Steps singer Claire Richards has claimed she was forced to lose weight while in the band at the height of their fame. 

In an interview with Good Morning Britain on Thursday, Claire, 46, said she feels she has ‘earned her stripes now’ and would ‘tell people where to go’ if someone told her to change her size. 

Claire, who released her solo album Euphoria last week, revealed she was made very aware that her voice wouldn’t be enough to guarantee her success and that she needed to ‘lose weight’ to also look the part. 

Speaking to hosts Charlotte Hawkins and Rob Rinder on the ITV show, Claire opened up about being a young women in the industry and how she was ‘told to lose weight’ despite being a size 10. 

She said: ‘I hope it isn’t still a problem in the industry and I hope if someone told me that now I would tell them where to go. 

Opening up: Steps singer Claire Richards, 46, has claimed she was forced to lose weight while in the band and said on GMB on Thursday: 'If I was told that now I would tell them where to go'

Opening up: Steps singer Claire Richards, 46, has claimed she was forced to lose weight while in the band and said on GMB on Thursday: ‘If I was told that now I would tell them where to go’

Weight loss: The Steps singer, 46, revealed she was made very aware that her voice wouldn't be enough to guarantee her success and that she needed to 'lose weight' to look the part (pictured in 2008)

Weight loss: The Steps singer, 46, revealed she was made very aware that her voice wouldn’t be enough to guarantee her success and that she needed to ‘lose weight’ to look the part (pictured in 2008)

‘Back then there was a thing for female pop stars to look a certain way and there was a prototype everyone had to conform to. 

‘I wanted to be in a band so much that I did anything I had to do to get into the group. 

‘It played [on my mind] for a long time but now I feel like I’m now in my 40’s and I feel like I’ve earnt my stripes and I feel much stronger now for going through all that.’

Claire, who auditioned for Steps back in 1997, recently confessed that she agreed to lose half a stone for the opportunity to be in the band.

Yet the weightloss spiralled and she reached the point where she got far too thin.

Speaking to The Sun on Wednesday, she confessed: ‘I wasn’t fat or big — I was a size ten or 12 — but I got skinny for the band.

‘The older I get and the more I think about it, of course it affected me because it just sent me on a spiral for years.’

Discussing the change in popular body styles over the years, Claire believes her figure back then would actually have been on trend nowadays, due to the curvy style made popular by the Kardashians.

Stronger: Now the popstar feels like she has 'earned her stripes' in the industry and admitted that she 'would tell someone where to go' if they criticised her weight

Stronger: Now the popstar feels like she has ‘earned her stripes’ in the industry and admitted that she ‘would tell someone where to go’ if they criticised her weight

Claire opened up about how she was 'told to lose weight' despite being a size 10, she said: 'I hope it isn't still a problem and if someone told me that now I would tell them where to go'

Claire opened up about how she was ‘told to lose weight’ despite being a size 10, she said: ‘I hope it isn’t still a problem and if someone told me that now I would tell them where to go’

She said: 'I wanted to be in a band so much that I did anything I had to do to get into the group. It played me for a long time but now I feel like I've earnt my stripes and I feel much stronger now for going through all that'

She said: ‘I wanted to be in a band so much that I did anything I had to do to get into the group. It played me for a long time but now I feel like I’ve earnt my stripes and I feel much stronger now for going through all that’

She recalled: ‘I was really small on the top, with little boobs, but I had a bum and thighs, which is a figure that people pay money for now.’

Yet back in the 2000s everyone had no hips and no boobs, and Claire was pressured into losing weight.

Today, the star believes she would be treated very differently and people wouldn’t talk to her in the same way.

Steps gained chart topping success with their hits 5, 6, 7, 8 and Tragedy, and the group, including Lee Latchford-Evans, 48, Lisa Scott-Lee, 47, Faye Tozer, 47, and Ian ‘H’ Watkins, 47, are still going strong, scoring four UK No1 albums in their 25-year career.

Claire’s weight has fluctuated over the years after she went up to a size 20 and weighing 16 and a half stone in 2001 after the group split.

It led to the release of her 2008 fitness DVD, 5 Step Fat Attack, which saw her lose five stone and drop five dress sizes.

Claire is continuing to pursue her music career with her solo record, and says she feels incredibly confident now in herself.

But this isn’t the first time the star has opened up about her body struggles, after she opened up in July about her heartbreaking battle with anorexia following cruel comments from record bosses in the Nineties.

Speaking to Vicky Pattison on her The Secret To podcast, she spoke about how she developed an eating disorder when she was put on a 900-calorie a day diet comprising of fish fingers and peas.

The gang: Claire's joined Steps in 1997 when the band was formed alongside Lisa Scott-Lee, Lee Latchford-Evans, Faye Tozer and Ian H Watkins (clockwise from top left)

The gang: Claire’s joined Steps in 1997 when the band was formed alongside Lisa Scott-Lee, Lee Latchford-Evans, Faye Tozer and Ian H Watkins (clockwise from top left)

Hitmakers: Steps gained chart topping success with their hits 5, 6, 7, 8 and Tragedy and recently performed at Brighton Pride (pictured in 2022)

Hitmakers: Steps gained chart topping success with their hits 5, 6, 7, 8 and Tragedy and recently performed at Brighton Pride (pictured in 2022)

The Nineties gave birth to the ‘Heroin Chic’ look, pioneered by Kate Moss, in which dauntingly thin silhouettes were desired among the stars – something Claire revealed was enforced by her record label when she was being told to lose pounds.

Having started her struggles in The Scan-Dolls, Claire first band, she revealed: ‘It happened when I was in TSD. They did it to all of us because we were all quite curvy girls. I was probably a [size] 10 or a 12 and wasn’t big at all […]

‘But in the music kind of world and at that time that whole Kate Moss, heroine-chic, was a thing and they wanted everyone to be really, really skinny…

‘So, we were all put on a diet. That diet was interesting because we were encouraged to eat fish fingers, peas and baked beans and have like a 900-calorie diet.’ 

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Post source: Daily mail