Dean McDermott is speaking out about how online bullying has affected his family, particularly, his and wife Tori Spelling's 5 children
Dean McDermott is speaking out about how online bullying has affected his family, particularly, his and wife Tori Spelling's five children.
The 52-year-old actor spoke out about the issue on a recent episode of his Daddy Issues podcast, and shared that he once had to have a difficult conversation with their 12-year-old son, Liam, after he asked if he was obese due to negative comments he read online. McDermott and Spelling are also parents to 11-year-old Stella, 7-year-old Hattie, 6-year-old Finn and 2-year-old Beau.
"He said, 'Dad, am I obese?’" McDermott recalls. "I said, 'Look buddy -- there's some sick people in the world … and they need to do stuff like this. They need to say bad things about people. Think about it, son. You have a busy life. You have school, you got sports; do you think you have time to go on Instagram, scroll through the people that you’re following, and make a negative comment about somebody?' I said, 'No, you don't. You don't, and if you did, you'd fill your time with something else. So think about how sick these people are that they have to do that.'"
In January, McDermott took a stand against internet trolls who criticized his children when Spelling shared a family photo on Instagram with her Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star, Ian Ziering, and his family.
"I am absolutely horrified and disgusted by the comments being left about my children," McDermott wrote in the comments section. "Body shaming and bullying my children??!! What is wrong with you people??!! For your information, we went from a long day at school to the movie. And I don't know any child that is NOT disheveled at the end of the day. Not to mention that just before this picture was taken, they were wrestling and running around with all the other kids that were at the movie. So I apologize we didn't get the iron and steamer out to make them perfect for you. Their [sic] kids. They're messy and dirty. That's what they do."
" ... As far as saying my children are overweight, well that's just mean and un-called for," he continued. "They're all going through different growth phases, and even if our children are on the bigger side, who cares. They're healthy and happy and I'm sorry they don't look like skinny supermodels. ... You should all be ashamed of yourselves for passing such horrible judgement [sic] on innocent beautiful children. Shame on you all!!!!"
Earlier this month, McDermott found himself defending 46-year-old Spelling after she posted a bikini photo with two of her 90210 co-stars, Jennie Garth and Gabrielle Carteris, on Instagram. One user commented, "I'm cringing," and another user replied, "yea, the phrase 'trying too hard to be relevant' comes to mind. That one in the middle is just painful.'"
Although Carteris is in the middle of the photo, and not Spelling, McDermott not surprisingly took offense to the comment and wrote back, "I love how you haters have private accts!! Let’s see what you trolls look like ya cowards!!!"
Meanwhile, ET spoke with Spelling in February, where she shared how her children reacted to her appearing on the hit show, The Masked Singer. Watch the video below for more:
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