Must not say a fat lady is fat

Beaming for the cameras, and with a protective arm wrapped around his protegee, Sir Tom Jones promised to make Leanne Mitchell a star.

Five years on – and following a short-lived career – the veteran singer believes the reason the 33-year-old failed to crack the charts is because she refused to lose weight.

Now the 76-year-old Grammy award-winner has found himself at the centre of an extraordinary ‘fat-shaming’ row after accusing the first ever winner of the then BBC1 talent show, The Voice, of being too big.

He admitted suggesting she shed the pounds in the hope it would boost her career but, instead, she ‘put on more weight’.

Miss Mitchell, whose only album failed to make it into the top 100, is now back singing at holiday camps where she was originally discovered.

At the launch of the new series, which makes its debut on ITV tonight, Sir Tom said: ‘When she first came on the show, I thought about her trimming down a bit because she had gotten comfortable in this holiday camp and put on some weight.

‘She took the opportunity of winning The Voice but she put on more weight, got more comfortable with the boyfriend who then became her husband.’

Denise Hatton, chief executive of the National Council, which led the YMCA Be Real Campaign for body confidence, has accused the star of fat-shaming.  She said: ‘Success in music or in any other industry should not be dependent on your appearance. [But it is]

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