Samantha Yardley: Fitness writer slammed for refusing to work with fat people

Samantha Yardley sparked outrage during an interview with This Morning. Photo / ITV

A UK fitness journalist has sparked outrage for claiming she wouldn't work with an overweight person because it shows they have a "troubled mind".

Samantha Yardley has doubled down on claims being overweight shows someone "lacks self-control" — despite outrage over her fatphobic comments.

The 34-year-old said she didn't believe in fat-shaming but claimed society shouldn't be "validating" people who are overweight.

"As a businessperson myself and former employer; would I work with [extremely] fat people? No, I wouldn't. Harsh but true [I'm sorry]," she wrote a blog post earlier this month.

Samantha Yardley has said she refuses to work with fat people. Photo / Samantha Yardley - Instagram

"For me, at best it demonstrates a troubled mind, lacking self-control and at worst it shows a severely disturbed individual who is likely to be lacking energy and suffering poor health."

Appearing on UK talk show This Morning on Wednesday Yardley continued her comments by claiming obese people should "take responsibility".

She also argued that plus-sized clothes should be made more difficult to buy to encourage people to lose weight.

"We are all judged on how we look. I wouldn't judge someone for being a little overweight," she said.

"But if it was someone who was extremely obese, I would think they are lacking in self-esteem, maybe they have the wrong lifestyle, maybe there's an underlying problem."

Yardley then made unsubstantiated claims that people who are obese "take nearly twice as many days off" and are also "more lethargic and more lazy".

The fitness writer has stood by her comments despite the outrage. Photo / Samantha Yardley - Instagram

Yardley's comments have sparked fury, with people tweeting that a person's size is "none of her business" and weight can be impacted by number of factors, such as illness and medication.

#ThisMorning Could you ask Samantha Yardley if she would refuse an overweight doctor saving her life? Or would she refuse an overweight surgeon carrying out a life saving operation on her? Just curious.

— Tim (@TimAirbusx) July 22, 2020

Welllll Samantha Yardley I'd rather work with a fat nice person than have a judgemental bitch of a boss #ThisMorning

— Mel D (@dictatethis) July 22, 2020

To Samantha Yardley: I would rather be obese and live a shorter life full of empathy, care, compassion, love and assistance to others than live a long life as a thin person with so much privilege that they disguise their vitriol for overweight people as a desire to help them.

— Shona Morgans (@shonymorg) July 22, 2020

I do not usually watch This Morning, but I just watched Samantha Yardley say that she would not employ/work with bigger people. What a shallow attitude to have, I hope she changes that. I am not sure anyone would want to work for her anyway. #ThisMorning

— ClareOTstudent (@ot_clare) July 22, 2020