low-cal eating and lots more walking for weeks and weeks. It was grim.” Not exactly the miracle transformation people were hoping for.
She dropped seven and a half stone. That’s roughly 105 pounds if you’re thinking in those terms. She went from about 19 stone down to 11.5 stone, which is massive for someone who’s only about five feet tall.
And yeah, for those asking about Dawn French weight and height, she’s around five feet or 1.52 metres. At that height, carrying extra weight affects everything from your knees to your back. Every stone matters more when you’re that height.
The Bit That Made Her Furious
Here’s where it gets properly irritating. After she lost the weight, articles started popping up everywhere. Miraculous weight loss. Inspirational journey. She looks so much better now. All that rubbish.
Dawn had a two-word response ready for anyone who complimented her, and I can’t print it here, but it rhymes with “duck off.” In an interview with The Times, she said, “I have never rejected the bigger woman I have been. Lots of people do it and say, ‘Oh, you look so much better, now you look well.’ And I think, ‘F*** off! Don’t judge that other person who I loved.'”
That’s the thing nobody wants to talk about. When you tell someone they look great after losing weight, you’re basically saying they looked awful before. She caught that. Of course she did.
When The Fake Stories Started Flying Around
A couple of years later, things became even more bonkers. Someone began to circulate stories that Dawn had lost six stone in just four months without doing any exercise. Total nonsense. A fan pointed it out to her on Twitter, and she responded with a single word: “Bollocks.”
Listen, I’ve seen those dodgy ads myself. Dawn’s face next to some miracle pill or diet tea, claiming she dropped the weight overnight. Meanwhile, she’s been crystal clear that it was low-calorie eating and walking. Nothing sexy. Nothing you can bottle and sell. Just grim, practical weight loss because a doctor told her it would make surgery safer.
There have been claims about gastric bands, keto pills, and all sorts of rubbish using her name. All fake. All absolute tosh designed to flog products to desperate people.
What Happened After Everyone Stopped Looking
Yeah, so this is the brilliant bit. By 2020, Dawn admitted she’d gained weight again and was “back to being an entire barrel.” Then she said something that probably made half the tabloids choke: “I’m going to be 63 this year, I don’t give a f***, I really don’t, so long as I can walk.” That’s it. That’s the whole story.
She is now 68 and living in Cornwall with her husband, Mark Bignell, and she’s not stewing days away by fretting over dress sizes. She created a new BBC sit-com, Can You Keep a Secret? Just the other day, she was still podcasting Titting About with best friend Jennifer Saunders, and she appears to be living life exactly as she wants.
When she first lost the weight, she told The Mirror, “I’ve never disliked myself, and my weight has had nothing to do with my self-esteem. I still refuse to dislike my old body.”
The Part Nobody Wants to Hear
We’re all desperate for weight loss stories to have neat endings. A woman drops weight, becomes confident, and transforms her life. Except Dawn was confident before she lost it. She’s confident now it’s come back. The weight never had anything to do with how she felt about herself.
She lost it because a doctor said it would make surgery safer and recovery quicker. That’s the whole thing. Not inspiring in the way magazines want. Not motivational. Just practical.
And when people started treating her differently afterwards, complimenting her like she’d achieved something remarkable, she found it sad. Because what they were really saying was that she looked better thinner. Which means she looked worse before. She caught that immediately.
She’s talked about how her friend Alison Moyet, the brilliant singer, gets reduced to descriptions of her body all the time. “She’s this giant talent, why reduce her to that?”
Where Things Stand Now
At 68, Dawn’s just launched that new sitcom I mentioned earlier. It’s about insurance fraud and family secrets, which sounds properly mad and absolutely perfect for her. The series was added to BBC iPlayer in January 2025.
She still does the podcast with Jennifer Saunders, on which they mostly giggle at getting old and moan about various bits not working like they used to. It’s real, and no one’s pretending anything, and that’s what I think most love about it.
Her weight fluctuates. Of course it does. That’s what bodies do, especially after you’ve had surgery and you’re pushing 70. She walks when she fancies it. She eats what she wants. She’s not interested in being anyone’s before-and-after photo.
So if you came here looking for how Dawn French lost weight with some magic formula, sorry to disappoint. There isn’t one. There’s just a woman who made a medical decision over a decade ago, got thoroughly fed up with everyone making it about appearance, and went back to living her life exactly how she pleased.
Which is honestly more inspiring than any diet plan could ever be.
