Celebs Who Hate Their Own Feet
Feet are basically the cilantro of the body. Some people simply cannot get enough whereas others cannot help but recoil in disgust when any are on display. (And sometimes, they taste like soap! Too far?) So, it should not come as a surprise that there are a lot of humans who hate their own feet with the passion of a thousand fiery soles.
There also happens to be a bunch of celebrities — yes, even incredibly successful, incredibly wealthy, and incredibly beautiful ones — with hangups about their own feet. Their issues with their extremities range from foot size to shape to the condition they're in after years of wear and tear. And we know this much to be true because many have talked about how they feel in interviews, on social media, in books, and so on.
Ready that emery board, heel cream, and pumice stone because after you get through this list of celebs who hate their own feet, you will most assuredly be in the mood for an at-home pedicure.
Foot feelings ended up in this celeb's Sports Illustrated contract
Chrissy Teigen's insecurities about her own feet fueled a recurring bit on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. When host Ellen DeGeneres asked her about the star's lack of fondness for her tootsies on a 2018 episode, Teigen replied, "I have horrible feet. Now you're all going to look at my feet." Teigen tried to hide the body parts in question from the cameras, but it was no use. The people sitting in the studio audience and the people watching at home already saw her feet. She added, "I used to have it in my Sports Illustrated contract, like, 'no feet.' I'd bury them in the sand."
Unlike her feet on those photo shoots, though, this story would not be buried in the sand. After they filmed the episode, DeGeneres tweeted about the feet segment, and Teigen responded with a reference to her husband John Legend's "All of Me." The celeb tweeted, "They're what John meant by 'curves and edges.'"
The clip resurfaced in February 2020 when Legend acted as the substitute host on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The episode replayed the moment when Teigen talked about her whole foot deal, and then Legend introduced a "tribute" to his wife's "perfectly unique feet." A slideshow of pictures of Teigen's feet set to "All of Me" rolled, and the "curves and edges" were highlighted accordingly.
Before she became royalty, this celeb allegedly had foot drama
Before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married, Markle was a working actor who, like many working actors, participated in photo shoots. At one such photo shoot, things supposedly went awry when the area below her ankles was included in the shot against her wishes. In May 2020, an unnamed videographer reportedly provided the Daily Mail with some unfavorable and harsh claims about working with Markle on a shoot in 2015. At this point, a British tabloid covering and picking apart her alleged behavior is nothing new, but in this particular story, there allegedly was some conflict involving her feet.
Although you should take all of this with a grain of salt (or perhaps foot powder?), the videographer alleged, "[A fellow team member] told me that at a certain point he started to shoot her feet, just taking some b-roll [supplemental footage] and I don't remember if they had told me in advance or not, but I understand she hates her feet. When he did that, they all looked at him like 'what the hell are you doing?' and said, 'you're done for today.'" It sure sounds like this was a miscommunication that really stepped on the eventual royal's toes.
A frequent Quentin Tarantino collaborator got real about her feet
Quentin Tarantino's whole rumored, uh, thing with feet is a well-trodden subject, and it is pretty fitting that Uma Thurman, an actress he has worked with multiple times, made the roundup of self-loating feet haters. When she appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2003 to promote Kill Bill: Volume 1, Thurman shared that she was not necessarily thrilled to see her own feet on the big screen. She said, "You know, in this movie, for instance, it's a lot of foot. That's very embarrassing. The toe? I mean..."
Thurman's feet came up again when she appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2006. According to a BBC press release, she told the host, "I was always physically insecure — big feet, too tall, not coordinated or together." The keyword: was.
In 2012, Thurman told The Sun that when she was 18 she was not confident about her height or "large feet," sharing that it took her "until about 35 to walk without being self-conscious." She went on to say that things get easier with age, adding, "I even found that, in later life, a lot of guys have foot fetishes. Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies) is very open about his foot fetishes." You don't say.
A socialite said her feet look like "canoes" in flats
It seems safe to assume Paris Hilton would not say "that's hot" when trying on ballet flats. In her 2004 memoir Confessions of an Heiress, Hilton revealed that she is not a fan of her feet or the way they look in certain kinds of footwear. She writes, "Okay, I admit it — I desperately hate one thing about my body: I have size 11 feet." She goes on to write that she is comfortable in high heels because they, as she put it, "shrink how long my feet look." She continues, "But forget about ever seeing me in ballet slippers or tennis shoes: I'd look like I was wearing canoes!"
On a 2010 episode of The Wendy Williams Show, the titular host recounted a conversation she had with Hilton when she was a guest on the show. Wendy Williams recalled, "I told her during commercial, I was like, 'I like your shoes.' I said, 'I know you and I wear the same size, but your feet are long and narrow.' And she said, 'Wendy, please don't talk about my shoe size while we're interviewing.' But she wears a size 11 like me! And you know, I respected that while she was here, but you know, the other side of that is if we don't let women know who is wearing what shoe size it will forever be thought of that size 11 or size 10 is wrong."
This CATS star is not happy with the state of his paws
Jason Derulo's dance skills are undeniable and ,apparently, years of cutting a rug have taken a toll on his feet. The "Want to Want Me" singer told TooFab in February 2020 that he is not thrilled with the way his feet look. When the outlet asked him to name his least favorite physical attribute, he replied, "Uh, I don't really like my feet. I got like athlete's ... like I've been running, I've been dancing on my joints."
Derulo has indeed been dancing on his joints for a long time. In 2009, he told Billboard that he began dancing when he was five years old, and it evidently was love at first step. He explained to The Daily Bruin in 2010, "I've done ballet, I've studied tap for years, I've done jazz dance, hip-hop. I was a professional hip-hop dancer for a couple years as well. Dancing is my thing."
In a behind-the-scenes first look at 2019's CATS, Derulo spoke about his longtime passion for singing and dancing. He said, "I was just obsessed with singing, I was obsessed with dancing, but it started off with me in the kitchen with my socks on, trying to do the moonwalk. I think that you need to choose something that you're so obsessed with, you just want to do it all the time."
A pop star revealed her insecurities about her feet
Ahead of the release of her fourth album, In the Zone, Britney Spears told a group of journalists in 2003 that her feet were but one of her physical attributes she did not like. According to The Irish Times writer Tony Clayton-Lea, Spears said, "My nose is big, I have ugly feet, my teeth are not as white as they could be, my nails look really bad right now and I have cellulite on my butt." She continued, musing, "Does being beautiful occupy me? What can I say? It's real, it's there, it's not like I'm going to cry about it. It's life, and it's who and what you are. Overall? I have tons of my own hang-ups."
One of Spears' feet actually went on to make headlines many years later. In February 2020, the singer's boyfriend, Sam Asghari, shared on Instagram that Spears "broke her metatarsal bone on her foot doing what she loves which is dancing." Spears regularly films her at-home dance sessions, and the session at which she busted her foot was no exception. A few days after Asghari shared the news of her fall, Spears posted a video on Instagram of the exact moment the injury happened. The "Till The World Ends" singer noted in the caption that you can actually hear her foot break, warning that "it's kind of loud." Eek. Watch at your own discretion.
Queen Bey is not a fan of her beat-up feet
Even Beyoncé has moments where she is not totally feelin' herself, feelin' herself. While filming her 2011 ITV concert special A Night with Beyoncé, Queen Bey reportedly said during the show's Q&A segment that she wished she could swap out her feet. According to the Mirror, Beyoncé said at the taping, "If I could change one part it would be my feet. After all the years dancing they're a little beat up." Apparently, though, this answer did not make the final cut.
When Beyoncé was named People magazine's World's Most Beautiful Woman in 2012, Beyoncé said she noticed some changes to her feet since giving birth to her first child. "My toes and my feet are a lot rougher since I've become a mom!" she said. However, she was not sweating it. When asked how she felt about herself at that moment versus when she was in her 20s, she replied, "I feel more confident. I have embraced my flaws. I'm like everyone else — I have days when I look in the mirror and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I wish I could change this or that.' The more you mature, you realize that those imperfections make you more beautiful."
A boy bander made fun of this star's "big feet"
Once upon a time, Mandy Moore toured with *NSYNC and at some point on that tour, Justin Timberlake pointed at her feet and said, "You have big feet for a girl." It was a moment she would not soon forget. On a 2016 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, the This Is Us actor laughed about the time Timberlake called out her foot size in front of the rest of the band and their backup dancers, adding, "I'm sure he doesn't remember this at all, but I was so impressionable and I thought the world of him, he was on a pedestal." She joked, "I mean, 16 years later it stuck with me, so it really scarred me emotionally." Moore revealed on The Howard Stern Show in 2018 that Timberlake has since apologized for that remark.
On an April 2020 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Moore's feet came up again while she shared some of her old memorabilia over video call. She pointed out that there is a book called Mandy Moore: The Unofficial Book that claims Moore "is proud of her big feet." Moore said she does have size 10 feet as the book states, but noted that she is "not proud of it." In fact, she may not even like feet in general. In 2015, Moore posted a photo on Instagram of her feet post-toenail removal and noted, "feet are gross."
This actress reportedly used a foot double for a major film
Keira Knightley reportedly gave her own feet the boot while making a film. According to Closer magazine (via Metro), Knightley allegedly brought in a body double for her feet when filming the movie Atonement. An insider claimed that the actor's feet were considered "too big and veiny." The source also said Knightley was not upset by this, adding that she apparently believed replacing her feet with someone else's "was really funny." It is as the old saying goes: If you can't feet 'em, join 'em ... or something like that.
Knightley has been forthcoming about using body doubles in movies over the years. In a 2012 Jonathan Ross Show interview, she shared that when it came time to film a scene for Domino where she would be doing "some sort of striptease," she asked, "Could you get me a bottom, please?" And when she appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2019, she discussed her decision to ask for a body double to take her spot in The Aftermath's sex scenes. "They apparently had a lovely time, and I got to not take my clothes off and eat cake on the other side of the room," she said.
This Oscar winner's feet have been through it all
Charlize Theron has a few foot-related qualms. Before she became an A-list star, Theron was a student at the Joffrey Ballet School, where her feet were put through the wringer. And what do you know? Her feet have the battle scars to prove it. In 2003, Contactmusic quoted her as saying, "I've had 14 broken toes and blood poisoning from infected blisters that didn't heal for six months. If you look closely, you can see the scars." She added, "My boyfriend says my feet are the best things about me. I don't know how to feel about that." Same, Theron. Same.
She may not have known how to feel about former boyfriend Stuart Townsend's remarks about her feet, but she definitely knows how she feels about unwashed tootsies. The long and short of it: Keep your feet clean, or keep them away from Theron. In a 2017 interview with Variety, she said, "I don't like dirty, dry feet. If you want to torture me, tie me in a chair and dirty up my feet and then touch them. There you go. Super weird s***."
A bunion used to be a source of shame for this celeb
Stars: They resent their bunions just like us! Jeannie Mai used to get mad when a bunion would get in the way of her high heels, but she has learned to accept it. Or at the very least, she has stopped letting them get under her skin — well, figuratively speaking, of course. You know, because a bunion is literally under the ... okay, that is more than enough of that.
In a 2019 Instagram post for her YouTube channel, Hello Hunnay with Jeannie Mai, the daytime talkshow panelist told her fans to "Own whatever it is about you that makes you unique." She continued, "It could be a shame, it could be a physical trait. I used to be really insecure about the fact that I'm ultra sensitive. I also went through a period of shame because my marriage didn't work out. I also have this nasty bunion that pisses me off when I wear Louboutins. But now, I've gotten to a place where I own that those specific things make me Jeannie Mai. Puts the sauce on who I am so nobody else can compete." Learn to own and embrace that sauce.
This star despises her "weird-looking feet"
In classic Quentin Tarantino movie style, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood features dynamic action sequences, pays homage to other films, and includes a few shots of bare feet. When Margaret Qualley first learned her character's feet would be propped up on a dashboard in one of her scenes, she had some concerns.
While promoting the film in 2019, Qualley spoke several times about the experience of showing her feet. In Paper, she's quoted as saying, "I have dancer's feet, though, so I was like, 'You don't want me to take my shoes off! I have disgusting feet. They've been mangled!' It was the one thing I'm scared about, more than any other body part. I was like, can we have a close up on my elbows instead?'"
When speaking with IndieWire, the actress shared, "I genuinely was like, 'Quentin, this is a bad idea. I don't have good feet." In W magazine, she said, "Quentin wanted my weird-looking feet up on Brad's fancy car's dashboard." She added, "I kept trying to hide them, but he insisted." And when speaking with The Hollywood Reporter that same year, Qualley made her feelings about her feet as clear as day: "I hate my feet more than anything on the f***ing planet." To infinity and Gold Bond!