Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has revealed she rotated two suits for a year-and-a-half after giving birth because she struggled to shift her baby weight.
The politician, 41, from Edinburgh, welcomed son Finn with her partner Jen Wilson in October 2018.
Speaking on Susannah Constantine’s My Wardrobe Malfunction podcast, mother-of-one Ruth said she refused to buy a size up.
‘When I got pregnant and then when I had my child and couldn’t shift the baby weight, I only had two suits that fitted me,’ she explained.
Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has revealed she rotated two suits for a year-and-a-half after giving birth because she struggled to shift her baby weight. Pictured in May 2019 – seven months after giving birth
‘So there is like, basically a year-and-a-half’s period where I was refusing to throw out any suits that I couldn’t fit anymore or buy any more in the next size up.
‘So I literally just did wear the only ones that were roomy enough for me.’
She added that she wasn’t keen to draw attention to herself because she was ‘heavy’.
‘I know exactly which suits are at the tighter end of the size that they are and which ones are the wider end,’ Ruth explained.
‘When you’re in the really fat end of your wardrobe, that’s a difficulty and you don’t want to be looked at.’
Speaking on Susannah Constantine’s My Wardrobe Malfunction podcast, mother-of-one Ruth said she refused to buy a size up. Pictured while pregnant in October 2018
Ruth and her partner Jen Wilson, pictured together, welcomed their son Finn in October 2018
Ruth told how her weight tends to ‘barometer up and down’, admitting she finds it very easy to put it on but much harder to shift it.
She recalled an awkward incident when she was a bridesmaid for a good friend at her wedding in Australia where, after ‘three weeks on the lash’, her dress no longer fit.
Ruth told how her pal sent over a bolt of fabric from which to have a dress made in a style of her choice, so that all her wedding party would match.
‘Because she’d been living in Scotland before she got engaged and because there were lots of people flying over from Scotland and other countries to Australia, rather than have them turn out for the wedding, speak to the bride and groom for five minutes as they go round and then they jump off on their honeymoon, and all these people that have flown in three-and-a-half thousand miles don’t actually see them, what they chose to do, which was lovely, was they had us all over three weeks before the wedding,’ she explained.
Ruth told how her weight tends to ‘barometer up and down’, admitting she finds it very easy to put weight on but much harder to shift it. Pictured in May 2019
‘The wedding is all sorted. We all went on a road trip, all the Brits, with them for three weeks around the country.
‘We went to the wine valley, we went red snapper fishing in Coffin Bay, we had this lovely, lovely time of three weeks on holiday.
‘And then we got to the morning of the wedding and I put the dress on, except I couldn’t. It didn’t fit! I’d had three weeks on the lash and when I’d measured… Too much Dark & Stormies and Fosters.’
She added that it’s ‘not hard to put on half a stone in three weeks’, admitting: ‘If it’s a sheath dress it’s not gonna look pretty.
‘So the morning of my friend’s wedding, I still feel guilty about this, I’d also got like a wrap, a kind of stole to wear over my arms.
‘We took a set of shears and we went straight up the back of the dress. And the bride’s mother and the bride’s aunty sewed the stole in as a panel in the back.
‘So they should have been looking forward to their daughter’s wedding, they are sewing a panel into a dress for one of the Scottish bridesmaids that couldn’t turn down a sausage sandwich! Isn’t that the worst dress story you’ve ever heard?’
Ruth previously revealed that she suffered from suicidal thoughts as a teenager, and that she would not risk her mental health by running for Prime Minister.
She discussed her battle with depression on the podcast, which she said was triggered at university following a friend’s suicide, after which she was plagued by ‘survivor’s guilt’.
Ruth (left) discussed her battle with depression on Susannah’s (right) podcast, which she said was triggered at university following a friend’s suicide, after which she was plagued by ‘survivor’s guilt’
‘The way in which university health centres at that time [23 years ago] dealt with [depression] was they just threw some pills at you, basically,’ she recalled.
‘And I had a really bad reaction to the pills, but I didn’t know that that’s what it was. So I kept going back going, you know, “Things are worse, not better.” So they just kept going “Right, we’ll just double your dose” until I got onto the maximum you could be on.
‘And I have to be really careful about how I say this because the company that makes the particular brand that I was on is quite litigious. But there has been a number of class actions around the world regarding side effects for this particular brand of antidepressants, which, particularly in adolescence, and young adults, one of its side effects is increased suicidal thoughts and tendencies, which I would suggest is not brilliant for an antidepressant.
‘And so, yes, so I had two or three years that were pretty, pretty dark and pretty bad. And then sort of graduated and started putting myself back together again.’
Ruth added that her mother was severely bipolar and a manic depressive, so she is very conscious of it and is ‘always looking out for it’ in her children because it can skip a generation.
To listen to the whole podcast visit https://mywardmal.com.