EXCLUSIVE ‘I saw how quickly life can be taken away’ - Katie Piper on how she stopped ‘waiting to arrive’ and lives in the now

While Katie Piper is an outgoing, vivacious and fun person, she has had to work hard to get there.

After the appalling acid attack in 2008 that caused ongoing health issues for the now 42-year-old star, she had to learn to rebuild her life from scratch. Now, speaking to woman&home, she has revealed the importance of living in the moment for her, and has given some advice on how to do so for other people.

Discussing why she doesn’t compare herself to others, Katie - who is married to husband Richie and has children Belle, 12, and Penelope, eight - said, “There’s no point. I’ll never be like her. I’ll always be like me. I was so out of the game at such a young age, there is no comparison, and that’s a message I try and talk to my daughters about now.

“This whole internal narrative of ‘When I lose weight…’, ‘When I look more like her…’, ‘If I got this title at work…’ all of these people, that’s conditional self love, they will not love themselves until they do those things, and it’s like, you’ll never arrive.

“You’ll lose a stone and then you’ll have other things that make you feel not good enough. Or you won’t see yourself like that, it’s all psychological. I stopped waiting to arrive years ago when I saw how quickly life can be taken away from you.”

On how she manages to stay so upbeat and positive now, Katie revealed some simple tricks.

“It’s personal responsibility. Don’t read every single post, blog, news and clickbait, because you will feel doomed. And know it’s a bit of an inside job, you’ve got to work on yourself, read the right books, use affirmations, cut people out if necessary and know that you are this ongoing project. Everything you put in, you get out.

“I’ve always been massive on exercise, so I always try and get that ratio right… I love a glass of wine, I love a drink, but too much alcohol is a depressant. If I do drink every night, I won’t get up and go for my run, and I know that running is my therapy.

“I go do a 5k, 10k, then I’ll turn that into fundraising for my charity. In your 40s you know your triggers, and your vices, and you know the balance of how it should be in your life.”

Katie is now working with Dove on their new all body deodorant campaign, which recently found research to discover there is often a ‘bail window’ for people who cancel on plans late in the day because they don’t feel fresh.

“So many people have this misconception about what confidence is and isn’t. Now we know it’s not the loudest person in the room who is the most confident. And this is about creating a toolkit, it’s about turning up as the best version of you, and personal hygiene as one of those things. We talk about dry shampoo for our hair, or doing our make-up, but the conversation hasn’t gone into having a full body freshen-up,” she said.

“Last year I was hitting that bail window, my day starts so early I’m up at 5.30, and I have to honour all of the commitments that are contracted, then after dinner drinks or meet up with friends, you think, ‘I’ll just reschedule it’.

“I made myself a promise this year that… I’ve had years where I’ve invested in my health, and ones where I’ve focused on my career, or invested in motherhood. But when have I invested in friendships and connections? I foolishly always think that they will always be there and I can reschedule, and I think that’s kind of wrong. So this has been the year of trying to not bail!”

Katie Piper has partnered with Dove Whole Body Deodorant to give Brits a confidence-boosting refresh to help them beat the “evening bail” precisely when they need it most.