Carnie Wilson was asked something so upsetting in the ’90s by a music executive that she ran to the bathroom crying.
Wilson, a member of the girl group Wilson Phillips, was recording her debut album with her sister Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips when a music executive allegedly made a comment about her weight.
Wilson revealed on the “Magnificent Others” podcast that the executive asked her, “What are we going to do about this weight problem of yours?”
CARNIE WILSON SHOCKS ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ JUDGES BY JOINING DAUGHTER FOR AUDITION
“I remember running into the bathroom and just sobbing,” Wilson said.
She noted that “he wound up really apologizing for it because I said, ‘Unacceptable. Like, how you hurt me so badly when you did that.’ And he said, ‘I just can’t believe I said that. I am so sorry.'”
Wilson told host Billy Corgan that it took the music exec “years” to apologize to her. She recalled telling the exec, “You’re so funny and so great. And then you f—ing were an a–hole for saying that to me. Why did you do that?”
Wilson continued, “It’s like you lost control and you just really chose the wrong words. And were you really afraid that my fat was going to make us not successful?”
Corgan opted to lighten the conversation and joked, “See, if you’d been skinny, you would have sold 11 million.” (Wilson Phillips sold 10 million copies of their debut album.)
His comment got a laugh from Wilson, who added, “Motherf—ers.”
“That’s how they think,” Corgan noted.
Wilson also demonstrated how she was positioned in music videos.
“It was always, ‘Hide Carnie’ in the videos. I had to stay in this light for my chin,” she said while showing how she had to place her hand over her face to block her chin.
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“That’s so humiliating,” Corgan noted.
“But I sort of embraced my role. I kind of liked it. It was kind of like a power thing. I was different… and that’s part of the armor I’ve had,” Wilson said.
The group famously wore lingerie for their 1992 “You Won’t See Me Cry” music video and Wilson explained her outfit, saying she was put in “these corsets that were sucking me in and trying to make me look as skinny as possible.”
Wilson continued, “I was bleeding. I had sores on my waist from cinching and trying to look skinny. It was just awful.”
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Corgan said, “So what strikes me… if Wilson Phillips came out today, you would have been embraced in such a different way. You’ve had something to do with that body positivity stuff, but who you are and what makes you who you are, people would be so different. It must strike you as slightly ironic.”
“It’s ironic,” Wilson said before adding, “but I never tapped into that negativity. I don’t like negativity. I feel like everybody that made fun of me was just unhappy and it was an easy thing to do… it’s sad because I love to lift people up… I could not understand why somebody would just make fun of me. Like, focus on the music. Who cares if I’m heavier than the other two?”
