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Fame isn\u2019t something most vicars have to contend with, but Reverend Kate Bottley isn\u2019t most vicars. <\/p>\n
The ex-Googlebox star gained thousands of fans across the country during her stint on the Channel 4 show. Unfortunately, she also gained the attention of body-shaming internet trolls. Then, when she lost weight, she received unwanted comments about that too. <\/p>\n
\u2018I still have days when I hate my body,\u2019 Kate tells me over Zoom. \u2018I\u2019ve always hated it. It sounds a bit strong for a vicar, doesn\u2019t it? Someone who should be at peace with herself and not be concerned with such superficial things as the body and how she looks. But I still find that I am focussed on a voice that tells me I\u2019m not good enough. Too round, too fat, too short.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ordained as a priest in North Nottinghamshire in 2008, but originally from Sheffield, Kate only started going to church because she fancied the local vicar\u2019s son. (They are now married \u2013\u00a0 her husband Graham was her loyal companion on the Gogglebox sofa.)<\/p>\n
Her celebrity career started when she was officiating a wedding and took part in a dancing wedding flash mob. The video went viral with more than seven million hits on YouTube, and she was approached by Channel 4\u2019s Gogglebox to join the show. <\/p>\n
She now presents BBC Radio 2\u2019s weekly show, Good Morning Sunday, with Jason Mohammed, is a frequent guest contributor on The Chris Evans\u2019 Breakfast Show and a regular presenter on Songs of Praise.<\/p>\n
After the famous wedding video, Kate didn\u2019t received any media training and was not prepared for the attention, when the flash mob went viral. \u2018A lot of people were positive but I also got trolled. I still do. I get shouted at a lot by people \u2013 online and in person,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018People want to cheerfully tell me how they think I look prettier in real life, or fatter on telly, or how I\u2019m annoying, or too Northern, or shorter than they thought. There is a general assumption that people wouldn\u2019t dream of saying the nasty stuff they say online to someone face to face, but I\u2019m afraid to say that simply isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve found there are many people who are just as willing to tell me they hate me up close and personal as they are when they are safely behind their keyboard. Once a man in a Tesco car park called me The whore of Babylon.\u2019<\/p>\n
How does she respond to this abuse? \u2018In that instance, I phoned my telly vicar mate Richard\u00a0Coles, who once I\u2019d stopped crying enough to tell him what had happened said: \u2018Tesco, darling, you poor thing, get to a Waitrose immediately\u2019.\u2019<\/p>\n
Kate\u2019s here today to talk about her new book Have A Little Faith: Life Lessons on Love, Death and How Lasagne Always Helps<\/em> (Penguin Life, \u00a314.99) Part memoir, part self-help book, Kate shares her wisdom with chapters on success, love, strength, conflict, confidence, loneliness, grief and forgiveness.<\/p>\n \u2018I exercise my forgiveness a lot on social media. It\u2019s reminding myself the that beneath the most bitter, twisted, horrible, evil, nasty troll, there is a baby that was loved,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n \u2018You have to imagine them as a vulnerable, innocent child. They might have been beaten up at school at the age of six and maybe that\u2019s what\u2019s made them how they are. It\u2019s remembering that the humanity behind people as much as I possibly can.\u2019<\/p>\n But what about compassion for herself, when she\u2019s criticising herself for her weight?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Despite the fact that I go around saying I hate my body, I am also simultaneously completely grateful for my body and all the things it lets me do,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m a big fan of allowing ourselves to feel seemingly contradictory things at the same time \u2013 love and anger, capable but struggling, proud but anxious \u2013 you get the idea.\u2019<\/p>\n She explains how a spiritual friend will sit and meditate with her and do what she calls a \u2018gratitude body scan.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018We both lie there on the floor in her living room, and we go from the very top of our heads (including hair) down to our toes via every muscle, limb and organ in between, and think about how grateful we are to have them, and what they allow us to do.\u2019<\/p>\n But Kate still struggles to accept her body. \u2018I have mixed feelings about my body, like everyone does. I\u2019m human. Being religious, being a Christian who believes I am a created being with a godly purpose, doesn\u2019t mean I am above the pressures of vanity and appearance, gluttony is after all considered one of the \u2018deadly sins\u2019 in the Christian tradition, but what can I say? <\/p>\n \u2018One hobnob is never enough and if there isn\u2019t cheese in heaven I\u2019ll go to the other place, I think!\u2019<\/p>\n Faith <\/strong>is not a VIP area, it\u2019s an open house, where everyone can come in, help themselves to as much or as little as they need, share a plate with their neighbour or with a stranger, and feel the simple joy in believing that things are going to be OK, in having a little faith. Faith brings comfort, by fostering connection with a community and giving a sense of shared purpose but also by helping us to focus on the idea of something bigger than just ourselves and our own problems.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/metro-parent\/img\/fallback.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/i>Rev Kate Bottley on\u2026.<\/h2>\n