Gordon Ramsay is a big, big deal in the culinary world, but he was a little too big for his wife.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the acclaimed chef said his wife, Tana, almost left him because of his weight gain. At one point he weighed 250 pounds, acknowledging that he was "overweight."
"Tana was not impressed with the way I was," he said. "I look at the pictures and think, 'How did Tana stay around?' Because Tana has got better-looking and more gorgeous."
The "Hell's Kitchen" star said that he used to eat poorly because of his job, which required him to often work late. On these days, he never ate well, often snacking on junk food throughout the day.
A vacation with David and Victoria Beckham was also eye-opening.
"I didn't have a figure," he said. "I didn't feel that good."
Finally his wife told him to shape up or she was going to leave him.
"It was painful," he said, adding that it was a "big wake-up call."
He's now down 56 pounds, and he and his wife often compete in triathlons. He also no longer runs his kitchens on a daily basis, choosing to travel around and oversee his restaurants, which he has all over the world.
In the interview, he said that his impending single life was certainly a motivating factor in slimming down, but he said his children were in his thoughts, too. His own father wasn't around much, having died from a heart attack when he was 53 years old.
"That's only a couple of years' time," the 51-year-old chef said. "I've got this reminder to get fit, it's scary. I get the fear on a daily basis. I may have not got on with him, but I still miss him. I miss everything I could have had from him if he was still alive in his 70s.
"I don't want my industry to kill me. I know how unhealthy chefs are at the top level. Stress. Suicide. There's a big downside to cooking loads for a living. It's lethal: from obesity to heart attacks to cocaine habits."