How Dean McDermott Reacted When Son Liam, 12, Asked If He Was 'Obese' After Online Body Shaming

On Monday's new episode of his podcast, Tori Spelling's husband Dean McDermott opened up about some of the nasty comments his family -- children included -- receives on social media.

In September 2018, a photo Tori posted from the kids' first day of school drew vile comments from her followers, who criticized the children's clothes and overall appearance. According to Dean, the couple's eldest son -- Liam, 12 -- took notice.

"I hate social media. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it," McDermott said on his Daddy Issues podcast. "It's a necessary evil. The kids got bullied for their clothes they were wearing on the first day of school. Tori posted some picture from the first day of school and they're like, 'Oh my god, look at their hair,' 'Oh my god, are those clothes from Target?' And I'm like, what the f--k. It's so LA."

"Liam has seen it," he said of the comments, "and he's 12. He saw some of that stuff."

McDermott said that their son is also starting to become more aware of tabloid coverage of the family -- seeing it in the supermarket -- and he worries it's only a matter of time until Stella, 10, follows suit.

"Liam handled it really, really well," explained Dean. "He said, 'Dad, am I obese?' I said, 'Look buddy. There's some sick people in the world. There's some sick people in the world, and they need to do stuff like this. They need to say bad things about people.'"

"Think about it, son. You have a busy life. You have school, you got sports, do you think you have time to go on Instagram, scroll through the people that you're following, and make a negative comment about somebody?" he then said he asked Liam. "No, you don't. You don't, and if you did, you'd fill your time with something else. So think about how sick these people are that they have to do that."

McDermott also said it's a "lame argument" whenever anyone says that the online hate comes with the fame game, adding that children should be totally "off limits."

Dean famously clapped back at a few of the trolls back in January, after his kids were once again attacked online.

"I am absolutely horrified and disgusted by the comments being left about my children," he said after Tori shared a family photo. "Body shaming and bullying my children??!! What is wrong with you people??!!"

"As far as saying my children are overweight, well that's just mean and uncalled for. They're going through different growth phases, and even if our children are on the bigger side. Who cares," he continued. "They're happy and healthy and I'm sorry they don't look like skinny supermodels. People come in all shapes and sizes. So who are you to judge."

He also defended their Target clothes, asking, "Are we supposed to shop at Gucci?? These are kids folks. Messy stinky little bundles of fun, laughter and love."