Our Revenge Bodies

These women explain how their relationship breakdowns ended up being transformational

- Eimear O'Hagan

‘NOW I’M THE BEST VERSION OF ME’

Suzie Jafar, 34, is a team manager for an IT company. She lives in Hertfordshire with her daughter, Katie, five. Gasping for breath, I wiped sweat off my face and, for the first time since my marriage ended, felt a flicker of hope. It was October 2017, a month after my husband, Tom, had moved out.

I’d just finished my first kickboxing class, after my sister, Rayya, had dragged me along. At 14st and size 16, at 5ft 2in, I’d feared I’d be unable to keep up. Changing my body wasn’t even on my radar. Rebuilding my shattered confidence was my priority and, by the end of that class, I knew I’d found the coping mechanism to help me through. I was a size 10-12 and weighed around​ 10st when I married Tom in 2013, but after Katie was born the following year, I gained weight. I suffered postnatal depression and, apart from work, didn’t want to go out socially, so became isolated.

I grew lazy, ordering takeaways instead of cooking. As my marriage began to fall apart, I ate my feelings, snacking on cake and chocolate. And the bigger I became, the more I struggled to feel sexy.

Tom and I persevered, but neither of us was happy. It was still devastating when, during our only therapy session in September 2017, Tom said he didn’t love me. I drove home, packed his bags and asked him to leave.

A life-changing discovery