Chrissy Metz opens up about the “abuse” she received for her weight growing up

Chrissy Metz opens up about the “abuse” she received about her weight from her stepfather, friends and even random people before she rose to TV fame.

She said her stepfather “would weigh me in the kitchen or threaten to lock the cabinets, and I was like, ‘I don’t think you understand,'” she told host Jamie Kern Lima, 44, on Tuesday’s episode of October 22 of the Jamie Kern Lima podcast.

“I think there’s a lot more awareness now about food, about food issues, about eating behavior… we educate people, the fear goes away. And maybe I was just scared. I really don’t know,” says the This is us star “But, yeah, I mean, (it was) definitely mental, physical and emotional abuse, no doubt.”

Metz grew up in Gainesville, Florida as the middle child of five. She also talked about how hearing endless comments about her figure has added up over the years: “The emotional stuff… it’s like little cuts, little cuts, and eventually it bleeds. It’s painful.”

“Why does my weight equate to my dignity?” she asked. “And as a 12-year-old, it’s like, how do you reconcile that in your mind?”

She also shared that the height of her struggles with acceptance was in her teenage years: “You look like none of your other friends and you can’t fit into any of the cute Wet Seal clothes that they can fit into. You’re like : “Oh, let me borrow your necklace.” Also, all the boys liked my friends, and I always felt like I was making my friends with nice guys.

Now, Metz is healing, but the process is not easy. “I think I’m trying to heal those wounds slowly but surely. And it’s not easy … the root is, ‘I’m unworthy.'” Metz added, “There’s so much stigma around weight, and there’s still it’s there for a myriad of reasons, but I think there’s this idea that like, ‘Oh, you can’t put food down’ or ‘You’re lazy.’ “

“Beautiful models are on a pedestal, even though they’re also very unhealthy. They don’t take care of their bodies. But when you’re overweight, it’s like something else. It’s so weird,” Metz continued.

The actor detailed specific interactions with strangers, who would “sigh, or not look at me, or not engage” when he sat next to him on a plane.

“Before the show, I could go on a plane and someone wouldn’t want to sit next to me if I was too squished or I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, here comes an older girl I have to sit next to.’ a.’ But since I’m on a TV show now, they don’t care. Or they say, ‘Oh, well, you’re famous.'”

“It was always like they’d be annoyed that I’m sitting next to them, or they wouldn’t look at me twice or they wouldn’t engage. And then when I became, let’s put it in air quotes, famous, then they want to have a conversation or were more likely to want to sit next to me.”

“It’s still something that my friends and I talk about because what does it really mean? What could I offer them or what insight could I share with them? I don’t know. Do they feel more at ease sitting next to someone famous? no I know.”

“I don’t get it,” Metz said. “That kind of behavior … makes you not want to trust people.”

Since the iconic NBC series ended in 2022, Metz has starred in the horror film. A creature was stirring (2023) as the protagonist.