Brooke Shields becomes aware of the harmful consequences of her body image over the years.
In her new memoir, ‘Brooke Shields Isn’t Allowed to Age,’ the ‘Mother of the Bride’ Star, 59, Claimed Ex-Husband Andre Agassi Let Her Go ‘A Little Bit’ After Him having made a backhanded compliment about his weight. .
“I was told very specifically that I wasn’t worthy of a parade, because I wasn’t skinny enough,” Shields wrote in chapter 6 of the book, reflecting on messages she received about his appearance throughout his career.
“By telling yourself that you are ‘the face,’ you start to believe that that’s all you are: a face,” she added. “From the neck down, I was Brooke Shields, but it was like my body existed in a different reality.”
During her brief marriage to Agassi, the “Pretty Baby” star shared her body image issues with the tennis pro. However, according to Shields, the eight-time Grand Slam tennis champion did not provide her with the reassurance she was looking for.
“When I confessed my insecurities to my first husband, he always said to me, ‘I wish you could see yourself the way I see you,'” she recalls.
“However, when I said, ‘Will you still love me if I’m big and fat?’ (I meant once I got pregnant – an unfair question for anyone to ask another person I know!) I never could have expected his answer.
Shields wrote that the athlete told him, “‘I love you too much to let you get big and fat!’ »
“I definitely didn’t see this coming and I have to admit I started to spin a little bit,” she confessed. “But we all know how that relationship turned out.”
The couple married in 1997 before divorcing in 1999.
Shields — who shares daughters Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18, with husband Chris Henchy — did not have children with Agassi during their short-lived union.
Today, she’s “happy” about it, due to a comment Agassi allegedly made during their split.
“‘Be thankful we didn’t have kids,’ he said, ‘because I wouldn’t have made it easy for you,'” she recalled.
The memory stayed with him.
“It would have been a disaster,” she wrote. “When we divorced, he made it very clear.”
Among the other stories Shields tells in her new book is how her 2005 feud with Tom Cruise ended after he criticized her for taking medication to treat postpartum depression.
“Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Age: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman” is available for purchase now.
