Alessandra Ambrosio has become the second Victoria’s Secret model to speak about the stresses of getting in shape for the shows.
The Angels are notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to speaking about getting catwalk-body-ready for the brand’s live-streamed lingerie shows, which is why Ambrosio’s frank comments are slightly surprising.
Speaking about hitting the catwalk just three months after giving birth to daughter Anja, Ambrosio told The Edit: “Your body will never go back to exactly what it was before pregnancy, whatever people tell you. It can’t.
“But I think I have a better body now than before I had kids. It’s partly because I work out, whereas before I didn’t, but also to do with the shape – it just looks more formed now and I feel better about it than I did.
“Not that it was easy getting back into shape post-pregnancy: after having Anja I only had three months to lose all the weight [before doing the 2008 Victoria’s Secret show] and I was on this 1200-calorie-a-day meal-delivery service that I hated. I couldn’t do that again.”
“It’s so stressful before the Victoria’s Secret show. There’s so much pressure on us all – not just in terms of shape – and the energy gets sucked out of you, so my favourite thing to do afterwards is dance all night long.
“Yes, we’ll have a pizza party and drink, but I don’t even care that much about the food. It’s about being young, normal and carefree again.”
Ambrosio also opened up about her relationship with food and emotional-eating that started early in her career. "It started when I first began making my own money at 15. I’d go to the supermarket and fill my bag with cookies, ice cream and yoghurt: everything sweet you can imagine.
“And there were times when I would eat a whole packet of cookies. But then I taught myself not to do that, basically by reminding myself how horrible it felt the last time. Oh, and of course I would lose my job, so that was another incentive.”
Ambrosio’s honest comments come in the same week that former Angel Erin Heatherton has also spoken about the pressures to lose weight for VS shows. "My last two Victoria's Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight," she told Time magazine. "I look back like, 'Really?' I was really depressed because I was working so hard and I felt like my body was resisting me.
“And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat." Victoria’s Secret are yet to respond to Heatherston’s comments.