Barry Keoghan, Kristen Johnston and More Celebrities Who Bravely Opened Up About Being Bullied

Stars open up about hurtful comments about their appearance, from body-shaming to ageism and more.

Julia Roberts

Even America’s Sweetheart is not immune to digs at her looks. In 2024, the 58-year-old posted a pic with her niece Emma Roberts after a sleepover. “We got up and we were having tea and playing cards and having this beautiful morning,” she recalled to Motherly. “It was great. I felt great about it.” Her good feeling soon turned to dismay, she said, with “the amount of people that felt absolutely required to talk about how terrible I looked in the picture — that I’m not aging well, people saying, ‘God, I didn’t even recognize her.’” The experience made the Oscar winner empathize with girls growing up on social media. “I thought, God, what if I was 15?” she said, adding that the obsession with “clicks” and “likes” does something “neurological” to young people.

Leslie Jones

The SNL vet’s online harassment became national news in 2016, with the Department of Homeland Security investigating the hacking of the 58-year-old’s personal website, NBC News reported. Online trolls objected to the all-female reboot of the 1984 classic Ghostbusters and began a campaign of racist and sexist attacks on the star. Among the hateful messages, the Rio Olympics commentator was sent obscene pictures and called an ape. “I’m tryin’ to figure out what human means,” she responded in a post on X, saying she was taking a break from social media. “I’m out.”

Millie Bobby Brown

Just 12 years old when she broke out as Eleven in Stranger Things, the 22-year-old grew up on camera. Not everyone was pleased. “Some people can’t seem to grow up with me,” the mom of one said in a Facebook post after being bullied about her changing body. “Instead they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time. Like I should look the way I did on Stranger Things season 1.” Calling herself a “target” for trolls, Millie added, “This is bullying.”

Selena Gomez

The 33-year-old lashed back at online commenters who questioned why she had her hand on her stomach at the Emilia Pérez premiere in 2024. “This makes me sick,” the Only Murders in the Building star replied to speculation she was trying to hide her body, explaining that she had an intestinal disorder, per Rolling Stone. “I have SIBO in my small intestine. It flares up. I don’t care that I don’t look like a stick figure. I don’t have that body. End of story. No, I am NOT a victim. I’m just human.”

Barry Keoghan

The Irish star, 33, recently opened up about what it’s like to be mocked for his looks. “It’s not nice,” the Oscar nominee said on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up March 19. “It’s a lot of abuse of how I look… I actually don’t go to places because of these things.” Currently filming as Ringo Starr in the four-movie Beatles biopics, he admitted that the criticism has even seeped into his work. “When that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem, because then you don’t even want to be onscreen anymore.”

Kristen Johnston

After Perez Hilton recently revealed he’d been hospitalized and nearly died, the 3rd Rock From the Sun actress wished him well in a since-deleted post, but reminded the gossip blogger how terribly he treated her at one of her lowest points. According to Us Weekly, she accused him of writing “the meanest s**t about me & my weight” and “making fun of how I looked [which] led to a vicious social-media pile-on.” At the time, the 58-year-old, sober 14 years, was struggling with an opioid addiction and her weight fluctuated. “I will never forget how casually & relentlessly [Perez] would attack women & young girls in the 2000s,” she added. “And how terrible it felt.”