Debra Messing Says It Took Her Three Years To Drop Pregnancy Weight

June 2024 · 3 minute read

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Debra Messing is having a great year. Her USA series, “The Starter Wife,” is a hit show and she’s got a holiday family-comedy coming out, Nothing Like The Holidays. In the film, she plays a Jewish woman celebrating Christmas with her husband’s (John Leguizamo) big, loud Puerto Rican family. Just seeing Leguizamo toast his “family” with a respectful “mazel tav” already has me in stitches.

To promote the film, Messing gave an interview to Shape Magazine. She talks a lot about her family – her parents, her son and her real-life husband Daniel Zelman, creator/writer/producer of “Damages” (a really great show, by the way). She also talks about the difficulty she had losing weight after her son was born, while she was still working on “Will & Grace”.

Everyone knows that dropping your pregnancy weight is tough. Debra tried to do it while the entire world was watching. “It was written about in the tabloids a lot,” she says of her post-baby body. “On one page it showed all the actresses who got skinny in six weeks or less, and on the other page was me! I was so depressed and frustrated.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t try to lose the extra 42 pounds. Right after her son was born, Debra went to a personal trainer. “It helped me drop the first few pounds, but I was exhausted! I couldn’t work out three hours a day and do my job as a mother and an actress. So I took the pressure off: I cut back on seeing the trainer but started eating healthier.” It took her three years, but she got back to her pre-baby weight. “Ultimately I’m very proud of how I dropped the weight because I think it was the healthy approach,” she says. “I’ve finally taken ownership of my body.”

[From Shape]

I was a big fan of “Will & Grace,” and I remember how much weight she gained. Mainly, I remember it because she was so skinny, almost too skinny, before she got pregnant. Here’s the thing – when she came back after her maternity leave, I thought she looked fine. Sure, she was bigger than she was in the first seasons of “Will & Grace,” but she looked healthy, not overweight.

It’s got me wondering what Debra thinks her weight should be. I realize that actresses are a different breed altogether, and that producers and directors can just hire the next (skinny) actress and they have to be able to wear certain clothes, and there’s a mean tabloid press and all of that. But I’m just saying that she could put on a few pounds and still fit into her costumes. At least she didn’t do something drastic, instead she lost weight in a healthy way, even if she was taking the long view of her body. Hey, if she’s happy with herself, then who are we to judge?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Debra Messing is shown with her husband, Daniel Zelman, on 12/13/08 and 09/29/06. The 2006 photos are the heaviest photos I could find of her in a quick search and she looks great. Photo credits: WENN, 2008 photos, Juan Rico/Fame Pictures, 2006 photos

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