EastEnders' Jo isn't planning post-baby crash diet

EastEnders' Jo isn't planning post-baby crash diet
EastEnders' Jo isn't planning post-baby crash diet (Image credit: UK Press/Press Association Image)

EastEnders star Jo Joyner is in no rush to shed her baby weight after giving birth to twins. The actress, who plays Tanya Branning in the soap, and her husband Neil Madden welcomed Freddie and Edie six weeks ago after undergoing IVF. She told OK! magazine: "I'm so grateful to my body for what it's given me that I'm not going to do anything drastic to it. "I was 44in around the waist the day before I went in, so I haven't worried about it yet. "I'll do something, but the weight will come off gradually, if I can stop eating chocolate, but at the moment I need some kind of treat." The 32-year-old said her personal trainer will come up with a plan, but it will be something 'gentle', such as Pilates. Jo also told how she and Neil are operating a 'shift' system, so they each grab about four hours' sleep while the other tends to the babies. "With this shift work you have to say to each other: 'I'll see you in a year.' I go to bed at 9pm and Neil brings them in at 1am and sleeps in the spare room. That way we both get at least four hours. Then we meet for breakfast at 6am in the kitchen and catch up about the previous night."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.