Actress Chrissy Metz Was Bullied for Her Looks, but She Proved That You Can Achieve Success Despite Your Clothing Size

Chrissy Metz is best known for her role in the series This Is Us. But before she appeared on the show which brought her fame and recognition, she had to go through painful experiences of bullying and humiliation. However, these hardships didn’t break the actress, and she proved by her own example that your talent doesn’t depend on your looks. Metz showed that self-acceptance and self-love are really important in everyone’s life.

Chrissy’s childhood wasn’t careless.

Chrissy Metz was born in the USA, but she spent her early years in Japan, where her father was stationed in the US Navy. When the girl was 8 years old, her family moved back to Florida, and soon her parents divorced. Chrissy’s mother began to date one of her suitors and soon married him. The stepfather had a great influence on the actress’s future.

Chrissy was the middle child of 6 siblings. Her stepfather loved his 2 biological children, but he wasn’t fond of Chrissy. Her mother was always at work, so she couldn’t see how he treated her daughter. Besides, there was a lack of food in the house, so Metz felt like she had to eat it before it disappeared.

Her first boyfriend refused to appear in public with her.

Classmates bullied her mercilessly because of her looks. There was a boy at school who seemed to like her. It was him she kissed for the first time. When they were alone, he would say she was beautiful. But when she approached him in public, he would curl his lip and look away.

She dreamed of becoming an actress to forget her hardships.

Crissy with her younger sister.

Despite her difficult childhood, Chrissy always loved to make people laugh. She wanted to be the female Jim Carrey when she grew up. She got to her first audition by accident. Her younger sister asked her to take her to an audition. Chrissy was filling out paperwork for her when suddenly an agent came up to her and asked her to sing something or dance. So, they had her audition and then said, “You don’t belong in this town.” Chrissy believed them, she packed her things and moved.

But instead of becoming an actress, she became an agent.

Chrissy managed to attend a couple of auditions, but in the remaining time, she had to work as a nanny and do other odd jobs. At some point, her own agent offered her to work as their assistant, and Metz agreed.

Chrissy worked as an agent for 9 years, and she thinks it was a priceless experience. After becoming an actress, she knew which things to pay attention to when signing a contract. At the same time, she felt like she didn’t own her life. She recalled, “It was like watching your boyfriend take another woman out every day.” But she comforted herself with the idea that at least she was helping others fulfill their dreams.

Food became Chrissy’s only consolation.

Chrissy soothed her disappointment in life with food. Every time she went to auditions, she got only negative answers. One of the casting managers even said that Metz was too pretty to play a big girl. She was amazed by this because she couldn’t understand why attractiveness could be measured with a clothing size.

A panic attack that she experienced while watching a movie made her turn for help.

While celebrating her 30th birthday, Chrissy was watching a movie with friends and family. Suddenly, she felt like she was dying. Later, Metz found out that she had had a panic attack. Chrissy was so disappointed with her life that this led to a nervous breakdown.

Chrissy is glad that she had that panic attack because it eventually led her to a therapist’s office where she started sorting out her problems. She joined a 12-Step Program which helped her realize that her problem was not about an unhealthy diet. “Because for sure, it’s not about the food. Ever. The food is the symptom,” Metz said.

The actress sacrificed her marriage for treatment.

Therapy was the reason why Metz decided to divorce her husband, Martyn Eaden. The actress recalls, “And it was really hard because you love each other. We find faults. But you know, you’re not growing together; you’re growing apart.” They met on a dating app and had a long-distance relationship before meeting each other in person a year later. In 2008, they tied the knot.

They were sincerely in love with each other, but Chrissy had to deal with her inner problems, so she simply didn’t have enough energy to support her family. As a result, Metz and Eaden decided to split, but they still remain close and even text each other every day. The actress confessed, “I’m still working on being a better ex-wife than I was a wife.”

Therapy taught Chrissy to fight her problems.

Therapy helped the actress realize that her issues came from her childhood. In 2018, Chrissy published the book This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today where she revealed that her stepfather humiliated her when she was a child. He called her names, weighed her, and shamed her for her looks.

But Chrissy is grateful to have access to mental healthcare because it helped her overcome her childhood trauma. She forgave her stepfather and loves him more than her biological father. Moreover, the man apologized to her for his past behavior.

Metz is glad her show This Is Us touches on issues of mental health. She said, “For me, once you educate somebody, even if it’s in a roundabout way on a TV show or a conversation, the fear goes away, and the shame or the guilt goes away, and that is so important in the journey of health as far as contending with your own mental health.”

She landed the role in This Is Us when she had 81 cents in her bank account.

At some point, Chrissy was ready to forget about her dream of becoming an actress and return home. But suddenly, she got a small part in the series American Horror Story. This work inspired Metz, but she couldn’t get another job for a year. She had only 81 cents in her banking account when a friend wrote her and invited her to audition for This Is Us.

She had nothing on her resume, but still, she landed the role of Kate. Chrissy is really grateful for this opportunity. She says that her character helped her heal her inner issues.

She’s not ashamed of her body anymore.

The actress recalls that in childhood she would always wear a T-shirt at the pool, but she wanted to wear a swimsuit one day. She did it in 2018. Now she’s not worried about her weight anymore and admits that she even doesn’t know her exact weight.

She says, “Whether or not I lose weight or stay the same, it’s purely a choice of mine for health. Not because I think that plus size, curvy, voluptuous, big bodies aren’t attractive—because I think they’re awesome.”

She’s not afraid to wear revealing outfits in public, and when she hears body-shaming comments, she responds with kindness. Chrissy believes that this is what these people really need because they’re misunderstood and probably really upset themselves.

Recently, the actress found love.

In 2020, Metz found love with her new boyfriend, Bradley Collins. They met through a popular dating app and after a few texts realized that they had a lot in common. Chrissy is happy with her significant other. She wrote to Bradley, “The joy, the peace, and the love you bring to my life and spirit are immeasurable.”

Now she plans to focus on her singing career.

After 6 years on This Is Us, Chrissy decided to focus on her other passion — music. The actress sings country music and believes that music and acting are not much different from each other.

“I love acting and telling stories and relating to the characters, and then helping other people relate to them, but music and acting are so similar. Acting is really a song without actual instrumentation behind it. A monologue is a song — it’s just a story that we’re all telling,” Chrissy said.

Do you think success and fame are worth the suffering Chrissy Metz had to go through? Share your opinion in the comments below.