Why The Boys' Erin Moriarty Quit Instagram - A Plastic Surgery Controversy Explained

Show business can be a very shallow place. While male actors often face unrealistic body expectations and scathing commentary on their looks, toxic fandoms always seem to take things up a notch when it comes to female stars. One of the latest victims of this treatment is Erin Moriarty, who plays Starlight on Prime Video's immensely popular superhero satire series, "The Boys."

During a recent episode of her show, "The Megyn Kelly Show," political commentator Megyn Kelly made insulting comments about Moriarty's look and mental state based on accusations that she had plastic surgery. "Look at that, she's got the Kim Kardashian lips; she's made her nose so skinny, it looks like a pencil now," Kelly said, citing two different pictures of Moriarty. "She's got like what appear to me to be cheek implants, you know, like huge, the cheekbones are like out to here." Kelly continued further with the Kim Kardashian comparisons before targeting Moriarty's mental health. "I find it like a sign of mental illness."

After Kelly's comments, Moriarty responded to the host's claims in a lengthy Instagram post where she addressed the accusations and also spoke about the level of bullying she's been facing on social media. "I saw the comments, scathing enough to just turn my comments off," she wrote. "But this is becoming harassment." The actor also announced that she was taking an indefinite hiatus from social media but would be leaving her Instagram active so that her statement could remain up as her final word on the subject.

Though Megyn Kelly claimed that the before and after pictures of Erin Moriarty were both relatively recent, "The Boys" star explained that this was false. The 29-year-old actor said that while the "after" photo was indeed a recent one from her Instagram, the "before" picture was around ten years old. Moriarty also said that she'd had a lot of contouring done that day. She further explained that she was happy with her appearance in the photo and thought that she looked good despite being tired. "I remember leaving and feeling pretty," she wrote. "I came running to [the makeup artists], and I showed up in tears after what had happened that day," the actor recalled. "I left feeling better simply because I felt like they had reduced my lack of sleep and worked their magic wands."

"There is no excuse for these horrific allegations," Moriarty explained (via CNN). "The verbal abuse that I have had to delete, and genuinely false information that is being used to perpetuate a message that is exhibitionist feminism," she said. Fans can expect to see Moriarty return as Starlight when "The Boys" returns for its fourth season.