Jillian Michaels is pissed off about things said about her in the new Netflix documentary about The Biggest Loser— and she says she’s considering taking legal action against her former co-stars over it!
In a phone interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Jillian— who did not appear in the Fit For TV documentary, despite starring on ‘Biggest Loser’ for numerous seasons— called out her former co-stars and producers for not telling the truth.
“It’s just filled with so many lies,” Jillian told TMZ‘s Harvey Levin of the documentary. “And of course I have all of the emails and the text messages to back all of this up. Right now my team and I are trying to find out the best way of going forward and dealing with this. Do we pursue this legally? Do I just do a data dump and give you all the emails and all of the receipts?”
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On Tuesday, Jillian began posting those “receipts” on Instagram, seemingly as a way to prove things that her co-stars Bob Harper, Dr. Robert Huizenga and more said about her were untrue.
Jillian went on to talk to Harvey about some of the “lies” told during the documentary (as well as in interviews to promote it) by some of her co-stars. Because of what was said in the documentary, she is looking at her legal options and is consulting with attorney Brian Friedman to see if she has enough to file a lawsuit against those involved with the documentary.
“These things are obviously very costly. This is wasted hours … that I really honestly don’t have, it costs tons of money that I really don’t want to spend, but at this point, it’s so egregious and it’s so damaging that I don’t think I have a choice,” Jillian told Harvey.
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She added that her lawyer had conversations with the makers of the docuseries before it was released, and that the doc’s producers were asked to allow Jillian to fact-check anything that was said about her in the documentary. However, this never happened.
Here, The Ashley has broken down some of Jillian’s chief complaints with what Bob, Dr. H and more said about her.
She Claims Caffeine Pills Were Never Banned on the Show:
Jillian didn’t deny Dr. H’s claims that she gave her contestants caffeine supplements to help improve their energy levels; however, she did dispute that Dr. H, the producers and Bob had no idea this was happening, as they claimed. In fact, on Instagram on Tuesday, she wrote that giving the contestants caffeine supplements was actually Bob’s idea.
“So they try to make it look like I just went off-piste all by myself, and the contestants were not allowed to have caffeine, which was a total lie,” she said. “And Bob Harper’s like, ‘I had no idea that they were on caffeine.’ Bob, the Stackers [caffeine supplements]? Those came from Bob. I was using my Fat Burner [supplement] that we had created and it was in stores at the time because it was all organic, and I have all the emails for that.”
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Jillian then went on to address a 2013 episode of the show in which her team was penalized because she gave her contestants “unauthorized” caffeine pills. It was announced on-air and Jillian’s team had four pounds added to their team’s total weight as a punishment.)
“First of all, at no point was caffeine banned from the show. And actually, if you watch that [2013] episode, [host] Allison Sweeney, I’m almost sure– I know for a fact that I say it– [said] that they’re allowed to have caffeine, but I’m not allowed to give it to them. …”
She went on to state that producers penalized her team because Jillian had violated her contract by “personally” supplying the caffeine pills to her group.
Jillian went on to claim that the doctor would allow contestants to have caffeine and then not allow them to have it, allegedly going back and forth on the decision with different seasons.
“I was at war with the show’s doctor over a million different things,” Jillian admitted, adding that she asked the show’s nutritionist, dietician, and producer if they could bring back “e-boost” instead of Stackers [caffeine pills], noting that the former was what she had been penalized for giving out to contestants. Jillian also claimed Dr. H said, “no exogenous stimulants,” despite Jillian reminding him that they were allowed to give them to contestants in the past.
Jillian also made it clear that she never gave Rachel Frederickson— who is perhaps the show’s most-controversial winner due to the extreme amount of weight she lost by the finale— any caffeine pills whatsoever.
“Never once, ’cause they try to make it look like I gave Rachel Frederickson caffeine pills, I never even trained Rachel Frederickson one time,” Jillian told Harvey. “She was not my contestant. I never gave her caffeine pills because not only … was it a whole thing where we weren’t allowed to do it at that point, but she wasn’t my contestant.”
Jillian Says She Dr. H Gave Contestants Sleeping Pills Freely:
Jillian stated that she was surprised by how against caffeine pills Dr. H seemed to be, considering he allegedly had no issues with giving the contestants sleeping pills, and allowing them to use tobacco.
“As this doctor sits on this documentary and claims that he had issues with caffeine, this is a doctor that gave them Ambien like candy and allowed them to have dip [tobacco] … but wouldn’t let them have magnesium balm to sleep,” Jillian stated.
During the interview, Jillian also claimed that Dr. H was known for pulling contestants off medications that they had been taking for a long time. One example she provided was regarding contestant Tracey Yukich (who appeared in the docuseries). Jillian stated that she believes Tracey was pulled off of Prozac by Dr. H, despite the “severe, significant reaction” a person may have after going off of antidepressants cold turkey.
“So this is just one of the things that I have had issues with the show’s doctors over,” Jillian stated.
She Disputes Dr. H’s Claim That They Didn’t Speak for 16 Seasons:
Jillian took issue with Dr. Huizenga– stating in an interview with ET recently that, despite working with Jillian for years on ‘Biggest Loser,’ they did not speak.
“For the show’s doctor to suggest that I never worked with him—for example, that’s one of his lies,” she told Harvey. “There are, Harvey, I don’t know, hundreds of emails going back and forth between me and the show’s doctor.”
Jillian didn’t, however, dispute that she and Dr. H didn’t get along, and that she had “very serious issues” with the way Dr. H “handled the contestants.”
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“I requested— and I have all of this in emails— that the contestants see specialists and other doctors,” she said. “Sometimes they allowed that to happen, sometimes they didn’t.”
She claimed that Dr. H “became very angry” when she referred contestants to specialists, particularly ones who would disagree with his medical decisions.
As The Ashley previously reported, Dr. H recently told ET that Jillian needs to work on her communication skills.
“I didn’t have a relationship with Jillian, but I had a good relationship with Bob,” he added. “He was always willing to discuss things out and compromise and was looking for some help. He wasn’t thinking he knew everything.”
She Revealed Her Real Reasons for Not Participating in ‘Fit for TV’
Jillian gave two major reasons for saying no to appearing in the doc. The first is that she no longer wants to be associated with the ‘Biggest Loser’ name.
“I want to move on,” she said. “I don’t want to be painted with this brush anymore, which is pretty much exactly what happened. Like, it’s taken me 11 years to get away from ‘The Biggest Loser’ … I’m not interested in re-litigating this.”
Her second reason for declining is that she has severe issues with Brandon Riegg, whom she described as “the man who green-lit and purchased this documentary.”
“Brandon Riegg is the man who worked with NBC to essentially take me down over this whole caffeine thing,” Jillian stated. “And I knew that it was going to be a hit piece and I was like, ‘I’m not participating in this, this is not gonna be good.’”
As The Ashley previously reported, several former contestants from ‘The Biggest Loser’ have recently spoken out in defense of Jillian. Season 6 winner Michelle Aguilar applauded Jillian for her tactics, stating that the trainer still checks in on her, even 18 years after she was on the show. Season 4 runner-up Julie Hadden also defended Jillian on social media this week, insisting that many of the allegations being made against her former trainer were false.
You can watch Jillian full 15-minute interview with Harvey Levin of TMZ below!
RELATED STORY: Bob Harper Reveals Where His Friendship with Fellow Trainer Jillian Michaels Stands Years After ‘The Biggest Loser’
(Photos: Netflix, NBC; Instagram)
8 Responses
Girl, no.
You had a chance to address things in the documentary and didn’t.
You knew what the claims were bc it wasn’t the first time you’ve heard them. The time to sue or fight back was way back then, not now.
Jillian, the time has come for you to GO AWAY!
As Ms. Dorinda Medley said on RHONY, “Say it forget it. Write it, regret it.”
Ladies keep your texts and emails backed up.
Ugh Dorinda is a nightmare. Such a mean drunk. Glad she was voted off first on Traitors. They are bringing her back for next season and I hope it happens again. Tinsley was definitely on the receiving end of Dorinda’s mean drunk rants. Tinsley did ZERO to deserve it.
Agree, but I did enjoy her early seasons before she devolved. Especially I think her first season when Carol and her travelled to London, and their discussions on widowhood.
She was SO nasty to Tins at the end though.
Pssst, do you mean Bryan Freedman Baldoni attorney, or similarly named dude. If so feel free to delete. I have too much time on my hands and follow teh Baldoni/Lively suit so familiar with him. Plus his Bravo lawsuits.
Nice of her to take time from minimizing slavery on CNN to address this.
That part! Can’t stand her