Jillian Michaels Responds To Backlash Over Comments About Lizzo’s Weight

Jillian Michaels, who rose to fame hosting NBC's The Biggest Loser, has responded to the controversial comments she made about Lizzo this past Wednesday.

Yesterday, during an interview on Buzzfeed's morning show, AM2DM, the fitness trainer said about the eight-time Grammy nominee, "Why are we celebrating her body? Why does it matter? Why aren't we celebrating her music? 'Cause it isn't gonna be awesome if she gets diabetes."

Michaels continued, saying, "I love her music. My kid loves her music, but there's never a moment where I'm like, 'And I'm so glad that she's overweight!' Why is it my job to care about her weight?"

The backlash was swift. Twitter commenters weren't shy about defending the Truth Hurts singer.

"Her music is about positivity, personal acceptance and celebration," one tweet said. "Part of that, especially as a plus-sized person in this culture, is rejecting the fat-phobic hatred exemplified by Jillian Michaels. Jillian Michaels is not Lizzo's health care provider, so she shouldn't comment."

But the trainer isn't walking back on her remarks. When Refinery29 asked her reps to comment, they pointed to her tweet as their official response. In it, Michaels said, "As I’ve stated repeatedly, we are all beautiful, worthy, and equally deserving. I also feel strongly that we love ourselves enough to acknowledge there are serious health consequences that come with obesity — heart disease, diabetes, cancer to name only a few. I would never wish these for ANYONE and I would hope we prioritize our health because we LOVE ourselves and our bodies." Eesh.

As for what Lizzo, an eight-time Grammy nominee, might have to say about Michaels's remarks, we have an idea. Earlier this year, Lizzo faced hateful comments after wearing a thong-exposing outfit. But the Good As Hell performer didn't let it phase her.

"Nothing really breaks my joy,” Lizzo said in an Instagram Live video in response. "I’m a really solid, grounded person, and I know that I’m shocking because you’ve never seen — in a long time — a body like mine doing whatever it wants to do and dressing the way that it dresses and moving the way that it moves."

"I don’t ever want to censor myself because I’m suddenly famous or because everyone’s looking at me now. I’m not going to quiet myself," she said. "I’m not going to shrink myself because somebody thinks that I’m not sexy to them. Bitch, you really think…" she trailed off, laughing.

"Hopefully by existing, there can just be more opportunities for people that look like me that are, you know, beyond what a trend is," Lizzo previously told CBS Sunday Morning. "And that they're there on the merit of their talent. They're there on the merit of their beauty. And they're there because they're good enough."