Magda Szubanski has lost her million dollar contract with Jenny Craig.
The 53-year-old comedian will no longer be an ambassador for the weight loss company, Christine Sams reports for the Daily Telegraph.
A spokeswoman for Jenny Craig confirmed the news in a statement released to Mamamia.
“Jenny Craig and Magda Szubanski can confirm that their working relationship will not be continuing,” the spokesperson said.
“Magda will pursue her weight loss journey privately.”
The Kath and Kim actress dropped 35kg as an ambassador for the company between 2009 and 2011.
She famously walked away from her 2010 contract, when her goal was to lose 40 kilos but she put 12kg back on.
Speaking on 2DayFM’s Jules, Merrick & Sophie with Mel B breakfast show in March this year, she blamed a broken rib and “calorie amnesia” for her weight gain.
“You know, you’re busy, you’ve got long hours and it just creeps up, and then when you put the weight on, of course you don’t want to get off the couch and you don’t want to exercise,” she said.
“It just gains momentum, your portions get a bit bigger again and you start to forget — “calorie amnesia” as they call it.”
Szubanski signed onto a new weight loss campaign for Jenny Craig in March this year, a decision that a Jenny Craig spokesperson said the company did not regret.
“Absolutely not,” the spokesperson said in an email to Mamamia. “Magda is a person that has been a positive ambassador for the brand and she is a much-loved Australian icon.”
The spokesperson did not respond to Mamamia’s query about whether the decision was linked to Szubanski’s weight gain, and would not confirm when the deicison took place. “Details of the contact remain confidential,” she said.
One of Szubanski’s Jenny Craig ads from 2010: Szubanski speaks about her “calorie amnesia” in this clip from the 2Day show below:
Top Comments
I don't care what anyone says or what their particular excuses or justifications might be. It's pure physics, which you just can't argue with. Given: not everyone burns the same amount of calories, and not everyone can eat the same amount as anyone else without gaining weight. BUT - every single person (and animal and bird) has a personal 'break even' point where energy (food) in = energy (activity) out, such that weight is neither lost nor gained. Find that point. To lose weight, eat a range of healthy foods below that break even point, and/or exercise above it. If you're too ill to exercise, then your break even point will be at a much lower level because you are sedentary. If you are very active or work as a labourer, it will be higher than average. That's it. All the rest of the diet crap is just that - crap.
A factor that I would like to add to weight gain/difficulty losing weight is some medications. For instance, some mood stabilisers and anti-depressants cause weight gain so then you feel depressed about the weight, too depressed to exercise or eat well but needing to take the medication. One stabiliser made me gain 5kg in 2 weeks! I was in hospital at the time so was eating the same food as I was prior to the medication. I'm now on a stabiliser that does not effect appetite or my metabolism thank goodness. My body though is completely wrecked from being anorexic, bulimic, binge eating, yo yo dieting and medication. I'm 40 now and have battled with these issues since I was 14 - it's a sad experience to have such an unhealthy relationship with food, particularly over such a long period of time.