at 19:06 on January 24, 2007, EST.

NEW YORK (AP) - Tyra Banks, who has gained weight since her days strutting the catwalk, says she was upset when unflattering photos showing her in a one-piece bathing suit were mocked on the Internet.

"It was such a strange meanness and rejoicing that people had when thinking that was what my body looked like. It was really hurtful to me," the 33-year-old talk-show host says in an interview in the Feb. 5 issue of People magazine.

The photos show Banks on a beach during a recent trip to Sydney, Australia. They had popped up earlier this month on a celebrity gossip website with the not-so-nice headline: "Tyra Banks is Fat."

Banks, who hosts the syndicated "The Tyra Banks Show" and the CW network's "America's Next Top Model," tells the magazine she weighs 161 pounds and has fluctuated from 148 pounds to 162 pounds, depending on how well she's taking care of herself, since retiring from modelling in 2005.

"I don't want to sit in front of you and be soap-boxy and fake and say, 'I love myself, I'm beautiful, it's great,"' says Banks, who stands five-foot-10. "I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, 'Damn!"'

In other words, yes, she has put on weight, though not nearly as much as recent tabloid stories have suggested.

Banks says "I'm not the healthiest eater" and isn't required to "live up to that model standard anymore."

"I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that?" she says. "If I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there - the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those (horrible) things."


©The Canadian Press, 2007

you go tyra!
that girl's got some currrves... me and her should be buddies, i'd love to be her best friend

Gaining weight sucks.

I hate people are saying she's fat,when she's not

She has a nice body. As long as she's healthy,thats all that matters.

Tyra looks great! and at least her breast are REAL, which is more than I can say for some of these young "actresses and singers" that are popular right now.

I could only wish to be as FAT as Tyra! That girl looks amazing.

Tyra is hot!

I saw the picture--it actually was kind of shocking. She wasn't exactly fat, but it was a big change.

Plus of course it was the typical candid/no makeup shot. She completed the look by wearing a really dumpy looking bathing suit. She wouldn't have looked good even at her model weight.

Well, looking good is all relative. She still looked good, just different

161 sounds like a lot but I saw her in a swimsuit on the cover and she looks fine I would have to gain 30 more pounds to be 161 and i am flipping out at the thought I want to be a boy forever!!!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Gaining weight isn't so bad if it's muscle. My man wants to gain 20 lbs, and feels insecure about being skinny. If only I had his problem...

You know, I'm beginning to think that it's a better idea to make your debut in the public eye when you look your absolute WORST. That way, as you get better looking, people do nothing but praise you! If you come onto the scene looking like a million bucks, you know you're going to start depreciating at some point in time...

NDRU said:

I saw that picture and to be honest it looked a little doctered. I don't know if it was the camera angle or what, but it made her midsection look REALLY big, which is definitely not what she actually looks like. U could tell that just by looking at her show. And I don't think her talk show films too far in advance, so it's not a delayed reaction thing. She was just in her bra and panties on the show not too long ago and she looked great. People just wanna be stupid and make up lies I guess.

PurpleRighteous1 said:

I saw it in a magazine, so it might have even been a different picture.

Actually the magazine wasn't being mean on the surface, they were almost celebrating that she was embracing her curves (while still showing the shocking photo, of course!)

But I think the candid nature means you're not using good/model posture or holding in your stomach. We all know models don't always look like models.

bottom line? she looks fine, and you're right, people want to feel better about themselves by putting her down

NDRU said:

It's probably the same picture, but the magazine I saw was not being nice. Just telling the world that she's fat

PurpleRighteous1 said:

yeah, I think this magazine was, too, they just did it under the pretense of being nice

She looks GREAT to me.

She looks like a normal female.

We have gotten so use to seeing underweight stick figures we forgot what is really healthy for a women to look like.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

She's 5'10...161 is in a normal range.

She's probably a size 10 and yet described as fat....

Rhondab said:

Are you going to spank me yet?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

you would sooooo like that wouldn't you.



stank ass...

too bad!! She's gone the way of Carrie Otis and Kellly Lebrock.
it's painful to see a once hottie, who's only 33 mind you, with flabs of skin on her arms and others parts of her body. This women hasn't even had children. Give me the as she said "skinny head" Tyra that I saw on Fresh Prince over this one any day. Unfortunately for her, the mean remarks will only get worse, it happens to beautiful female celebs once they get older...

Is there a link or something of where I can that picture of her?

NDRU said:

I agree with what what you said

Rhondab said:

:sniff: :sniff:

lilgish said:

Are you really saying this?

Sweeny79 said:

Actually the model the shocked me the most was Shelly Labrock.
Man, she didn't age well. It wasn't just the weight gain, but her face looked like it melted.


As far as Tyra goes, she has always been honest with people. About 5 years ago she was once on Oprah, and she told the audience that it took alot of work to make her look good. She then said , "Anyone of you women can look like me".

She was referring to the makeup and the hair artists and all the fuss it took to make her look like a "model".

Personally I love the crap out of her.

I think she still looks good with some little junk in her trunk. And those curves too mmm yes...

I wished that men be judge more harshly for their appearance because some of the same ones who raised their bar about women standard of beauty and dissed women about their looks doesn't look too fine themselves. But I am glad that I am hearing about more men getting under the knife because that means more pressure for them to attract the ladies who won't lower their beauty standard on men.

Tyra pay her dues so you go girl trying to talk some sense to those men who likes boney anorexia girls.

RipHer2Shreds said:

why, was it that bad? I liked the way she use to look over the way she looks now. ...it seems the plus size models are always the first to go on her show, Tyra is only reinforcing the standard that many of us have...

ladygirl99 said:

I think a side affect of women's attaining prominent positions in the job sector will lead to men needing to posses other attributes than a good job to attract a woman.

It'll be an unintended consiquence of badly needed equality.

ladygirl99 said:

When women stop getting with men for money and power reasons then it will begin to matter what they look like