It was just before a family holiday in Greece that I admitted to myself that my husband gave me the ick.

At home in Warwick, Luke was trying on some outfits that he’d bought, and I just had to turn away.

After 15 years together, many women in my position would be struggling to find their husband sexy due to him developing a midlife dad bod.

My issue was quite the opposite. It’s since Luke started using Ozempic in March 2023 that I’ve found him repellent.

As he admired his reflection in his new size-small polo shirts – he used to wear an XXL – I was put in mind of a Lego man, with a head too big for his puny body.

Once a strapping 6ft 3in rugby player, since he’s started weight-loss medication he’s lost over seven stone, now weighing just under 12st.

And it’s not just his body. With sunken cheeks and his hair thinning as a side-effect of the jab, he now looks a decade older. We’re both 43, but he could easily pass for being mid-50s.

Sex is tricky too. Although we’re still intimate – mainly out of wifely duty – his arms feel like pipe cleaners around me, not the sexy, strong arms that used to make me feel so feminine.

In fact, weighing 14st myself, I worry I’ll squash his skinny, emasculated body.

When we first started dating 15 years ago, aged 28, Luke was so attractive. Playing rugby weekly in a local league, he was around 13st 7lb and looked gorgeous.

At the time I was the slimmest I’ve ever been at a size 14-16, but as we became more content together, the nights in with a takeaway increased, and the weight crept on for us both. When we had our two children, the pounds crept on again.

He had to give up rugby in his early thirties after an injury. Without the regular exercise – we both work in education – the weight piled on and he tried everything: Slimming World, Clean 9, Weight Watchers and the obesity drug Orlistat, which works in a different way from fat jabs, acting locally in the gut to stop dietary fat breaking down.

He could never keep the weight off. Still, I always found him attractive, even at his largest, around 21st. Then, just over three years ago, Luke bumped into a relative who had lost a lot of weight and looked fabulous. She admitted she had fat jabs to thank. He researched them and came to the conclusion that the risk of a heart attack if he remained fat was greater than the risk of side-effects.

Having bought a course privately via an online pharmacy, within weeks of starting them in early 2023, he’d lost over a stone. When I saw his results, I decided to give Ozempic a go myself as I’d reached 16st and a size 20. It didn’t last long though, as the drug made me sick and shaky.

By summer 2024, Luke had lost around 4st. He looked healthy and weighed around 15st 7lb, which was perfect for his build and stature. Friends and family were quite rightly showering him with compliments.

But he was determined to shed the same amount again – which he now has, weighing in at just under 12st.

When his dramatic weight loss began to turn my stomach last year, initially, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I mean, how do you tell your husband of 12 years that you don’t find him attractive any more, especially as he tells me he feels so much better?

During our Greek holiday last August, I did admit to him I thought he’d looked far better when he’d lost around 4st than he did having lost more than 7st. He was a bit hurt but reminded me his priority was his health. 

Recently, I bit the bullet and told him his new body was giving me the ick. A family friend had messaged me to ask if Luke was OK as she thought he looked terribly unwell – so I repeated this to him at home that evening.

‘She’s right,’ I told him. ‘You don’t look well – or attractive.’

But he didn’t seem fazed. As far as he’s concerned, he’s healthier and he couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks of his appearance – even his wife.

When he gained a stone last Christmas, having decided to enjoy the festive treats, his sister told him: ‘You look great, you don’t look dead any more!’ Still, he rapidly lost the weight again.

Thank goodness he doesn’t want to lose more weight. He’s mostly come off the jabs now, instead micro-dosing Ozempic if he gains a few pounds.

Still, meal times remain tricky. Instead of sitting down to eat as a family each evening, he eats different food from the kids and me, like plain chicken and vegetables. He also eats lots of eggs, which make him gassy and leave his breath smelling like sulphur. Not exactly an aphrodisiac.

You might think I’m insecure or jealous of his weight loss. But even though I’m the fat one now, I think I’m the more attractive of us. While Luke really wants me to lose a bit more weight for my own health, he tells me he still fancies me as much as ever and initiates sex regularly. I don’t instigate intimacy any more, though, which means we don’t have sex quite as often as we did.

Am I closing my eyes and thinking of another man when we do? Yes, but that man happens to be Luke, just with a little more meat on his bones.

Lauren Piccerd is a pseudonym. Names and any identifying details have been changed.

As told to Sadie Nicholas.