Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Defends Weight Gain in Response to Body Shamers

Alicia Machado walked the red carpet last week at the Spanish-language award show Premios Tu Mundo (Telemundo), and what was supposed to be a celebratory night for achievements in the Latino community turned into a body shaming experience for the former Miss Universe. After Machado published a photo of her arriving at the award show in a lacy red jumpsuit, her post was flooded with comments about her weight.

“As a public figure, you’re overweight in my opinion. Those clothes do not suit her,” said one of Machado’s followers. Another one wrote, “You look chubby. I don’t know if it’s your undergarments, but the extra pounds are noticeable.”

However, the ex-beauty queen doesn’t deny that she has put on more weight and explains that it’s for her acting career. “Yes and I still have another 5 pounds more to gain to appear even fatter for the next character that I will be playing,” she wrote back to one of the comments.

This isn’t the first time that the Venezuelan native has responded to body shamers. Last year, she opened up about Donald Trump calling her “Miss Piggy” when she held the title of Miss Universe in 1996. This allegation resulted in the former Republican candidate defending his comments from 20 years ago by saying that she “gained a massive amount of weight” as a titleholder, which is a “problem.”

Machado went on to receive countless hateful comments from Trump supporters for speaking against him and joining former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “They won’t intimidate me because I’m backed up by the truth,” she told People en Español. “As long as I’m firm and strong in my convictions, I’m at peace and moving forward.”

The actress is currently a judge on Telemundo’s Gran Oportunidad (Great Opportunity), a talent game show in which contestants “with surprising talents and extraordinary abilities” have 90 seconds to perform for celebrity judges that include Machado.