3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Ricki Lake's amazing transformation and talk show legend's surprising new career
Ricki Lake's chat show was a staple on British TV screens in the late 90s and early 00s and she has since gone on to have a remarkable career and personal transformation
A familiar face on televisions worldwide in the late 90s and early 00s, Ricki Lake is perhaps most recognised for her role as the original Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray, which later became a musical and was subsequently remade into a movie.
Following the film, she rose to household fame with her eponymous daytime talk show. However, decades after the show's conclusion, Ricki is back in the limelight due to an impressive career shift and personal transformation.
From the 90s until 2004, Ricki's talk show was a regular feature in homes across America and beyond, discussing real-life issues across a variety of topics, often delving into relationship disputes and dilemmas.
The show premiered in 1993 when Ricki was just 24-years-old and enjoyed a successful run of 11 seasons. A year after the show's debut, Ricki married her first husband, Rob Sussman, a New York Times illustrator who found it challenging to cope with the pressures of being married to a celebrity.
In a conversation with People magazine at the time, Sussman expressed that being financially dependent on Ricki was "really unhealthy and emasculating", reports the Mirror US. He added: "I don't want to become Mr Ricki Lake."
The couple had two sons before their marriage ended in 2003.
In the ensuing years, the former actress and host has embarked on a diverse range of ventures.
In 2011, she took to the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars, and her television credits also include appearances on reality shows such as Drop the Mic, The Masked Singer, and The X Factor: Celebrity.
Meanwhile, she also explored documentary-making, serving as the executive producer of 2008's The Business of Being Born, which examined childbirth, and contributing to 2018's Weed the People, a documentary focused on the use of marijuana in treating children with cancer.
In 2020, she opened up about her long-standing struggle with alopecia and her determination to improve her overall health.
Recently, she revealed that she and her second husband, Ross Burningham, have collectively shed more than 30 pounds in the past four months. Taking to Instagram, Ricki shared: "Hi friends. I've been wanting to share with you what I've been up to these last four months. On October 26, 2023, I made a commitment to myself to get healthier," she wrote.
"My husband, Ross, joined me in this effort. Together we have each lost 30+ pounds. I really want to share, because we did this without relying on pharmaceuticals. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)".
Now 55 and going through perimenopause, Ricki admitted she was initially uncertain whether her body would respond to weight loss efforts as it had in the past, but expressed pride and amazement at their progress, saying: "Being 55 and in perimenopause, I was a bit worried that my body would not drop the pounds like it had in the past. I am so so proud of us. I feel amazing. I feel strong."
She teased a future post in which she would elaborate on her approach, stating, "I will go in-depth in another post about what I did exactly, but suffice to say, this is the healthiest way I've lost weight in all of my years."
She accompanied her reflection with contrasting photos from her initial weight loss journey 17 years earlier, when she cut her weight by half. She remarked: "I held onto this #NormaKamali one-piece for all these years wondering if I would ever be able to wear it again."
