Whitney Way Thore is opening up about the dark place she went to after being the target of online bullying and harassment.
Whitney Way Thore says she went to a dark place after encountering online hate from fans and followers of My Big Fat Fabulous Life.
Sitting down with ET's Deidre Behar ahead of season 12's premiere on TLC, the reality TV star, 40, opened up about the mental health challenges she faced from social media harassment.
"After season 11 premiered, the amount of hate that I was getting surpassed anything that I've experienced in my entire career, and I was almost suicidal over it. Especially because so much of it was about my mother," Whitney tells ET.
The TLC personality lost her mom, Barbara "Babs" Thore, to a cerebral amyloid angiopathy in December 2022. Babs had suffered a stroke a year earlier in December 2021. According to Whitney, many of the mean messages included people telling her that her mom would be angry and disapprove of the choices she was making in the wake of Babs' death.
While Whitney did not share with ET exactly which decisions fans decided to harass her over, she said some viewers took it to an extreme. One person, she claims, even left a physical note for her that left her shaken to her core.
"I think it said something like, 'Your mother is rolling over in her grave,'" Whitney explained of the letter she received.
She added, "I've read the most horrible things about myself on a daily basis. But when my mom died and people started saying stuff like that to me – 'Your mother hated you,' 'Your mother would be disappointed in you, Whitney,' 'I don't like that you're doing this, what would your mother think?'"
Whitney says the online vitriol was just the tip of the iceberg, too. Viewers have taken it upon themselves to trespass and attempt to scare her at home, so much so that the police had to get involved.
"It's scary. Like, the night that my house got egged," she began. "I have the security system and all that, but there have been times, I had years ago the police show up on my doorstep at 3 in the morning and tell me that there had been a death threat and that someone had threatened to kill me with a knife that night and they were just performing a wellness check."
Whitney called the harassment "insane," and shared that she only installed a security system at her home after having other alleged scary incidents. All of it is over the top, she says.
"Just because I do reality TV," Whitney tells ET, expressing her disbelief.
While she has taken actual, physical steps to protect herself and her loved ones, Whitney also says that the continued hate -- whether it be over her appearance, how she is edited in the show or the decisions she makes -- has consistently made her reconsider the TV show.
"Every season I think about giving it up," she tells ET, adding that she has resigned herself to the idea that it wouldn't change much. "I'll be a public person forever. The internet lives forever -- that stuff's not going away. At this point, I don't think quitting would lessen any of that in my life, and there are so many good things that come from this television show."
Whitney continues, "No, I don't have control over how I'm edited or presented or anything like that. That's true -- I don't. It's also a choice that I've made, and I think that there's much more positive than negative that comes out of it. And, you know, on the flip side, doing this television show has been some of the best times of my life."
She's right about that. Since beginning the show, Whitney has gained 1 million followers on Instagram, released a book called I Do It with the Lights On and helped millions of other people find self-acceptance with their bodies. She has also gotten to travel the world, visiting foreign countries with her family members -- including a trip to the Swiss Alps in season 11 and another exotic trip to come in season 12.
As for the upcoming season, Whitney says she is excited to be back with the fans after a year away -- especially since season 11 had a somber backbone after Babs' death. ET previously published an exclusive teaser for season 12, which included a first look at Whitney's love life heating up.
"OK, so nobody freak out," Whitney tells her brother, Hunter, and the rest of the Thore family in one clip before a snippet plays of her kissing a mystery man. "I have met someone." She continues in the clip, "This could literally be the man I will marry. I know I sound insane."
Fans will just have to tune in and see whether or not she has truly found love. Keeping tight-lipped about her relationship status, she told ET in the new interview that whatever fans end up seeing in the new season, her goals for the next few years are crystal clear.
"I want a partner, that is true. [I'm] not ashamed, embarrassed to say it at all," she says. "I think I could come to terms with not having children. It would be very difficult for me to come to terms with, you know, another five or 10 years without a partner. That does not sound fun to me."
Here's hoping that Whitney finally finds what she has been looking for all along in the upcoming block of new episodes.
My Big Fat Fabulous Life season 12 premieres on Tuesday, July 9 on TLC. New episodes air Tuesday nights.
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