Pop Singer Recalls Undergoing Liposuction at Age 13

Sam Smith is opening up about undergoing cosmetic surgery when they were just 13 years old.

The “Unholy” singer, 33, spoke candidly to Podcrushed host Penn Badgley about their struggles with weight and body image during Wednesday’s episode of the podcast.

“For me, it was always my weight,” said Smith, who uses they/them pronouns. “My weight as a kid was the hardest thing for me in school, and weirdly the thing I probably got teased the most about.”

“I had surgery on my chest when I was 13 years old because I had a growing chest,” they continued. “There was all sorts of reasons why, but mainly that I was just getting so teased. I couldn’t go swimming in school, and getting changed in the locker room was hell. So I got liposuction when I was 13 years old.”

Asked how Smith’s parents reacted to their desire to undergo cosmetic surgery so young, the Grammy Award-winning artist responded that they were “supportive” of the procedure. “They were hugely supportive of the whole thing because they saw how much it was crippling everything about me,” they shared.

Despite their high hopes for the surgery, Smith said the actual liposuction was a “nightmare.”

“It was all a struggle with food and stuff, and the liposuction, it worked, but it was also a nightmare,” they admitted. “Because they gave me a bandage which is like a bra … I was only meant to wear it for a month, but if I wore the bandage, it meant that I would get to the front of the lunch queue because everyone had to be sensitive about my chest. So I just kept this bandage on for nearly a year.”

“I’d be like, ‘Ooh, don’t come close to me,’ and I’d get first in the lunch queue, and I’d just eat more and eat more,” they went on. “So the surgery never really worked because I just love food.”

Smith has been open about their body image struggles for years, telling The Sunday Times in 2023 that they were finally feeling comfortable in their own skin.

“When I was 25 I came off tour exhausted. I looked to role models in the body world. Every time I went to the pool I felt self-conscious, but I forced myself to take my top off,” they said at the time. “It paid off because I now have the opposite of body dysmorphia. I look fabulous. I’m finally getting a tan. I’m burnt in places I’ve never been burnt.”

Posing topless on the album cover for their album Gloria, Smith said, “I’m happier in my own skin on Gloria. I feel liberated, released from pressures I felt when I was young. My mum says that, as I’ve got older, I’ve stopped caring what people think as much. She tends to be right.”