Jodie Marsh has revealed she felt bullied by Ulrika Jonsson after the TV weather girl mocked her appearance.
Speaking to MailOnline, former glamour model Jodie – who has quit fame to open an animal sanctuary – explained that she was already struggling to cope with being trolled about her appearance when Ulrika wrote a ‘vile’ column about her in the now defunct News Of The World.
Jodie, 45, recalled: ‘It was the nastiest thing I’ve ever read about my physical appearance. She was joking that she and her husband at the time couldn’t work out if my nose was a trunk because it was so big and ugly.
‘I was suicidal from being trolled, and I remember crying for days over it. It was the nastiest thing. I’d never met the woman and it was so uncalled for it. It was just out and out bullying.’
So shocked was Jodie by the column that she decided to reach out to Ulrika, 56, with a letter, but says she didn’t receive a response.
Jodie Marsh has revealed that ‘bully’ Ulrika Jonsson left her ‘crying for days’ after making ‘vile’ comments about her appearance while she was suicidal
So shocked was Jodie by the column that she decided to reach out to Ulrika, 56 (pictured) with a letter, but says she didn’t receive a response
Jodie explained: ‘I wrote to her and said, “I hope your kids never, ever get bullied the way you’ve just bullied me in that paper”.
‘It is so hard like when you’re being abused every day of your life for your physical appearance. How I got through that, and I’m still standing here today, it’s just nuts.
‘I don’t look at people the same way anymore. Ulrika is still wittering on in the press about whatever she’s wittering on about now but I don’t care.
‘I just look at her and think, “Oh, you’ve not got anything better to do with your life?”‘
Ulrika’s representatives did not respond when contacted by MailOnline.
Back in her Noughties heyday, Jodie also had a notorious 20-year slanging match with Katie Price, then rival Page 3 girl, Jordan.
Yet while Jodie may be able to laugh off the comments now, she hasn’t forgotten how it all began.
‘Katie started it!’ she explained. ‘She said I had saggy tits. All I did was retaliate and say “at least mine are real” that was it.
‘She called me every name under the sun. She said that I had saggy tits. I had tits like spaniel’s ears. I had a nose like a builder’s elbow.
‘All these comments came out and then stuck for years and years and years. And I was young, I was in my early twenties.
‘It’s hard when you’re being abused every day of your life for your physical appearance, how I got through that is nuts.
‘How do people think that’s acceptable to be like that? I’d get people calling me “saggy tits” in the street. They’d read it in the paper and think it was ok to say it to my face.’
Back in her Noughties heyday, Jodie also had a notorious 20-year slanging match with Katie Price, then rival Page 3 girl, Jordan (pictured in 2004)
Now, however, Jodie has had a complete mindset and career overhaul, turning her back on fame to run an animal sanctuary in Great Dunmow, Essex and opening Fripps Farm in 2020
Now, however, Jodie has had a complete mindset and career overhaul, turning her back on fame to run an animal sanctuary in Great Dunmow, Essex and opening Fripps Farm in 2020.
Jodie burst onto the showbiz scene at the tender age of 24 with a stint on short-lived reality show Essex Wives.
At the time she was working as a stripper at Stringfellows gentlemen’s club and soon found herself becoming a lads’ mag favourite.
‘Naively when I was younger, I thought I’m a really nice person, so I thought if you’re a nice person and you get famous, people are just gonna like you’ she admitted. ‘And then, of course, the trolling started.
‘There were points where I was suicidal from the trolling. I was thinking what would be the quickest way to kill myself.
‘I don’t understand why people sign up for shows like Love Island or Big Brother these days. Don’t do it because you know what you’re getting yourself in for.
‘Unless you’ve got the thickest skin in the world the trolling will kill you.
‘Even now, when I’m saving animals lives I’m still getting trolled! It’s the most bizarre thing in the whole entire world.’
Jodie has always adored wildlife, and while she was earning thousands stripping off for glamour shoots, she would be daydreaming about working with animals
A vegetarian from the age of five, Jodie has always adored wildlife, and while she was earning thousands stripping off for glamour shoots, she would be daydreaming about working with animals.
However, it wasn’t until the tragic death of her mother Kristina in September 2020 from cancer that Jodie felt the push she needed to open Fripps Farm.
Jodie explained: ‘When my mum got sick, her decline was fairly quick. It was during Covid so me and my dad had to care for her at home because the hospitals had kicked all the cancer patients out.
‘It was just horrific. I gave up work and gave up everything to care for my mum. And that was what made me realise that life’s too short, watching my mum die in front of me.
‘Why would I go and do another TV show or another photoshoot or whatever it is when that’s not what I want to be doing in life? That’s not what’s gonna make me happy.
‘What’s gonna make me happy is having an animal sanctuary, because it’s the only thing I’ve ever truly wanted. I always knew that was the end goal.’
It wasn’t a hard decision for Jodie to step away from the limelight.
By her own admission: ‘I hated being famous. If I had money no one would ever see me again!’
It wasn’t until the tragic death of her mother Kristina in September 2020 from cancer that Jodie felt the push she needed to open Fripps Farm
Now though, Jodie is pleased that she went through the trauma of being trolled because it put her on her path to opening Fripps.
She explained: ‘In a way I’m glad I went through it all before. I don’t care now. If I hadn’t I might be reading the trolls comments and feeling suicidal now whilst living my dream.
‘I’m in heaven every day. Fripps is my paradise and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.’
To donate to Fripps Farm, visit www.frippsfarm.co.uk/support