Empire star Gabourey Sidibe’s knows she’ll be always judged as haters tell her to ‘diet or die’

Gabourey Sidibe reveals vile haters tell her to 'diet or die' — Gabourey Sidibe’s words will break your heart (Picture: WireImage)

Gabourey Sidibe has bravely spoken out about the abuse she gets when she attends awards shows and red carpets.

Admitting that she finds it ‘really hard’ to get dressed up glamorously when she knows her weight will end up being mocked, the 34-year-old revealed some of the abuse she has received: ‘If I wear purple, somebody will call me Barney. If I wear white, a frozen turkey. If I wear red, a pitcher of Kool-Aid. These are actual tweets I’ve gotten.

‘Twitter will blow up with nasty comments about how a recent earthquake was caused by me running to a hot dog park. Diet or die, they say.’

The actress found fame in 2009 with the heartbreaking drama Precious, but has gone on to star in hit TV drama Empire and American Horror Story.

In 2016 she underwent laproscopic bariatric surgery – a standard gastric bypass which restricts the amount of food a person can eat – but she says that she knows when she is being judged, and that many people believe they may ‘catch’ her fat.

‘It’s what I deal with every time someone takes a picture with me. Sometimes when I’m being interviewed by a fashion reporter, I can just hear their inner dialogue, “How is she getting away with it? Why is she so confident? How does she deal with that body? Oh my god that body! Holy s**t I’m going to catch fat!”,’ she said.

Speaking at the MAKERS conference, for trailblazing women, Gabourey also discussed the question ‘how are you so confident?’ which is often aimed towards bigger women.

‘I always wonder if that’s the first thing they ask Rihanna when they meet her. “Riri, how are you so confident?” Of course not. Everybody knows why Rihanna’s confident. She’s beautiful,’ she said.

‘How am I so confident? It’s my good time and it’s my good life despite what you think of me. I live my life. I live my life because I’m here, I dare to show up still when anyone else might hide their face and their entire body in shame, I show up because I want to have a good time.’