Christie Brinkley opened up about accepting her body.
“When I was younger, I was probably my harshest critic,” Brinkley, 70, said while appearing on Today on Tuesday, May 28. “I think I was trying to live up to what [other people] would think.”
Brinkley went on to explain that after she posed for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit in 1975, she “never felt comfortable on the beach in a bathing suit again.”
“Sports Illustrated makes you look so good,” she explained. “They put you in the best bathing suit. They put you in the best light. You take your very best angle.”
Following Brinkley’s 70th birthday in February, however, she no longer felt she had to live up to anyone’s “expectation” anymore.
“When I turned 70, I was like, ‘It’s my life,’” she said. Brinkley returned to the cover of SI Swimsuit earlier this month, alongside Kate Upton, Chrissy Teigen, Tyra Banks, Martha Stewart and more to celebrate the magazine’s 60th anniversary.
At the time, Brinkley shared the cover shoot via Instagram. “Together we are more than the sum of our parts … we are a celebration of every woman, a statement of inclusivity and individuality,” she captioned the post.
“If someone came up to young permed sunburned me during my first photo shoot with the iconic magazine and whispered, ‘they will still be inviting you to be in the picture at 70,’ I would have laughed at them and called them crazy,” she continued. “But now I know that no one wants to become invisible because of our age, (or ethnicity, size, gender, or anything for that matter!) So thank you S.I. … you may just be 60, but you’re very smart for your age!”
Elsewhere during the Today episode, Brinkley opened up about her skin cancer diagnosis that she received in March.
While taking one of her daughters to the dermatologist, Brinkley asked the doctor to look at a spot on her temple. After inspecting it, the doctor recommended getting a biopsy done immediately. After the result came back positive for cancer, Brinkley got a “great surgeon” and a “great plastic surgeon” to remove the blemish.
“Use your sunblock and a hat,” she urged fans. “Get a checkup.”
