Comedian, actor and host of I’m a Celebrity … Get me Out of Here, Julia Morris has hit back at rumours her 20kg weight loss is the result of plastic surgery.
Speaking on The Project last night, Morris shut down any speculation her trim figure was due to anything other than diet and exercise.
The House Husbands star said ever since posting a bikini selfie on social media there’s been speculation she has had surgery.
“People were saying ‘She’s had the sleeve’…What’s the sleeve?” she said.
“I discovered it was a stomach situation. So, I didn’t answer those comments, not that there’s anything wrong with a gastric band.”
Much to the panel’s delight, Julia showed us how she poses for bikini selfies: pushing back in her seat and making awkward faces.
“Sometimes I take a bikini selfie and think I look hot and I put it on social media,” she said.
Speaking to The Weekly earlier this year Morris said she was a late bloomer in Australian TV.
She said her loud and confident personality sometimes put people offside.
“I was what you might call an acquired taste,” she said.
“I did and said a lot of things that entertained a lot of people, but I also rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. I’m a lot more mellow now. I sometimes even think now before I open my mouth.”
The bikini selfie that started the rumours.
“When you reach your 40s, you’re a lot more confident to read the room and think ‘no one really needs to hear from me at the moment’. I can easily take the lead but I have learned I don’t have to take it all the time. And that’s a relief.”
It was this new sense of comfort in her skin that audiences responded to. And one that made TV executives sit up and take notice.
Michael Healy, Nine’s Director of Television, called Julia into his office after she had won Celebrity Apprentice to chat about how the network could continue to work with her.
She arrived with a bunch of ideas – and the $20 cheque that she had earned from her first TV appearance on New Faces and which her mother, Maureen, had framed at the time, telling her: “this won’t be the first cheque you earn from being on television”.
“Julia mentioned she’d like to try her hand at drama and it was like a light went on,” Michael told The Weekly.
“She nailed the audition for House Husbands and we pretty much built the cast around her. And in a short period of time she has become one of the biggest stars on the network.”
He says he won’t pretend he wasn’t “conflicted” when Julia’s manager sounded him out about the I’m A Celebrity hosting gig on rival Ten, but ultimately gave his blessing “because of my respect and fondness for Julia. And because the business has changed.”
Gary Sweet, her House Husbands co-star told The Weekly what it’s like to work with Julia.
“She is a force of nature, very sharp and a quick study. But behind the bravado is an extremely generous person.”
House Husbands Executive Producer Ellie Beaumont concurs: “She’s not one for diva turns. And as a performer, she has learned to adjust her tone. She doesn’t feel the need to pull focus all the time. And I think the audience responds to the fact that she does dial it down.”
While to the Australian TV public she’s the kooky comic who brought the house down at this year’s Logies, to her husband Dan and to her army of close friends and associates, she’s a whole lot more.
“People assume she’s overwhelming to live with and ask me how I cope,” Dan tells The Weekly.
“The answer is very well thanks – we have a lovely time. There is a soft side to her. At home it’s not all sequins and high-heels, it’s watching family movies on the couch and making dress-up outfits on her sewing machine.”
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