Peter Kay has revealed that he tried and failed at Slimming World and WeightWatchers groups in Bolton – and locals claim that since their home-town hero’s weightloss journey succeeded he has become increasingly reclusive.
The megastar, 52, rarely leaves the house and one neighbour has suggested that in shedding several stone he may also lost some of his comedy magic.
But his legions of fans will undoubtedly vehemently disagree because his sell out Better Late Than Never Again tour has been yet another unprecedented success for arguably Britain’s greatest living comic.
Over the past week Mr Kay has launched a TV and radio PR blitz where he revealed that profits from his 2026 gigs will go to 12 cancer charities. Among those to benefit are the Teenage Cancer Trust, Kidney Cancer UK, Blood Cancer UK, Bowel Cancer UK and Prostate Cancer UK.
And fellow proud Boltonians, who had loved seeing him on the street or at the local Co-op, hope that they will start to see a lot more of Peter again almost a decade after he vanished from the public eye for ‘unforeseen family’ reasons.
The family mansion where Peter and his wife Susan live with sons Charlie, 21, and Finley, 19, is less than ten minutes’ drive from the much more humble property he was raised in, which he so lovingly describes in his stand-up shows.
Shop worker Emily Wright, 22, who was out walking her family’s dog, told the Daily Mail that Peter is never seen out and about.
‘He’s a real recluse’, she said.
‘You never see Peter, which is a real shame. We’re very proud of him in Bolton. The house has lots of CCTV and fences around the place. He obviously likes his privacy and doesn’t want to be bothered’.
Another neighbour said: ‘I just wish we saw more of him’.
Some have pondered whether he no longer nips to the supermarket to help him avoid eating the wrong foods.
He revealed on Radio 2 last night how his food addiction saw him throw junk food in the bin out of guilt and shame while dieting – only to dig it out again from the liner to eat it.
Peter went on to explain that his bad eating habits date back to when he was a child – with his beloved mother Deirdre bringing him in pies to primary school for him to eat.
The superstar comedian is a hero locally because, despite being worth at least £50million, he is clear that he wouldn’t dream of leaving his home town.
He is in the top five grossing stand-up comedians in the world, with each show bringing in around £800,000 alone in ticket sales in the biggest venues.
The most recent accounts for his businesses show a healthy financial picture for Kay and his family.
Equity in his Oldham-based business Good Night Vienna Productions was valued at £25.35million last year.
The value of his other company, Hussein Traders Ltd, rose from £9.4million to £11.5million in 2024. The business also has £21.5million in investments.
Sources close to the star have said he has a deep pride about his roots in Bolton. He other passion is Ireland, where his beloved mother Deirdre hails from, and where he spent a large chunk of the pandemic in his second home.
His Bolton mansion has grown in size over the 15 years or so since they bought it – as have the trees and fences around it – as Peter and his family have grown increasingly private.
Peter’s life has changed hugely from his humble beginnings – and more recently, so has his frame.
Speaking about it for the first time on Radio 2 last night, the comedian revealed to friend and fellow Boltonian Sara Cox how he’d tried – and failed – to lose weight at everything from local slimming groups to gym sessions.
He did not reveal how he cracked it, leading to online speculation that he has joined the millions who have used weightloss jabs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.
One woman neighbour said that this journey has also coincided with an intensely private period in his life.
‘I’ve only seen his once in all the time we’ve lived here’, she said.
‘Some workmen came to the house and he came down to the gate to let them in. He looked round and then went straight back in.
‘Peter really does keep himself to himself. I don’t think he’s been to the local pub or anything.
‘It’s a shame as he comes across as very friendly on the telly’, adding: ‘He’s lost a lot of weight – I think he was funnier when he had a few more pounds on mind.’
Another neighbour said: ‘You see his wife coming and going and sometimes his son – but not him.
‘I’ve seen him once in about five years. He opened the door for a visitor but then went straight back in.
‘It’s a shame as I think he’s very funny and he seems to have a genuine heart although he has had a few run-ins with fans at his shows recently.
‘But all comedians do have a bit of an edge and I’m sure he’s no different.
‘I just wish we saw more of him round here.’
Peter Kay is reaching the end of a mammoth comeback tour – which began in December 2022 and will run until February 2026.
On the first night almost exactly four years ago, he broke down in tears.
It marked an extraordinary return to stage when he vanished from the public eye.
During his hiatus from TV and stand-up, there were false rumours online the Phoenix Nights star had passed away.
But happily the unsubstantiated online conspiracy theory about his death were shattered when in 2022 he announced a new sell-out tour that is still going on.
Away from gig venues, the TV comic spends most of his time behind the gates of his six-bed detached mansion in his hometown of Bolton.
Worth around £1million – a snip to Peter who has accumulated a huge fortune but insists he is not motivated by money. When he launched his 2022 tour he froze many tickets at £35 – the price he charged in 2010.
He and his wife don’t drive new cars and there is no apparent ostentation.
Neighbours say that they’ve lived there for around 15 years and in the early days did a lot on the house. They describe him a great ambassador for Bolton.
He undertakes community fundraisers: in 2017 he performed at the Blackpool Opera House in aid of the Polly Haydock Appeal – a cancer treatment fund which aimed to send a mother from Bolton to Germany for pioneering immunotherapy treatment. Sadly she died a few months later.
The following year he hosted a charity screening of his show Car Share to raise money for The Lily Foundation, which helps children with mitochondrial disease.
In an interview in 2009, he explained: ‘I like to be low-profile and keep my head down. I still go up to the Co-op Late Shop for a bottle of Tizer. Staying in Bolton has been hugely important for me. Every street is a memory or a story for me. This is my home.’
He said: ‘Sometimes your work can become your life and real life can take a back seat but, for me, it’s the other way round; where I live and my family are my life.’
Wife Susan is his pre-fame sweetheart and they were married in 2001, just after his hit show Phoenix Nights started transmission.
They met as teenagers, and she used to work in the local branch of Boots.
And it’s family which really drives him. It was revealed in 2011 that a helicopter was booked to bring him home every night to Bolton after he had performed in The Tour That Didn’t Tour – Tour, whisking him home from London, Newcastle and Birmingham so that he could do the school run in the morning.
‘Being a dad is just brilliant and fantastic. You can’t put it into words what it’s like. I’ve met so many older actors and comedians who’ve told me they wished they’d spent as much time with their kids as they did chasing the money,’ he once said.
‘I didn’t want to be away for weeks on end. I would have regretted being stuck in London on the phone to my family every night saying, “I’ll be home soon”. That would have outweighed any joy I had doing the show.’
He also said that being away for even four nights would be ‘torture.’
Kay’s only material indulgence is a house in Ireland, where his mother is from.
Bought in 2005, the holiday home is close to Lough Derg, a freshwater lake in the Shannon River Basin, which has shores in counties Clare, Galway and Tipperary.
He said in 2017: ‘We used to come over a lot and see the family and drive around so I said why don’t we get a house. We give Christmas a miss because the house is freezing.’
Peter’s father, Michael, was an engineer and his mother, Deirdre, a housewife, originally from County Tyrone. There was no showbusiness in his family.
Born on July 2, 1973, Peter was educated by nuns at his local Catholic school, Mount St Joseph, but was not a success academically, gaining a sole O-level in art.
His parents divorced, amicably, and he appears to have been fairly popular at school. He got onto a BA course in Drama, Theatre Studies and English Literature after fibbing about his qualifications, and then went to the Adelphi College in Salford, where he studied for an HND in media performance.
It was here that he tried stand-up for the first time – and loved it.
Over the four years from 1996 to 2000 he worked incessantly, playing 500 clubs. To make ends meet he took jobs as a mobile disc jockey, cinema usher, loo-roll packer, shelf-stacker at Spar, in a cash & carry, video shop and Mecca Bingo bar.
His first break on television was in The Services – set in a service station outside Bolton – for Channel 4. It was followed by the spoof documentary series That Peter Kay Thing, and then the highly successful Phoenix Nights, in which Kay played wheelchair-bound Brian Potter, owner of The Phoenix Club in Bolton.
Phoenix Nights was followed by the spin-off Max & Paddy’s Road To Nowhere, about the club’s bouncers.
His tours were the most successful in UK comic history, his book sold more than any other hardback autobiography.
Continued sales of his DVDs – which have sold more than ten million copies – and another tour in 2010 helped to keep the money pouring in.
He also started to enjoy the friendship of some of his heroes, chat-show host Michael Parkinson and comedian Billy Connolly. Even Ronnie Barker was happy to exchange letters.
Kay sent him a nail file in a Soreen malt loaf – a reference to Barker’s role as convict Fletcher in Porridge. Barker wrote back in character, and Kay was utterly thrilled.
Then in 2017, his Have Gags, Will Travel tour was abruptly cancelled, leaving everyone baffled and concerned.
A statement released to X, formerly Twitter, read: ‘Due to unforeseen family circumstances, I deeply regret that I am having to cancel all of my upcoming work projects.
‘This, unfortunately, includes my upcoming stand-up tour, Dance For Life shows and any outstanding live work commitments. My sincerest apologies. This decision has not been taken lightly, and I’m sure you’ll understand my family must always come first.’
It came after Peter had released the final season of another mega-hit, Car Share, with his friend Sian Gibson.
Then after years of quiet, in 2022, a social media post appeared and revealed he was making his stand-up comeback.
And then he lost a lot of weight.
Peter last night opened up about his dramatic weight loss for the first time after years of ‘trying everything’ amid his lifelong battle with binge eating.
The comedian, 52, surprised fans when he returned to the spotlight last year sporting a much slimmer frame following a five-year absence.
He’d tried everything from slimming groups, gym sessions to his mum’s Rosemary Conley keep fit videos in a desperate bid to get a grip on his weight.
Speaking at an In Conversation With… event hosted by Sara Cox at The Lowry theatre in Salford, which aired on BBC Radio 2 on Monday night, Peter said he had finally made the change over concerns for his health.
‘I tried everything. Good God in heaven. I mean, you go to flaming weight-loss groups and stuff like that. I joined Slimming World and WeightWatchers. I did all of them.’
He also reflected on the key moment that made him realise he had a binge eating problem after sneaking out of the cinema where he was watching a film with his wife Susan.
Peter described how he lied about going to the toilet only to leave the screening to eat a hotdog: ‘I was doing really well with this diet, but I’m so bad with willpower. I had this hotdog and I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in, ironically, a framed poster for Babe.
‘I thought, look at you – what are you doing? You’re doing really well on this diet, you should be ashamed of yourself.’
He added that as he threw it into the bin he grabbed it back just before it hit the binliner and still ate it.
