South Australian podcaster and TV personality Lauren De Cesare has shared what she described as an unnecessarily “cruel and hateful” note left on her car after a bad parking job.
De Cesare said she returned to her vehicle last week after taking her daughter to the movies and found a handwritten message tucked under the windscreen. Written on the back of a Woolworths receipt, it read: “Hello! I see you’ve parked blindfolded again and this time with a ferret on your face…
“If only you weren’t so fat.”
The note ended with a love heart.
De Cesare, who is nine-months pregnant with her second child, said she could accept the jab about her parking but not the body shaming. She said she was upset that a woman and a mother, especially one heavily pregnant, could be targeted so personally.
“The parking deserves a sledge but such a cruel and hateful comment can only come from someone truly miserable in themselves.”
Posting a photo of the note to Instagram, she wrote: “I know I’m probably the world’s worst parker, but that last part was a bit unnecessary, right?”
Her post quickly prompted a flood of support, with many saying the message reflected badly on its author rather than on her.
“What a sad, angry individual!” one person wrote.
Another commented: “She probably lives in her mum’s basement”.
A third wrote: “It was funny up until that last sentence which is totally abhorrent. Why do people feel the need to demean other people like this. It’s disgusting. Body shaming is the lowest. Usually written by someone with not enough IQ to come up with a reasonable argument or sign off.”
Musician Charmaine Jones also reposted De Cesare’s post and said the note had upset her.
“We all have options on how to behave,” she said, “We need care and accountability in this world. We really do.”
Some commenters tried to identify the person behind it, suggesting the receipt itself might offer a clue. One wrote: “Receipt…. Take it back to Woolworths and get the cctv”.
Another speculated the note may have come from someone familiar with her routines, writing: “She says AGAIN…. So someone you live near or work near and you’ve obviously made them cranky!”
A further response read: “Can we get a spy crew together and catch them out. I would love to call them on their bs!”
De Cesare, who is 37 weeks pregnant with her second child, is also a host on South Australian travel and lifestyle program Hello SA.
The incident also echoed past experiences she has spoken about publicly. In an April episode of her podcast Adelady Unfiltered, De Cesare said body image had been a dark shadow over much of her life.
“If I didn’t get a job or if a boy didn’t like me, it was always put down to my weight,” she said.
She also recalled a fat-shaming email she received from a viewer while she was post-partum with her young daughter, saying it deeply affected her.
“I can no longer watch your show anymore Lauren because you are so fat,” she said of the contents of the email, “Maybe you should go and do what the guy on the other channel did and have weight loss surgery, he looks great, you don’t.”
Reflecting on that message, De Cesare said: “She got me. She sent me spiralling because she caught me at my lowest.
“I was already feeling sh*t about my body… I know that I’d put on weight, when I stopped breastfeeding I put on weight.”
She said the aftermath led to her “treating my body like sh*t” as she tried to lose weight, something she and co-host Hayley Pearson later discussed with sadness.
“That’s actually a really hard moment from the sideline to see someone who is having the side effects from trying different things to lose weight,” Pearson said.
