Mary Byrne is renowned as an X Factor legend.
The former Tesco worker shot to stardom when she appeared on season 7 of the hit ITV programme back in 2010. Mary won over the judges with a stunning rendition of I (Who Have Nothing) and sailed through to the live shows where she was mentored by Louis Walsh.
The Dublin singer was aged 51 at the time and participated against acts such as Matt Cardle, Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction. Mary received the backing of her employer who launched a campaign for all staff to support her and she progressed through to the semi-final.
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She was eventually voted off by the judges in the showdown, who chose Cher Lloyd to progress to the final - meaning she finished in 5th place. She continued to forge a successful career in music following her stint on the show and signed a record deal with Sony Music Ireland and released debut album, Mine & Yours.
Mary released a follow up album titled ...With Love a year later in 2012 - and has since released two more albums of covers. Mary has also toured the country in musicals and recently played a starring role in Dirty Dusting.
Mary is now aged 62 - and the singer underwent a weight loss transformation since she first appeared on the X Factor. Mary weighed just under 21 stone when she participated on the ITV show and has now shed just under six stone. She told the Irish Mirror in 2020 that her daughter inspired her lifestyle change.
She said: "I looked at the picture of me on the show and me now and I honestly was shocked. Because it has happened gradually over the decade I guess I haven’t noticed it as much but yes, it is a shocking amount of weight loss.
“For me it was just a journey to get healthier and to live longer and to be there for my daughter Deborah. I was just under 21 stone on the show and I am now just over 15 stone.
“I still have a bit to go though, I want to lose two more stone before I can feel like I have reached the new me. But I know now that I will get there because I have realised how far I have come now.”
Mary appeared on an episode of Loose Women in 2018 when she was in the process of her weight loss journey and had dropped four and half stone. She also debuted a short blonde hair style on the programme - and host Kay Adams gushed as Mary showed off her look.
She said: "Your hair looks fabulous, your skin looks fabulous!"
Mary has opened up about her battle with depression and said she suffered a dark few months at the beginning of the pandemic when she stopped taking antidepressants against her doctor's recommendations. She told Woman's Way magazine in 2021: “It hit me like a ton of bricks. I just remember feeling like I had a hole in my stomach, an emptiness that I couldn’t fill no matter what I did.”
Mary recovered from her dark period and said she is "floating with positivity". She credits an encounter with a pharmacist as saving her life. She said: "Her name is Ramona. On the day that I was thinking of doing something silly to myself, I remember walking down the road looking over towards the chemist.
"Something dragged me over there to that girl. She was behind the counter and I just burst into tears. She spoke to me with the most gentle of voices and told me I was okay and that I’d get through this.”
She added: "This whole experience has made me realise that I’m a very strong girl. My positivity is so high at the moment. I’m floating with confidence. I have lots of love that I want to give out to everyone."
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