Model and TV star Mel Cohen: ‘Everyone is beautiful. We just come in different sizes’

IN a world where skelf-thin supermodels are celebrated, curvy Mel Cohen is striking a blow for plus-size women everywhere.

Like most voluptuous women, the beautiful blonde used to starve herself for weeks before braving the beach in a size 16 bikini.

But now, the defiant size 26 model is to star in a new reality TV show, The Resort, about the world’s first specifically plus-size holiday hotel.

Size really does matter to the Glasgow mother of two, who will act as mentor to guests at the resort in the Bahamas.

Mel hopes the show, which airs next month on ITV1, will give big women – and men – much needed confidence.

She said: “It’s time to stop falling into the trap where we are told what is and is not beautiful. We are all beautiful, we just come in different sizes.”

After the breakdown of her marriage, Mel, 49, freely admits she was once “eating herself into oblivion”.

But life changed four years ago when her mum Audrey told her to get out and make a name for herself as a curvy model.

She has appeared on the catwalk, as a pin-up, a beauty queen and, now, reality TV star. Mel said: “Once I learned to love myself, it was like being given the keys to a kingdom where I no longer worried about my weight.

“I’ve also found the most amazing man who loves me for what I am.”

The idea for the plus-size resort was born in the mind of travel entrepreneur James King, 62, who witnessed a heavy woman being laughed at after a chair collapsed underneath her.

The American businessman, who was running a resort in the Caribbean, was horrified.

He said: “I realised the travel industry just didn’t want to cater to larger guests. It was dreadful.

“So the idea was born in my mind to create a safe haven.”

Mr King turned to Mel for advice and guidance.

The result is an idyllic retreat on the 100-mile long Eleuthera Island where the rooms and their furniture and fittings have been created for larger guests.

Television cameras followed them as they holidayed in the unique resort, initially for a one-hour documentary, which is likely to become a series for British, American and Australian television.

Mel said: “We’ve created a beautiful retreat where guests don’t need to worry about whether a chair or bed will take their weight.

“Our guests can be free from the stresses of worrying about being judged.

“Women can wear a bikini and nobody is going to say they aren’t size 10.

“I spent my adult life worrying about what other people thought.”

Mel added that the documentary is “powerful, sad and wonderfully funny”.