This Is Me

Rarely Does A TV Cast Have Such An Impact On Pop Culture. But The Women Of NBCs Hit Show Are More Than An Ensemble Theyre Three Brave, Brilliant Stars.

“ THIS IS MY LIFE ”

She’s been through ups and downs, but Chrissy Metz refuses to be controlled by her past. By Christopher Rosa

AFTER YEARS OF FEELING INSEcure about it, Chrissy Metz finally wore a swimsuit on vacation. “I grew up wearing a T-shirt at the pool. As an adult, I was like, I’m gonna find a bathing suit I like and I’m gonna wear it,” she tells me from the driver’s seat of her Audi SUV, which we’re sitting in to escape the Los Angeles heat. “And there were people, like, ‘Oh my God, look at you! You know I could never do that.’ ” She laughs. “It’s a backhanded compliment, but I’m doing what I want to do.”

Metz’s newfound do-what-I-want mentality has been 38 years in the making. Born in Homestead, Florida, she spent her early years in Japan with her mother, older brother and sister, and father, who worked at a bar off the Yokosuka Navy base. Her parents divorced, and her mom planted the family back in Florida. After years of struggle—“our electricity was shut off a lot,” she revealed in her memoir, This Is Me—they moved in with her mom’s soon-to-be new husband Trigger, who would weigh Metz in their kitchen. (Trigger has denied this, telling Entertainment Tonight, “None of it’s true…. I love her very much just like I always have.”)