Banks scolds critics, says she's worth the weight

Former supermodel says ‘Porkchop’ insults also hurt her fans' body image

	Tyra Banks, right, shows Janet Jackson a few dance moves on ‘The Tyra Banks Show' last fall in Los Angeles. The TV personality weighs about 30 pounds more than she when she first made it as a swimsuit model
Chris Polk / AP

Celebrity video

Web only: Joan Cusack on 'being present'
Nov. 10: In a behind-the-scenes moment with Joan Cusack, TODAY correspondent Sara Haines asks Joan about what she's learned from her kids and about finding her niche as one of five children in the Cusack family.

Joe Jackson challenges Michael's will

Joan Cusack makes cookies for cancer

Carrie Prejean regrets, explains sex tape

'Who Shot Rock and Roll'

Prejean on sex tape: ‘Nothing is private anymore’

Slideshow

Best and worst celebrity fashions of 2009
From glamorous gowns to stylish suits to complete fashion failures, a look at the year so far.

more photos

updated 4:21 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Television personality and former supermodel Tyra Banks has hit back at critics who mocked her as fat and dubbed her “America’s Next Top Waddle” after recent weight gains.

Banks, 33, who swapped the fashion runway in 2005 for a career as a TV chat show host and presenter of the reality show “America’s Next Top Model,” said she was hurt by the comments.

Banks, 5 feet 10 inches tall, said she now weighs about 161 pounds — about 30 pounds heavier than in 1997 when she first made it as a swimsuit model.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

“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!’ ” she told People magazine in an interview for its Friday edition.

Recent unflattering pictures of Banks in a swimsuit on a beach in Australia have circulated on the Internet with headlines such as “Tyra Porkchop” and “Tyra Banks is fat.”

“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,” Banks told People.

She said she was worried about the effect such reports would have on her fans.

“I get so much mail from young girls who say, ‘I look up to you, you’re not as skinny as everyone else, I think you’re beautiful,’ ” she said. “So when they say that my body is ‘ugly’ and ‘disgusting’, what does that make those girls feel like?”

Click for related content

Banks said she was criticized in her 20s for her curves and hips when she was a runway model. Instead of dieting strictly, she launched herself as a swimwear and lingerie model.

She has sought to highlight discrimination against overweight people, donning a padded “fat suit” and going undercover as a 350-pound woman in 2005 to show how obese people are treated by others.

Banks said she was dedicating part of her talk show next week to putting the record straight about her size.