Cindy Crawford, now 57, was undoubtedly one of the biggest supermodels of the 80s and 90s – but it wasn’t always smooth sailing, especially at the start of her career.
Speaking candidly on the Apple TV+ docuseries The Super Models, which spotlights the careers of Crawford and fellow iconic supers Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington, Crawford opened up about a particularly “uncomfortable” appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show back in 1986 and recalled how the talk show host forced her to stand up and show off her body to the cameras.
Cindy Crawford Recalls 'Uncomfortable' Appearance On 'Oprah'
Crawford appeared on the show alongside John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management in 1986 when she was just 20 years old, and reflected on how Winfrey, now 69, ordered her to stand up in front of the audience and show them her body.
"Did she always have this body? This is unbelievable," Oprah said on the show at the time. "Stand up just a moment, now this is what I call a BODY," she added, which Crawford said she now realized is "so not okay."
"I was like the chattel or a child. Like, be seen and not heard," said the supermodel, who covered the September 2023 issue of British Vogue alongside Campbell, Evangelista and Turlington.
"When you look at it through today’s eyes when Oprah’s like, 'Stand up and show me your body. Like, show us why you’re worthy of being here.'" She added: "In the moment, I didn’t recognize it. Only when I look back at it and I was like, 'Oh my gosh. That was so not okay, really.' Especially from Oprah."
Also on the same show, Winfrey asked Casablancas several questions about the aspiring model, including whether she had been put through a "training period." Casablancas said: "With Cindy, it was much more psychologically she was not sure she really wanted to model… she didn’t see her potential as clearly as we did… for her it was more a question of mental stability."
He added: "Little by little, her ambition is growing. I’m saying it now on this program, if she wants to she can be number one in the business." And he wasn’t wrong!
