Striding out confidently in tight, cropped jeans and a revealing slashed top, Geri Halliwell recently unveiled a tanned but ample midriff.
She is clearly proud of her new fuller figure and is happy to enhance it in skimpy figure-hugging clothes.
It is a far cry from the emaciated image of protruding hip bones, flat chest and scrawny arms which she chose to promote her autobiography and pop video for It's Raining Men just three years ago.
Now oozing a healthy self-confidence, the former Spice Girl admits gaining a few pounds has boosted her waistline — and sex appeal.
Geri, 32, says: "When I was skinny it was like a desert. But the minute I got a few pounds on me, it changed. I'm quite shocked, actually, with the kind of attention I receive."
At July's Party In The Park event, Prince Charles was one of the first to compliment her on her new shape.
He said: "You look great — much better now you've put weight on."
And Glamour magazine has chosen Geri as its current cover girl.
Editor Jo Elvin says: "She seems genuinely happy with the shape she's in at the moment. She looks normal but she looks fantastic — and I think that's really important.
"Our readers want to see someone on the cover that they can aspire to, but in a realistic way. There needs to be an attainability and I think that's the case with Geri."
Currently weighing a healthy 9st and measuring a curvy size 12, Geri is clearly on an even keel both physically and emotionally.
The most notorious yo-yo dieter in showbusiness, her most severe weight losses and gains have previously coincided with her tumultuous love life and career highs and lows.
Before leaving the Spice Girls in 1998, the 5ft 2in star gained a stone because she was unhappy.
Her weight levelled off when she launched her solo career a year later, but began to plummet after her disastrously short-lived romance with Chris Evans.
Geri's yoga-toned 7st figure coincided with the release of her second No1 album in May 2001.
Before its release she wrote in her diary: "I am scared that my chart position will decide my self-esteem. Maybe I'm terrified of failure because success defines who I am."
Desperate to maintain her new skinny frame, she embarked on a gruelling regime which included running six miles a day between yoga sessions and eating only steamed vegetables and chicken.
It is no coincidence that her skinniest episodes coincided with her doomed affairs with recovering drink and drug addict Damian Warner and Robbie Williams.
Last November Geri began dating US actor Jerry O'Connell, her co-star in new film Fat Slags, and she positively glowed with health.
But after he dumped her a month later, she has put on more weight. She now seems content, adding recently: "I've gained weight but feel really healthy. I feel sexier with a little bit more flesh on my bones."
The journey back to health and happiness has been long and arduous.
Geri first became anorexic and bulimic a decade ago — six months before joining the Spice Girls.
During her time in the group, she existed on nothing more nutritious than noodles and boiled carrots.
These days she is clearly in favour of a more balanced diet.
Sun nutritionist Amanda Ursell says: "When Geri was doing all the yoga, she was clearly below her body weight."
"It's nice to see she has put on weight because it's better for her bones. The fact she's happy with her body also sends out the right message to girls."
Despite her new-found confidence, Geri admits she has all but given up trying to find Mr Right.
She says: "I've been out with guys where I felt I had to be a showpiece. There was a lot of dressing up and going out.
"But actually I'm a couch potato. I don't want to have to try all the time. I just want to be myself."
"I'm going to have children at some point. But I want to enjoy this time as a young, free individual without any responsibility.”
Source: The Sun
