Bebe Rexha Fights Back: Body Confidence Advocate!

After a three year wait is back with her new album Dirty Blonde as she makes her return to the music industry. 

However instead of her upcoming record hitting headlines, the singer, 36, was subject to brutal body-shaming recently as she stepped out at the on Monday. 

The Hey Mama hitmaker wowed in a fitted black corset dress and leather skirt for the event, but cruel trolls took to social media as they jibed: 'You know she's not on Ozempic'. 

Brushing off the remark, Bebe instead used the attention to further promote her new record, but sadly this is not the first time she has come under fire for her appearance. 

She was once told: 'Nobody likes a fat pop star' and speaking in a recent interview on Jennifer Hudson's show she said: 'I don't think it's just about being in the public eye. I think it's us seeing gorgeous models and fit women all the time and everybody's getting so skinny.'

Furthermore, the star has also explained she suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a chronic metabolic condition which has contributed to her weight gain. 

Over the course of her career Bebe has been very vocal about her size and has become a body confidence advocate as she hit back at the criticism, often snapping back at her trolls.

When she first started in the industry she wasn't seen as looking like a typical pop star and was encouraged to diet. 

She later recalled: 'I’ve been struggling with food for forever. I remember starting out and getting my first record deal…and they said to me, "Are you ready to get into bootcamp shape? You need to lose 20 pounds to do this career." 

'I was 127 pounds [9st] at the time, and I had people around me telling me to get lipo.'

However now, feeling more comfortable than ever through the process of creating her new record, Bebe explained how she used the music video to get through her insecurities. 

'I was going through a tough time especially being in the music business. I see a girl in the video and she's a model and I just kind of lose it. 

'But for me it was more so my therapy of looking at these other women and wishing I could be them. Like what's in your brain? Like it's so beautiful.

'I hope other women, girls, even men, boys could relate to it because I feel like we all have those moments of insecurity where we're down on ourselves. 

'But I got through that. I'm feeling much better. I feel different.'

The star also isn't afraid to hit back at her haters online and after seeing a viral Tweet about her weight gain, Bebe chose to reply. 

'There was a tweet that went viral because I had gained some weight  Look, we all have things we want to work better on. You know what I mean? 

'But like I'm a very natural girl. I'm not against like lipo, none of that stuff, but it scares the hell out of me. 

'So, I'm like, "Okay, we're going to have to try to figure this out the natural way." It's hard. It's hard.

'But I love trolling people online, not too much, you know... but it's like 'You're on my page"'. 

But it isn't just online noise. 

In 2019 the star recalled how certain fashion designers wouldn't work with her ahead of her appearance at the Grammy's as they deemed her 'too big'. 

Recalling the incident on The Jonathan Ross Show, she said: 'I got a text saying that a lot of the big designers and showrooms like the houses that hold the the clothes didn't want to dress me because they consider me too big.

'I'm like a UK size 12 yeah so I like my curves but yeah I just feel like that it hurt me because I've struggled with my weight all my life.

'Especially being in the music business looks is an important thing but you also want to be healthy. It's not just physical it's about mental, it's about feeling happy and I don't want to be in a place where I'm starving myself to fit into certain clothes.'

Sharing a video to highlight the problem, she called for more inclusivity in the fashion industry. 

'I think the fashion industry needs to be more inclusive meaning, even if you're thinner. Like you should show love to every body type, every shape you know big boobs small boobs big a**e, small one.'

Bebe has also opened up about her PCOS diagnosis after she had her period for 20 days of February back in 2023. 

Addressing her symptoms in a TikTok, Bebe explained she first noticed she was having irregular periods. 

'February was 28 days, I had my period for 20 days. I had 10 days on my period, a week off, and then another 10 days.

'Some months, I won't get my period. Super, super irregular.'

The hormone imbalance can cause symptoms like ovarian cysts, irregular periods, acne, excess hair growth, infertility, and weight gain.

Speaking about her diagnosis in 2023 after seeing more comments online about her weight gain, she said: 'I feel like we're in 2023 like we should not be talking about people's weight you know.

'I like to eat okay. I like to eat and ain't nothing wrong with that. I went to the doctor last year and I and a lot of women actually have this and they don't know it but I was diagnosed with PCOS which is polycystic ovary syndrome. 

'It's one of the leading causes of why women gain weight and are obese and it's like I literally jumped like 30 pounds so quickly, maybe a little bit more but yeah we got to just be positive and just show people love.'

Bebe shared that she has been weighing her food, exercising to burn up to 700 calories a workout and restricting her calorie intake to 1400 a day to try lose the weight.

'My doctor was like, "Do you think that's sustainable to be eating 1400 calories and burning 700?" and I was like, "No." '

She continued: 'My doctor once told me that a woman with PCOS can eat a bowl of blueberries and it would be an equivalent to like a normal person eating a whole pizza.'

Bebe takes metformin, a diabetes medication that helps lower blood sugar levels and although she shared that the medication has helped her periods get back on track, she still struggles with painful cysts, on one occasion she ended up in urgent care  from 'a cyst that had burst.'

'I was in so much pain, my doctor thought it was appendicitis. It was so bad.

'Tylenol didn't work, Advil didn't work. You guys, I was sick to my stomach. The pain was so bad. The only thing that helped me, and I think you should try this if you have cysts, is a heating pad.'

The star has shared that she also suffers with bloating and break outs from the PCOS.  

Elsewhere, Bebe has been open about her bipolar disorder after she took to social media for a candid chat about her mental health in 2019. 

'For the longest time, I didn’t understand why I felt so sick,' she wrote on Twitter. 'Why I felt lows that made me not want to leave my house or be around people and why I felt highs that wouldn’t let me sleep, wouldn’t let me stop working or creating music. Now I know why.'

The star continued in another tweet, 'I'm bipolar and I'm not ashamed anymore. That is all. (Crying my eyes out.)

'I don't want you to feel sorry for me,' she wrote. 'I just want you to accept me. That's all. Love you.'

Reflecting on her decision to speak candidly about her bipolar, a year later she told SELF: 'That was my moment of being like, "F*** this"'.

'I just decided to do it because I was like, "I'm not going to be imprisoned by my thoughts that I'm not normal or that I'm crazy. That's bulls***."

Bebe admitted she's still 'scared of everything' but said her bipolar meds have helped her balance her fears, gushing: 'I couldn't believe that's how good people could feel.'  

'I'd be in the passenger seat of the car and I would want to open the door and jump out and just get f***ing squashed. Which is terrible,' Bebe said of her extreme lows.

'[Medication] doesn't take away the sadness or anxiety totally, but I feel so much better. It's helped me live a more balanced life, less ups and downs.'

At first, Bebe was scared that the pills would 'flatten' her out and stifle her creativity in the recording studio.

'I'm still the same person in the studio,' Bebe said.

'It maybe helped me be a little bit more insightful and learn things about the world and also allowed me to be a little bit more centered so that I can actually write about my feelings.'

Bebe's song Break My Heart Myself addresses living with bipolar as she sings: 'Hello, my name is Stevie / Actually, I'm lying, it's really Bebe / It's the meds, they make me really sleepy / Klonopin, my friend, yeah, she numbs the feeling.'

'My doctor upped my dosage / My mom felt bad, so she sent me roses / But without it, I get really hopeless / And 5.7 of Americans know it.'

Bebe explained: 'It's a part of me I am constantly dealing with. It's tough... Sometimes putting it in a song normalizes it for me. It's just my truth.'