Published January 13, 2015
Multiplatinum-selling singer Clay Aiken (search) will talk about his own experiences with bullying with Dr. Phil McGraw on the syndicated "Dr. Phil" (search) show Tuesday.
"He talks about his own experiences being bullied," says RCA Records publicist Roger Widynowski, who said Aiken isn't doing any press interviews at this time. Widynowski says the bullying occurred "verbally ... throughout his whole school career. Mostly through elementary and junior high."
Aiken's mother, Faye Parker, confirmed that he was picked on but said she doesn't know to what extent.
"I don't know that he was bullied so much as he was just ignored," she said. "So I don't know. We'll have to hear more about his story when he tells it on TV."
He may have other kids' stories on the subject to tell from his days as a counselor at A.E. Finley YMCA in Raleigh, Parker said.
Besides accounts of bullying in his book, "Learning to Sing," Aiken has occasionally recounted the rougher aspects of his school days in magazine interviews.
"The first two years of high school, I was shy," Aiken told Cosmo Girl. "I got picked on for the way I was dressed. I had Coke-bottle glasses, and my hair was just atrocious."
Sometimes, the bullying was more than verbal. As he told Entertainment Weekly: "I actually started convincing myself that wedgies were compliments."
By 12th grade, however, his self-confidence and refusal to worry too much about what others thought of him actually made him somewhat popular at Raleigh's Leesville High School.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/aiken-to-discuss-bullying-on-dr-phil