Ed Balls admitted to donning a bikini, but said he looked’really fantastic’ before going even more TMI about wearing a mankini.
The lawmaker, 56, appeared alongside Good Morning Britain broadcaster Susanna Reid, who pushed viewers to get cervical cancer tests, claiming they were less unpleasant than a “bikini wax.”
‘Cervical smears, for some people who are put off by the thought they might be painful,’ she explained.
The 52-year-old went on: ‘I would say there are beauty treatments, including bikini waxes, which are more painful than cervical smears, so go and have your smear.’
‘I don’t feel able to comment on that one,’ Ed replied.
‘I’ve never worn a bikini,’ he then said, before correcting himself that it ‘wasn’t true’.
‘Is Ed about to make a confession here about a bikini?’ journalist Andrew Pierce probed.
Ed then confessed: ‘I was once Sharon Davis in a swimsuit competition for charity.’
When asked if there was any photographic documentation of the incident, Ed said, ‘I don’t know!’
‘We’ll find them,’ Susanna said – and her promise didn’t fail.
Ed then turned serious, saying: ‘I’ve got to say, I looked really good.’
Susanna was surprised later in the show when photographs of Ed in a mankini emerged on TV.
‘Has it been censored?’ she checked, before the image appeared on screen – but it wasn’t what anyone was expecting.
In fact, it wasn’t Ed in a swimsuit, but having a ‘big daddy moment’ in his wrestling look.
‘Luckily, you’re not showing the bottom half!’ he quipped.
‘Is that an AI mock-up?’ Susanna laughed.
Ed confessed that his children forbade him from wearing such look sans boxer shorts because it was “too revealing.”
‘I had not shaved or anything,’ he admitted, in a TMI confession.
‘For those who say too early… you’re not wrong,’ Susanna replied.
‘It’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving!’
Susanna has recently emphasised the need of mammograms in addition to advising people to have their pap smears.
She previously stated that Sarah Ferguson’s breast cancer diagnosis was a ‘wake-up call’ for her to schedule an appointment earlier this year.
She recalled overcoming various practical ‘hurdles’ to make her appointment in June, after eventually ‘getting around to it’.
She later shared an update about the event, which included a few difficulties, saying, ‘It was slightly stressful.’
She went on: ‘I went in, and the nurse was absolutely lovely, and it wasn’t in the least bit painful or uncomfortable.
‘I was expecting it to be far, far worse.’
‘So if you have been putting it off for that reason, please don’t. Go and get your mammogram done,’ she urged.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.
