Pink Gets Real About Gaining — and Losing — 36 Lbs During COVID-19: ‘All I Did Was Make Sourdough’
Stronger than ever! Pink got real about what led to her weight gain during the COVID-19 pandemic — and how she managed to shed the pounds before heading out on tour.
“Having breaks is good for my voice. Not so good for the body,” Pink, 43, told Variety in an interview published on Wednesday, February 15. “Especially during COVID — I gained 36 lbs. All I did was make sourdough and then eat the sourdough. And then I had not just the hip surgery but double disc replacement in my neck.”
The “Perfect” singer — who is gearing up for a world tour following the release of her ninth studio album, Trustfall, later this month — revealed that despite her setback, she bounced back and is ready to hit the road.
“Now I’m the bionic woman. I’ve lost those 36 pounds, and I am stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. And I’m ready to go, and I’m ready to get the hell out of here. I’ve been home way too long,” she explained.
Pink isn’t the only member of her family that’s faced health scares in the past few years. Earlier this month, the Grammy winner’s husband, Carey Hart, shared that he needed a catheter installed in his chest to fight an infection.
“Well this sucks ??. Found out a couple days before Christmas that I have an infection in some old hardware in my body,” the professional motorcyclist, 47, shared via Instagram at the time. “After stressing my brains out through the holidays, I got this tunneled catheter installed in my chest. Now for the next 41 days I have to inject antibiotics to knock this sucker out.”
Weeks before getting the infection, Hart was in the hospital to have surgery on his neck to fuse vertebrae to rectify an issue with his joints.
The BMX rider is no stranger to injury thanks to his career — which meant when Pink underwent her own procedures in November 2021, he knew exactly how to support her.
“Because I’m married to an athlete who has hundreds of surgeries, I get to meet some of the world’s greatest doctors. I am never not completely grateful. It was a brutal first week full of tears and pain med depression, ulcers from meds and constant fevers, but my @hartluck brought me through,” the “So What” artist wrote via Instagram following the surgery. “(No one recovers from surgery like he does, he’s not real.)”
She continued, “He brought me coffee in the shower, lugged around my 100 pound CPM contraptions every where I went, dried my tears, cooked me oatmeal, kept track of my meds, got me my phone charger, plugged in my compression machines, took my temp, made the bed, and talked me off the ledge,” she noted. “Already figured out some tricks on these crutches I’m on for six weeks … yada yada yada….”
Pink and Hart tied the knot in 2006 before briefly calling it quits in 2008. However, the twosome ultimately reconciled in February 2010 and welcomed daughter Willow one year later. Son Jameson joined the family in 2016.
When it comes to her new album, the “Just Like a Pill” songstress pulled inspiration from all the obstacles she’s overcome over the last few years including her father's passing in August 2021 and both of her children contracting bad cases of COVID-19. What resulted was a slow-building opening track about death and the afterlife.
“I feel like we’re all in this constant state ofoverwhelm, and so we put our feelings away just so that we can get through a day. I wanted to find a way back to the truth and the authentic feelings,” she told Variety on Tuesday. “So opening the album with that, instead of like, ‘Hey, let’s ease into each other,’ it’s like, ‘No, no. Sit down. I want to talk to you. We’re gonna clear all the bullshit away and have a conversation.’ That’s how I am as a person. If you ask me how I am, how much time do you have? So ‘When I Get There’ as an album-opener was my way of saying, ‘Let’s talk about real stuff.’”
Pink has been known for her candid nature and often has been open about her struggles — especially when it comes to motherhood. After being honored with The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award at MTV's VMAs in August 2017, the Pennsylvania native used her acceptance speech as an opportunity to share what she did when daughter Willow called herself “the ugliest girl I know.”
"I didn't say anything, and instead I went home and I made a PowerPoint presentation for her," Pink told the audience. "And in that presentation were androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth, are probably made fun of every day of their life, and carry on and wave their flag and inspire the rest of us. … We don't change. We take the gravel in the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people change so they can see more kinds of beauty.”
