Those who've watched Fit for TV, the new Netflix docuseries about how the weight loss reality show, The Biggest Loser, shot to fame will know that it later crashed and burned after a series of scandals, including some contestants alleging they were put in dangerous positions that risked their health.
Other participants, notably sisters Hannah Curlee and Olivia Ward, praised the show for changing their lives for the better, with Olivia even naming her daughter Harper in honour of one of the show's trainers, Bob Harper.
Alongside Harper was fellow straight-talking coach Jillian Michaels, and despite the pair competing as team leaders, each hoping their contestants would be the ones to lose the most weight at the weekly weighing in ceremony, they seemed to share a close and loving friendship.
However, Harper strongly implies on the docu-series that the pair, despite being incredibly good friends while working together, no longer share a relationship – and days after the docuseries aired, Michaels also hit back herself in the form of a screenshot (allegedly showing the last text she ever sent to Harper).
It's a pretty stark change between the two trainers, who were previously regularly seen laughing together, supporting one another and sharing a tactile friendship.
Here's what we know about the fall out between Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper...
Everyone's clicking on...
Why are Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels no longer friends?
When discussing the life-changing heart attack he had in 2017 in the documentary – which in his words "left him dead on the gym floor for nine minutes" – Harper recalls that many of the Biggest Loser's cast and crew reached out to him, but that he did not hear from Michaels after the mammoth medical event. "I heard from almost everyone," he says in a clip from an Andy Cohen interview.
"How do I put this? People were always like 'You and Jillian have been so close', and I was like 'Well, we were really close on television'," he then says outright in the documentary. "After I had my heart attack, she's the one person I never heard from. So that to me spoke volumes."
Elsewhere, on 19 August, Michaels posted a photo apparently showing one of her last ever text messages to Bob Harper, dated 15 June 2014: "I really think it's shitty of you not to respond to my texts. It's this kind of thing that always makes me so disappointed in our relationship."
She captioned the text, "The last image is my second to last text ever to Bob Harper. Take from it what you will."
It could be the case that while the pair were close when working together and seeing one another near daily during filming, that they naturally drifted apart once the cameras stopped rolling.
Equally, since the show wrapped, it seems Michaels in particular (who chose not to appear in the Netflix documentary) has been trying to distance herself from the Biggest Loser, and instead is focussing more on her podcast, which has hosted the likes of divisive journalist Piers Morgan and conspiracy theorist and far right mouthpiece, Candace Owens.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
