Gemma Collins may know how to handle herself these days but she has revealed that she was bullied way before she found fame.
The 37-year-old The Only Way Is Essex star has recently hit headlines for being an alleged “diva” on Dancing On Ice but years ago it was a very different story.
Gemma says she was cruelly bullied and beaten up as a schoolgirl and that she would try to go unnoticed during her turmoil – it’s far from the strong and bubbly persona she puts out now.
In her autobiography, Basically…My Life As A Real Essex Girl, Gem opened up about the difficult time she had when she was young – years before ‘the GC’ came along.
She confessed: “Outside of school, I would walk past certain gangs of girls and I could feel them staring at me, I could sense their hostility and hear them muttering things under their breath. I hated it.
“In a few short months, it got to the point where I started to feel sick at the thought of going to school.”
Things got so bad that Gemma even had to change schools. She moved from the Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls to the Raphael Independent School.
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She also recalled the time she was set upon and robbed in Ritzy nightclub while out with friends when she was a teenager.
Gemma, who grew up in Romford, explained: “I didn’t see the girl approach, I just felt the blow. She walked up to me from the side and landed a stinging punch on the bridge of my nose…My eye had closed over and the bruising was coming out. It was blue, red and angry.”
The star, who is now dating TOWIE co-star James ‘Arg’ Argent, also revealed in her book that the bullying caused her great anxiety and she would often bunk off school to avoid confrontations.
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The Essex girl says her beloved mum Joan helped boost her confidence as she got older, telling her to “own” the room when she walked in.
Perhaps the GC is just a defence mechanism!
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