What doesn't Jennifer Love Hewitt have? This star has made it in the show business despite trying her hand at practically everything.

The I Know What You Did Last Summer star has succeeded at acting, singing, songwriting, producing, and even directing. Today, she is also a devoted mom.

To her greatest fans, Jennifer Love Hewitt can do no wrong.

However, her weight gain has attracted a lot of criticism and mockery from some quarters.

For the longest time, Jennifer had maintained a prim figure. She even appeared on several "world's most beautiful women" lists.

That is probably why she was once a favorite pin-up star among her fans. However, she has also struggled greatly with her weight over the past decade or so.

The First Time The World Learned Of Jennifer Love Hewitt's Weight Gain

Weight issues were never a problem for Jennifer. However, the world learned that she had this issue after newspapers worldwide printed pictures of her with a few extra pounds back in 2007.

At the time, she was vacationing in Hawaii. After the unflattering pictures surfaced, Hewitt was devastated, although she insisted that the weight gain didn't bother her.

Some sites teased her by writing "I know what you ate last summer" alongside her unflattering bikini pictures. However, she responded by saying:

"To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini, put it on, and stay strong."

Later, she worked with a personal trainer, Stevie Sant'Angelo, and achieved a dramatic 14-pound weight loss in just 10 weeks in 2008.

Since, then, her weight has gone up and down, especially due to motherhood.

Jennifer's Changed Attitude On Weight Gain

After her weight gain and the criticism that followed, Jennifer admits to having a different view on this popular social issue. Apparently, this change in perspective helped her stop obsessing over the problem:

"I never look at the scale. I have no idea how much I weigh – I never pay attention to that stuff. I go sort of on how I feel in my clothes… If I feel good in them, then I'm happy and it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks."

She also related how unhappy she was with the media's obsession with oversize zero figures. She said she was not upset on her account but was speaking out for the sake of the girls out there struggling with their body image.

In conclusion, she claimed that: "a size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn't make you beautiful."

Jennifer Love Hewitt's Motherhood Journey And Weight Gain

After meeting Brian Hallisay, they got into a relationship they later officiated in 2012. A year later, the couple tied the knot and had their first child, Autumn. Obviously, being a mother comes with some weight gain.

Therefore, Jennifer put on some pounds due to the pregnancy. In Hollywood, this is never an issue since these celebrity mothers seem to shed the weight pretty fast in order to get back to work.

However, she struggled more than most women do when trying to shed their baby weight. In fact, the media often criticized her for having a large body long after having a baby.

Later, she revealed that losing weight was not her greatest priority after she had her kids. She was more focused on nursing rather than "counting calories."

According to Jennifer, "the most important thing is [Autumn] getting food."

Therefore, it's not that she was not aware of her weight gain. It's just that Jennifer wanted to lose weight on her own terms.

Fortunately, the multi-talented star is never shy about fighting her critics. Not that she has too many of them anyway.

Jennifer was proud that she had brought wonderful children into the world. She was also not going to drive herself crazy trying to lose the extra weight but was instead going to enjoy being with her kids.

Although she was subtle about it, she was saying that having a child is more important than being able to fit into model-size clothes. So, while there is nothing bad about having a fit and healthy body, fat-shaming is never okay.

Losing Baby Weight Was Not Easy

Later, Jennifer admitted that losing that excess weight was not easy:

"Having been somebody who has had to think about what my body looked like for 25 years, it was hard when it didn't come off. I didn't look like some of the girls in the magazines that I've worked with… who [the weight[ does fall off for. I was like, 'What's wrong with me?' I had to have a conservation with myself."

However, managing to lose all that weight took some effort. She started to work out and took Zumba classes with her daughter by her:

"I hold her, we do squats, we dance, she listens to the music and she loves it. Or I put her in her little chair and she watches and thinks it's really funny."

Weight Gain And Her Role In Criminal Minds

Jennifer's sluggish ability to lose baby weight slightly affected her career. After getting her daughter, she was eager to get back to work, and she managed to land a role in the popular drama, Criminal Minds.

At the time she started filming episodes of the show, she had not slimmed down. She was also getting anxious about her weight because the pressure to lose the baby fat was on.

She also had a daughter to worry about. So, it was a hectic time for her.

Jennifer left the show in 2015.

After her role in Criminal Minds was written off in 2015 because she was heavily pregnant, she got her next regular acting gig a couple of years later in 2019 after being cast in 9-1-1 on Fox.

Jennifer Love Hewitt Today

When it's all said and done, Hewitt's career and weight loss journey has been incredible. Over time, Jennifer Love Hewitt shed some of the weight she had gained. So, recently, she is looking a little trimmer.

She has also been keeping up with the times, and she posts a lot of amazing pictures on her Instagram and Facebook accounts. Many celebrities her age are not this active on social media.

The one thing that's apparent to everyone who mocked her weight gain is that this problem is now behind her. Right now, she is looking her best as she raises her kids, and that's just incredible.