Laura Hamilton’s curves are real. So are her insecurities, but we will get to that. It’s a simple fact that you rarely get to be a TV presenter, particularly on a glossy, aspirational sort of show, unless you look a certain way. And she does.
She is blonde and beautiful, and slips into a size ten bikini on our photoshoot with ease.
She isn’t a supermodel, though, and that sort of icy perfection might actually alienate her daytime viewers.
Since 2012, Laura has presented A Place In The Sun, the programme that helps wannabe expats find homes abroad. She and her (eternally summer) wardrobe are always jetting off to film in sun-baked destinations. And, until recently, she never thought much about the fact her packing would include a few bikinis.
‘I’m in summer dresses for a lot of the time, but sometimes in the revisit show – where we go back to catch up with the house hunters about what life is like – I’m in swimwear. All the presenters have to be – it’s part of our job!’
It’s also an extension of her job, she says, to keep her social media accounts up to date. She posts about property matters and DIY, but is also an avid traveller.
So her Instagram feed (she has 238,000 followers) is likely to include snaps of her, and sometimes her children, Rocco, 12, and Tahlia, ten, relaxing by a pool.
And guess what? She might be wearing a bikini in those ones, too.
Laura has received comments on social media telling her she is ‘too old to wear a bikini’
Laura reveals some of the comments have got to her, saying: ‘People home in on what they can criticise – like my legs. Honestly. It made me stop and think. It’s very hard to read comments like that. I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect me’
Who knew this could be so controversial? For recently, Laura has been stunned to be trolled – supposedly by her own fans – who have suggested she might want to cover up. At – ahem! – ‘her age’.
For the record, she is 43.
‘I recently read a comment saying I was too old to wear a bikini,’ she says, clearly hurt, but also angry. ‘I’ve had other similar ones. I remember one person saying, “Shouldn’t women of your age be covering up?” or “Dress your age!”
‘People home in on what they can criticise – like my legs. Honestly. It made me stop and think. It’s very hard to read comments like that. I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect me. I’ve had two kids and I’m very proud of what my body has done, but when you read that sort of thing…’
It’s actually rather sad to hear her express nervousness about our photoshoot today. It was her decision to don a bikini for it – to put two fingers up at her critics – but there’s still an air of anxiety.
‘I do have hang-ups about my body, like most women do,’ she says. She is fast-forwarding, imagining what sort of negative comments she needs to brace for when our shoot is published. Her legs (which are toned and shapely; the sort of legs most women would die to have) get the brunt of it.
‘I have quite short legs. I mean, they are strong, but they are quite muscular, and I’m only 5ft 3in,’ she says. ‘In the past when, say, I’ve posted pictures from my gym, people will say, “Oh well, whatever she’s tried to do [fitness wise] she’s still got stumpy legs.” You really can’t win.’
Her legs were never quite good enough, she recalls. When she was 16, she remembers someone questioning what she was doing wearing a miniskirt ‘with legs like that’.
‘I do have hang-ups about my body, like most women do,’ Laura says. She says she is now imagining what sort of negative comments she needs to brace for when our shoot is published
Facing the camera with defiance, Laura says: ‘I guess this is about saying, sod what anyone else thinks or expects. If you want to wear a bikini and it makes you feel good, then do it’
Never mind that they had been toned through years of doing ballet. And ever since then she has been ‘paranoid about them – these things stay with you’.
When you are in the public eye, there’s a particularly brutal focus on your body. Laura remembers being on the show Dancing On Ice in 2011. She did brilliantly, finishing second. Yet she came away with her body image diminished – thanks to a throwaway comment from judge Jason Gardiner.
‘He said something to me live on air, in front of millions of people. He made reference to my “tree trunk” legs. You can’t unhear these things.’
The point of today’s photoshoot, she tells me, is to push back.
‘There are so many incredible women that I see who are my age –and older – and are absolutely rocking it,’ she says. ‘Look at Davina McCall – she looks incredible. Amanda Holden – so good. I just love looking at them, and think, “Get you! Keep doing what you’re doing!”’
Facing the camera with defiance, she says: ‘I guess this is about saying, sod what anyone else thinks or expects. If you want to wear a bikini and it makes you feel good, then do it.’
Who’d be a woman on television these days?
Laura chats away about her relationship with her body, and it sounds very normal – a little love/hate, but no more so than the average woman’s.
Laura’s first job was as a runner for Dermot O’Leary on Channel 4 and she steadily climbed the ladder to move in front of the camera. In 2006 she became the female face of the children’s channel Nickelodeon
She knows that she shouldn’t fixate on actual weight, but still knows the figures off by heart. She tells me she tends to weigh ‘somewhere between 8st 10lb and 9st 3lb’. Like most, she ‘fluctuates a bit’.
During her first pregnancy, she put on almost 5st, then she lost the lot – and more besides – when she did a keto diet, which is high in fat, low in carbs. ‘I would say that was the most obsessed I have ever been with being slim. I went down to 7st 12lb. I was worryingly skinny.’
She says she didn’t approach the level of having an eating disorder – but, regardless, did she feel pressured to be thin?
‘I did it because I wanted to feel good, and I did. I had a lot of energy. The trouble was it was reported as this massive weight loss, but, actually, I’d been pregnant before it so it wasn’t as dramatic as it seemed.’
In recent years she has ‘settled’ at a more sustainable weight.
‘But I do think I have a healthy attitude,’ she says. ‘I mean, I put a little weight on over the summer because I was indulging more, eating more sugar, drinking alcohol.
‘I will cut those out if I want to feel better.’
After the birth of her second child, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called immune thrombocytopenic purpura, where the immune system mistakenly attacks blood cells (it makes her more prone to bruising) and her mum questioned whether her extreme dieting had brought it on.
‘She said, “You’ve got this because you lost loads of weight” – but it wasn’t because of that. In fact, my mum has an autoimmune condition too – rheumatoid arthritis.’
Laura was 18 when she started out in the TV industry. Her first job was as a runner for Dermot O’Leary on Channel 4 and she steadily climbed the ladder to move in front of the camera. In 2006 she became the female face of the children’s channel Nickelodeon.
It’s interesting that her mainstream TV career has developed alongside motherhood. Rocco was a baby when she took part in reality show The Jump, which introduced her to an adult audience.
She had two young children by the time she was travelling the world for A Place In The Sun.
‘I went back to work after three weeks when I had both of them,’ she points out. ‘Partly because I wanted to prove a point – that I could be a mum as well as have a career. But also partly because I knew if I didn’t do it, there would be plenty who would want my job.’
She was lucky, she says, that her employers were understanding. Still, there were some raised eyebrows. ‘I got criticism – even from some people within my family. I got comments about kids needing stability, and, “Do they even know where home is?” ’
She hit back at that. ‘I said, “Uh-uh. I am their home. I am the anchor.” ’
She won’t talk about the split from her children’s father Alex Goward, which was announced in January 2022, but says there are no regrets about the way she has chosen to parent, ‘although I do think every parent is winging it, to a degree’.
Now, she and Alex, an insurance broker, have a system that works.
‘He has them for a week, then I do. It just works.’
She tries to confine her big filming abroad jobs to the weeks where their dad has the children.
She says being a mum, and watching her children approach puberty, has made her particularly conscious about the impact that negative comments – about her weight or body shape, in particular – have had on her.
‘It’s why I would never ever say anything negative about my children’s physicality.
‘My daughter is at the age where she is asking about periods and when she will need a bra. She said the other day, “I’m scared about growing up . . .” I don’t want any negative focus on her body.’
Her son, Rocco, she reveals, is ‘fiercely protective of me’ and frequently goes through her social media accounts, deleting anything he feels is offensive or inappropriate.
‘If he saw someone saying something about my legs, he’ll say “They are an idiot” and delete it.’
Even fans who are complimentary can get blocked by Rocco. Laura won’t say whether she is single or in a relationship now, but does confess that men who try to approach her online aren’t going to get far with Rocco in charge of her phone.
‘If someone asks me out on a date on my social media, Rocco will say “Do one!” or “Who do they think they are?” He won’t reply on there, but he will just delete.’
She finds it sweet – as well as being reassuring, because her children know where the boundary is between real life and social media existence.
Which brings us on to another aspect of social media that terrifies her: the fact that there are many versions of Laura Hamilton living her best life online – but nearly all are entirely fake.
