Becoming a mother changed my life – sexiness isn’t just nipples and bikinis, says Emily Atack
SHE has just stripped off for raunchy TV series Rivals, and now Emily Atack reckons it is time we all started celebrating sexiness.
The former lads’ mag pin-up, who plays a game of naked tennis in the Jilly Cooper-inspired show, says she is tired of the idea women are “either sexy and gorgeous, or funny and smart” — but “can’t be both”.
New mum Emily, 34, said: “You can be both, and celebrating sexiness doesn’t have to be such a seedy, awful thing.
“You can celebrate sexiness in a really empowering, uplifting, positive way without being a f***ing pervert.
“It’s like, you’re allowed to appreciate a sexy woman, and sexiness shouldn’t just be about being in a bikini.
“It’s about who you are as a person and being kind, being nice, being funny.
“We’ve been sold this message that sexiness only means nipples through your shirt and being in your pants with no cellulite on your ass.
“The sexiest thing, surely, in the world is being able to, I don’t know, grow a child inside you and then, afterwards, have the scars to prove it and be like, ‘I did this, I’m a f***ing boss bitch’.
“Like, that’s sexy. And the confidence to be able to do that and the confidence to be a mother and still go out there, still work and feel confident and sexy in yourself — that’s sexy.
“It’s just we’ve been drip fed our whole lives into thinking what sexiness means.”
‘Baps out’
The former Inbetweeners actress plays fiercely ambitious Sarah Stratton in the eight-part drama Rivals, currently streaming on Disney+.
Her bouffant-haired Eighties character is determined to rise to the top at the cut-throat, fictional TV station Corinium, where she works as a presenter.
She has few qualms about flirting with the power-crazed boss, Lord Tony Baddingham, who is played by David Tennant, or stripping down to her underwear to seduce married co-star James Vereker, played by Oliver Chris.
And in one scene, Sarah is caught in a game of naked tennis with her lover, ladies’ man and Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell, in the grounds of his sprawling Cotswolds estate.
Emily says that when the writers sent her the script, she was “genuinely” more worried about learning to play tennis than being in the buff.
She told the Great Company podcast: “I will run around that tennis court with my baps out for as long as they will have me doing it.
“I’ll do take after take until it is right, because it’s an integral part to the story. It’s such an important scene.”
Luton-born Emily — who is the daughter of actress Kate Robbins and musician Keith Atack, and the first cousin twice removed of musician Paul McCartney — shot to fame aged 17 as lovable girl-next-door Charlotte in The Inbetweeners.
The sexiest thing, surely, in the world is being able to, I don’t know, grow a child inside you and then, afterwards, have the scars to prove it and be like, ‘I did this, I’m a f***ing boss bitch’
Emily Atak
She frequently posed for lads’ mags such as FHM and says she got upset when she was accused of “flaunting” her figure early in her career.
Emily said: “It was confusing, because I was very happy to do those photoshoots, for example FHM. I was so proud of that.
“And I would go to those photoshoots and have the best day. My mum would come with me, I’d be given a lovely lunch.
“I worked with all these amazing photographers and had these lovely people around me — the best. Honestly, those shoots were so fun.
“Some people didn’t have, you know, great experiences.
“But I can only speak from personal experience. I was so happy, living my best life, celebrating my youth, my body, because I’m never going to look like that again. I was happy to celebrate that.
I was so happy, living my best life, celebrating my youth, my body, because I’m never going to look like that again. I was happy to celebrate that
Emily Atak
“At the time, that was the normal thing to do. You have a show coming out, you promote your work, you get your kit off and you do a front page of FHM — and I was fine with that.”
Emily went on to compete in Dancing On Ice in 2010, appear alongside actors Harvey Keitel and Gabriel Byrne in the 2017 Brit flick Lies We Tell, and was runner-up on I’m A Celebrity in 2018.
But in her personal life, Emily said last year that she struggled with loneliness and being single, and that she cried herself to sleep.
That all changed when she fell in love with nuclear scientist Dr Alistair Garner, 39.
She had known him for most of her life, but they only started dating last year.
Now, she and “Al” have a four-month-old son, Barney.
Asked what she looks for in a man, Emily said: “There’s two types of people in life.
“There’s the partner that comes in and tries to wake you up and rustles around and bangs things and bangs drawers, going, ‘You’re going to get up now, you’re going to get up now’.
“Or there’s the partner that just lets you sleep until 11am and says, ‘You just go back to sleep’, and that is the person you should stay with.”
Emily, who revealed this week that she struggled with breastfeeding, loved being pregnant.
But the actress, who last year presented BBC Two documentary Asking for It?, about sexual consent, noticed that men treated her differently while she was expecting.
She said: “Let me tell you, when you’re pregnant, you ain’t being wolf-whistled at any more. You’re completely desexualised.”
Pressure to stay slim
After giving birth, Emily revealed she did feel pressure to get her body back in shape.
She said: “You get home and the first thing people say to you is, ‘When are you going to get back in the gym?’. What do you mean, when am I going to get back in the gym? I’ve just created a human. Why would I put myself through the gym right now?”
Emily gained weight after her son was born, mainly because, she says, she could compete on Mastermind if the subject was “North London takeaways”.
She reveals she just wanted to be the best mum possible — and to be applauded for that — instead of working out.
And she insists it is vital to be able to have a Chinese takeaway without “feeling like a horrible slob” the next morning, or tormenting yourself for not constantly counting calories.
It was only when Emily started working in television that she felt the pressure to stay slim.
I’ve always had such a healthy relationship with eating that I’ve never, ever had an issue with it. Then, when I got the role of Charlotte in The Inbetweeners, everybody started commenting on my weight
Emily Atak
Even as a slender size eight, she was described as “curvy” by online trolls.
She said: “I’ve always had such a healthy relationship with eating that I’ve never, ever had an issue with it.
“Then, when I got the role of Charlotte in The Inbetweeners, everybody started commenting on my weight.
“I remember there was a whole Facebook page dedicated to me — to Charlotte — but I just couldn’t believe how awful it was.
“People talking about my weight, saying, ‘At least we’re seeing curvier girls now playing sexier roles on television’. People were saying I was sexy and beautiful, but then some people were saying I was fat and ugly. It’s so confusing, because I was like, ‘I don’t really know who I am any more!’.”
Thankfully that confusion has now lifted and she is just happy to be herself.