Raven-Symoné opens up about undergoing multiple cosmetic surgeries before the age of 18.
The actress revealed that during her childhood and teenage years, she was heavily body-shamed. During her time on The View, she said that she had been warned against getting fat while on the set of The Cosby Show.
“I remember not being able to have the bagel or anything,” she said. “I remember people would be like, ‘You can’t eat that. You’re getting fat!’ I’m like, ‘I’m 7! I’m hungry!’” The body-shaming followed her to Disney and in 2017 she was told that she was “too big.”
“They said I was too big to be doing an hour-and-a-half concert. ‘I don’t know how she can dance being that big.’ And I was like, ‘I still did it!’” she said. “I was on tour forever because it’s not about your size, it’s about what you have to say if you can sing or dance, and performing. It’s not about your size.”
Raven said that the body shaming affected her mental health. As a result of being body-shamed at an early age, the That’s So Raven star would undergo two breast reductions and liposuction as a minor.
“I had two breast reductions and lip before I turned 18,” she said on her podcast with her wife Miranda. Raven also said that her father encouraged her to have her first breast reduction. “There was paperwork involved. My dad suggested strongly that I should get my breasts reduced.”
She continued, “He was like, ‘So you don’t feel bad, is there anything that you want?’ I was like, ‘Yeah if I get lipo, will people stop calling me fat?’ So I got a twofer. It was just a mess just being that young and the pain of it all.”
After her first reduction, the actress said that she suffered a seizure. “I remember waking up and seeing everything and then I just started to have this dry mouth and couldn’t breathe and back under,” she recalled.
She went on to have a second breast reduction after feeling her breasts were still too big when she gained weight.