Ken Barlow’s love interest Helen Lederer, 69, says she lived off slimming pills for years and wine in a desperate bid to be thin: ‘It was truly like I was living the Ab Fab life’

Ken Barlow’s new love interest Helen Lederer has revealed how drastically she has committed herself to being thin.

The Absolutely Fabulous actress, 69, who will appear in Coronation Street next week as Ken’s date Elspeth, admitted she had been taking slimming pills for years and living on a diet of 400 calories a day and wine.

Watching her weight yo-yo from a size 10 to a size 16 throughout her career, Helen said: ‘It really was like living the Ab Fab life: I’m the muggins doing it for real.’ .

“I was no stranger to trying anything when I needed to lose weight, I didn’t care how I did it,” the actress said in a new interview with The sun.

‘For years I had phases in which I had to increase and decrease weight loss pills. When they worked, I thought they were great, but it wouldn’t take long for your heart to start racing.

‘I remember doing a comedy series in Scotland and I don’t think I ever ate anything while I was taking it, I just drank a lot of wine. Now I look back and think, “How?” But then people just did this and got on with it.

Helen said she started taking slimming pills because she has never had a ‘model figure’ and always wanted to have the perfect body.

The actress said that when she was at her thinnest, she was “fed up” and miserable and quickly put back the weight she had lost.

Helen said the weight-loss jabs Ozempic and Wegovy ‘sounded like a dream come true’ and that she would have taken them if they had been offered to her when she was younger.

The drugs have become so widespread in Hollywood that the makers of the weight-loss drugs have launched a campaign calling on influential people to stop using them for “vanity reasons,” which has led to shortages among those who really need them.

Now Helen has embraced her figure and said of all the ‘crazy efforts’ she has put in: ‘you just have to forget about it and move on’.

Helen takes to the cobbles next week where she will take part in Ken’s dating storyline.

Known as once the greatest lothario (Bill Roache) and desperate to prove he can still conquer the ladies at the age of 91, Ken takes up speed dating.

After being single for almost a decade following the death of his beloved wife Deirdre in 2015, he catches the eye of fellow dater Elspeth (played by Helen).

Ken attends the speed dating event with ex-son-in-law Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) and leaves the taxi company owner devastated when, despite his advanced age, he manages to outdo him in the romance department.

Speaking about the role, Helen, who will be released on Wednesday, March 27, described her character as ‘progressive and sassy’.

She also admitted that one of the biggest benefits of playing the role was the opportunity to act opposite Bill, who has appeared on the soap since the first episode in 1960.

Saying: ‘I had met him once before when I was sitting next to him at an event and I thought what a lovely man he was and so handsome. So it was a joy for me to be offered this short role.”

And despite only appearing briefly, Helen teased that Ken had taken Elspeth’s number during their scenes and that she could very well return to the soap if he called.

As well as playing Catriona in Ab Fab, the actress has also appeared in Hollyoaks, Celebrity Big Brother and Agatha Christie’s Marple.