Ricki Lake celebrated self-love while baring all on Instagram on Monday.
The talk show host posted a joyful photo of herself in the nude along with a poignant caption about self-acceptance.
In her photo, Ricki is seen beaming and throwing her head back while lounging outdoors in a bathtub, surrounded by trees.
Wrapping herself in a hug, she seems more than content with where she is in life.
“Hands down, these days are the best of my life,” the Hairspray star said, calling herself “54 1/2 years old (young!)”
“Grateful for all that had to happen for me to get to here,” she continued. “A place of complete self acceptance and self love.”
Ricki gave husband Ross Burningham a special mention, writing, “Ross, you make every adventure the most fun ever.”
She finished with a shoutout to Northern California, writing, “Oh and Mill Valley is the shit!”
Over the course of her career, Ricki has long bucked beauty standards, first shooting to fame playing plus-size sensation Tracy Turnblad in John Waters’ 1988 movie Hairspray.
Though she was beloved, the star was shocked to see how different people treated her once she lost a considerable amount of weight in 2008.
She recalled what things were like after her weight loss in a 2022 episode of her podcast, Raised By Ricki, where she told plus-size model Tess Holliday: “I went on a crash diet. I was the thin girl, I was the sample size, and I was walking the red carpet.”
“I was offered four magazine covers...” Ricki recalled. “The power of that, it was unbelievable. Well, not unbelievable, totally believable, but it happened to me.”
She said her makeover has had a clear impact on her career, adding: “Yes, I got more opportunities, more attention, it was way more positive.”
However, Ricki said the reactions gave her mixed feelings, recalling that at the time: “I’m conflicted because I am proud of myself. When I lose that weight, it is something I want the world to know, I did this.”
“It’s a lot of work and a lot of willpower, so I want to talk about it, but I know that it’s not the best thing to be celebrating,” she said, later explaining how the attention was “perpetuating that obsession we have with diet culture”.