A resurfaced video of David Foster calling his wife Katherine McPhee “fat” has sparked outrage.
In the video, which was shared on TikTok in March 2023, the pair were onstage at one of Foster’s shows, recalling how they first met. With the microphone in hand, as her husband was sitting at the piano, McPhee acknowledged that they were first introduced nearly 18 years ago when she was a contestant on American Idol and Foster was her mentor.
“I was a little chubby, and cheerful, contestant on American Idol,” she said, while a screen on the stage showed a photo of McPhee from the early 2000s. “Look at me smiling, I was so happy.”
Foster then chimed in to comment on her appearance when they met, saying: “Oh yeah. You were fat.” In response, McPhee jokingly rolled her eyes at him and defended how she looked on American Idol.
“I was a little chubby, okay,” she said, before he responded: “That was true.” She then added: “I was young.”
The resurfaced video has since sparked controversy on social media, with one person on TikTok in January saying that Foster’s remark about his wife’s appearance was “hard to watch.”
The TikTok user, who goes by the username @jordycray, also claimed that Foster’s comment was especially inappropriate because, after American Idol, McPhee spoke out about her struggles with an eating disorder.
“I feel like [Foster] was being sarcastic when he was saying: ‘Yeah you’re fat,’” he explained. “But agreed when she said she was chubby.”
In the comments of the TikTok video, multiple people have also slammed Foster for making the remark about his wife onstage in the first place.
“This made my heart hurt. This beautiful girl was NEVER fat. You don’t call your wife fat. As a joke or serious,” one wrote.
“It says a lot that she brought it up and it says even more that he went along with it and commented on her weight,” another added.
A third commented: “Any comment on a woman’s weight is inappropriate and he showed his true colors with that comment.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Foster and McPhee for comment.
Foster and McPhee met in 2006 when the singer was a contestant on American Idol. The pair, who share a 35-year age difference, were reported to be dating in May 2017, before they announced their engagement in July 2018. The couple tied the knot in June 2019 and later welcomed their first child together, son Rennie, in February 2022.
McPhee has also previously opened up about her eating disorder. During an appearance on Dr Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy podcast, shared via Entertainment Tonight, in 2021, she revealed that during her pregnancy, she was fearful of a “relapse.”
“The biggest challenge for me through the pregnancy was really the body issue stuff just suddenly came up in a way that hadn’t been present in a long time,” she said. “I have felt really stable in my life in the last four or five years, and my weight has been sort of more consistent. But feeling like there was a relapse after getting pregnant was really shocking and upsetting and concerning for me.”
In January 2022, Foster was also accused of “perpetuating the unhealthy narrative that women need to be back to or smaller than their pre-pregnancy size” after praising McPhee’s postpartum body. The criticism came after the musician shared a photo on Instagram of McPhee, wearing a bikini and sitting in the grass, one month after she had her baby. He captioned the photo: “What baby!” along with a music note emoji.
