Sam Smith has moved to deny claims that he fat-shamed a woman while on holiday, after he posted a video via his Instagram of her eating a large breakfast.

The British singer, 26, was on holiday in California with ’13 Reasons Why’ star Brandon Flynn when he shared a short Instagram story video of a nearby diner in a café, captioned “good going”. Flynn, also in the picture, can be seen pulling a face.

“It seems as if he is fat-shaming me for having such a big breakfast,” Lauren Brooks, a London office worker, told British newspaper The Daily Star after recognising herself in Smith’s video.

“He has 9.5 million followers – and anyone who knew me and followed him would recognise me right away. Imagine if I was a girl who was even slightly insecure about her weight. To have a celeb mock her for eating a meal would be horrendous.”

Sam SmithSam Smith has denied fat-shaming the woman

In response, a spokesperson for Smith told Digital Spy: “Sam posted because he was jealous of her fabulous breakfast”.

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Make of all that what you will. It does seem a bit surprising if Smith intentionally wanted to fat-shame somebody, having previously shared his own story of struggling with his weight, an issue he’s had since childhood. He once lost 50lbs in the space of a year, but says he still faces problems with negative body image.

“I still feel pressured to look a certain way,” he told the NME three years ago. “For women, the pressure in this industry is horrendous and it’s got to stop. But it’s the same for guys, even though they won’t speak about it.

“I want to be a voice for that: just because I’ve lost weight doesn’t mean that I’m happy and content with my body. Because of the media, and because of what I feel I should look like, it’s always going to be a battle in my head.”

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