14 DAY TRIAL // On her most recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, singer Kelly Clarkson, aka the original American Idol, tried to downplay talk about her weight, saying the fat-shaming she’s now subject to is nothing new. That only seemed to fan the flames of the discussion even more.
After her interview with Ellen aired, earning her praise for speaking up and being so candid on such a topic, Kelly became again the talk of town, with Fox News’ Chris Wallace weighing in. “She could stay off the deep dish pizza for a little while,” he said.
Chris Wallace fat-shames Kelly, apologizes
It happened on The Mike Gallagher Show on Friday: the audio is embedded below, at the end of this post. The discussion started off as friendly banter between Wallace and Gallagher, with the former telling the latter that he could stand to lose a few.
In response, Gallagher said that he’d been indulging in a certain variety of pizza, and asked his pal not to fat-shame him. He said that fat-shaming was “in” now, apparently mocking those who took offense when other people, including perfect strangers, commented on their bodies.
It was Gallagher who first mentioned Clarkson by name, commenting how she’d “blown up” and how she had a baby recently but failed to shift the extra pounds even though she was no longer pregnant.
Wallace then made the pizza comment.
“I sincerely apologize to Kelly Clarkson for my offensive comment,” he’s now saying in a statement to People magazine. Wallace has been harshly criticized on social media throughout the weekend, so this kind of response was to be expected
“I admire her remarkable talent and that should have been the focus of any discussion about her,” he adds.
Gallagher is yet to apologize in any way.
Kelly Clarkson is used to it by now
This latest instance of fat-shaming comes hot on the heels of Kelly’s comments about how she doesn’t pay too much mind to this type of talk anymore because she knows better.
She doesn’t deny that she’s carrying extra weight, but at the same time, she knows this is no concern to anyone else but herself. And as far as she’s concerned, she’s healthy and she’s happy and she really doesn’t want to look any different right now.
Fat-shaming isn’t something new for her, since people have been doing it to her since the day her Idol audition aired on Fox. So while she has a thick skin where she’s concerned, she wants her fans to know that their weight doesn’t represent them as a person.
On the same Ellen interview, Kelly recalled how a female fan had burst into tears at one of those meet-and-greets when she saw her, telling her that if people thought she, Kelly, was fat, they must have thought she was huge.
At the end of the day, none of that matters but who we really are inside, Kelly added.
