Sharon Osbourne and Marie Osmond Recall Being Body-Shamed: ‘It Sticks With You’

Being vulnerable. Sharon Osbourne and Marie Osmond recalled what it was like to be criticized for their weight when they heard actress Valerie Bertinelli was body-shamed as a child.

“If you abuse somebody enough about something, it could become a terrible disorder with them. But yeah, I used to get fat-shamed by my brother, and then my brother used to get his friends to join in. Yeah, it sticks with you,” Sharon, 67, explained on the Monday, May 18, episode of The Talk. “At times, I was bigger than others and my weight has always [been up and down.]”

While joining into the conversation, Marie, 60, said she was “shamed” her whole career. “I started at 3 so basically my whole life,” the musician explained. After hearing Sharon’s story, it made the “Meet Me in Montana” singer think about the first ‘show fitting’ she had for Donny & Marie back in 1975.

“I was 14 years old and I remember the designers were looking at me and they were talking about me like I wasn’t there. And this guy goes, ‘Well, she can’t wear pants because she looks terrible in them because of her hips and her stomach is too big. Maybe we can get her a girdle.’ It was like I wasn’t even there. And then he looks at me and he goes, ‘Have you ever thought about taking a water pill?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ I was 14. It’s so interesting because it hurts. It sticks with you.”

Sadly, Sharon doesn’t think people will ever stop criticizing others for their appearance. “I mean, it’s been going on for hundreds of years. People going on about people’s weight and it never will end,” she said. “We’re better educated now and we realize the effect it can have on people mentally, but I don’t think it will ever end.”

One way Marie learned to block out her haters is to love herself wholeheartedly. “You have to learn to love your skin,” the showbiz vet exclusively told Closer Weekly in January 2018. “I’ve had some really hard things in my life — but once you create a happy environment around yourself, that brings peace to your soul.”