For women in public, when their bodies change, they get a certain kind of attention. At first, it comes in quietly—a comment under a picture or a tabloid caption written in a way that makes it seem like the person writing it could be lying. After that, it gets stronger. As of late, Sarah Lancashire has been in front of British audiences for almost forty years. Recently, that attention has turned to a different subject. Some people say she looks different. There’s a difference. It seems like no one wants to think about why or what she has said about it.
The 2023 National Television Awards gave Lancashire the award for Best Drama Performance. She was 58 years old when she took the stage at the O2 Arena in London. It ought to have been one of the better times in her career. Many critics think that Happy Valley, the BBC crime drama she had just finished, is one of the best things British TV has made in a generation.
She was actually standing there with a friend who was just there to be quiet. That night, her friend’s only job was to keep an eye out for TV cameras so she could hide the two handheld fans that were aimed at her face. Flushing with hot water. After that, she told The Mail on Sunday that the menopause was “the worst thing ever.”
Not just about the symptoms she talked about, that interview told us a lot. Lancashire may have talked openly about menopause as a way of defying the expectations of her job. It was a way of saying that the physical changes that came with it were real and not something that should be dealt with in silence. She talked about brain fog.
She was frozen in the aisle of Sainsbury’s and couldn’t remember why she had come in. She said, “It just comes over you.” Millions of women have this kind of small, embarrassing moment every day, but someone whose face is on billboards rarely talks about it out loud.
It’s well known that women go through menopause and gain weight. The body’s metabolism slows down, estrogen levels drop, and fat tends to move around, especially around the stomach. It’s not exciting or amazing. It’s not interesting to watch on TV.
But it’s real, and almost all women in their fifties go through it at some point. For Lancashire, who has been photographed a lot over the course of her career, the changes could be seen in the usual places for public figures: side-by-side photos, comment sections, and search queries. The tabloid machine found it and did what it always does.
To make things even more complicated, Lancashire has also talked about her history with clinical depression. She was diagnosed with this condition when she was eighteen years old and has had it for most of her adult life. She didn’t tell anyone about it while she was on Coronation Street in the early 1990s. Fear of being judged drove her crazy.
In her own words, she called her 20s a “write-off.” At different times, her depression made it almost impossible for her to take a train from Manchester to London for auditions. She said it was “debilitating in every way.” When people look at pictures of her and think she doesn’t look good, they don’t really talk about how she built a career of that caliber while doing all of that.
Something seems to be going on here. Sarah Lancashire has been honest—more honest than most—about the specific, unsexy facts of a woman’s body aging in a field that has never been very nice about these things. However, people have continued to talk about her body in public instead of seeing it as a reflection of what she has said in public.
She’s taking HRT. While she was using the gel, she thought about switching to patches. It was hard for her to remember things like conversations, scenes, and her own past because of the brain fog. These are not the words of someone trying to keep a secret. These are the honest words of someone who is dealing with something really hard in a way that most celebrities don’t.
Another thing is that she changed her body to play Julia Child on the American TV show Julia, making her one of the most recognizable faces on food TV. Child was a big, tall woman who made people want to give her space. Lancashire prepared for that role by making changes to his body on purpose. As it always is for actors who play different roles for long periods of time, the line between creative commitment and personal change is fuzzy, and the talk about her weight doesn’t bother to draw it.
In 2017, Lancashire was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. A BAFTA was given to her. Sir Ian McKellen has given her an award to show his appreciation. She started working as a theater actress in 1986 and is now 61 years old and at the top of her field. At times, the focus on how much she weighs seems like a mistake in the category.
It’s still not clear if people will ever be able to fully separate a woman’s professional success from the state of her body, but Lancashire is being proactive instead of waiting for that conversation to end. She works hard all the time. When she needs to, she hides her fans from the cameras.
FAQs
1. Why has Sarah Lancashire gained weight in real life?
Menopause, a slowing metabolism, and years of managing clinical depression all contributed.
2. Has Sarah Lancashire spoken publicly about her weight changes?
Yes — she openly discussed menopause symptoms, including weight gain, in a 2023 interview.
3. What health conditions has Sarah Lancashire disclosed?
She has lived with clinical depression since 18 and is currently going through menopause.
4. Did Sarah Lancashire gain weight deliberately for a role?
She physically transformed to portray the full-figured Julia Child in the series Julia.
5. Is Sarah Lancashire on any treatment for her menopause symptoms?
Yes — she uses HRT gel and has considered switching to patches.