At a recent trip to the opera, Alison Hammond stunned her friends with just how happy she looked.

She arrived hand-in-hand with her unlikely suitor, 27-year-old Russian masseuse David Putman, whom she proudly introduced to her celebrity friends at the London Coliseum.

There were fears when they first got together last year that things would end badly. After all, they met when Alison, 49, booked a £120 massage with him. Then there’s the 22-year age gap.

‘Alison just looked content,’ a friend tells me. ‘Like someone who has found joy; her face looked happy even when she wasn’t smiling.’

I’m told things are going ‘very well’ between Alison and David, who also works as a model and dancer. Friends of the Birmingham-born This Morning presenter are even joking about whether or not they should soon be buying hats.

‘Alison is smitten, she absolutely loves David,’ says one pal. ‘They are an odd pairing unless you know them, but they are a great couple. It has gone from friends worrying about her to them talking about when he will pop the question. It has all moved very quickly.

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Things are going ‘very well’ between Alison and David, who also works as a model and dancer

‘Alison hasn’t had the most luck with men, she has come across some pretty dreadful ones but David is really nice. More than anything he makes Alison laugh and her friends have all changed their minds, they absolutely love David.’

Importantly for The Great British Bake Off star, David gets on ‘famously’ with the other man in her life – her 19-year-old son Aiden. The trio even joke that they go on ‘dates’ together.

But Alison’s joy is not all attached to her younger new man.

‘Which successful woman’s happiness would be?’ points out a friend of hers.

Alison stunned viewers of ITV’s new gameshow You Bet! on Saturday night with her staggering 11-stone weight loss – she is believed to have gone from 28 to 17 stone.

And while the temptation may have been there to use Ozempic or other fat-loss jabs as a quick fix for her pre-diabetes, instead she came up with her own strict regime.

Alison has given up sweet treats, avoids fatty food and sees a personal trainer twice a week.

In the gym she throws weight balls and also keeps weights in her bedroom. She has taken up yoga and walks everywhere.

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Alison in 2014. The presenter is believed to have gone from 28 to 17 stone

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Alison has given up sweet treats, avoids fatty food and sees a personal trainer twice a week

Of her new regime, she told Good Housekeeping magazine: ‘After a session at the gym, I think I’m Venus Williams, with all those endorphins pumping around. If I miss a session or two with my trainer, I notice it. That kick you get out of the way you feel is so good.’

Her hard work has certainly paid off and she is no longer pre-diabetic.

The diagnosis was something which didn’t just alarm her, but also her late mother Maria, who passed away from lung and liver cancer in 2020.

In fact, it was her mother’s dying wish that Alison lost weight: ‘Just before she died, Mum said to me: “If you can, sort out your weight, Alison.” And that really set it in my head.

‘My mum had type 2 diabetes and she was worried for me, so when I then found out I was pre-diabetic, that was frightening.’

One friend adds: ‘She was determined to lose weight for myriad reasons. While everyone wants to look their best on television, Alison seriously worried for her health and clearly so did her mum.

‘Her mum’s comment really resonated and she listened.’

The weight loss has been transformative, not only for Alison’s health but her confidence on screen.

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Alison stunned viewers of ITV’s new gameshow You Bet! on Saturday night with her new look

Now, when she appears on television, she no longer worries about looking larger than her slim co-stars, including This Morning co-host Cat Deeley, who is a size 8.

‘There might have been a time when Alison worried about standing next to Cat, but not anymore,’ a This Morning source says. ‘In fact, for most women it must be pretty uncomfortable.

‘They hosted several shows together and This Morning was inundated with compliments of how good they looked together.

‘It must have given Alison so much confidence. For so many years you had to be skinny to be on telly – Alison has come along and smashed that theory right up.

‘Now her weight loss has just made her feel so much more full of life.’

Her newfound happiness seems to have given her career a boost, too.

Alison’s work schedule is busier than ever: as well as presenting This Morning and Channel 4’s Bake Off, she joined her friend Holly Willoughby on the ITV reboot of You Bet! this weekend.

She has also landed a BBC Two show with Aiden called Florida Unpacked, which will air in January. The show will see mother and son travel across the Sunshine State to find its hidden gems and offer viewers tips on how to travel there on a budget. Alison is said to be ‘thrilled’ to be working with her son.

‘She and Aiden are so close,’ says a friend. ‘When he was young, Alison had nowhere near the wealth or happiness she has now, so it’s lovely that he can enjoy it all too.’

Florida Unpacked also means Alison is the only TV star to have shows across the three main networks – the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

Her impressive CV has been built over the past two decades. She first found fame on Big Brother back in 2002 and, despite being the second housemate to get evicted, went on to have a successful television career, appearing on medical drama Doctors a few months later, before working as This Morning’s bubbly roving entertainment reporter.

In 2010 she signed up to star on the tenth series of I’m A Celeb, becoming the fourth contestant to leave the jungle.

She did Strictly in 2014 and even made her Hollywood debut in the animated film Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation in 2018.

Then, in 2020, she was tapped up by This Morning bosses for a bigger presenting role – although at first she was reluctant to replace Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes.

As a close friend of the now-estranged couple says, Alison felt ‘disloyal’ taking one of their seats on the long-running programme’s sofa.

Initially, however, she turned down the deal because she was concerned that her promotion might be perceived as ‘tokenism’ and was happy to stay in her role as entertainment reporter.

‘Alison had been on This Morning for more than a decade and had never been offered this job before,’ a friend says.

‘But then bosses decided that they wanted a black presenter and she was wanted for the role.’

She was eventually persuaded to sign up for the bigger presenting job on Friday’s show alongside Dermot O’Leary, and the pair have increasingly started presenting mid-week following the resignations of Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

And Alison has no regrets.

‘She has to pinch herself sometimes,’ says a pal. ‘Alison will never take all of this for granted but she is going to damn well enjoy it while she can.’