Elaine Crowley

Indeed, ever since I was 22 years old, and I'm 48 now, going on 49, so you can imagine I've been putting up with it for most of my professional career, unfortunately.

Well, you have to remember, when I started in Virgin Media, previously TV3, it was just

the turn of the millennium.

And when you think about that, we were just emerging from the heroin chic era, which is very, very fashionable.

People were painfully thin all the time.

So having someone who was a normal size, I mean, 12 to 14, which is what I was at that point, which is a lot thinner than I am now, might I add, I was a lot bigger than any other person

female TV presenter in Ireland at that time and it was quite commented upon even some of your previous callers were talking about social media comments and people don't say that to people's faces now but they did back then there was editorials about it back then I was

When I was a newsreader with Clare Fitzpatrick and Gwenna Shoiga, they said we looked like Stepford Wives of newsreading, but there was the beautiful one, the other one, and I was the robust Stepford Wives, robust even using that.

And that was in a main Sunday newspaper, a reputable Sunday newspaper.

And that's not the only thing.

I was at an event once at the Iftas.

There was a two-page spread called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

my picture of me with the ugly as well.

So it's not just about weight, it's about what you wear, it's what you look like.

And yes, it would be nice to, and I think just now what's happened, what used to be on mainstream is no longer on mainstream and it's filtered down into online now and that's where people feel safe.

It's not safe, it's not acceptable to body shame.

I think people in editorially or in their so-called reputable media, but on social media, it's just a free-for-all.

People can say what they want.

Do you know,

And do you know what?