Viral Video of David Foster Saying Wife Katharine McPhee Was ‘Fat’ in her American Idol Days Sparks Backlash

• David Foster has sparked backlash online after an older video of him performing with wife Katharine McPhee – and saying she was “fat” during American Idol days — went viral
• In the video, McPhee defends herself, saying “I was a little chubby” and “just young.”
• Fans point out that McPhee has struggled with disordered eating in the past – and this isn’t the first time Foster has commented on her body

An old video of Katharine McPhee’s songwriter husband David Foster calling her “fat” has resurfaced – sparking outrage from her fans.

In the video, McPhee – who struggled with bulimia – speaks on stage while Foster sits at the piano.

The background screen shows a photo of McPhee when she was a contestant American Idol. As the singer explains, “[People] maybe I don’t know, we met 17, almost 18 years ago, when I was a little chubby, but cheerful, contestant on American Idol.”

Pointing to an older photo of herself, McPhee, now 40, says, “Look at me smiling.”

“Oh yeah,” says Foster, now 74. “You were fat.”

Katharine McPhee in season 5 of ‘American Idol’.

Ray Mickshaw/WireImage

In the clip, McPhee’s arms drop to her sides and her shoulders slump as the audience laughs.

“I was a little chubby, okay?” she says.

“It’s true,” he replies.

“I was just young,” says McPhee, who was 21 when she was involved American Idol.

Timeline of David Foster and Katharine McPhee’s relationship

The Masked singer alum told PEOPLE that at one point during her battle with bulimia, she forced herself to vomit as many as seven times a day, which she compared to “putting a sledgehammer on your vocal cords.”

McPhee sought treatment at the Center for Eating Disorders in Los Angeles, California, where she spent three months undergoing group and individual therapy, six days a week.

Her experience with disordered eating prompted her fans to chime in on the video, with one saying: “It’s so hard to watch.”

“It really just shows how he views women,” said The Pop Apologists.

David Foster and Katharine McPhee in April 2024.

Phillip Faraone/Getty

“If he can say that in front of a crowd, imagine the insensitive comments in private,” said another fan.

This isn’t the first time Foster’s remarks about McPhee’s body have come under fire. In 2021 Break The alum defended him after he wrote “What a baby!” in an Instagram photo she shared in a bikini, after the birth of her son Rennie, who is now 3 years old.

Katharine McPhee on how the 35-year age difference initially affected her relationship with husband David Foster

“I lost this baby weight without dieting. Zero. Diets are the worst and I had no pressure from anyone. I let my body do its thing and found a great workout. That’s it. And guess what? I will probably when – then gain weight again? BUT the people who went crazy because of what my husband wrote seriously, McPhee wrote.

Even so, the singer shared that coming back is always a problem — especially after she got pregnant in 2020.

“All of a sudden I was so obsessed with food, starting this first trimester, and I had such a distortion in the way I looked,” she said on the podcast. Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast, where she added that she gained about 40 kg. during her pregnancy.

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She said she sought treatment from a psychiatrist and learned “that it’s very common for women who have struggled with eating disorders in the past to almost relapse, in a sense, when they get pregnant.”

She has since said, “What I didn’t expect was to have a baby and then be so at peace with my body.”

McPhee continued, “I had this, wow, like this huge appreciation of what my body had just done and given me that I wish I had given myself a little more of that grace through pregnancy.”

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Source: HIS Education