Jennifer Love Hewitt has opened up about the heartbreaking incident that led to her feeling insecure about her body.
In a new interview with Vulture, the actress opened up about the long-lasting emotional toll of public scrutiny, her journey through Hollywood, and her return to the kind of work she truly values.
Looking back, Hewitt describes her early years in the industry with surprising optimism.
“I just had blind faith in myself,” she said. “I highly recommend it.”
But that confidence was rocked in her mid-20s after paparazzi photos of her vacationing in Hawaii appeared alongside the headline “Stop Calling Me Fat!”
“I was having the time of my life,” she recalled. “I had made up the dumbest song about eating snacks and playing in the ocean, and I was singing it to my boyfriend out loud, doing some weird dance move, and they got the picture and then it was on the cover.”
The moment, which may have seemed like a small blip to the outside world, deeply affected Hewitt’s self-image.
“I don’t think I was ever really insecure until that cover,” she admitted. “And then when it happened, I don’t know that I’ve ever recovered from it.”
That headline wasn’t just a bad day - it marked a turning point.
“There’s a part of me that’s always like, ‘Is this version going to be good enough, or is that going to happen again?’ Where somebody’s going to be like, ‘Hey, this is her without makeup at the cleaners. She looks 59,’” she said.
The reason the moment stuck with her for so long became clear during the interview: “Because that was me. I think that’s why the insecurity carried on. I don’t know if I’ve even ever put that together for myself other than right now.
“I think I was like, ‘Oh my God, I was myself one time, and this is what happened.’”
Hewitt found strength and guidance in her mother, Patricia Mae Hewitt, who passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer.
“She was like, ‘You don’t get it. You can’t win. This is just people having a problem with the version of you they think belongs to them.’ And she said, ‘Take your power back. Belong to yourself, and don’t worry about it.’”
Hewitt also spoke candidly about being sexualized at a young age, thanks to films like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Can’t Hardly Wait (1998), and Heartbreakers (2001).
“It bothers me more now than it did at that age because I was in it,” she shared.
“Before I even knew what sex was, I was a sex symbol. I still don’t know that I have that fully defined for myself because it started so weird.”