Lovable Lenny Henry loses three stone following 'very strict' diabetes diet
Lenny Henry has revealed that he has shed three stone after being diagnosed with diabetes.
The 55-year-old Dudley-born comic, turned serious actor, now eats sugar-free food and has started Ashtanga yoga to battle the disease that cost his late mother both her legs.
He said: "I'm a bit diabetic, so I was put on a very strict diet.
"I've lost between two and a half and three stone. I was big.
"It's lots of greens, lots of juice and lots of walking. Swimming is good.
"You've got to eat no sugar and drink hardly any alcohol… all the stuff you like. You can't Hobnob your way through the day."
Speaking at the Critics' Circle Theatre Award where he won the best actor for his role in August Wilson's American drama Fences, Lenny revealed how his mother Winifred suffered from diabetes, which can cause artery problems, for seven years and had a double leg amputation before she died in 1998.
It's not the first time Lenny has shed the pounds. In 2011 he lost three stone when he was put through bootcamp while appearing in the play Comedy of Errors. But in 2012, he put weight back on.
And he quashed rumours that he is to marry girlfriend Lisa Makin.
The 46-year-old was Lisa Makin, 46, was recently spotted twice in one week sporting a pretty big diamond on her wedding finger as she strolled near her home, prompting suspicion the pair could be getting hitched.
But Lenny said: "I'm not engaged."
The pair have been dating since 2011. He split from ex-wife Dawn French, 56, in 2010 and she also moved on, marrying charity boss Mark Bignell earlier this year in a low-key ceremony at a luxury hotel in Cornwall.
After her break-up with Lenny, she said: "Remarkably, we seem to have shifted with relative ease from a 25-year marriage to a lasting friendship."
Fences won rave reviews when the play toured the UK after opening at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and later transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London.
Theatre Critics' Circle chairman Mark Shenton noted Henry's 'amazing renaissance' as a stage actor with earlier roles in Othello and The Comedy of Errors.
"In Fences, it was a titanic performance in a great production of a really good play," he said.
