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Brooke Shields slams Barbara Walters over 1981 interview

Brooke Shields has slammed Barbara Walters over a 1981 interview in which the veteran journalist asked the then 15-year-old a series of invasive questions about her personal life.

Shields — now 56 — reflected on the intense sit-down on Monday, bluntly stating: “It’s practically criminal. It’s not journalism.”

The interview with Walters took place just months after the teenage Shields starred in a controversial Calvin Klein campaign, which featured the provocative slogan: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

Waters interrogated Shields on camera as she sat alongside her mom, Teri.

“What are your measurements?” Walters asks an uncomfortable-looking Shields in the sit-down before ordering her to stand up so viewers could gauge how tall she was.

“Would you be a mother like your mother?” Walters then asked, before adding: “What about people who say, ‘She had no childhood’?”

Shields defended her mom and insisted that she was still in the midst of her adolescence — but Walters continued with her interrogation.

“Do you have any secrets from your mother?” Walters probed before Shields again leaped to her mom’s defense.

Shields is seen in the 1980 Calvin Klein ad. She was 15 years old.
Shields is seen in the 1980 Calvin Klein ad. She was 15 years old.
Calvin Klein

Shields reminisced about the interview during Monday’s edition of Dax Shepard’s podcast “Armchair Expert.” Shepard described Walters’ tactics as “maddening.”

Shields concurred, before speaking generally about interviews she did in the wake of the Calvin Klein commercial.

“The [interviewers] never wanted my answer. They just wanted their point of view,” the actress declared.

Walters and Shields are pictured together in 1991.
Walters and Shields are pictured together in 1991. Despite lambasting Walters on Monday, Shields didn’t appear to hold the interview against the veteran talk show host.
Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Shields has previously spoken about the backlash she received after starring in the ad, saying she was “naive” to its risqué nature.

The star — who in a 2014 memoir admitted she did not lose her virginity until the age of 22 — said she didn’t realize the double entendre of the Calvin Klein campaign’s controversial tagline.

“I didn’t think it had to do with underwear,” she told Vogue. “I didn’t think it was sexual in nature. I’d say that about my sister — nobody could come between me and my sister.”

“I think the assumption is that I was much more savvy than I ever really was.”

Walters and Shields are seen together in 2016.
Walters and Shields are seen together in 2016.
Mike Coppola

Despite lambasting Walters on Monday, Shields doesn’t appear to hold the interview against the veteran talk show host. The pair have been pictured at various social events together in the decades after the 1981 sit-down.

However, Shields isn’t the only celeb to accuse Walters of unsavory interview tactics. Earlier this year, Ricky Martin said a 2000 interview with the TV queen left him with PTSD after she probed him about his sexuality before he was ready to publicly come out as gay.

About the author

Tina Sanders

Tina is the mind behind Gruntstuff.com, and she ideated it when she was working for an online magazine company where she used to cover US-based headlines news. She holds a degree in journalism and has more than 4.5 years of experience in an online magazine company. She had the idea while working there but when she was quite sure about starting something on her own, she took the risk and left the job to start Gruntstuff. Since then she added a few team members, and along with them, she creates General US news content on the site.

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