Low key body shaming?
Telling a magazine your daughter's gotten fat?
Some stars are lucky to have loving parents.
Others write memoirs about how they're glad they're dead.
Jenna Bush Hager is the granddaughter of George H.W.
Bush and Barbara Bush.
In 2019, she joined the Today show, taking over for Kathie Lee Gifford as host of the
rebranded Today With Hoda and Jenna.
In contrast to the longstanding negative public perception of the Bushes, Hager has used her
platform to exhibit a lighter side to the Bush clan.
In a 2023 episode of Today With Hoda and Jenna, she gave a deeply personal account of being
body shamed by her own grandmother.
Barbara admonished Hager for wearing a bikini as a teenager, telling her that she was too
chubby to show flesh.
"Oh, Jenna, looking chubby."
As a result, Hager avoided wearing bikinis for years.
However, she said that her grandmother later apologized and conceded that she was merely
reiterating the toxic comments that her own mother would tell her.
It's rather sad that Barbara would make such comments, considering that she was constantly
ridiculed over her appearance: notably, she was the frequent butt of gags insinuating
that she resembled the president's mom, rather than his wife.
However, Hager said she has learned to overcome body shamers and no longer sets weight loss
goals for herself.
As any Britney stan knows, the pop princess has been routinely body shamed by the public.
It was during Spears' public mental health struggles in the 2000s that her body became
the subject of particularly pernicious tattle.
But it wasn't just the media targeting Spears for her supposed weight gain.
Her own father, Jamie, often mocked her weight.
For 13 years, Spears was under the care of Jamie, her conservator.
During this time, Spears alleges, Jamie body shamed her.
She wrote on Instagram in 2022,
"I was always being told I was fat and never good enough.
[...] The psychological damage from my dad and EVERY SINGLE F---ING person who went along
with it will always be there."
In a since-deleted YouTube video, she also revealed that the body shaming began when
she was just a child.
Spears' allegations have been corroborated by Jacqueline Butcher, a former friend of
the family.
In a profile by The New Yorker, Butcher recounted the horrific body shaming that Jamie would
allegedly inflict upon his daughter, saying,
"Jamie said, 'Baby,' and I thought he was going to say, 'We love you, but you need help.'
But what he said was 'You're fat.
Daddy's gonna get you on a diet and a trainer, and you're gonna get back in shape.'"
When she first shot to fame, Billie Eilish was known for her penchant for oversized clothing.
Famously, she went viral in 2021 when she debuted her newly dyed blond locks and figure-hugging
clothing in Vogue.
Detractors were quick to accuse the singer of selling out by revealing her body, totally
forgetting that Eilish was a child when she launched onto the pop scene in her baggy attire.
She told the magazine,
"Suddenly you're a hypocrite if you want to show your skin.
[...] Showing your body and showing your skin — or not — should not take any respect
away from you."
Unfortunately, this backlash was not confined to the public.
Although Eilish is super close with her parents, they've sadly contributed to the body shaming
and inadvertently made her feel bad for wanting to show some skin.
In an interview with V Magazine, she opened up about it, saying,
"From my parents, [the] positive [comments] about how I dress have this s----shaming element.
Like, 'I am so glad that you are dressing like a boy, so that other girls can dress
like boys, so that they aren't s---s.'"
The singer highlighted the importance of women and girls rejecting antiquated body-shaming
and celebrating their bodies without being reduced to the sum of their parts.
Girls star Zosia Mamet, who is the daughter of esteemed playwright David Mamet and actor
Lindsay Crouse, has been open about her eating disorder.
She first went public about her illness in 2014, penning an essay for Glamour in which
she detailed how her father helped her get the help she needed to recover.
Noticeably absent from the deeply personal essay was any mention of Mamet's mom.
In a later Glamour article, she revealed that her mom's inadvertent microaggressions exacerbated
her disordered eating.
A svelte dancer, Crouse was obsessed with thinness.
Mamet wrote,
"When I was growing up, my mother was always on some sort of diet, and everything I was
fed was nonfat or sugar free.
When I was hungry, her first response was, 'Are you sure?'
I dreaded shopping.
My mother would say to me, 'Zosia, let's look in the husky section.'"
"And now, what are you going to eat?"
"I don't have time."
When she first shot to fame as Alex Dunphy on Modern Family, Ariel Winter was embroiled
in a bitter legal battle with her mom, Chrisoula Workman.
In 2012, Winter's sister, Shanelle, fought for custody over the then 14-year-old amid
allegations that their mom was abusing her.
Winter alleged that her mother frequently body shamed her and called her fat.
Workman denied the allegations.
In court documents, she said,
"I have never put Ariel down or told her that she is overweight.
[...] Since birth, I have loved and cared for Ariel."
"She's just lying."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Winter detailed the contradictory nature of
her mom's body shaming antics.
On the one hand, Workman allegedly berated Winter for her weight and subsequently restricted
her food intake, but on the other she sexualized her from a young age.
Winter told the publication,
"People thought I was 24 when I was 12.
If there was going to be a nude scene when I was that age, my mother would have a thousand
percent said yes."
Workman responded to the claims with yet more body shaming.
She told In Touch that she does not approve of her daughter wearing revealing outfits, saying,
"She does not need to do this.
She is beautiful with her clothes on."
Rihanna is known for having a strained relationship with her father, Ronald.
Speaking to the Mirror back in 2007, she revealed that she grew up in a discordant household
in which her dad, who struggled with substance misuse, would routinely argue with her mom.
Unfortunately, her father has also been known to body shame his daughter.
In 2012, Ronald chatted to Heat magazine about his daughter.
But rather than praise Rihanna's achievements, he decided to mock her weight.
He told the magazine,
"I actually thought she was a little fat the last time I saw her.
But when I saw her at this year's Grammys, I thought she was back to her normal size.
I used to joke with her, 'Robyn, you're getting too fat.'"
In an interview with Vogue, Rihanna addressed pervasive body shaming, revealing that she
tries to ignore the haters and instead embrace her body whatever size she is.
She said,
"I accept all of the bodies.
I'm not built like a Victoria's Secret girl, and I still feel very beautiful and confident
in my lingerie."
Jennifer Aniston is widely regarded as America's Sweetheart.
But for all the love she receives from the adoring public, she was largely unloved by
her own mother, the late actor Nancy Dow [like "how"].
Reflecting on her relationship with Dow, Aniston revealed that couldn't live up to her mother's
notions of physical perfection.
She told The Hollywood Reporter,
"She was very critical of me.
Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning.
I wasn't.
I never was.
[...] She was also very unforgiving."
In a 2018 interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Aniston explained that she could identify
with the title character of her film Dumplin, a teenager who is body-shamed by her own mother,
a former beauty queen.
Aniston said of her mom,
"She was all about presentation and what she looked like and what I looked like.
I did not come out the model child she'd hoped for and it was something that really resonated
with me, this little girl just [...] wanting to be loved by a mom who was too occupied
with things that didn't quite matter."
​"My mom and I always had sort of a push and pull kind of a relationship."
The actor added that she had learned to reject unrealistic beauty standards, embracing her
authentic self.
Speaking to Allure in 2022, Aniston said that she had ultimately forgiven her mother for
all the cruel things she said to her.
She suggested that it was Dow's acrimonious separation from her husband that fueled her
toxic behavior.
Hailed as one of the leading plus-size supermodels, Ashley Graham has been breaking barriers in
the notoriously myopic fashion world.
In 2017, she became the first plus sized woman to feature on the cover of Sports Illustrated,
as well as the first to walk a Michael Kors runway show.
Therefore, Graham has no time for body negativity, particularly as she has had to endure toxic
admonishments from her own family.
Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, she opened up about being body shamed by her
own father, saying,
"The really hard moment was when my dad said, 'Honey, if an agent is telling you to lose
weight, then maybe you should lose weight.
I was 15, standing in our living room having a moment I will never forget.
I never had a parent tell me to lose weight and it hurt."
While she conceded that her father simply wanted her to succeed, the hurtful comments
had a lasting impact.
Thankfully, her mom countered this criticism, telling Graham that she is a strong woman
destined for great things.
And she was right: Graham has gone on to have a phenomenal career.
During an appearance on Good Morning America, the model warned parents against commenting
on their children's bodies:
"Parents need to know that they are shaping the future of their children.
Words have power."
In 2022, former Nickelodeon child star Jennette McCurdy released her harrowing memoir, I'm
Glad My Mom Died.
In it, she describes the horrific abuse she endured at the hands of her late mother, Debra.
During an appearance on Red Table Talk, she opened up about the pervasive body shaming
her mom inflicted upon her, detailing the contents of a letter that Debra wrote after
seeing a photo of her daughter on TMZ.
The letter read,
"You look pudgier too.
It's clear you're eating your guilt.
Love, Mom.
Or should I say, 'Deb,' since I am no longer your mother."
Due to her mom's body shaming, McCurdy developed an eating disorder.
In an interview with USA Today, the former actor said that, rather than getting the help
she needed for the serious illness, Debra encouraged her anorexia.
She told a reporter,
"I definitely would not have been able to confront or face my experience of eating disorders
had my mother not passed away, because my eating disorders were so endorsed and supported
and encouraged by her."
When Jennette was just 11, Debra put her daughter on a diet, teaching her all about calorie
restriction so that she could maintain her adolescent body for the supposed benefit of
her career.
Following her mother's death in 2013, McCurdy said she felt free for the first time in her life.
No longer plagued by Debra's toxic influence, she sought therapy for her eating disorder
and is now in recovery.
Of all the Karjenner sisters, Khloé Kardashian has arguably faced the most body shaming.
In an episode of Revenge Body, she divulged that her own family pressured her into losing weight.
She recalled family members telling her,
"Khloe, you got to lose weight cause you're really hurting the brand."
Indeed, she has been shamed by her family on numerous episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
"You need to work out."
Kourtney once shamed Khloé for eating snacks, remarking that she had gained a few pounds.
On another occasion, Khloé's brother, Rob, body shamed her on the reality series.
"I'm just telling you, people think that you're big."
She hit back at her brother, telling him that she doesn't feel the need to go on restrictive diets.
Fans praised her response on social media, noting that Khloé has inexplicably been branded
"fat" for years.
In an interview with Health, Khloé vowed that she would never instill these body negative
notions into her own daughter, True, instead teaching her body positivity from a young age.
She told the publication,
"When it comes to food — I had so many issues.
It wasn't from one person, I guess just from society or how people critiqued my body.
So, I don't play when it comes to True."