Jillian Michaels says she didn't like how she was being portrayed on The Biggest Loser.
Jillian Michaels shocked The Biggest Loser fans in June when she announced that she's leaving the hit NBC show for the second time, after returning in 2013 for season 14.
Though Michaels, 40, stresses in a new interview with People that she's "grateful to the show" and "sad to leave," she also admits that there were "some fundamental differences [with Biggest Loser producers] that have existed for a while."
Related: Jillian Michaels Steps Away from 'The Biggest Loser'
She specifically didn't like how she was being portrayed in recent seasons.
"In the beginning of the show it was tough love. You saw the tough, and you saw the love," she says. But in more recent episodes, "you saw none of the relationships, none of the bonds that I build with my clients." Instead, the show seemed to focus on her being "more harsh."
"Millions of people have this warped negative perception of me," she says.
But perhaps the final straw came when she was accused of cheating by the show's producers for allowing her team to take caffeine pills without their permission, and the controversy trickled down to her daughter, Lukensia, 4.
"I know who your mom is – she's a cheater. I saw it on TV," she says someone told her daughter at camp.
The Biggest Loser has come under plenty of fire recently, with some fans criticizing last season's winner Rachel Fredrickson for losing too much weight after dropping 155 pounds and weighing in at 105 pounds.
Related: 'Biggest Loser' Scandal! Is The Winner Too Thin?
"I had to take a hard look at my work," Michaels says about the controversy. "I came to the conclusion that moving forward, I need to be able to have an impact on the outcome of what I do.”
