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The battle of the bulge has taken on new meaning, with singer Joe Cotton defecting from one weight-loss company to another.
The former True Bliss star - once the face of Weight Watchers - has switched allegiance to Jenny Craig.
The radio and television personality shed 30kg over 2003 and 2004 by following the Weight Watchers programme but has "shocked" the organisation by joining forces with its main rival.
"I didn't have any contact with Weight Watchers while I lost the weight because I had the [Weight Watchers] book and did it alone with a bandmate," Cotton said.
"It wasn't until I'd lost weight that I was contacted by Weight Watchers and had a short contract with them [to do publicity]. It has been hard for me to swap ships because I'd always said to a lot of people they should give Weight Watchers a go because it worked for me. But I was starting to put on weight and decided to give something else a go."
Weight Watchers' spokeswoman Karen Church said the company did not receive a courtesy call about her new contract, which has lead to some confusion by members.
Cotton did not have an exclusive contract with Weight Watchers when she signed with Jenny Craig for an undisclosed sum, but she had done numerous advertising campaigns, including television ads, women's magazine promotions and interviews.
"I was quite shocked," Church said. "We are disappointed she didn't come to us to lose a few kilos for her wedding. We didn't have any consultation in the process of her decision and there wasn't a call. I did receive a note from her manager in the New Year saying she had intended to contact us but got caught up with Christmas."
Cotton, who has put on 7kg from her lowest weight of 67kg, wouldn't comment on why she hadn't given Weight Watchers a courtesy call.
Confusion is rife among members of the public trying to work out Cotton's latest diet crusade.
"We have had comments from people on message boards who are quite shocked by her doing that," Church said. "We have noticed on the chatboards people expressing disappointment she has done it that way, and that she's obviously signed this contract for money."
Cotton said she was worried people might think she was being fickle. "Generally, reaction has been positive," she said. "There are message board discussions about my Jenny Craig ad. People wrote, 'Is it really Joe'? 'Has she put on weight?' 'Didn't she do Weight Watchers first?' 'Why is she doing Jenny Craig?' But the majority of people said it doesn't matter as long as I admitted it's not working and needed to try some thing new, which was a relief."
Jenny Craig's marketing manager Natasha Gowie would not comment on how much Cotton was being paid.
"We were well aware of her going on the Weight Watchers programme," Gowie said. "It wasn't a case of approaching her to be a before or after. We haven't had any feedback about Weight Watchers, but we did anticipate we would have some inquiries regarding it."
