Cindy Crawford broke her silence regarding the supposedly “unretouched” photo of her that was leaked in February, admitting in the October 2015 issue of Elle Canada published on Tuesday that the viral sensation generated by the photo “put [her] in a tough spot.”
The infamous photo, which featured the 49-year-old American supermodel in black lingerie and a black cowboy hat and coat, showed Crawford with pronounced wrinkles and stretch marks on her stomach. The photo, which was circulated by a news anchor from ITV News, was deemed “significantly altered” by the original photographer
John Russo, according to The Huffington Post.
As the image was circulated across the Internet, it actually drew overwhelmingly positive
support for Crawford, according to the New York Post's PageSix. But despite the praise, Crawford remained silent on the photo for several months as she dealt with her own inner turmoil and questioned the image’s authenticity.
“I know my body, and I know it’s not perfect, but maybe I have a false body image; maybe I think I
look better than I do,” Crawford told Elle Canada. “I think that most women are hard on themselves. We think we look worse than we do. So I assumed I fell into that category, even though that picture didn’t reflect what I saw when I looked in the mirror — even in the worst dressing-room lighting.”
Crawford further revealed during the interview that she felt the photo’s publication manipulated her, because although she did not want to reject the photo’s authenticity when so many people were praising her, and she also did not want to accept a photo that she knew was not real.
“I felt that [the journalist who circulated the photo] was inauthentic because she acted like this was great but she didn’t check if I wanted this out or if it was a real picture. Why would seeing a bad picture of me make other people feel good? I felt blindsided," Crawford said.
"I was very conflicted, to be honest . . . Sometimes, the images that women see in magazines make them feel inferior — even though the intention is never to make anyone feel less. So somehow seeing a picture of me was like seeing a chink in the armor. Whether it was real or not isn’t relevant, although it’s relevant to me. I don’t try to present myself as perfect.”
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