Sherri Shepherd has spoken out about her decision to undergo a breast reduction over the summer.
The talk show host revealed during the season two premiere of her show Sherri on Monday that her surgery took place on 13 July and this was her first time publicly talking about it.
Shepherd explained that the weight of her breasts ended up being the factor for her to look into a reduction. Because of the weight she was slouching “all the time” and her back was “hurting very badly” but now says her default posture is sitting up straight and she feels “lighter.”
"They were so heavy. I was slouching all the time because of the weight," she said. "It started becoming really, really painful. My back was hurting very badly. I was getting the grooves in my shoulders (from bra straps) because you had to pull up your bra."
She went on to discuss how she always received comments about her breasts, but that wasn’t a factor in her deciding to get the procedure.
"It’s pretty much been my entire career: I get so many comments about my body and a lot of y’all kept saying, ‘Sherri, you too top heavy,’" she said on her show.
"And I would get comments like, ‘If you just got a boob job, everything would be balanced.”
The 56-year-old continued: “Now, to be clear, I did not get this boob job because of all of the comments. I got the boob job because I just wanted to see what it felt like to sleep on my stomach.”
While trying to keep her look a secret, the actress said it was similar to “trying to hide a baby bump” as she wore baggy clothes and compression garments to hide her smaller breasts.
Although the decision to get a breast reduction wasn’t easy, Shepherd talked about how attached she was to them. “Everybody in my family has big boobs," she said as her size before the surgery was a 42DD.
“It was a little bittersweet because I love my old girls. My best friends, I call them. They grew up with me. They have been with me through thick and thin. This was a relationship with the boobs and I didn’t care. I loved them."
In addition to the pain the comedian said her breasts became “practical” as they used to hit “right up under” her chin to her breasts becoming more like a basket for what she drops or loses during the day and finds after getting changed.
"It got to this point where I felt like ... (they) weren’t sexual," she said. "They just became practical."
Following the procedure Shepherd said that despite the “anchor scar” she was left with, she was also grateful for it. “I feel better,” she said. “I’m not going to say I wish I had done this a while ago because timing is everything. God gave them to me. They served me well. But now, as I get older, I can sit up straight. I feel lighter. It’s easy to shop."
The only downside according to her was that her insurance company wouldn’t cover the surgery even with her medical documentation. “This was not a vanity thing. I really needed to have this done because of the pain.
“But insurance companies are still not covering this for women," she said. “And the fact that they won’t cover a procedure for a woman when it is necessary is a shame."
