Celebrity trainer and fitness guru Jillian Michaels – best known for her stint on NBC’s ‘Biggest Loser’ – probably received the biggest backlash of her career after weighing in on Pop star Lizzo‘s physical appearance last week.
During a chat with BuzzFeed News last Wednesday (January 8), Michaels was quizzed on why the singer’s body is praised. She responded:
“Why are we celebrating her body? Why does it matter? Why aren’t we celebrating her music? ‘Cause it isn’t gonna be awesome if she gets diabetes.”
Once the interview went viral, Jillian – flooded with negative remarks on her social media handles and even getting a fiery clapback from Liz herself – released a statement that asserted she stands by the ‘diabetes’ comment (a point she later reiterated). This week, however, she’s singing a slightly different tune.
On a promo blitz that’s seen her drop by ‘E! News,’ ‘Inside Edition,‘ and more, the 45-year-old was also spotted at ‘Extra’ where she sat down with resident anchor Billy Bush to further discuss today’s PC culture, body positivity movement, and respond to accusations of body shaming.
See it inside:
In the video above, Michaels explained:
“There’s two different narratives. One narrative is love yourself, value yourself, and — by the way — only from this place can you be healthier, mentally, physically… believe in your worth and believe in your ability, but where this comes into play, right, you’re weight, your size, whatever you want to call it, is your health, and denying that there are serious health ramifications when we are overweight is just not a lie I’m willing to tell.”
When quizzed on what she’d say to Lizzo now after all the hoop-la, she said:
“Well, first of all, she didn’t invite this at all and what I really regret is this argument became about a person and what happened was I was asked if I celebrate her being overweight and I should have said, ‘I don’t celebrate anyone being overweight,’ and I don’t know what would I say to her. I’m a huge fan, which is exactly what I said in the interview. I wish that I would have responded [differently and said] that I don’t celebrate anyone being overweight [not just Lizzo].”
[photo source: Getty Images]
*****
In case you missed it, here’s Jillian’s original statement:
Here’s Lizzo’s response:
Your thoughts?