Jennifer Love Hewitt Recalls 'Grown Men' Perverts Making Jokes About Her Breasts When She Was Only 16: 'It Was Really Mind-Blowing'
Jennifer Love Hewitt recalled grown men commenting about her breasts as a teenager.
Jan. 30 2025, Published 12:15 p.m. ET
Jennifer Love Hewitt is looking back on being labeled a "sex symbol" as a young teen.
After facing countless inappropriate remarks from grown men in her early career, the 45-year-old actress reflected on the early "normalization" of her developing body and the disorienting experience of being sexualized before grasping its meaning, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The actress said she was labeled a 'sex symbol' before she even knew what it meant to be 'sexy.'
The Client List star appeared on Tuesday's episode of Mayim Bialik's podcast, saying she finds it "mind-blowing" how accepted such behavior was then compared to current social norms.
She explained: "There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it.
Hewitt admitted she would wear baggy clothing to cover up her figure after being sexualized by men as a teen.
"It was a culture that was fully accepted, but when you sit, and you look at where we are now versus then, it is really mind-blowing."
She added: "In hindsight, it was really strange, I think, to become a sex symbol sort of like before I even knew what that was.
"I didn't know what being sexy meant."
The actress also remembered how men would approach her and make inappropriate remarks about her 1999 Maxim cover when she was just 17.
Hewitt recalled: "People would openly walk up and be like, 'I took your magazine with me on a trip last week.'"
She said she would simply laugh off the comments at the time, adding: "I didn’t really know what that meant. It's kind of gross."
The actress was left 'heartbroken' after realizing people were more focused on her breasts than her talent.
As the episode continued, Hewitt reflected on how jokes about her breasts became commonplace after she starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
She said: "When the movie came out, everybody said, 'Oh, I know what your breasts did last summer,' and that was like the joke.
"And, again, everybody would laugh, so I would laugh. It was supposed to be funny, I guess. It didn't register with me that this is a grown man talking to me about my breasts on national television."
After the film was released, Hewitt said she was "heartbroken" at her famous chest becoming the center of conversation among viewers – rather than her talent.
She explained: "I had worked so hard trying to be good in a horror movie, and I really wanted people to walk away from the movie going, 'That’s a really good actress.'
"And instead, every headline — and I’m not even joking — for 10 or 12 years after that … it was always about my breasts, always first. … That was heartbreaking for me."
The Ghost Whisperer star said all she could do was try to simply minimize the focus on her breasts, adding how she often wore oversized clothes to cover her figure.
She continued: "I had bigger boobs for a smaller person, and so it was embarrassing. I didn't want to be looked at by a 40-year-old in Pizza Hut."
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Hewitt said she holds no resentment to the comments people made to her as a teen.
Despite the many "gross" remarks, the actress shared she no longer holds any resentment toward those who made jokes about her back then.
She admitted: "It was a culture that was fully accepted. They were allowed to believe that that was appropriate, and I answered the questions, laughed right along with them."
