'Operation Transformation celebrities must strip down to lycra like all the rest' - Kathryn

TV3's Elaine Crowley.

katherine lynch

Karl Spain

Gerald Kean

thumbnail: TV3's Elaine Crowley.
thumbnail: katherine lynch
thumbnail: Karl Spain
thumbnail: Gerald Kean
Melanie Finn

Kathryn Thomas has said the celebrities on Operation Transformation will be treated "exactly the same" as the team leaders on the regular version.

And she revealed that they will have to strip down to their lycra shorts for the dreaded weekly weigh-in and won't be given any special treatment.

"It's the same rule as for everybody else. You can either choose to wear your lycra belly-top or your lycra vest and shorts but they're in the lycra for sure," she told the Herald.

She also said that far from showing any Diva-style behaviour, the five celebrities have already bonded on the RTE programme.

Taking part in the first celebrity version are Gerald Kean, Elaine Crowley, Brenda Donoghue, Katherine Lynch and Karl Spain.

"I was hoping they would be pulling the hair out of each other by now but honestly, they get on so well together and now they've really gelled as a group.

"I think they're going to find real support in each other. They're already becoming quite solid mates, so that's good.

"The plan starts this week, so the guys were on Miriam O'Callaghan last Saturday, absolutely bricking it, God love them. Elaine Crowley was going, 'What have I signed up to?'

"But I was telling them, just be honest. It's really scary at first, it's really intimidating. You will want to back out the first two or three days and then something happens.

"You find support in the public and that brings massive energy and massive confidence. So I hope that happens with the celebs, too," she said.

"It's a very brave thing for them to do, to be very honest and stripped back, quite literally," Kathryn added.