Why Carnie Wilson Was Forced to ‘Hide’ in Wilson Phillips Music Videos

Carnie Wilson is reflecting on how she was forced to “hide” in Wilson Phillips’ music videos.

During the Wednesday, April 30 episode of Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, she recalled “sobbing” after a record exec asked how her band would fix her “weight problem.”

In the interview, Wilson recalls how Arma Andon, an SBK Records executive who would end up becoming a “good friend” of hers, was the one to ask the question about her body.

At the time, she recalls how Wilson Phillips’ team was an “incestuous” relationship where their lawyer was also their co-manager and everything was a “total conflict of interest.”

“We were desperate,” said Wilson. “We just wanted to have somebody believe in us.”

She said she didn’t know “how f—ed” they would be until later.

“But I remember when [the record company] came to one of our recording sessions, very early on, maybe we had recorded half the album, and [the executive] came in and he said to me, ‘What are we going to do about this weight problem of yours?’ Verbatim,” she recalled.

Wilson ended up “running into the bathroom and just sobbing.”

According to “Hold On” musician, Andon “wound up really apologizing” for his comments because Wilson said it was “unacceptable.”

“You hurt me so badly when you did that,” she recalled telling him. “And he said, ‘I just can’t believe I said that. I’m so sorry.'”

It “took years,” but Wilson addressed what happened with him.

“I just said, ‘You know, I really you’re so funny and so great. And then you f—ing were an a—— for saying that to me. Why did you do that?'”

She added, “‘It’s like you lost control, and you really chose the wrong words. Were you really afraid that my fat was going to make us not successful?”

Andon has not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Wilson also recalled the experience of how she was positioned in Wilson Phillips’ music videos.

“It was always, ‘Hide Carnie in the videos. I had to stay in this light for my chin,’ “ she said, using her hand to show how she was kept in the shadows from the chin down.

However, Wilson “embraced” her “role.”

“I kind of liked it. It was kind of like a power thing. I was different … and that’s part of the armor I’ve had,” she said.

In the visual for the band’s 1992 single, “You Won’t See Me Cry,” Wilson was “bleeding” from wearing corsets “that were sucking me in and trying to make me look as skinny as possible.”

“I had sores on my waist from cinching and trying to look skinny. It was just awful,” said Wilson.  

Wilson has publicly struggled with weight, even after going through gastric bypass surgery in 1999 and lap band surgery thereafter.

However, in April 2024, she told PEOPLE that she gave up sugar and gluten, had since lost 45 lbs. and found a healthier relationship with food.

“I feel so much better,” she said. “I treat my body with respect now.”