Aubrey O'Day is looking back at a challenging chapter of her life.
In August 2020, The Daily Mail published a series of photos of what the outlet described as an "unrecognizable" O'Day out for a walk with her dogs, resulting in some social media users to accuse the singer of heavily editing her previous Instagram posts to appear thinner. The body-shaming comments prompted O'Day to respond by posting a swimsuit selfie while holding a piece of paper with the time, date and words "this is degrading" written on it.
"It's so sick what ppl will do for click bait!" she said at the time. "And that my lawyer needed this photo to defend me against it.. When is this industry going to stop abusing women's bodies?"
Now, in an exclusive interview with E! News, O'Day reflected on how online critics called her "obese" and "fat" over the pictures.
"It was my downfall day," she recalled. "When it came time to laugh at me, everybody was laughing."
While that wasn't the first time the 38-year-old face criticism over her appearance, she was still hurt by the online response. "My body's been on the chopping block since I was 17. Those were not the first fat photos," she shared. "There's been a lot of fat photos of Aubrey and I wasn't even fat."
O'Day added, "I'll spend the rest of my life trying to heal with how many inaccurate things have been told about me."
Part of O'Day's healing journey includes making her "Couple Goals" music video, which she said helped her embrace her body. While she initially wanted to use a body double for the project's nude scenes, the Danity Kane alum said director Alfredo Flores—who's worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez—was the one who helped her regain her confidence and quash her self-doubt.
"I felt so good," O'Day said of the filming process. "I felt so comfortable in my body."
O'Day is making the uncensored version of the video available on her OnlyFans account. Why?
"It's offering my body up to belong to people again," explained O'Day, who said she now has a "different perspective" on the public dialogue about her appearance. "I love the reclaiming of it."
And that's why O'Day isn't too concerned about the recent chatter about how she Photoshops herself into vacation photos. "My Instagram looks the way it does not because I'm scared of my body," she said, "it's because when I'm in Bali and I scale a two-hour mountain...I don't have a f--king caboodle kit, a tripod, my wigs and a whole custom line of clothing to put on. Nor am I at all interested in being the bitch that's holding her fucking camera out with a selfie stick taking photos of herself."
Explaining how she prefers to live in the moment, O'Day continued, "I am in Bali. I am here to heal. I am not bringing a camera and desecrating this place as a Photoshop moment for Instagram. I will give you the photo when I'm back."
She added, "No, it doesn't make me inauthentic."