After struggling with her weight throughout her teens and being on a diet “every single day since I was 13 years old,” Married At First Sight bride Olivia Frazer, 28, took the drastic step of undergoing gastric sleeve surgery in 2016 when she was just 22.
“A family member had it about a year before I did.
“And they told me it was the best thing they’d ever done and I was like, ‘Well, why do I have to wait until I’m in my 50s to look and feel healthy?'” says the school administrator from the NSW Central Coast.
Weighing 95kg and wearing size 18 clothing before the surgery, Olivia says the results were dramatic, but a debilitating side effect of the procedure – gallstones – soon saw her weight plummet to a dangerous 45kg in 2017.
Olivia has opened up about struggling with her weight throughout her teens.
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“The stomach pains meant I couldn’t eat. It was gross – all my bones were hanging out,” she tells Woman’s Day.
After having her gall bladder removed, Olivia says her “recovery was instant. I think I ate a steak dinner as soon as it came out.”
Now 70kg and a 10-12 dress size, Olivia maintains her weight with regular exercise and a “healthy as possible” diet with the odd cheat meal.
And despite the dangerous complications, Olivia says she’s glad she had the gastric sleeve.
“It’s changed my life for the better in every single way,” she says.
“If I go for a walk with my friends, they aren’t concerned about me making it up the hill or not.”
She also says it’s improved her dating life.
“I didn’t feel confident enough to go for the really lovely guy – I’d go for the guy who was going to treat me like s–t because I thought that’s what I deserved,” says Olivia.
Olivia says her weight loss improved her dating life.
(Image: Supplied)“Now I’m definitely attracting better quality men, [but] I’m definitely still a bit [body] dysmorphic and don’t think I deserve an excellent man.”
But she’s hoping she’s found just that in her groom, 30-year-old plumber Jackson Lonie, who she says is “a really lovely match” and “made me feel beautiful on our wedding day”.
This isn’t Olivia’s first dabble in marriage – the reality star was engaged last year… for three weeks!
“It was the craziest little thing,” she tells Woman’s Day. “I went on this Hinge date with this really lovely guy.
“I asked him to be my boyfriend about two hours into the date and then he fully got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.”
And Olivia claims it wasn’t the booze talking!
“We’d only had two glasses of wine!” she tells.
“We just hit it off and he was a fantastic fiancé for three weeks and then I thought, ‘This is too crazy,’ and I broke it off but we’re still good mates. He’s still one of my favourite people.”
Want more on Married At First Sight season nine? Check out the links below:
Is Married At First Sight real or fake? Let’s examine the evidence
Is Married At First Sight legal in Australia? Why the Marriage Act makes things complicated
How much do Married At First Sight contestants get paid in Australia?
The most shocking, hilarious and downright disturbing Married at First Sight bombshells
