Guests who claimed their lives were ruined after being on Dr. Phil

Maryanne Bodolay and Sally E. Smith were both huge fans of Dr. Phil, but, when they were apparently misled by show producers, their opinion of the TV psychologist changed dramatically. According to the New York Post, Bodolay, a former employee of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), and Smith, the editor-in-chief of Big Beautiful Woman, say they were lured to the show after a producer called her and “asked about the way heavy people are treated and how she was happy with her body size.”

“We agreed on that premise,” Bodolay told the outlet. But, when they got to Las Vegas, a show producer wanted to follow the women around with a hidden camera, hoping people would make fun of them. “I told them, ‘It’s not going to happen — people won’t care in Las Vegas. They care about gambling.'” She was right, but, as she tells it, the producer then paid onlookers to mock them for the camera. 

As for the actual Dr. Phil episode, Bodolay believes they were ambushed. “When we got to the show, the whole premise changed. Suddenly, they had a couple of fat people in the audience striving to get thin: They were good, and we were bad because we were living. We weren’t attacking ourselves because we were fat,” she said to The New York Post. “It was disappointing the way Dr. Phil decided to conduct the show. My feeling was we were used.”

Written by: Nicki