GAVIN & Stacey star Ruth Jones has lifted the lid on her dramatic weight loss and revealed the snack she ditched from her diet to slim down.

Ruth, who plays Nessa Jenkins in the hit BBC comedy, previously dropped an incredible 4st after embarking on a diet.

Gavin & Stacey’s Ruth Jones has spoken about her previous weight loss Credit: PA

Ruth dropped a staggering four stone in 2011 Credit: Getty

The actress reprises her role as Nessa Jenkins next week Credit: PA
The Welsh actress, who co-wrote Gavin & Stacey with James Corden, shrunk down to a size 12 in 2011 and says she did it the “old fashioned way”.

Ruth, 58, also told the Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware podcast that she cut out one major snack to help the pounds fall off.

Speaking ahead of the hugely anticipated Gavin & Stacey Christmas special next week, Ruth revealed she was hypnotised into disliking the taste of chocolate.

Ruth told the podcast she had “aversion therapy” with the now late hypnotist Paul McKenna and began comparing choc to mushy peas.

She said: “I have… I hate the word ‘struggled’ with my weight, but I have been in a battle with my weight all of my life. As long as I can remember. I can’t ever remember being slim.

“One of my attempts to lose weight was to go to a Paul McKenna workshop. Hypnosis.

“He said, ‘What’s your aim?’ And I said, ‘Look, if I could stop eating chocolate, I’d be fine’. Chocolate was my main thing.

“So he said in the workshop, ‘I’m going to show you all a technique. If you want to stop eating it, this is going to stop it for good’.”

Ruth went on to explain that Paul had told her to think of something she “hates” eating, so she picked mushy peas.
Gavin and Stacey teaser trailer for the 2024 final episode
“I was a little bit cynical,” Ruth admitted. “You think of something you hate eating, then think of the chocolate. And keep alternating.

“I remembered when they were on the menu in school dinners. Urgh.

“Anyway, it worked. It completely worked. I didn’t eat chocolate for five years. I couldn’t stand the smell of it.”

Gavin and Stacey’s Best Moments

With the news that the show is set to make an exciting return to screens, let’s take a look at some of the comedy programme’s biggest and best moments…

Smithy and Rudi’s American Boy rap – No one will ever forget when James Corden and Sheridan Smith rapped perfectly word for word the Kanye West and Estelle hit American Boy as they walked across the car park on the phone to Gavin.
Pam’s Vegetarian faux pas – Despite loving a cheesburger, Pam found herself caught up in a web of unexpected lies when she claimed to be Vegetarian. She is forced to keep up the secret throughout the entire show and uses hubby Mick to help her scoff meat. She is later rumbled when Stacey catches her in the act as she scoffs ham in the kitchen. Stacey says to her: “Is that ham, Pam!?… “I’ve seen you, Pam. A scotch egg here, a bit of bacon there, putting those regular sausages into the Linda McCartney box”.
THAT fishing trip – It remains one of the biggest mysteries in Gavin and Stacey history as to just exactly what did happen on the ill-fated fishing trip. Bryn appears to be hiding a secret as to an occurance between him and his nephew Jason which has left relations fractures. Ness’ on-off boyfriend, Dave, is the only other person to know the whole truth. Bryn did appear to allude to him and Jason lying together naked to keep warm as he said to Dave: “We’re going to have this out, once and for all, man to man, you may know what happened, David, but you don’t know why it happened! It was freezing cold, it was! And when you are that cold…”
Islands in the Stream – No one can ever forget the classic Karaoke performance of Islands in the Stream. Nessa and Bryn performed the track in front of all their nearest and dearest. It saw the whole pub burst into some line-dancing as they enjoyed a boozy night out.
The Xmas special proposal – In 2019, fans were left overjoyed when the show made a comeback but it ended on the ultimate cliffhanger. Nessa asked Smithy if she would marry him as she finally laid bare her feelings for him. Fans were gutted as the show then cut straight to the credits as they never found out just how Smithy answered. Will all be revealed in the brand new episode?

Ruth appeared on the podcast with her Gavin & Stacey co-creator and co-star James.

She revealed they would stay in hotels together to write the sitcom and that any complimentary chocolates would be handed straight to James.

However, it all changed when Ruth made one fatal mistake and deliberately dropped off Paul’s mailing list.

“I thought, ‘I’m sorted. I don’t need all these emails’. So I unsubscribed,” Ruth said.

“I swear to God, the next day we were writing, there were chocolates on the bed, I picked them up…”

James interrupted and revealed he emerged from the bathroom and found Ruth scoffing the chocs.

Ruth says she still eats chocolate to this day as a result.

Next week, Gavin & Stacey: The Finale will air on Christmas Day.

The festive special is the last ever episode of the BBC comedy and is tipped to be the most watched programme of the entire Christmas period.

The last Christmas special, which aired in 2019, was watched by a staggering 18.49 million people.

Next week’s final instalment is also expect to draw in similar numbers, if not more.

Ruth credits the late Paul McKenna for helping her to cut out chocolate Credit: Getty – Contributor

Gavin & Stacey returns for one final time on Christmas Day Credit: PA

Ruth told the Table Manners podcast she began eating chocolate again after unsubscribing from McKenna’s newsletters Credit: Getty