'I TOOK THE L OUT OF FLAB...AND MADE BILLIONS!'

The world’s most famous diet queen built the Weight Watchers empire – and then gambled her fortune away in Las Vegas

Twirling in a mink coat and gleaming with diamonds at the height of her fame, Jean Nidetch appeared to have it all after starting a self-help group for women who wanted to shed their unwanted kilos, and then building it into a global giant.

And it was an unfortunate comment from a friend about her weight that inspired the charismatic New York housewife, who was then 38, to first lose her flab and then launch a small business that rapidly grew into Weight Watchers International.

“Oh, Jean, you look so good!” a neighbour squealed when she spotted her browsing in a clothing store in 1961. “When are you due?” she asked a mortified Jean, who was not pregnant.

Never one to indulge in self-pity, a determined Jean would go on to use the embarrassing encounter as motivation. Within a year, she transformed her 95kg figure after signing up to a weight-loss program at her local health clinic in New York City.

Jean, who was raised in a family that “ate as a consolation for disappointment”, dropped 30kg in just 12 months, thanks to the clinic’s simple “drop the damn fork” approach.