Michaels also took offense with the show’s “warped, negative perception” of her

Jul 17, 2014 19:59 GMT  ·  By

Jillian Michaels has left NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser and, this time, she’s not coming back. The previous season, which crowned Rachel Frederickson winner after she dropped almost 60 percent of her body weight, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the trainer explains in a new interview with People magazine.

Rumors of conflict between Michaels and the show’s producers had been around long before she announced her decision to not return for a new season, and they also spoke of how unhappy she was with the way she was being portrayed on camera.

Similarly, she’s spoken before about how much she hated the fact that producers did not oversee Frederickson’s case more carefully, which, in turn, would have prevented her from losing so much weight.

When she was crowned winner, on the night of the big reveal, Frederickson’s frail frame got gasps of horror from the audience, including Michaels herself. We don’t have video of that exact moment, but the GIF below should serve just as well.

The idea is that Michaels believes producers failed on their promise to keep contestants healthy by not checking up on Frederickson after she left the training camp. That’s irresponsible and it’s sending the wrong message to viewers, while also perverting the purpose of the show, which isn’t to bet on the shock factor but to help people learn how to become healthy again – and hopefully inspire others as well.

“After Rachel, I had to take a hard look at my work. I realized that if I am the face of something, if I benefit from it, then I have to take responsibility for the good and the bad. I hadn't worked with Rachel, but that's no excuse. I felt ashamed, and I came to the conclusion that moving forward I need to be able to have an impact on the outcome of that I do,” Michaels says.

Another thing that bothered her on the show was the way in which she was being portrayed on camera. With clever editing, producers turned her into the bad guy on the show, the villain, and while this was always the case, it was never as bad as it was last season.

When she heard a TV presenter describe her as “abusive,” Michaels drew the line.

“In the beginning of the show it was tough love. You saw the tough, and you saw the love,” Michaels says of the way producers portrayed her. “[But later on,] you saw none of the relationships, none of the bonds that I build with my clients.”

Michaels understands that being a trainer on such a show automatically means being vilified to a certain extent, but not like this. So she just left.