When Anne Hathaway started gaining weight for an upcoming movie role, she felt pressured to explain her sudden body changes — and she wasn’t happy about that.
The actress, 35, explained that she spoke out about her weight gain to stop any false gossip in its tracks.
“I didn’t feel like dealing with the pregnancy rumors,” she told Glamour for its June/July issue.
The mom to son Johnny, 2, added that having to make such a public statement is problematic in itself.
“I find it bizarre that there’s a storm to get ahead of, but I have a history of being shamed and humiliated, for a lot of different reasons,” she said.
So instead of dealing with the speculation and questions as she embarked on a press tour for her role in Ocean’s 8, Hathaway explained her body changes in an Instagram post on April 5.
“I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well. To all the people who are going to fat shame me in the upcoming months, it’s not me, it’s you,” she wrote.
Hathaway previously faced criticism for both her dress and seemingly sour demeanor after winning an Academy Award in 2013 for Les Misérables.
“I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time,” Hathaway admitted in 2016, explaining that the dichotomy of accepting an award in an expensive dress for playing an impoverished woman felt wrong to her at the time. “That’s the truth and that’s what happened. It sucks.”
She also fought off body shamers later in 2016, a few months after giving birth.
“There is no shame in gaining weight during pregnancy (or ever). There is no shame if it takes longer than you think it will to lose the weight (if you want to lose it at all). There is no shame in finally breaking down and making your own jean shorts because last summer’s are just too dang short for this summer’s thighs,” she wrote on Instagram. “Bodies change. Bodies grow. Bodies shrink. It’s all love (don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.).”