Julie Chen has responded to criticism of her recent disclosure that she underwent plastic surgery on her eyes to alter her Chinese features when she was younger because she felt it would help her become a national television anchor.
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However, Chen said she has also received more positive support than she had anticipated.
"I was pleasantly surprised by all the supportive emails, tweets, and postings from our show's viewers who are not Asian but told me they understood my story," she added in the statement. "To them I say thank you."
Chen made her disclosure during Wednesday's broadcast of CBS' The Talk daytime talk show which she co-hosts with Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler, and Sheryl Underwood.
According to Chen, she was initially told her "Asian eyes" would hinder her career goals by a news director when she was a 25-year-old local news reporter in Dayton, OH and asked if she could occasionally fill-in for absent anchors.
"He said 'You will never be on this anchor desk because you're Chinese,'" Chen told her The Talk co-hosts. "[He said], 'Let's face it Julie, how relatable are you to our community? How big of an Asian community do we really have in Dayton? The audience can't relate to you because you're not like them... You look disinterested. You look bored because your eyes are so heavy. They're so small.'"
Chen described the news as a "dagger in her heart," because she felt her career success might be hindered solely because of the way her eyes looked. Chen told her The Talk co-hosts she then developed a complex and became increasingly insecure about her eyes. She'd play back tapes of her live reporting and "all I could see was my eyes," she said.
Chen attributed the news director's opinion to racism and decided to leave the job, assuming it was a one-off incident. She then sought out a "big-time agent" in Los Angeles who worked with "the biggest names" to help her find a new position.
Unfortunately, the agent offered Chen the same insulting perspective.
The agent said, "'I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger. But I will tell you this, you're good at what you do. If you get this plastic surgery done, you're going straight to the top,'" she explained.
The agent then gave Chen, who married CBS president Les Moonves in 2004, a list of plastic surgeons who performed the operation. She then shared the option with her mother who was "destroyed" by the idea. However, Chen's mother came around and decided to have a deeper conversation with the Big Brother host's father and entire family.
Chen's family apparently had a drastic difference of opinion. Some of them supported her, while others admitted they'd disown her because they felt she'd be denying her Chinese heritage. But Chen knew this agent already represented who she believed to be the top Asian broadcaster in America at the time, so she was convinced he knew what he was talking about.
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOWChen's parents then contacted her after many discussions and expressed their support and love -- saying they'd fly to Los Angeles, pay for the surgery and hold her hand through the recovery if the procedure was something she truly felt she had to do. At that moment, Chen decided to follow through with the surgery, and it took her about a year to heal.
Now, Chen said, her "eyes are bigger. I look more alert, more expressive."
In her Friday statement, Chen also revealed she hadn't given her parents advance warning that she was going to reveal her secret on Wednesday's The Talk broadcast.
"I chickened out of telling my mom before the show aired what my secret was," she said. "I was overwhelmed with love and relief when she sent me an email right after it aired, saying she and my father could not be more proud of me."
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