Actress and activist Marlo Thomas has seen the error of her ways after receiving scrutiny earlier this month for her fat comment toward talk show host Sherri Shepherd following her last appearance on the daytime television show, “Sherri.”
The incident occurred on Nov. 1 after Thomas was seen complimenting Shepherd on her weight loss. The 84-year-old said, “Look how beautiful you are. You lost a lot of weight.” Shepherd responded by saying she had lost 35 pounds. Shortly after Shepherd’s remarks, Thomas took it a step further by discussing her first encounter with Shepherd and describing how much bigger the host appeared.
While trying to show the audience Shepherd’s former size by spreading her hands out in the air, Thomas said, “I interviewed you for my AOL show and you were a big woman.” At the time the incident took place, both women appeared to laugh off the comment on the air.
But as the clip went viral and news outlets reported that Shepherd’s staff wasn’t too fond of Thomas’ remarks, neither party had addressed the situation until Nov. 3. Thomas opened up to Fox 5 New York about the lesson she learned when mentioning one’s weight.
When asked about the incident, Thomas said, “I am so sorry about that.”
The “Deceit” star added that she didn’t mean any harm when bringing up Shepherd’s weight loss and thought she was “giving a compliment.” She said, “I mean, I love her, and I thought I was giving a compliment. I said, ‘Wow, you’ve really lost weight!’ but I realized you’re not supposed to do that. But I’ve learned my lesson, and I’m never doing it again.”
Further in the discussion, Thomas shared that following the backlash she had been receiving online for her fat comments that she and Shepherd did talk things over on the phone.
While bringing up the pair’s current status, she said, “I never meant to ever offend anything, but I didn’t offend her. She came and jumped over on the couch and hugged me, and she just asked me to come back in November to do a St. Jude piece, so, you know, we’re fine.”
Following Thomas’ public apology, a handful of fans have continued to express why the actress was wrong for her comments. One individual even claimed that Thomas’ apology seemed insincere.
“She isn’t that old to not know that equating weight to health is ignorant. There are skinny people dropping dead from heart attacks and diabetes. She said ‘you were a BIGGGGGG woman’ in an insulting way. Smh Sherri took it well though.”
“If anyone wants to compliment another person. Just say you look good. Or you look wonderful. That’s it. All the other extra comments that followed were not necessary. I would never do that. People have to be more conscious and mindful about the words they use in many different situations. You never know if you’re being hurtful or offensive to someone.”
“It was a backhanded comment . All you have to say is someone looks great you don’t have to tell them when they didn’t. It’s an age thing but it’s still no excuse.”
“That’s a cop out. her apology was insincere. the controversy was not about her saying how sherri had lost a lot of weight and that she looks good now, it was about her comment and facial expression about sherri having been a ‘big’ woman, insinuating that that was not a good look. you are a guest on her show. show some courtesy.”
Shepherd has yet to publicly address the incident.
