Why Sam Smith’s Parents Greenlit ‘Nightmare’ Plastic Surgery Procedure at Age 13

Sam Smith is revealing a “nightmare” experience about undergoing liposuction — at the tender age of 13.

“For me, it was always my weight. My queerness was something that I could handle and I could have a grasp on it. But … my weight as a kid was the hardest thing for me in school, and weirdly the thing I probably got teased the most about,” the 33-year-old “Unholy” singer — who uses “they/them” pronouns — told the Podcrushed podcast, cohosted by “You” star Penn Badgley on November 5.

Smith said they have gotten “misquoted all the time” on the subject.

“I had surgery on my chest when I was 13 years old because I had a growing chest,” said Smith. “There was all sorts of reasons why, but mainly that I was just getting so teased. I couldn’t go swimming in school … and getting changed in the locker room was hell. So I got liposuction when I was 13 years old.”

Smith said their parents didn’t need much convincing to green light the surgery.

“They were hugely supportive of the whole thing because they just saw how much it was crippling everything about me,” noted Smith. “But honestly, it was just all a struggle with food and stuff and the liposuction, it worked, but it was also a nightmare, because they gave me a bandage … which is like a bra. I was only meant to wear it for a month, but if I wore the bandage, it meant that I would get to the front of the lunch queue because everyone had to be sensitive about my chest … so I kept this bandage on for nearly a year.”

Smith added, “I’d be like, ‘Oooh, don’t come close to me’ and then I’d just get first in the lunch queue and I’d eat more and eat more and eat more. So the surgery never really worked, because I just loved food.”