English singer-songwriter Sam Smith is opening up about their longtime battle with the bulge.
The Grammy and Oscar winner, who uses they/them pronouns, revealed they went under the knife as a teenager during early struggles with their weight.
“My weight as a kid was the hardest thing for me in school, and weirdly the thing I probably got teased the most about,” Smith, 33, shared in the latest episode of the “Podcrushed” podcast.
“I had surgery on my chest when I was 13 years old because I had a growing chest,” they told host Penn Badgley. “There was all sorts of reasons why, but mainly that I was just getting so teased. I couldn’t go swimming in school, and getting changed in the locker room was hell. So I got liposuction when I was 13 years old.”
When probed by the former “Gossip Girl” star about their parent’s reaction to Smith undergoing the invasive procedure at such a young age, Smith said they were in their corner: “They were hugely supportive of the whole thing because they saw how much it was crippling everything about me.”
But the liposuction didn’t yield the results Smith had expected due to a lack of lifestyle change and poor eating habits.
“It was all a struggle with food and stuff, and the liposuction, it worked, but it was also a nightmare,” the “Unholy” singer confessed. “They gave me a bandage, which is like a bra … I was only meant to wear it for a month, but if I wore the bandage, it meant that I would get to the front of the lunch queue because everyone had to be sensitive about my chest. So I just kept this bandage on for nearly a year.”
Smith continued: “I’d be like, ‘Ooh, don’t come close to me,’ and I’d get first in the lunch queue, and I’d just eat more and eat more. So the surgery never really worked because I just love food.”
The London native was known for having a heavier-set physique when they burst onto the scene in 2012. But three years later, they grabbed attention when they unveiled a smaller frame after shedding 14 pounds in 14 days, and another 35 more over time.
On social media, Smith credited British celebrity nutritionist Amelia Freer and her bestselling book “Eat. Nourish. Glow.” for the weight loss transformation.
“Three weeks ago I met a woman who has completely changed my life … and has completely transformed my relationship with food,” they shared in a since-deleted Instagram post. “Everyone go check out her incredible book, and start to live healthy. It’s not even about weight loss it’s about feeling happy in yourself.”
Today, Smith isn’t as thin as they once were years ago, but they’ve finally reached a place of better acceptance, with or without a little extra weight.
“I’m happier in my own skin,” the singer told The Sunday Times while promoting their latest studio album in 2023. “I feel liberated, released from pressures I felt when I was young. My mum says that, as I’ve got older, I’ve stopped caring what people think as much. She tends to be right.”
