Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott’s 12-Year-Old Son Liam Has Heartbreaking Response to Body-Shaming Online Trolls

After he became the center of cyberbullying earlier this year, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott‘s 12-year-old son Liam reacted to the negative comments by asking his parents, “Am I obese?” The heartbreaking question was prompted after Spelling shared a family photo in January that saw commenters criticizing her children as “fat” and looking “terrible.”

Speaking on his new “Daddy Issues” podcast with Nicky Paris and Adam Hunter, McDermott opened up about the impact that the negative comments had on his son.

“Liam picked it up, and that’s when I really went ballistic, because it’s like, you know, it’s gonna happen,” McDermott said on the podcast. “He said, ‘Dad, am I obese?’ 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.’”

The former Chopped Canada host, who also shares Stella, 11, Hattie, 7, Finn, 6, and Beau, 2 with Spelling, went on to explain that he told his son that the rude comments were a reflection of the commenters themselves.

“‘Think about it, son. You have a busy life,’ ” he said. “‘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.’”

McDermott’s revelation was met with a round of support from fans.

“Kids are off-limits, they did not ask to be dragged into celebrities lifestyles,” one person wrote.

“Your son is a champ. Like yourself Mr. McDermott,” another wrote. “How dare these people be even to say these obscene comments to a on quote child.”

The heartbreaking interaction was prompted after Spelling in January shared a photo to Instagram of herself and her family standing with the family of her former Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star Ian Ziering.

The seemingly innocent photo was flooded with harsh comments of people criticizing the appearance of Spelling and McDermott’s children, with one person slamming them for looking “frumpy,” while another asked, “Why do you let your kids get so fat?”

Not long after the comments were made, McDermott had spoken out against them, stating that he was “horrified” and “disgusted” by the cruelness being geared towards his children.

“Body shaming and bullying my children??!! What is wrong with you people??!!” he wrote. “!! 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.”

Sadly, that was not the first nor the last time that McDermott and Spelling have had to come to their children’s defense, the two frequently hitting back at commenters who criticize their children.