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Giuliana Rancic Addresses Weight Concerns, Claims Fashion Police Zendaya Joke Was “Not Edited in the Proper Way”

Giuliana Rancic
Giuliana Rancic addressed concerns about her weight and her recent headline-making Fashion Police scandal on the Today show on Monday, April 6: "It's time to just tell the truth."Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Your turn, G. After a rocky start to 2015, Giuliana Rancic appeared on the Today show on Monday, April 6, where she discussed her heavily critiqued weight as well as her future with Fashion Police.

"I think it's time to just tell the truth and tell people what's going on," Rancic, 40, told Savannah Guthrie. Throughout awards season, the E! News host came under fire for her rail-thin frame, which many believed was the result of an eating disorder. "It was something that I didn't ever feel the need to talk about. I feel that weight is very personal. Whether you're underweight, overweight, whatever, it's your business. But it became distracting."

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Rancic said her rapid weight loss was the result of her cancer medication — and it scared her too. "I do not have an eating disorder," Rancic said, point-blank. "I have never had an eating disorder. I wanted to be very clear about that. In fact, I eat a lot. People always love to tweet: 'Eat a burger.' I eat burgers. It's not working."

She said that after spending hours on the red carpet interviewing dozens of celebrities before awards shows, she would then surf the Internet to read reactions, only to find that "99 percent of the comments were about my weight."

The Going Off Script author then candidly revealed the true cause of her tiny body. "I've lost a considerable amount of weight due to the cancer medication that I'm on," she noted. "I was scared. I didn't think this was great. I thought, 'What the heck is happening to my body?' …It's very scary to have cancer, be on medication, then you start losing weight. I thought, 'Oh my God, is my cancer back?'"

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Rancic announced on the Today show in October 2011 that she had breast cancer, and got a double mastectomy several months later. Despite her concerns, Rancic's doctor told her not to worry and that her weight loss was "a side effect from the medication you're on."

Along with her weight, the TV personality also discussed another recent mega controversy. In February, Rancic came under fire after she made fun of Zendaya Coleman's long dreadlocks on the Oscars episode of Fashion Police. "I feel like she smells like pachouli oil," Rancic said on the program, as the cameras cut away to a photo of Zendaya on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. "Or weed!"

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Rancic spoke out about the incident in detail on Monday. "I'll tell you Savannah, because it's something I want to be really clear about that happened," she maintained. "I made a reference to the hippie culture… and in the editing process, some of the gestures I made, some of the things I said were taken out for time. So I made peace signs, I said bohemian twice. Those were taken out for time, so when the joke aired, some people were offended by it."

Rancic wanted to make one point very clear to viewers on Monday. "I find racism reprehensible," she said. "I don't tolerate it at all. Nor have I ever. And I think that's really important for me to get that out there, because that's been the hardest part of this, that someone could believe that I actually would have racial undertones in the things I do." Still, the mother of one said she could see "why people took offense," although it was never intended to be presented in that manner.

Related: PHOTOS: Stars' biggest phobias

"I thought the joke was not edited in the proper way. That's just something I have to live with," she noted. "It's very important for me to get out there and tell the real story."

In the interim, both Kathy Griffin and Kelly Osbourne quit Fashion Police after the scandal erupted. Shortly after, E! announced that the program, once helmed by the late Joan Rivers, would go on a hiatus until September.

Guthrie asked Rancic whether fans should expect to see her on the panel come fall, to which she responded: "We'll see."

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