Behold! The Stripping Has Begun!

Last week, supermodel turned television talk show host Tyra Banks, spoke for the first time about all those fat claims on the Internet and in the international press. The whole thing started more than a month ago, when a couple of photos of her in a bikini (third pic) appeared, accompanied by not so flattering headlines as 'Pork Chops Tyra' and 'Tyra Is Fat'.

What the tabloids and all those who published the photos forgot to mention was, according to the model herself, the fact that she is no longer a catwalk queen for Victoria's Secret and that she was on vacation. But the words still hurt her, nonetheless.

'I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that? If I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there – the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those [horrible] things', she told 'People' magazine. To prove her case, Tyra also promised that she would strip to her bikini on her TV show, 'The Tyra Banks Show', if the allegations about her weight gain do not cease.

However, until then, she will do better than that: this month's edition of 'People', in which the full interview can be found, also has some very nice photos of her in a red bikini. Although Tyra does admit she did gain some extra pounds (about 30, to be more precise) since her modeling career was over, she says she has never felt better or sexier in her entire life.

By the looks of these photos, we can't but agree, especially as we have to consider that, for a woman with a height of 5'10'', she is not what you would exactly call 'fat', weighing 161 pounds. Plus, she says that, although she made a career out of looking stunning and being skinny, she has learned that having a great body is not everything that counts in life. Who are we to disagree with that?

As a side note, some are already saying that some serious Photoshop work went into these photos in 'People'...

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