Brooke Shields Slams ‘Practically Criminal’ Barbara Walters Interview With Her as a Teen

Brooke Shields is calling out the backlash she received at just 15 years old for appearing in a 1980s Calvin Klein jeans campaign, saying her interview with Barbara Walters about the controversial ad campaign was “practically criminal.” During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Shields, now 56, confirmed Shepard’s description of the interview as a “maddening” experience.

Shields came under fire in the media after modeling as a young teen for Calvin Klein in a campaign with the tagline, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Looking back on the firestorm surrounding the ad, Shields said in the Dec. 6 podcast, “It’s practically criminal. It’s not journalism. The [interviewers] never wanted my answer. They just wanted their point of view.”

Shields was joined by her mother for her interview with Walters, during which she was asked questions including, “What are your measurements? Do you have any secrets from your mother? Would you be a mother like your mother?” Shields continued of her current thoughts of the line of questioning, “As a mom, was she taking the mom tactic? There’s jealousy and there’s anger. It’s such a difficult thing to really decipher.” 

Shields also recalled feeling shamed and sexualized at the same time and admitted to Shepard that she still gets questions about her previous roles that she’s not quite sure how to answer for people, especially those that include daughters Rowan, 15, and Grier, 18, whom she shares with husband Chris Henchy. 

“The worst part about it is that now there’s this, ‘So you’ve got two daughters. Now would you let them …’ And I’m just thinking that there’s no way to answer that question without it being a headline that they want,” the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit alum shared. “Then you try to say that times are different. Do I want to see my 11-year-old nude [in] a movie? No. It’s a different child and I’m a different person.”

She continued that despite what people want to put on her from their interpretation of her past, she wasn’t “traumatized” by her childhood. “The experience for me was not traumatic and the piece that people can’t seem to wrap their minds around is that I didn’t feel victimized,” she noted to Shepard.