I might be 54 with cellulite & wobbly tummy, but I’ll still wear a bikini – just like Love Island star daughter Antigoni
Tonia Buxton, TV chef and mum of Love Islander Antigoni, shows off her incredible figure in new swimwear and reveals her secrets to looking so good
GOOD luck to anyone who tries to tell Tonia Buxton, 54, that she is too old to wear a bikini.
The TV chef and mum of former Love Island contestant Antigoni, 26, has no intentions of ditching her two-pieces any age soon.
She is looking incredible in her sixth decade — and refuses to let cellulite, a wobbly tummy and an “old lady bum” stop her from loving life as a curvy size 12.
Tonia lives in North London with architect husband Paul, 57, Antigoni, and their other three children Sophia, 23, and sons Zephyros, 17, and Zeno, 14.
She says: “If anyone had told me at 30 that I’d still be wearing a bikini in my fifties, I’d have said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous’.
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“Now I think, ‘Why would I stop?’ Bikinis make me feel young and I don’t care what anyone thinks. If I fancy it, I’ll walk down the beach in a thong.
“That’s what hits you when you reach your forties and fifties. If I’m happy with it, that is all that matters.
“You don’t suddenly have an old lady mentality when you get older.
“I want to go out with a bang — and I plan to still be wearing a bikini in my nineties. I’ll do another photoshoot to prove it.”
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Tonia says: “In my twenties and thirties I used to think, ‘When I get to my fifties I’m not going to try any more.
“I’m going to get fat and enjoy it. Who needs to put all that effort in?’”
But she adds: “In the Eighties, everyone wanted long, thin legs, but I was a pear-shaped Greek girl and didn’t have the fashionable figure.
“I did silly things like starve myself. When I look back at photos I think, ‘Why did you do that to yourself?’
“Through my teens and during my twenties I thought I was fat, or not the right shape — thin was very very in. I spent the whole time trying to cover up my bum.
“But I then started liking my body more in my thirties. I’d had a couple of kids in my early thirties and wasn’t as obsessed with myself. There were more important things.
“Women are living longer and we should enjoy ourselves as much as we can — and if that means wearing a bikini, then wear it.
“There’s some comfort in wearing a swimming costume — you can let loose a bit. But sometimes you need to wear a bikini to make sure you look after yourself a bit more.
“I try to keep the old lady bum at bay by squatting for two minutes every time I brush my teeth and I do a little bit of something every day that makes me feel good — I walk the dog, try to do yoga.
“I like hot yoga (yoga in a hot, humid room) which is quite chall-enging.
“And I love hanging upside down — which is great for your skin and face, to take the gravity off.
“You have to put the time in but the benefits are worth it.”
Tonia could easily pass for a woman half her age but is full of modesty when asked if she is ever mistaken for her daughter’s sister.
She says: “I don’t know about that. From a distance they might but when you get up close you can see I’m their mum.
“I love wine and I love cheese. All I do is eat — my whole life revolves around eating — but I still want to feel good in myself.
“It’s all about moderation.
“When I do have wine or cheese or cake I’m sure they taste better because I’ve abstained 80 per cent of the rest of the time.
“If I know that on Friday I have a bit of chocolate cake, and that’s the only day, it tastes better than it would if I had it every day.
“ There’s nothing better than a really dirty burger with cheese, bacon and everything on it.
“I really love Greek Med food and on the whole it’s pretty good for you. One of my favourites is pork or chicken souvlaki which is a very healthy food. You can’t beat it — that’s my go-to.”
Ice-cold bath
For Tonia, the keys to looking and feeling youthful are a daily ice-cold bath — she recently had one installed at home — regular weight training and taking special olive oil by the teaspoon.
She says: “I love cold therapy. I started with one-minute cold showers and increased that to five minutes.
“It’s anti-inflammatory and when you come out you get an endorphin rush which is so good for you.
“I also swear by Organic Extra Virgin Hyphonolic CHK Olive Oil. It’s the most incredible wonder food, which most people don’t know. I’ve taken it for ten years.
“It’s more expensive than the normal olive oil you get in the supermarkets but it’s definitely anti-ageing. You can buy it online and a few health shops sell it.”
Tonia’s biggest fan is husband Paul, who she met when she was 23. He has seen her fluctuate between a size eight and a size 16.
She says: “He’s always telling me I look lovely, and I am very grateful. He’s like, ‘Get the mini-skirt on, wear the smaller bikini, as you’re going to be old before you know it’.
“I say, ‘Paul, you’re ridiculous’. But it makes me feel he loves me a lot if he’s always encouraging me to do that.
“I have a lot to thank him for because he wouldn’t tolerate this not-eating business when we were younger.
“He’d see me spending hours on an exercise bike trying to get my legs thinner and remind me that cyclists usually have very muscly legs so that probably wasn’t the right thing to do.
“He suggested I try swimming and building upper-body muscle instead — but I think he’d be happy if I put on two stones in weight because he likes a big girl.
“He loves being called ‘Antigoni’s hunky dad’, which became a thing when she was on the show.
“Paul’s really into exercise and he looks lovely — so lucky me.”
Tonia reveals that seeing their daughter on Love Island was an “eye-opener”, because neither she nor Paul had ever watched the show before.
She says: “There isn’t a parent who looks at their baby and thinks, ‘I hope you grow up and go into Love Island one day’ — but she went in and came out as herself.
“When you ask her about it, she says, ‘I had a great time, I got a great tan and I met some great people’. She did it without losing any of her integrity.
“After she left, there was a kissing challenge and me and Paul were jumping up and down with joy going, ‘Oh my God, thank God she’s out!’ So we didn’t have to watch her do it.
“Paul left the room when she did the heart rate challenge — and when she went into the diary room afterwards and apologised to me and her dad we were shouting at the TV that she had nothing to say sorry for.
“All the kids live at home and the rule is that nobody can leave until they get married. I’m at my happiest when with my family — and also my most miserable when they drive me nuts and I’m shouting my head off at them.”
This summer the family plan a trip around the Greek Islands with Tonia’s parents who live in Cyprus.
And she will definitely pack her “tanning thong”. She says: “I might borrow the girls’ bikinis although a lot of the time I don’t dare — they are too skimpy.
“But I do have some thong bottoms — which I wear only when laying down — because a bottom looks nicer tanned.”
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Tonia still has body hang-ups, but refuses to dwell. She says: “I wish my boobs were perkier, my tummy flatter, and that I didn’t have cellulite — but it doesn’t really matter.
“If all you focus on is your wobbly bits, you’ll be unhappy. I don’t care what anyone thinks — that’s the key to happiness.”