Gemma Collins gets payback on brand who told her she was 'too fat'

Gemma Collins has revealed she got payback on a fashion brand who told her she was 'too fat' by signing their £120,000 deal before ditching them.

The former TOWIE star, 40, said the unnamed clothing company pulled her into a meeting where they told her to 'lose weight' soon after she joined the reality TV show.

Gemma told The Times: '[The clothing brand] sat there telling me I was too fat, go off, lose weight, come back to them.'

But Gemma said she recently got her revenge, claiming the brand got in touch with her last year and offered her a £120,000 deal, which she said she took before ditching them.

She continued: 'I thought, 'I'm gonna take the money, f*** 'em off at the end of it', and that was what I did. I work with Valentino now.'

In the same interview, Gemma admitted she used to compare herself to her female TOWIE co-stars, saying she 'wasn't as beautiful' as them.

Gemma also revealed that she saved her ex-boyfriend James Argent from death 'three times' as he battled a cocaine addiction.

The reality star said she ended her on-and-off relationship with the TV personality, 34, last year after she saved him from overdosing and 'never got a thank you'.

The couple ended their relationship last year and Gemma has since reunited and got re-engaged to her former partner Rami Hawash.

Speaking of James' cocaine addiction, she told the Sunday Times: 'I saved him from death three times, never got a thank you.'

Gemma said on one occasion while she was filming Dancing on Ice, she got a phone call as nobody had been able to get hold of James.

She said she knew 'instinctively' to call an ambulance and went to visit him at Whipps Cross Hospital in London, where he was 'in a state', before he discharged himself the next day.

Last year, James revealed he has struggled with a cocaine addiction and had been heavily using the drug for the past seven years.

He began his recovery in 2020 after spending ten weeks at a Thailand boot camp, after calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help when he reached rock bottom over Christmas 2019.

MailOnline contacted James' representatives for comment.

Her comments come after she confirmed her engagement after accepting a second marriage proposal from long-term boyfriend Rami Hawash.

The TV personality, 40, reunited with former fiancé Hawash during lockdown, seven years after breaking off their original engagement.

But she admits they are now looking ahead to their wedding after he proposed for the second time, but is reluctant to make definite marriage plans with the businessman until his divorce from his first wife is finalised.

Confirming her engagement to The Times, she said: 'Yeah, but we can't really come out and say anything yet because Ram was married before and his paperwork has not come through, so until that's officially signed, we've not said anything.

'They've not been together for two years. I know her, she's got a partner, she's as good as gold. There's a child involved, he's only three, obviously I love him to death.

'But until that paperwork's signed I can't come out.'

The reality TV star had previously worn a diamond ring on her engagement finger in December, while featuring in a new campaign for supermarket chain Sainsburys.

Her relationship with Hawash rekindled last Christmas as Britain braced itself for a third national lockdown, months after her six-year stop-start romance with James Argent came to an end.

The businessman, who runs a car mechanical repairs company in Romford, dated Gemma for two years before he proposed in December 2013 by hiding an engagement ring in a Christmas pudding.

However the engagement was short-lived, with the couple confirming their separation the following year.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline in December, Gemma reflected on trying for a baby with Hawash, and admitted they frequently 'report back' to mother-of-two Amy Childs, a close friend of the couple.

She explained: 'I was with Amy Childs at the weekend and we had a friend's wedding and she's like a guru at how to get pregnant.

'She was telling me that there's certain days in the month that you've got to do this. So I basically appointed her to be the head of my pregnancy.

'She's told Rami what days we've got do it on and all that. So we're reporting back to Amy every time we do it!'

The TV personality already acts as an unofficial 'stepmother' to three-year old Tristan, Hawesh's son with his estranged wife.

She added: 'I've got the greatest gift of all my partner gave me. I have a beautiful three-year-old stepson and have a very good relationship with his mum and it's been so lovely that they've let me be a part of their lives.

'Tristan, he's beautiful. I love him so much. He's the apple of my eye. With Tristan, our family are just so obsessed with him. And my nephews Hayden and Kane are so good with him, he's like the new little baby on the scene.

'They just love him as much as I do and he loves them. He's just part of our family.'

In February admitted she was ready to start a family after watching parents Alan and Joan struggle to recover from COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.

She told The Sun: 'I feel very settled in my 40s. I think this is Gemma's year. I've overcome a lot. I just feel I'm ready for a baby.

'I've had an amazing career the last 10 years. I've now got my house. I'm settled, so I'm ready for action!'

Gemma revealed she had been having tarot card readings with a woman named Emma who appeared to foreshadow her engagement by predicting big things in the near future.

'She says I'm definitely going to have a baby this year and I'll definitely get a ring on my finger,' she revealed. 'It had better be a big one. I want a yellow diamond. A huge one. A gigantic one!

'I keep saying, 'You're joking, I can't see it happening!' But let's see if her predictions come true. I hope so, I do hope so.'

The TV personality has previously suffered three miscarriages, with the third coming in July 2020 after she fell pregnant ex-boyfriend James Argent's baby.

She revealed the loss shortly after Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle announced she had lost what would been her second child with Prince Harry.

Gemma told The Sun: I've not talked about this before, but it was my third, each one a devastating loss on my longed-for journey to motherhood.

'I've been trying to have a baby for nearly a decade now, only to have my hopes dashed time and again by first one miscarriage, then another.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for further comment.