Bella Thorne says Freeform called her 'fat' and 'ugly' while shooting 'Famous In Love': 'It was all supposed to change... and it didn't'

Bella Thorne claims the TV network Freeform is guilty of “bullying” in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Thorne worked with Freeform when she starred in their show Famous In Love, which lasted two seasons and ended in 2018. According to the outspoken actress, it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Thorne tells the LA Times that Freeform viewed her as “uncontrollable and crazy.” She also says they called her a diva, “because they were scared I was going to go running my mouth if I was upset.”

She had a lot to run her mouth about, apparently. For one, she says the network called her “ugly.”

“One issue is when you have a girl, a young girl who is on your show, you can’t tell her that she’s ugly or she’s fat or she’s this or she’s that, because that’s going to make her feel bad,” she said.

The 21-year-old, who has battled depression, told the paper the bullying was done in emails, but there was one in-person incident.

“[T]here was another thing that was in front of everyone on set. After, the cast was texting me, ‘Oh, my God, Bella. I am so sorry. That was so awkward. I feel so bad. Do you want me to come over to your room?’ ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe they did that,’” she recalls. “It was all supposed to change on Season 2, and it didn’t.”

That could be why the show ended. In June. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Famous in Love showrunner I. Marlene King and Thorne had “clashed.” Sources told THR that Thorne “actively wanted off of Famous in Love, with the actress and social media star having refused to participate in Freeform-organized live-tweets during its second season.”

However, King responded via tweet that she was not in a feud with the Shake It Off alum, noting their “friendly and professional relationship.”

Thorne is used to controversy by now, having been in the spotlight since she was a little girl. She identifies with another actress who she feels was also targeted. “I used to think of myself like Marilyn Monroe a little bit,” she tells the LA Times. “Everyone thought Marilyn Monroe was this sex symbol and she was always perfect and beautiful, but she was dying on the inside.”

The actress also has recently been open about the abuse she faced from ages 6 to 14. “Maybe I am this way because I was molested and raped when I was younger,” she says. In December, 2017, she revealed on Twitter that she had been molested. The following month she took to Instagram to share more details, save for her abuser’s identity, which she has not revealed.

“And I guess that makes me selfish,” she says in the article. “I could do it. I should do it. You should tell every girl to go after her attacker. You should tell every girl that she has the right to go out there and speak her truth. … But then you don’t. Then you can’t even [speak out]. I always want to be a good person. And that makes me qualify as not as good of a person.”

She told the LA Times that when she was being molested, she pretended that she was asleep. “I always think, ‘Maybe you could have done something,’ ” she says. “It kind of makes me mad, because I read these stories that are really awful — I mean, really awful … it’s really something getting ripped and taken from you. At least those girls tried. I just laid there, comatose.”

But she’s changed very much since then; a few weeks before the LA Times interview, there was a burglary at Thorne’s home. “I was immediately on my phone calling the police, not even waiting for a beat,” she says, “because I’m just never, ever going to stay still again.”

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