Delta Burke doubles down on her claims that her husband, Gerald McRaney, still loves her despite her weight. At the age of 20, the “Designing Women” star had begun to starve herself to get away from the ridicule, but it only served as a dangerous and temporary solution.
The media attacked Burke from all angles due to her weight gain, including a rumor that went around claiming that her husband McRaney was having an affair with one of his co-stars. “The first year he was doing ‘Major Dad,’ [they said] he was having an affair with [his co-star] Shanna Reed, and comparing me to her, and how beautiful she was. I just felt so completely inadequate.”
Burke also faced ridicule on set, as costume designers frequently made comments about her body. “I remember being on the sound stage with people standing around me trying to decide what they were going to have me wear. They would talk about me like I wasn’t even there. ‘What are we going to do about those hips?'”
But, according to Burke, her husband had no qualms about her weight gain. “Mac loves me no matter what. He loved me when I got as big as a house. He loved me when I was a blonde. He didn’t tell me he hated it until I went back to brunette. He has loved me through my up times and my down times. He still thinks my body looks great, and I can certifiably tell you it does not!”
McRaney was more blunt about the topic, according to the LA Times. “There are examples of men out there who are just complete jerks,” he says. “If people stopped and thought about it, what they’re engaged in is not love so much as it is trophy collecting. And if what you want is a trophy wife, then be happy with how empty and vacuous that’ll turn out to be. But if what you want is a wife, then you love that person. Period.”
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