A resurfaced video of Katharine McPhee and her husband, songwriter David Foster, has sparked controversy on social media, with fans rallying to support McPhee, who has struggled with disordered eating.
The clip, which shows Foster calling McPhee “fat,” has ignited backlash. In the video, McPhee, who has battled bulimia, speaks on stage while Foster plays the piano. A background screen displays a photo of McPhee from her American Idol days. She comments, “[People] may not know, we met 17, almost 18 years ago, when I was a little chubby, and cheerful, contestant on American Idol.”
Pointing to the photo, McPhee, now 40, adds, “Look at me smiling.”
Foster, now 74, responds, “Oh yeah, you were fat.” McPhee’s demeanor visibly changes as the audience laughs. “I was a little chubby, okay?” she replies. “It’s true,” Foster says. McPhee, who was 21 during her American Idol stint, clarifies, “I was just young.”
McPhee has previously shared about her severe bulimia, revealing she would induce vomiting up to seven times a day, comparing it to “putting a sledgehammer to your vocal cords.” She eventually sought treatment at Los Angeles’s Eating Disorder Center of California, undergoing intensive therapy.
Fans expressed their discomfort with the video, with one remarking, “It’s very hard to watch.” Another noted, “It really just goes to show the way he views women,” while a different fan added, “If he can say that in front of a crowd, imagine the insensitive comments in private.”
This isn’t the first instance where Foster’s comments on McPhee’s body faced criticism. In 2021, McPhee defended Foster after he captioned an Instagram photo of her in a bikini with “What baby!” following the birth of their son, Rennie. McPhee responded, "I lost this baby weight without dieting. Zero. Diets are the worst and I've had zero pressure from anyone. I've let my body do its thing and found a great workout. That's it. And guess what? I'll probably gain weight again at some point too. Who cares? BUT people freaking out about what my husband captioned seriously get a life.”
Despite this, McPhee has admitted that relapsing is a concern, especially after her 2020 pregnancy. She shared on Dr. Berlin's Informed Pregnancy Podcast, “I was suddenly so obsessed with food, starting from this first trimester, and I had such a distortion of the way that I looked,” noting she gained about 40 pounds during her pregnancy. Seeking help from a psychiatrist, she learned it’s common for women with a history of eating disorders to experience a form of relapse during pregnancy.
Reflecting on her postpartum experience, McPhee said, “What I didn’t expect was to have the baby and then be so at peace with my body.” She expressed newfound appreciation, stating, “I had this, wow, like this huge appreciation of what my body had just done and given me that I wish that I’d given myself a little bit more of that grace through the pregnancy.”
The Quran - Chapter Al-Hadid : 01
Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah, for He is the Almighty, All-Wise.
