'My Big Fat Fabulous Life's Whitney Thore Makes Vulnerable Confession About Online Bullies and Hate Messages (Exclusive)

My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Thore is no stranger to online bullying. (She has been in reality TV for nearly a decade, after all.) But ahead of Season 12 of her TLC series, the Greensboro, Ala., native opened up about the extent of the vicious hate she receives.

On July 2, Thore, 40, spoke with Parade via Zoom to share what viewers can expect from the upcoming season of MBFFL , which premieres on July 9. She also made a vulnerable confession about online critics.

"I think, like, really innocuous things, it's easy to say, 'Oh, like, they're just haters. Whatever. Move on with your life,'" she said of abhorrent comments and DMs from strangers she fields daily. "This has been part of my life, always, for the last 10 years."

However, going into filming for Season 12, Thore revealed she experienced more hate than ever.

"I don't mean people telling me, 'You're fat. You're ugly. I don't like your hair.' I don't mean that," she explained. "I mean people telling me that I deserve to die. I mean cops showing up at my door. I mean, death threats. I mean hit lists. I mean insanity."

Thore shared she doesn't think it's possible to "get used to it or to deal with" the endless barrage of criticism.

However, one of the biggest surprises for her was the vitriol directed toward or about her family—including comments claiming her mother, Barbara "Babs" Thore , who died in December 2022, "would be rolling over in her grave."

"Knowing that people were using my mother to talk s--- to me—my dead mother—that's hard," Thore told Parade . "And anytime anybody sees something online of mine that they don't like, they comment and say, 'What would your mother think about this?' You know, stuff like that."

She added: "That actually shocks me because I know people are terrible. But that was really, really, really hard for me. "

The season premiere of My Big Fat Fabulous Life premieres on Tuesday, July 9 at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.

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