Marie Osmond recalls how a producer who called her “fat” as a teenager led to body dysmorphia

Marie Osmond explores how damaging it can be to make comments about someone’s looks.

The 63-year-old singer and television personality told Page Six of the New York Post that a producer once scolded her about her weight while filming the popular 1970s variety show Donny & Marie, which starred her and her brother Donny Osmond the main role was played by teenagers.

“On this lot I was taken out the back by a studio manager – and I’m about 5 [feet]5 [inches] and about 103 pounds,” Osmond said, recalling her weight at the time. “And he basically said, ‘You’re a disgrace to your family. You’re fat.'”

The message, she said, was that “250 people would lose their jobs because you can’t keep food out of your fat face.”

That’s when extreme dieting became “a real deal for me,” she said, and she dropped to “about 92 pounds.”

But later she had an “aha” moment that taught her that “body dysmorphia is a real thing.”

“I was in [a] Fitting room, leaned over, put on my tights, and in there was a girl changing her clothes who was just a gaunt skeleton with skin on her,” Osmond told Page Six. “And I was just like, ‘Oh my god, this is so sick,’ and I stood up and realized that the girl was me.”

Though Osmond got through “those really tough years” with help from her parents, she’s still deeply involved in food culture. She has been a spokesperson for Nutrisystem for years and recently started a weight loss program for women over 55 with the company.