
Bebe Rexha made her debut at one of the most photographed nights in fashion in 2025 when she stood in front of a camera at the Met Gala in a Christian Siriano gown. The coverage that followed was not what one would expect from their first Met Gala appearance. Rather, her body was the subject of nearly all of the remarks. The conversation was abruptly cut off when she revealed that she had recently lost a pregnancy and had been grieving in private while people on the internet disagreed about how she appeared in pictures.
The discussion about Bebe Rexha’s weight gain has been going on for a while, but it really took off in 2023 when she made an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show and revealed her diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome in a way that caught you off guard. “I literally jumped, like, 30 pounds so quickly, maybe a little bit more,” she remarked while seated across from Hudson in front of an applauding studio audience. She clarified that PCOS is one of the main causes of weight gain in women and, more importantly, that many women suffer from it for years without realizing it. It wasn’t until she started to notice the changes in her body that the diagnosis was confirmed. The internet, which had been observing the changes for a while, had formed its opinions without waiting for an explanation.
| Disclosed May 2025, following the Met Gala body-shaming | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Bleta Rexha |
| Stage Name | Bebe Rexha |
| Date of Birth | August 30, 1989 |
| Place of Birth | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Ethnicity | Albanian-American |
| Occupation | Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer |
| Known For | “Meant to Be,” “I’m Good (Blue),” “Me, Myself & I” |
| Grammy Nominations | Three-time Grammy nominee |
| Health Conditions | PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), Bipolar disorder (publicly disclosed) |
| PCOS Diagnosis | Disclosed publicly in 2023 |
| Weight Gain (Self-Disclosed) | Approximately 30+ pounds due to PCOS |
| Pregnancy Loss | Disclosed May 2025 following Met Gala body-shaming |
| Official Reference | ABC News – Bebe Rexha Opens Up About PCOS |
Up to five million American women who are of reproductive age suffer from PCOS. It frequently results in rapid, seemingly inexplicable weight gain, disrupts reproductive hormones, causes irregular menstrual cycles, and impairs fertility. Because its root is hormonal rather than behavioral, it does not react predictably to dietary changes or increased exercise. Rexha, who will be 35 in 2026, has stated unequivocally that the illness led to weight gain that felt completely uncontrollable. “You don’t know what somebody’s going through,” she said to Jennifer Hudson. It was a calm and reasonable point, but the online commentary quickly disregarded it.
The accumulation of context surrounding Bebe Rexha’s weight gain in 2026 is just as striking as the health aspect of the story. In 2023, she revealed that she had PCOS. Years prior, she had revealed that she had bipolar disorder, stating that she was “no longer ashamed.” She revealed a pregnancy loss at the 2025 Met Gala in a now-deleted post that expressed the weariness of someone who had just reached their breaking point. “I’m so tired of people commenting on my weight,” she wrote. “I battle infertility and have PCOS. I became pregnant, but it didn’t work out, and I’ve been silently dealing with the pain.” The post was removed in a matter of hours, but not before it went viral enough to temporarily change the topic of the conversation.
The way Rexha’s body has been portrayed as a recurring theme in entertainment media is genuinely unsettling. During a 2023 performance in New York City, she was struck in the face by a concertgoer’s phone. This incident required stitches, left her with a black eye, and led to an arrest. During the same news cycle, she was still being questioned about her weight. In response to a troll who said she appeared to have “eaten Lizzo,” she posted a TikTok in February 2025 that was composed in a way that only comes from having engaged in this specific altercation numerous times. “First of all, I don’t care. Secondly, I am fully conscious of everything. She looked straight into the camera and said, “I know I gained weight.” She quickly clarified that she wasn’t making fun of Lizzo by writing the simple comment on the video, “BTW LIZZO LOOKS AMAZING.”
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that Rexha has had to devote a significant amount of energy in recent years to managing not only her health but also the public’s perception of her health, correcting narratives, and providing context that shouldn’t have been necessary—all while continuing to write and record music, tour, and deal with the typical professional pressures of the music industry. She has expressed the opinion that her songs are more well-known than she is and that the recognition has not kept up with her efforts. She stated, “I know that people know my songs but don’t know me,” in the same TikTok from February 2025. “And I haven’t gotten the recognition I’ve deserved.” When you sit with that observation, which is mostly lost in the weight debate, it takes on a different significance.
By the beginning of 2026, Rexha had remained candid about her ongoing PCOS experience, including her energy swings, her inability to feel confident on some days, and the more general difficulty of managing a long-term hormonal condition while living in public. She hasn’t presented it as a story of recovery or transformation. Compared to that, it is more lived-in and less resolved, which is likely a more accurate representation of how PCOS is actually managed over time. The condition is not neatly wrapped up. The discussion about it doesn’t either.
As this has developed over the past few years, it seems that Bebe Rexha has been far more patient with the public than the public has been with her. She has given numerous explanations of the same medical reality in a variety of formats and with differing levels of grace and frustration. It doesn’t seem like the explanation has stuck very well. What has endured, at least for her, is an awareness of her own fortitude, which she did not come to with ease. “Instead of letting all that just break me down,” she said, “it’s actually made me feel more powerful.” She seems to believe that, whether or not others do.
