MORE than half the women in Britain are too embarrassed about their bodies to exercise in public, according to a survey by mental health charity Mind.

This surprises me. I didn’t think half the women in Britain even thought about exercising at all, either in public or private. I know men don’t and many of them have the bodies of sportsmen. Darts players.

In fact, many women don’t have to exercise because their lives are so busy. They work, they look after the family, they clean the house and do the cooking. They are always on the go and sometimes they lack the energy even for those intimate moments.

“My husband says I’m always too tired for romance,” one lady told her friend. “So yesterday, he took charge. He got the kids ready for school and after work he put the washing on, did the ironing, helped the kids with their homework, put them to bed and read them a story – and then made me a lovely meal with wine and candles on the table. Afterwards he even did the washing up.”

“And did that lead to romance?”

“No. He fell asleep on the sofa.”

The survey said that nine out of 10 women over the age of 30 have such low self esteem and poor body image that they exercise indoors or go running in the dark. Which is sad and silly.

If they want to feel better about their body image all they have to do is look at their husbands.