‘This Isn’t Right’: Brooke Shields Calls Out Barbara Walters Over Interview Question When Actress Was 15

Katie JerkovichNovember 22, 2022

Hollywood star Brooke Shields called out journalist Barbara Walters for a question she asked the actress when she was just 15 years old in the early days of her career, saying it was inappropriate.

During the 57-year-old actress’ latest appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Shields told the host that she felt “taken advantage of” after the 1981 interview, Page Six reported.

“She [Walters] asked me what my measurements were and asked me to stand up,” recalled Shields. The Barrymore crowd audibly gasped in the background.

“And I stand up, and she was like comparing herself to this little girl,” she added. “And I thought, ‘This isn’t right. I don’t understand what this is.’”

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“But I just, I behaved and I just smiled and felt like so taken advantage of,” Shields continued. “You know, in so many ways.”

Page Six included a clip of the 1981 interview showing Walters asking Shields about her measurements.

Looking a bit surprised, the aspiring model replied, “Um, I’m 5’10, 120.”

Walters explained that when most people saw Shields, they didn’t realize “how tall and slender” the model was.

Walters then made a comment to Brooke’s mother, Teri, asking whether it’s “very hard when you got a little kid this high to keep it down to size, isn’t it?”

Shields previously spoke out about the 1981 interview with Walters.

“It’s practically criminal,” the actress explained during her appearance in 2021 on Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert.” “It’s not journalism.”

Shields also labeled the questions from Walters “maddening” as she grilled the teen on her personal life.

“Would you be a mother like your mother?” Walters asked Shields before asking Teri, “What about people who say, ‘She had no childhood’?”

The actress came to her mother’s defense.

“Do you have any secrets from your mother?” Walters continued as the model again defended her mom.