Victoria’s Secret Told Model Erin Heatherton to ‘Lose Weight’

“I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat,” lingerie brand’s former Angel says

Erin Heatherton Victoria's Secret
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Former Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton was told she wasn’t thin enough to walk the runway of the famous lingerie brand.

“My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight,” she told TIME’s Motto website. “I look back like, ‘Really?’

During her five-year stint with Victoria’s Secret, she said she initially worked incredibly hard to please the brand by eating healthy and working out twice a day — but in 2013, her body “just wouldn’t do it.”

“I was really depressed because I was working so hard and I felt like my body was resisting me,” she added. “And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat.”

Shortly after the show, Heatherton left Victoria’s Secret to focus on her health.

“I realized I couldn’t go out into the world parading my body and myself in front of all these women who look up to me, and tell them that this is easy and simple and everyone can do this.”

Heatherton is the latest celebrity to discuss body image. On Wednesday, Amy Schumer blasted Glamour magazine for putting her in a “plus-size” issue without consulting her first.

Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8. Glamour put me in their plus size only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesn’t feel right to me,” the comedian said. “Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamourous.”

Sports Illustrated has been making headlines in the past few months for putting curvy model Ashley Graham on the cover of its swimsuit issue. Former supermodel Cheryl Tiegs did not seem to support the magazine’s decision.

“I don’t like that we’re talking about full-figured women because it’s glamorizing them, and your waist should be smaller than 35 [inches],” she said.

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