Tyra Banks Clapped Back at Body Shamers in an Unforgettable Moment, 18 Years Ago: 'Kiss My Fat Ass'

Tyra Banks shut down body shamers in the best way she knew how.

In February of 2007, Banks did a segment on her eponymous talk show slamming tabloids that ran a photo of her between takes at a beach photo shoot and criticized her body. Various outlets claimed the model and talk show host had gained more than 40 lbs. in just over two months.

"I want all of you to take a look at this recent photo of me. Does it look familiar? Well it should considering that this photo was splashed all over the world. It's been in magazines and tabloids and featured on nearly every single celebrity gossip website," she began, as she wore the suit in question.

She illustrated how different poses would make her body look different, as would paparazzi lenses that capture photos from a distance.

"You guys you cannot believe everything you read in the papers and on the Internet," Banks urged. "I felt like this picture is so outrageous that I wanted to do something equally as outrageous by standing here, extremely vulnerable in the same swimsuit, next to this photo. And I feel it is so sad that I have to go to this extreme but I'm doing it to prove a point."

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Banks noted the photo was only from three weeks prior. She acknowledged that she had put on 10 lbs. during the holidays, adding, "I gain weight. I lose weight, constantly just like everybody else. But I did not gain 40 pounds in two months because that's not healthy. I've always told you guys I would be completely honest with you and that's why I'm standing here today."

The beloved model was also careful to note that there would be nothing wrong with her body looking like that if that was the case.

"All I can say is there's something that ain't right about that picture but I think it's for you to judge. And you guys, I'm not saying, 'This is horrible.' I look at this picture and I think it's curvy I think it's beautiful. I think it is hot. I think it is sexy. I do, I do but it's just not me, not right now," she told her audience.

Banks noted that she got to the place she's at in her relationship with her body due to having a good support system, particularly through mom Carolyn London.

"I love my mama. She has helped me to be a strong woman so I can overcome these kind of attacks, but if I had lower self-esteem, I would probably be starving myself right now. But, that's exactly what is happening to other women all over this country," she said.

"So, I have something to say to all of you that have something nasty to say about me or other women who are built like me ... women whose names you know, women whose names you don't, women who've been picked on, women whose husbands put them down, women at work or girls in school — I have one thing to say to you: kiss my fat ass!"

In a 2020 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, the supermodel revealed that she's kept that bathing suit in the years since.

“Oh my gosh it is totally in an archive,” she told host Andy Cohen. “Oh my God, it is so there. And it still has like the oil and the sand in it. Like I did not wash it. I’m like, ‘It’s gonna stay stank and real’ … I have a good archive.”