
Kim Coles is pulling back the curtain on the kind of behind-the-scenes pressures TV stars faced in the ’90s—pressures that went far beyond memorizing lines.
On a recent episode of the *ReLiving Single* podcast with cohost and fellow castmate Erika Alexander, Coles revealed that network executives threatened to add “fat jokes” to *Living Single* scripts if she didn’t lose weight. The Emmy-nominated sitcom, which ran from 1993 to 1998, was celebrated for its representation of Black women on television—but according to Coles, it wasn’t immune from Hollywood’s body expectations.
While discussing Season 1, Episode 12 (“Crappy Birthday”), the two actresses revisited a moment where Queen Latifah’s character, Khadijah, joked about being blamed for weighing down a car. Alexander called it out instantly: “It is a fat joke.”
Coles admitted she was surprised the joke made it past the writers’ room. “We didn’t do a lot of that on this show, and I’m grateful we didn’t, because I gained weight every year. I’m surprised we let that one go,” she said.
Alexander then revealed that Queen Latifah made it clear early on that body-shaming humor wasn’t welcome. “She said, ‘We not going to be doing that,’ and then \[the fat jokes] disappeared,” Alexander recalled.
But for Coles, the pressure continued behind the scenes. “At the beginning of every season, my manager would get a call: ‘Kim Coles has to lose some weight,’” she said. “I was told if I kept gaining weight, they’d start writing fat jokes for my character.”
She credits Alexander for immediately responding at the time: *“I won’t read those jokes.”*
Looking back, Coles sees the cast’s varied body types as one of the show’s strengths. “We looked like women everybody knew in our community,” she said. “But there was still an expectation from ‘the suits’ about what they thought sexy was.”
The *ReLiving Single* podcast, produced by Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, explores the show’s cultural impact and the intentional choices that helped shape its legacy. “It’s one of those shows that inspired legions of journalists, lawyers, and changed the narrative of what it meant to be a Black woman in ’90s America,” said Eric Eddings, SVP of Digital & Platforms at Hartbeat.