Lizzo is confronting renewed public scrutiny over her mental health after revealing that she was "extremely suicidal" during the early stages of her weight-loss journey, a period she described as marked by isolation following a 2023 lawsuit that accused her and members of her team of harassment and creating a hostile work environment. The disclosure appeared in a detailed personal account published on Substack, where the Grammy Award winner recounted how the fallout left her unable to trust those around her and forced her to re-evaluate her relationship with her body.
The lawsuit, first reported by US Weekly in 2023, alleged that three of Lizzo's former backup dancers experienced sexual harassment, weight-shaming, and coercive situations, including being pressured to interact with nude performers at an Amsterdam club. Lizzo, her production company, and her dance captain were named as defendants. The public attention was swift, and according to Lizzo's new writing, the period triggered profound emotional turmoil that she struggled to navigate.
Lizzo wrote that she cut off contact with friends and family and felt "depressed" and "isolated," describing an atmosphere in which she felt misunderstood and unable to publicly defend herself. She said the emotional fallout soon manifested physically, pushing her toward pilates as a means of managing grief, stress and anger. The sessions became, in her words, a way to confront pain that had accumulated over years of public commentary about her weight.
She acknowledged that early weight changes were unintentional. "I found that I had lost some weight in that process, but it wasn't as significant as it is now," she wrote. She said her first focus was not body size, but regaining emotional stability during a period when she felt betrayed by people she had trusted.
Lizzo framed her earlier weight as a form of resilience, calling it a "protective shield" and a "joyful comfort zone" that had sustained her through both personal challenges and the pressure of being a plus-size artist. Her account emphasized that the transformation she describes is not an attempt to conform to external expectations, but an effort to reclaim autonomy over her body after years of what she called media trauma.
Now describing herself as "down to a couple of pounds," Lizzo said she thinks of the changes not as weight lost but as pounds "released," a distinction she explained as symbolic of emotional progress rather than a numerical achievement. She stressed that the process involved no medical interventions and unfolded gradually over two years.
Throughout the post, she challenged suggestions that her public image or weight-related posts had been "performative." She said she continues working to separate her identity and self-worth from what she called the emotional abuse she has received online. She also reaffirmed pride in her history and her body, writing, "I will always have the stretch, and the skin of a woman who carries great weight, and I'm proud of that," adding that she had once been "a big girl" and remains at peace with that part of her life.
