Dean McDermott Reveals Son’s Heartbreaking Response to Body Shaming and Bullying

Dean McDermott opened up about the heartbreaking reaction his son had to being shamed online for his weight. The 52-year-old actor spoke on the issue on a recent episode of his podcast Daddy Issues, sharing the one had to have a difficult conversation with 12-year-old son, Liam, after we was asked if he was obese by online trolls.

McDermott and wife Tori Spelling also share 11-year-old Stella, 7-year-old Hattie, 6-year-old Finn and 2-year-old Beau.

“He said, ‘Dad, am I obese?’” McDermott remembered during the episode.

“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,” he added, as first reported by Entertainment Tonight. “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.’”

The comments come a few months after McDermott clapped back at Internet trolls for criticizing his children after Spelling shared a family photo on Instagram, also fearing her BH90210 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 in January. “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!!!!”

McDermott has made headlines recently after starting the podcast alongside co-hosts Adam Hunter and Nicky Paris. He opened up about having his older son Jack catching him and Spelling having sex early on in their relationship.

“He couldn’t sleep one night and — we were making a lot of noise — and … I just happened to be looking that way, towards the door,” he said to co-hosts Adam Hunter and Nicky Paris as well as Monday’s guest host Jay Mohr. “I saw the doorknob turn — I didn’t hear it, I saw it turn — and I was like, ‘Oh s—,’ and then a crack of light.”

He said he was able to think on his feet to come up with an excuse about the noises Jack had just heard.

“I jumped off and sat on the edge of the bed,” he recalled. “He said, ‘Dad, is everything OK?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I just got a migraine.’”