Latest news with #UlrikaJonsson
Times
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Feel the burn: Ulrika Jonsson's tan has become a hot topic
It was when I saw on my daughter's Instagram feed a video that suggested changing the name of toasters to 'sunbeds for bread', in which young women admired golden slices of toast as an ideal facial aesthetic, that I knew something very strange had happened in the world of tanning. This isn't just a fad, it's a burning issue. Ulrika Jonsson, the TV presenter, has posted on her Instagram account to address unkind comments about her recent appearance. Jonsson was seen on YouTube with a deep tan, around Yorkshire Tea on the Trump tan tint colour swatch. To achieve this with her fair Scandinavian genotype she has to put in the hours. Not only does Jonsson use sunbeds in winter, she wrote, but she likes the sun on her skin in summer. 'I'm not ashamed to say that I am a sun worshipper,' Jonsson wrote. 'And will no doubt pay the price for that.' Jonsson, 57, was receiving flak for the ageing effect this has on her face. 'I understand that an over-tanned, imperfect and AGEING face offends you,' she wrote. But in terms of her joyful dedication to solar radiation, she was in fact ageing in reverse. Generation Z girls have ditched the safe fake tan of their mothers and joined an ancient and dangerous sun cult whose last-known practitioners died out in the 1980s, embalmed in Hawaiian Tropic. Ulrika Jonsson Sunbed use is on the rise, sunbathing is on the rise, melanomas are on the rise, the whole package holiday. If you need any convincing, ask a teenage or early twentysomething girl what the UV index is. I'll wait. My life had been utterly untroubled by the UV index. In fact I hadn't even noticed when it appeared on the weather forecast in the early 2000s. It was put there to warn the public of the days when the sun's rays were at their most carcinogenic. Now the British UV index is as old as the only people who obsess on it: young women. But in a development that is in some respects quite funny, they have weaponised it for evil. For Gen Z girls, the UV index is an unholy tool in which good is bad and bad is good. TikTok is now full of videos — some deadly serious, some satirical — about the need to intently track the UV index 'like it is the stock market and you are a day trader'. When the UV index reaches a ten, meaning there is a high risk of burning for white skin, the videos show girls cheering and running outdoors in their bikinis. Fake tan is deemed such an inferior substitute that girls apply it while wearing swimwear, carefully taping off the lines of their bikinis to make sure no one would guess they are doing anything the safe way. What does it mean? In the 1960s young people innocently sacrificed their health to big tobacco because smoking was cool. Same as in the 1980s, when I tanned to burn, rotating on my beach towel like a doner kebab. Yet now we know the risks, doing it anyway becomes more interesting. Sunburn is more carcinogenic the younger it hits. Skin cancer is now the third most common cancer among British women aged 15 to 44, according to Cancer Research UK. Melanoma is 2.6 times higher in women aged 20 to 24 than in men in the same age range. A long-term study on nurses published in Cancer Epidemiology in 2014 found that five bad sunburns between the age of 15 and 20 increased risk of melanoma by 80 per cent. Yet the UK's biggest tanning chain, the Tanning Shop, has increased its number of premises by almost 40 per cent since 2018. • The best self-tanners for summer 2025 — and how to apply them You don't need me to tell you all this. The evidence is clear and I'm not your mother. I am, however, a mother to a teenage girl. I am a regretful and reformed factor 50 zealot who creeps around in the shadows. Her friends, meanwhile, live in the light. I remind her that I am the wrinkled ghost — complete with a spooky white sunblock mask — of Christmas future. Her generation remind me of many things. Teenagers are designed to rebel: see the TikTok video of a teenage girl with a huge smile, captioned 'how it feels to tan when there's no rat in my ear telling me I'm going to get skin cancer' (to be clear, I'm the rat). Smoking remained cool for young people in the 1980s even when we had full knowledge of the risks. All the warnings targeted at young people missed the point. It wasn't cool despite the risks, it was cool because of the risks. Telling teens that smoking was dangerous was its best advert. And in a similar vein to big tobacco, we now have big sun: smoking's wizened brown lungs have been swapped out for wizened brown skin. Same for lectures from tan-phobic parents like me: they are all part of tanning's appeal. Tanning, like smoking before it, provides an addictive hit of youthful invincibility, like drugs or fast motorbikes. If you're neither going to die nor get old, why worry about wrinkles? Gen Z's tanning and ever-younger use of anti-ageing treatments such as Botox seems strangely contradictory. Yet in practice it is consistent. It's about looking good now. Those tanorexic elderly nudists with bits like beef jerky are of no relevance to them. • A 2022 study in the journal Genes asked nearly 4,000 white British 25-year-olds about tanning. More than half said they 'liked to tan', with 90 per cent saying their favourite way was outdoors in the sun. Their top three reasons were in descending order 'it makes you happier', 'it gives you more confidence' and 'it makes you look better in photos'. Looking 'thinner with a tan' came in at number five. Only a fifth said they had not had a painful sunburn lasting a day or more in the last two years. In the US mainstream politics is more into sunning itself. Donald Trump has so far remained silent on how he achieves his trademark skin tone. A White House official said in 2019 that it was the result of 'good genes'. But Unhinged, a memoir by the former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, claimed that Trump had a tanning bed in the White House. Robert F Kennedy Jr, America's mahogany health secretary, believes in tanning. He was photographed leaving a Washington DC tanning salon last month. His plan to 'Make America Healthy Again', released in May, is unusual in not mentioning sunburn, one of the major lifestyle factors causing the rise in young people's cancer. Instead, in October Kennedy tweeted that the US Food and Drug Administration's 'aggressive suppression' of 'sunshine' would end under his reign. I'm joking about big sun but, in a way, we do all live in the shadow of big sun — or rather, what feels like an ever hotter sun in our warming planet. 'I'm a solar panel,' one sunbathing young woman joked on social media. This generation of young people are perhaps unique in their gloominess about the long-term future. If measures to cool the planet aren't being taken, why bother taking measures to stop your skin burning? We may all burn one way or another. The Kennedy rhetoric here is appealing: maybe, hopefully, the scientists have it wrong about the dangers of the sun in every way. Or if they don't, if we are all going to fry, why not go down with a beautiful tan that will look great in the photos? 'My name is Christa and I admit it — I'm a lifelong tanorexic' By Christa D'Souza Christa D'Souza CHRISTA D'SOUZA/INSTAGRAM Poor Ulrika. Folks do like to have a go, don't they? It takes a tanorexic to know one and yes, as someone born in 1960, that is what I am. If you were a teen in the Seventies you probably were too. What exacerbated the addiction — because that is probably what it is — is that I was so terribly good at it. Being of mixed heritage (my dad was Indian) I can almost, as it were, get brown under fluorescent light. When I was a teen it was perfectly normal to want one's face to be the same shade of mahogany as one's body. (Hence putting tin foil up one's nostrils and facing the sun on a deckchair for hours.) It could be raining on holiday and I'd be out there by the pool wanting to be darker. You can never be too rich, too thin or too brown; that was the mantra of the Seventies and though I'm not saying I still hold by that, I'm also saying that I suppose it doesn't sound completely nuts. In one way I wish I'd listened to my mother, who told me summer after summer I was ruining my skin (she herself at 82 has peachy skin. In fact a friendly immigration officer in Pakistan once told her she thought I was the mother, rather than the other way round). But in another it's a price I've always been willing to pay. They say you choose your face or your body. Well, it's crystal clear to any observer which way I swing. Absent of a face transplant or some very, very, very expensive surgery I'm always going to look my age (65). Like Ulrika, I was always destined to be the peach kernel rather than the peach, for which I take full responsibility. My children, who both tend to dress like Shackleton on the beach, are always on at me about it. And I've got the whole season to toast slowly: we live part of the year in Greece, which means there's no rush. Soz, but I love the feeling of the sun on my face too much. And though I'll make some token efforts at the beginning of summer to cream up and wear a hat, ten days in I'll be out there bare-backed, just as I was in my teens and twenties. As for the damage I've wreaked over the years from other bad habits … Like I said, poor Ulrika — and she's only 57, miles younger than me! My advice to her is that she does as I do: keep teetotal, attempt to stay in shape and style it out.
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Feel the burn: Ulrika's tan has become a hot topic
I t was when I saw on my daughter's Instagram feed a video that suggested changing the name of toasters to 'sunbeds for bread', in which young women admired golden slices of toast as an ideal facial aesthetic, that I knew something very strange had happened in the world of tanning. This isn't just a fad, it's a burning issue. Ulrika Jonsson, the TV presenter, has posted on her Instagram account to address unkind comments about her recent appearance. Jonsson was seen on YouTube with a deep tan, around Yorkshire Tea on the Trump tan tint colour swatch. To achieve this with her fair Scandinavian genotype she has to put in the hours. Not only does Jonsson use sunbeds in winter, she wrote, but she likes the sun on her skin in summer. 'I'm not ashamed to say that I am a sun worshipper,' Jonsson wrote. 'And will no doubt pay the price for that.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Spencer Matthews responds to cruel comments about Ulrika Jonsson's appearance on his podcast after she hits back at 'ageist' remarks from trolls
Spencer Matthews Ulrika Jonsson 's appearance on his podcast on Monday. The former reality star, 36, had the TV presenter and model on his Untapped Podcast where she addressed giving up alcohol. However, Ulrika was cruelly trolled for her appearance on the podcast, which is also videoed and released alongside the audio. Previously hitting back, the 57-year-old explained how many of the comments said she was 'over-tanned, imperfect and was ageing'. Ulrika also pointed out how it's tiresome people constantly judge a women's appearance. Now, Spencer has spoken out as he jumped to Ulrika's defence in a social media post to his followers. Sharing a news article about Ulrika's appearance, he said: 'People shouldn't comment on the appearance of others. We stand with Ulrika.' The full statement read: 'We were honoured to have Ulrika Jonsson join Untapped for a powerful, vulnerable, and deeply honest conversation about her journey to sobriety. 'Ulrika's courage in speaking openly - not just abot her drinking, but also about ageing, health and self-acceptance, is exactly the kind of voice we aim to amplify on this platform. She showed up authentically and with no filter, and we're proud to stand alongside her in championing substance over surface. 'The episode is a reminder that true strength lies in honesty - not how we look, but in the actions we take, and what we choose to share. 'We're grateful to Ulrika for doing just that'. Ulrika had said after her appearance on the podcast: 'I feel I need to address something. I don't get a lot of nasty comments - or if I do, I don't see them or send people love in response. 'But a couple of weeks ago I took part in a fab podcast @ to discuss my sobriety with the smart @spencermatthews. 'I wore no make-up. Partly because I kinda forgot that a project for the ears is nowadays also a feast for the eyes. But as someone who has had to wear heavy make-up on screen from 5am for years, I'm not a fan. 'Most crucially tho, since childhood I've suffered from eczema. On my body - the creases of my arms and legs - on my face - eyes and lips. Make-up has always been the enemy because it's been agony to wear. 'There were a lot of positive comments about the WORDS I said on the podcast. But a considerable amount about my tanned appearance. 'AND how OLD I look. In a few weeks I will be 58. I will never look like the fresh 21yr old that used to greet you first thing in the morning by the weather board. 'I'm not ashamed to say that I am a sun worshipper and will no doubt pay the price for that. But UV lamps and salt baths, astringent solutions and creams were a feature of my life since I was a small child. I have uneven pigmentation doubtlessly not helped by ageing. I sometimes use filters in my pics because it's easier than foundation and less painful. 'I work tirelessly in my garden year round and often in the sun. I rarely sunbathe any more. Haven't had a sun bed for 6 months - which I do occasionally in winter months. Not ashamed. 'I have not had a holiday - of any kind - since 2018. That's 7yrs. So, I understand that an over-tanned, imperfect and AGEING face offends you. But try to listen to the words rather than constantly judge women's appearance. You might learn something. And making people feel s**t doesn't make you a hero.' During her appearance on Untapped, Ulrika revealed she gave up drinking 13 months ago and attends three AA meetings away. She admitted she struggled on the first anniversary of her sobriety buts said she was confident it would continue for good. When it comes to sex, Ulrika - who is single - said she wants a lot more, but she admitted she finds men less attractive when sober, and it's harder to end up in bed with someone - but she said when she does it is a better experience. Asked by Spencer on his Untapped podcast if she thought being sober was going to have a negative effect on her sex life, she said: 'Yeah - although I kind of knew that sex sober would be better. 'But of course all your inhibitions go when you've had a drink, so sex becomes easier to sort of facilitate or bring about, or participate in, but the enjoyment side of things is very different when you're sober. 'So that's been quite interesting too. 'I would never have had a date without having one drink. That's the lubricant. That's the social lubricant you just need to ease yourself into a date.'
Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The reaction to Ulrika Jonsson's face has made me terrified of ageing
'She needs to lay off the sunbeds'. 'Madge from Benidorm'. '100-year-old neck of a giraffe'. Just three of the comments on Instagram referencing TV presenter and model Ulrika Jonsson's appearance after her latest podcast appearance, where, among other things, she opened up about her trauma and addiction battles. When a woman does this, I see nothing but bravery and strength. But the rest of the world? Well, apparently, what she looks like is far more important. As a result, I've grown terrified of ageing in today's society. Last week, Ulrika, 57, went on Spencer Matthews' Untapped podcast. She spoke frankly about the challenges she faced in giving up drinking, as well as choosing a life of wellness to be present for both herself and her children. It was an empowering listen. The social media comments, however, were flooded with jibes about her skin, speculating about her age with a mocking tone, and demanding to know 'what happened' to her. Consequently, Ulrika felt compelled to hit back, explaining to her followers that she went makeup-free for the record; hence, her complexion looks different. She also proudly declared that, as she progresses into her late fifties, she 'will never look like the fresh 21yr old [sic] that used to greet you first thing in the morning by the weather board'. Ulrika's clapback was perfect, as she stressed that, yes, her appearance is going to change as she ages, and it would be both naïve and foolish to believe otherwise – but the fact that she felt a need to address it at all proves we have a problem. We live in an era of 'Botox in a bottle' and the invention of new cosmetic procedures every other week. It's impossible to open TikTok without a twenty-something influencer trying to flog a ridiculous skincare device to you or urging you to try an anti-ageing hack with zero scientific backing. Gone are the days of allowing yourself to grow old without injectables or surgery. If you're not panicking about the prospect of going grey or doing what you can to prevent wrinkles, even before you've hit 30, the world wants to know why. As a result, everyone has seemingly forgotten what a normal, ageing face looks like and greets it with horror and disgust each time they're reminded that – if it weren't for fillers, laser treatments, lifts, and tucks – it's completely plausible for them to look like that, too. I'm not judging. I fully support doing what you want with your appearance. I also have a lot of grace for the women, in particular, who are condemning other women for looking older. We live in a deeply misogynistic society where every one of us has been violently chewed up and spat back out by diet culture and unrealistic, unattainable beauty standards. But we need to break this cycle. Because I'm left scared of how I'm going to be treated or talked about if I don't go down the route of tweakments and filtering my pictures as I age. Already, I feel societal pressure to prepare my skin for the future. I wear a daily SPF (which, to be honest, is recommended for protecting against skin cancer) in the hopes that it may also prevent wrinkles. I think I love my daily skincare routine, but I'd be lying if I said I did it wholly for fun. I know that even when it feels like a chore, I press on because I think it's essential for maintaining a youthful appearance for as long as I can. But I don't want to fear getting older. I don't want to feel as though I have an expiry date as a woman and that my value and importance decrease with each passing day. As someone who has fought an eating disorder for 15 years now, as well as almost paralysing bouts of depression and anxiety, I view ageing as a privilege. It is such a blessing to grow older when not everyone gets that chance, and, after once being adamant that I wouldn't survive past high school, each day I live now is a gift. Alas, the rest of the world feels differently and is determined to push back their biological clocks as much as possible, making it all the more agonising to merely exist as someone who has higher priorities than fearing developing frown lines or thinning hair. As women, there are already countless factors working against us – whether that be pay disparity, gender-based violence, slut shaming, or medical negligence. Please, let's stop making life even harder by trying to prevent the inevitable. Ulrika Jonsson is far from the first woman to fall victim to age-shaming, and she certainly won't be the last. Even Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson, 58, isn't safe from backlash when she rocks up to a red carpet without makeup. What's more, glam country music queen Dolly Parton, 79, felt the need to warn Sabrina Carpenter, 26, when they collaborated recently, laughing as she told her in a now-viral clip: 'You'll be this old one day!' Sabrina's response had me tearful, as it represented everything we need to be telling each other: 'I know, I can't wait. I hope I look like you!' There's no age limit on beauty. It both breaks my heart and angers me that older women have been made to feel any different. Now, we need to use Ulrika as a springboard. Allow her words to generate just one conversation about stamping out the narrative that a woman must remain bright-eyed and baby-faced and defy the laws of biology long into her adult life, and how insane that notion is. Let Ulrika's defiant stance towards age-shaming trolls be the antidote to the youth-obsessed influencers. More Trending She's not perfect; no one is suggesting that. As a self-proclaimed sun worshipper, there's no doubt this will have caused premature signs of ageing and avoidable damage to her complexion. But regardless of how often she likes to sunbathe, she shouldn't be slated for looking like a normal 57-year-old woman. Everyone, including me, has become so terrified of ageing that they're no longer enjoying being young. And that's no way to live. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: Charli XCX has made smoking cool again – I wish she hadn't MORE: I'm 30 with no kids, but I'm absolutely obsessed with Bluey MORE: From chlorine to scorching sun, these products will look after your hair on holiday
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ulrika Jonsson hits back at cruel trolls who criticised her looks
Ulrika Jonsson has hit back at cruel trolls who accused her of looking too "tanned" and "old". The 57-year-old TV presenter has admitted she was hurt by the "nasty comments" she received after making a recent appearance on a podcast in which she was not wearing any make-up - warning online haters not to "constantly judge" people by their looks and that "making people feel s*** doesn't make you a hero". In a post on Instagram, she wrote: "I feel I need to address something. I don't get a lot of nasty comments - or if I do, I don't see them or send people love in response. "But a couple of weeks ago I took part in a fab podcast @ to discuss my sobriety with the smart @spencermatthews. "I wore no make-up. Partly because I kinda forgot that a project for the ears is nowadays also a feast for the eyes." Ulrika went on to insist she doesn't like wearing make-up because she spent so many years being primped for her TV appearances and she has also battled skin condition eczema since childhood. She added: "As someone who has had to wear heavy make-up on screen from 5am for years, I'm not a fan. "Most crucially tho, since childhood I've suffered from eczema. On my body - the creases of my arms and legs - on my face - eyes and lips. Make-up has always been the enemy because it's been agony to wear." Ulrika went on to address the trolling she received, writing: "There were a lot of positive comments about the WORDS I said on the podcast. But a considerable amount about my tanned appearance. AND how OLD I look. "In a few weeks I will be 58. I will never look like the fresh 21yr old [sic] that used to greet you first thing in the morning by the weather board. "I'm not ashamed to say that I am a sun worshipper and will no doubt pay the price for that. But UV lamps and salt baths, astringent solutions and creams were a feature of my life since I was a small child. "I have uneven pigmentation doubtlessly not helped by ageing. I sometimes use filters in my pics because it's easier than foundation and less painful. "I work tirelessly in my garden year round and often in the sun. I rarely sunbathe any more. Haven't had a sunbed for 6 months - which I do occasionally in winter months. Not ashamed. "I have not had a holiday - of any kind - since 2018. That's 7yrs. So, I understand that an over-tanned, imperfect and AGEING face offends you. But try to listen to the words rather than constantly judge women's appearance. "You might learn something. And making people feel s*** doesn't make you a hero."
