Kim Coles says ‘Living Single’ executives threatened her with fat jokes to lose weight

Kim Coles and Erika Alexander open up about the pressures they endured while filming “Living Single.”

Kim Coles is sharing more of what she endured behind the scenes during her days starring on “Living Single.” 

On a recent episode of the podcast she co-hosts with fellow “Living Single” alum Erika Alexander, “ReLiving Single,” the 63-year-old actress revealed the way producers were pressuring her to lose weight behind the scenes. 

“I would get a call at the beginning of every season to my manager saying, ‘Kim Coles has to lose some weight. She has to lose some weight. She has to lose some weight,’” Coles said.

Producers even went as far as to threaten to write in fat jokes if she didn’t. 

“She wouldn’t be gaining all this weight, and her friends wouldn’t say anything,” Coles explained as the producers’ reasoning. “That was the threat — lose some weight or we’re going to have to start writing fat jokes.”

However, Coles, who played the eccentric fan-favorite Synclaire, noted that when she brought it up with Alexander, her co-star declared, “I won’t read those jokes.” Although Alexander, who played Maxine Shaw, an attorney who lived across the street, didn’t remember the specific instance, she did recall the ethos among the cast. 

“No one,” among them would have read jokes like that, she noted, adding that you have to have “willing collaborators” to inflict that kind of harm. 

In addition to Alexander and Coles, “Living Single,” which premiered on Fox in 1993 and ran for five seasons through 1998, starred Queen Latifah, John Henton, Kim Fields, and Terrence C. Carson as a group of friends living, working, and dating in New York City. Another aspect Alexander remembered was how the pressure took a toll on her castmate. 

“You know, the sad part is it got in your mind because I do remember that you went on a very concerted effort throughout the series to keep the image that they wanted,” she recalled. 

During the episode, the women revisit the episode “Crappy Birthday,” in which the two of them, plus Fields, who starred as Regine, take Latifah to Atlantic City for a spontaneous birthday trip. While in the car, there’s a complaint about heavy “luggage” in the back, to which Coles’ character responds, “You better not be looking at me.”

Alexander affirmed that it was a derogatory joke. 

“It is a fat joke,” she said. 

Coles noted that despite the pressure, “We didn’t do a lot of that on this show, and I’m grateful that we didn’t do a lot of that on this show because I gained weight every year. And we could have a whole conversation about that.”

Of the luggage joke, she added, “I’m surprised we let that one go.”

A significant reason the show didn’t include those types of jokes was that Queen Latifah championed against them early on. 

Alexander said, “Latifah made it really clear, like, ‘We’re not going to be doing that,’ and then they disappeared.”

Even still, Coles noted, “There is an expectation by these suits in an office somewhere of what they think sexy is. And so I had a really hard time as I was gaining weight and feeling as if everybody was staring.”

Ultimately, though, the actress said of the four female leads, “I think what was beautiful about us is there were four completely different body types. And we looked like women that everybody knew in our community.”