A video of David Foster calling wife Katharine McPhee “fat” has left fans rightfully outraged after it resurfaced online.
The video, which is doing the rounds on TikTok, shows the couple on a stage during a performance and discussing when they first met way back in 2006, leading Foster to comment on his now-wife’s appearance at the time.
“You may not know we met 17, almost 18 years ago when I was a little chubby and cheerful contestant on American Idol,” said McPhee, 40, while Foster, 74, sat by a piano on the stage. On a screen behind the couple, a photo appeared of a young McPhee smiling during season 5 of the hit singing competition show.
“Oh, yeah — you were fat,” McPhee’s music producer blurted out from his seat, causing his wife to look shocked. “I was a little chubby, OK? I was just young,” McPhee said, trying to make light of the situation.
Needless to say, Foster’s fat-shaming comment shocked fans who took to the comments to note their outrage. “This made my heart hurt,” wrote one commenter on TikTok. “This beautiful girl was NEVER fat. You don’t call your wife fat. As a joke or serious.”
“Those comments are so hurtful,” wrote another user. “Hearing it from anyone let alone your partner.”
Needless to say, we agree with these commenters that this kind of comment is never acceptable and feels particularly egregious knowing McPhee’s history with body image issues.
McPhee, who became Foster’s fifth wife in 2019 after two years of dating, revealed after her stint on American Idol that she had battled with bulimia for five years, binging and purging food up to seven times a day before eventually seeking treatment.
“Low self-esteem was huge for me,” she said at the time, according to ABC, revealing that her lack of confidence caused her to use food as a coping mechanism and her subsequent weight gain lead to her eating disorder. She revealed that growing up she thought “that being beautiful is the only thing that is important.” Adding, “Because as soon as I started putting on weight, what was the most important thing? To look perfect.”
More recently, McPhee opened up about battling with body image issues after the birth of her and Foster’s son in 2021.
“The biggest challenge for me through the pregnancy was really the body issue stuff just suddenly came up in a way that hadn’t been present in a long time,” she said during Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast, according to USA Today.
McPhee noted that therapist told her “it’s really common for women who have struggled with eating disorders in the past to have almost like a relapse in some sense when they enter pregnancy,” a fact many people who battle with disordered eating will resonate with.
The kind of fat-shaming Foster exhibited is also triggering for anyone, not just those with pre-existing body image issues. Akua K. Boateng, PhD, a licensed psychotherapist based in Philadelphia, told Well + Good in 2023, “Fat-shaming can be considered a form of emotional abuse particularly, when it involves verbal attacks, insults, ridicule, rejection, gaslighting, and other non-physical behaviors meant to control, isolate, or frighten your partner.”
According to a study in the journal Obesity, fat-shaming from a partner can contributed to poor body image and even dangerous weight changes.
Before you go, click hereto see all of the celebrities who have opened up about battling with an eating disorder.
