Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha bravely opened up about her struggles with body dysmorphia on the show today (May 2).

Panelists were presented with simulations of what they might look like as Barbie figures, in keeping with the recent ‘boxed doll’ meme popular with Facebook users. Among them were mock ups of how the likes of Myleene Klass, Jane Moore, and Olivia Attwood would appear if made of plastic.

But Nadia, 60, admitted she was ‘shocked’ at a representation of her appearance during Friday’s episode of the lunchtime ITV series. And she also gave insight into how the AI reproduction taps into her insecurities, and how dysphoria can torment the former EastEnders actress.

Loose Women panelist ‘dolls’ created by AI (Credit: ITV)

Loose Women today

Highlighting the virtual doll’s accessories, Nadia reflected sadly: “I think the big problem with it is it looks like a really big bowl of something… I didn’t stop eating until it was all gone.” She added: “It is just the oddest thing.”

Nadia’s colleagues were swift to reassure her the doll did not resemble her.

“It doesn’t look like you at all,” host Kaye Adams said. And fellow panelist Frankie Bridge comforted Nadia: “I think if you took the bowl out, it would be much better.”

But because I am body dysmorphic, I do see something different than what I am.

But a stunned Nadia told them: “It was a shock. And I sort of laughed. But because I am body dysmorphic, I do see something different than what I am. And I’ve worked so hard at not having that image of myself.”

Nadia Sawalha reacts: ‘Just the oddest thing (Credit: ITV)

Loose Women latest: Nadia on ‘trolls’

Nadia also confessed: “It just went to that morphed idea of myself. It just really did knock me for a bit, and then all those trolls that live in my head.”

“That’s why I always say trolls,” she went on. “As I create the best trolls ever in my own brain to have a go at myself, and it all sort of like it started to come back in. ‘Oh my God, you’re just this… and you’re that…’. And then it just got ridiculous.

“I was really freaking out and thinking: ‘How much weight have I put on?’ and all of this sort of stuff.”

‘I felt healed’

Furthermore, Nadia explained she scolds herself for thinking in such a way, indicating she feels guilty over it, as “there’s so much suffering going on in the world.”

She addressed her frustration: “There is so much more than this in your own brain, giving you nonsense to think about. Just get on with it! So I made my own doll and posted that instead. And it was an activist doll – because my activism is my is my heart and soul. And I felt healed.”

Kaye, meanwhile, highlighted how others will be able to empathise and sympathise with Nadia feelings.

“I think that madness, that noise you described, an awful lot of people will relate to,” she said.