A popular comedian opened up about the time she started urinating blood after losing 30 pounds in three weeks. Margaret Cho says that executives pressured her to lose weight.
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At the time, she was starring on the sitcom All-American Girl in the 1990s. Executives told her they "wanted me to be a lot less fat." Cho opened up about the experience on The Person Who Believed In Me Podcast
"That was the main criticism was of my body. Like, they were like, 'You're way too fat to be you,' " she said. "Like, I was supposed to be me in the show. Oh, like I'm playing myself and then I'm like super everybody's freaking out cause I was like, so fat."
Executives told her they"just wanted the show to have the best chance it could." Cho continued, "And the main criticism from everyone was that I was just too fat. And that didn't mean that I was actually fat." So the comedian decided to lose weight.
Popular Comedian Shares Experience
She took the now-banned weight loss drug called Fen-phen. The drug caused her to rapidly lose weight, but it also led to kidney failure. Cho started urinating blood in her trailer.
"It was horrible," she said about the experience. The comedian soon became concerned about her health and stopped the drug. Meanwhile, Cho said the executives could care less about her health.
They were still focused on the weight. They told her to not gain the weight back. That put a lot of pressure on an already sick Cho to try not to gain the weight back while her body battled the affects of the drug.
Cho responded, "No, they just had to still continue to try to figure out — don't gain the weight back, though. They were like, 'That's fine, but just don't get the weight, don't get the weight back.' Like, it was more terrifying that I was gonna have to stop dieting than that I was sick."
Cho added, "That's all they know from their focus groups and from their understanding of what television is."
