'My Big Fat Fabulous Life's Whitney Way Thore Responds to Criticism for Filming Her Mom's Funeral
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‘You’re talking about my dead mother and there is a family who reads this,’ the grieving daughter said
Whitney Way Thore is done with social media users choosing to attack her decision to film her mother Barbara "Babs" Thore's funeral for My Big Fat Fabulous Life.
“I know a lot of people hate me, and I don’t care why,” Thore began in an Instagram post on Wednesday. The post included a voice recording in which the reality TV star made an emotional plea to commentators, asking them to consider her family’s feelings before writing hurtful comments online.
After admitting that she’s had her fair share of “stalkers, vandals, death threats, and harassment” torment her “for the last decade,” Thore added, “PLEASE, I am asking some of y’all to think.”
Thore said that while some may bully her to “keep you busy, or entertain you, or distract you from your own s----- life,” she and her loved ones are navigating a new normal during a particularly rough time in their lives.
“PLEASE remember, just for this one instance, that you’re talking about my dead mother and there is a family who reads this,” Thore said, alongside screenshots of some of the hateful messages her relatives have come across.
“I've read some of the comments that are critical of us allowing Babs funeral to be filmed,” her father, Glenn Thore, wrote in a group text with the television personality and her brother, Hunter Thore. Their exchange was included in the image of the negative comments.
“I thought about people like Princess Diana or more recently the Queen of England whose family felt that having their love one shared with an adoring public was the reason to put their privacy aside,” Glenn said of his decision to include the moment on the TLC series. Thore reassured her father that she stood by his choice and instructed him not to read comments unless they were on her social media pages because anywhere else was “more likely to be heinous.”
“The normal, supportive fans comment on my stuff. Love you, Daddy!” Whitney concluded.
In an exclusive preview of My Big Fat Fabulous Life's new season shared with PEOPLE, the family grieved the loss of Babs, who died on Dec. 7, 2022.
In addition to the funeral appearing in the trailer for the new season, the clip also showed Thore and Hunter discussing ways to try and make their father feel better as they faced the monumental loss. “He’s just lost. He said, ‘I don’t wanna do anything without your mother,’” she told her sibling.
Whitney and Hunter hatched a series of adventurous plans to show their father a good time. The trio visited a tattoo parlor, went indoor skydiving, and embarked on a trip to see a glacier in Switzerland. Unfortunately, while the family took in the views, the high altitude brought on a new set of problems. “I don’t wanna lose you and your mom,” Glenn said as Whitney began to feel faint during a helicopter evacuation.
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Babs passed away due to "an untreatable progressive condition caused by proteins in the blood vessels of the brain that can cause dementia, seizures, or like in my mom's case, brain bleeding (hemorrhagic strokes)," Thore explained on Instagram in December.
Babs’ decline in health after her stroke was documented on My Big Fat Fabulous Life last summer. During a phone call with Thore in a July 2022 trailer for season 10, Glenn admitted, "I can't believe she's taken a turn for the worse." Later, in a confessional, Thore tearfully added, "I saw my mom today and this is really it.”
My Big Fat Fabulous Life premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 9 pm ET/PT on TLC and will be available on Discovery+ the same day.
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