Brooke Shields has not always been open about her body.
Body Measurements
The star felt uncomfortable discussing her frame at the age of 15 when asked about “measurements” by the late legendary broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, who died in December 2022 at the age of 93, during a TV interview in 1981.
Brooke, 60, recalled on the latest episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast. “It’s also insane that Barbara Walters asked me my measurements, like wow, people are doing what?”
The Blue Lagoon star noted that the interview took place during a time when women had little power.
Brooke said, “I think it’s, like, I took everything personally, and I kind of still do. I’m much better now at not letting it affect me so much. But … [it was] when women [didn’t have] any power and they were in a male world.”
The Pretty Baby alum recalled the “discomfort” she felt when she stood up, being “compared” to Barbara “in measurements.”
And Brooke wishes she could go back to 1981 to handle the situation with the journalist differently.
The star continued, “I did it. Like, I didn’t brush it off or anything. If someone asked me that now, I’d come back with some kind of a quip.”
Different Era
Brooke’s mom, Teri, who died of Dementia in October 2012 at the age of 79, sat in the room with her daughter and Barbara, and she “didn’t even register” the measurements question as “slightly inappropriate.”
Brooke added, “Because her thing was, ‘As long as they’re talking about you, it doesn’t matter what they saw. We’re on Barbara Walters. You are my shining thing, my baby.’ So it didn’t matter.”
“Also, that wasn’t the era where people thought that was weird.”
Confidence in Her Body
Now 45 years later, Brooke has grown in confidence with talking about her body, and she feels sexier than ever after she founded her haircare line, Commence, targeted at women over 40, in June 2024.
The Mother of the Bride cast member said on the latest episode of the I Changed My Mind with Dan Souza podcast, “It stemmed from being the age that I am and realizing that I was coming into this very important phase, but that I wasn’t being told that I had the same amount of value as I was told when my ovaries worked.”
“So, to me, I thought, ‘That is insane.’ I feel sexier now than I did in my teens, and I feel that I have so much more to offer.”
“Why aren’t women being allowed to be their full selves? Like, why is it so threatening to the industries?”