NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Entertainment

Calum Henderson: Has this fat shaming TV personality gone too far?

Calum Henderson
By Calum Henderson
Entertainment reporter, NZ Herald·Herald online·
27 Oct, 2015 01:15 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

TV personality and columnist Katie Hopkins stuffs herself to gain 20kg in part one of Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story.

TV personality and columnist Katie Hopkins stuffs herself to gain 20kg in part one of Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story.

Calum Henderson
Opinion by Calum Henderson
Calum Henderson writes about (mainly terrible) television
Learn more

Opinion columnists - have they gone too far?

I mean, Mike Hosking: who does he think he is with his relentless, borderline-psychotic optimism? And that Rachel Smalley: why can't she just leave the poor old patriarchy alone?

Don't even start on Chris Rattue: obviously the man deserves to be bundled into a giant cannon and fired directly into the face of the sun for ever daring to doubt Dan Carter.

But if we think we've got it bad, it's nothing compared to the UK, whose columnists seem locked in a daily battle to get their readers as wound up as possible.

To paraphrase Stewart Lee, who was talking about Jeremy Clarkson, they're either idiots who actually believe all the poorly-researched nonsense they write, or geniuses who have worked out exactly the most accurate ways to annoy everyone.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The reigning queen of tabloid controversy is Katie Hopkins, who gained notoriety as a serial reality television contestant and has since become "Britain's most controversial columnist".

At least, that's how she's billed by The Sun, the paper for whom she writes. Other publications have described her more succinctly as a "professional troll".

In a survey last year - quite possibly also conducted by The Sun - she was voted the UK's second most hated person. First place went to Vladmir Putin.

This year she may well knock him off his loathsome perch.

In the aftermath of a predictably unsympathetic column about the Syrian refugee crisis, a petition was launched proposing she be swapped for 50,000 refugees. It attracted as many signatures in a matter of days.

Discover more

Opinion

Brokenwood Mysteries goes to a dark place

28 Sep 05:30 AM
Opinion

Why new Grand Designs host is a maniac

11 Oct 03:30 AM
Entertainment

Has 7 Days gone too far?

12 Oct 08:00 AM
Entertainment

Which reality show would you want to be on?

17 Oct 07:45 PM

Basically, Katie Hopkins has a supernatural talent for rarking people up.

She makes our best provocateur, Paul Henry, look like a lowly amateur. She also makes him seem like a member of Mensa by comparison.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story, she goes after the low-hanging fruit of one of her favourite topics: fat people.

The two-part documentary, which screened in the UK at the start of the year, follows her on an ill-conceived quest to gain 20kg in part one, then lose it in part two "to prove how simple it is to lose weight if you really want to."

You don't need to be a sworn member of the PC Brigade to see how this overly simplistic hypothesis won't really prove, well, anything.

Understandably, nobody with a shred of credibility wants anything to do with the stunt, which only adds to Hopkins' sense of martyrdom.

"The health profession is refusing point blank to support her extreme experiment," declares the introductory voice over.

After two weeks of gagging over mouthfuls of burger and donut to the tune of 4000 calories a day, she hasn't gained a gram. She visits the doctor, who diagnoses her as being clinically underweight.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She shoots him daggers across his desk as he reports, "that is an indication that your body and your metabolism is not the same, perhaps, as a person who would eat fewer calories than you and yet put on more weight."

Bugger that for a joke. Metabolism is no excuse for people to stay fat, and it'll be no excuse for Katie Hopkins to stay skinny.

For inspiration, she decides to go to America and gawp disapprovingly at its overweight citizens who dare to eat in public - "and they're not ashamed by it!" She becomes like an appalled, condescending Louis Theroux.

As the experiment wears on, Hopkins' sense of indignant self-pity grows.

It makes her holiday to St Ives a misery. She points out overweight people who have had the audacity to show their faces on the beach, and then at her own slight paunch - "that's how I feel!"

Force-feeding herself another spoonful of ice cream or chocolate cake, she yowls on more than one occasion: "I hate fat people for making me do this!"

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But by the time she reaches her weight gain goal - with the help of a "military-style" eating plan enforced by a personal trainer - Hopkins claims to have discovered a newfound empathy for overweight people. "I still wouldn't employ one, but..." she starts. It's quite a superficial empathy.

There's no real hidden depth or meaning to be taken from it - My Fat Story is more or less as moronic and unenlightening as it seems.

As with any troll, professional or otherwise, the best advice is probably to simply ignore Katie Hopkins.

But on the other hand, the teaser for part two promises to show her being so awful that an irate woman reports her to the police, claiming her anti-fat comments constitute a hate crime.

That advice has always proven easier said than done.

Part one of Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story is repeated on TLC at 11.15am on Saturday morning; part two screens on TLC at 9:30pm on Saturday night.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Entertainment

Entertainment

Robert Irwin pays forgotten restaurant bill, owners praise his 'class'

12 Jul 05:00 AM
Premium
Entertainment

The 50 best horror films of all time – ranked

12 Jul 05:00 AM
Entertainment

R&B star Chris Brown denies assault charges in London court

12 Jul 04:46 AM

Get your kids involved in your reno

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Entertainment

Robert Irwin pays forgotten restaurant bill, owners praise his 'class'

Robert Irwin pays forgotten restaurant bill, owners praise his 'class'

12 Jul 05:00 AM

Robert Irwin returned to the Jetty Pavilion to pay for his forgotten salad.

Premium
The 50 best horror films of all time – ranked

The 50 best horror films of all time – ranked

12 Jul 05:00 AM
R&B star Chris Brown denies assault charges in London court

R&B star Chris Brown denies assault charges in London court

12 Jul 04:46 AM
The return of Bieber: Fans celebrate new album Swag release

The return of Bieber: Fans celebrate new album Swag release

12 Jul 03:41 AM
Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper
sponsored

Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP