"In the past if I have ever done a photo shoot with so much as a t-shirt on, I have starved myself for weeks in advance and then picked and prodded at every picture and then normally taken the picture down,” Smith captioned the photo. “Yesterday I decided to fight the fuck back. Reclaim my body and stop trying to change this chest and these hips and these curves that my mum and dad made and love so unconditionally. "
While the photo was a departure for the singer-songwriter ― who is frequently photographed in suits, as well as the occasional caftan or romper ― it isn’t the first time he’s spoken about his battle with body image.
In 2015, he told “60 Minutes Australia” that he’s more offended when people make comments about his weight than when he hears slurs about his sexuality.
“I think just because I’ve accepted that, if someone calls me a faggot, it’s like, I am gay, and I’m proud to be gay, so there’s no issues there,” he said at the time. “If someone calls you fat, it’s like, that’s something I want to change.”
While Smith made headlines for losing a reported 50 pounds after his 2014 debut album, “In the Lonely Hour,” rocketed him to stardom, he said he remained “a bit obsessive” about his weight.
“When I was shooting my first music videos, I just wasn’t happy with the way I looked, so I was trying to control the way the camera moved,” he told V Magazine in an interview conducted by Sarah Jessica Parker. “I was constantly looking in the mirror, pinching my waist, weighing myself every day.”