Sam Smith is getting real about childhood bullying.
In the Nov. 5 episode of the “Podcrushed” podcast, Smith told Penn Badgley and his cohosts that they got liposuction surgery on their chest at 13 years old, after years of being teased about their weight.
“My queerness was something that I could handle and I could have a grasp on it,” Smith, who went to a Catholic school, said. “But it was my weight as a kid (that) was the hardest thing for me in school, and weirdly the thing I probably got teased the most about.”
Smith’s parents were “hugely supportive of the whole thing,” they said, “because they just saw how much it was crippling everything about me.”
“There were all sorts of reasons why, but mainly, I was just getting so teased, I couldn’t go swimming in school, getting changed in the locker room was hell,” the “I’m Not The Only One” singer continued.
The singer said the recovery was a “nightmare” because they were only supposed to wear the bra-like bandage post-surgery for a month; they kept wearing it for a year because “if I wore the bandage, it meant I would get to the front of the lunch queue, because everyone had to be sensitive about my chest,” they said, getting a big laugh.
“The surgery never really worked, because I just love food,” they chuckled.
Sam Smith weight loss came after change in ‘relationship with food’
Smith has long been open about their struggles with weight, both as a child and as an adult.
In 2015, the “Stay With Me” singer revealed they had lost 50 pounds, telling “Today” at the time that their “relationship with food has just completely changed.” But in a 2018 interview for V magazine with Sarah Jessica Parker, the 33-year-old singer reflected on that time early in their career, when they became “obsessive” about the way they look and fell victim to constant body checking.
“I was constantly looking in the mirror, pinching my waist, weighing myself every day,” they told Parker. “Now, I’ve gotten to a place where I really love my stretch marks and I just enjoy my body.”
