Roz Purcell reveals men grabbed her ‘in places that not be ok now’ when she was a model and she couldn’t speak up
ROZANNA Purcell has recalled some men grabbing her in ‘places that would not be ok now’ when she was a model.
She also recalled how former US president Donald Trump made a derogatory comment in her presence.
For years, the Tipperary woman was the most recognisable face in Irish modelling, winning Miss Universe Ireland and being snapped up by Trump’s modelling agency.
Brands wanted to work with her and she was one of the most sought after women in the Irish industry.
Going into the fashion and beauty industry while she was still a teenager meant she struggled to stand up for herself and she said she realises some of the things she had to experience would not be allowed in 2021.
“I think it's only now when I'm heading into my 30s, I realise a lot of things that I put up weren’t okay.
“I definitely think as a model being so young and travelling all over the world, I became very desensitised to things like men grabbing you, photographers touching you in areas that wouldn't be okay now.
“When you're younger you don't feel like you have a voice, when you are younger you are afraid to stand up particularly in situations where everyone else on set is putting it up with it too.”
TRUMP SHOCK
She said she did try and stand up to the former US President when he made a derogatory comment in her presence.
She said: "It was Trump agencies who signed up during Miss Universe and that’s how I started travelling through modelling.
“He invited me up to his office when I joined Trump Models and ‘I’m gonna make you a star, I'm gonna make you such a big star’ and he didn't. But I think we all know he is full of lies right now. I met him lots of times. I presented golf TV with him as well once up at his golf estate.
“I was shocked when he actually became president because everything that you do see on TV and you hear about him is exactly what he is like. I remember being shocked at some of the things he said because it just was not how anyone should speak about other people.
“I remember calling him out once, I remember he said something extremely bad about a certain marginalised group.
“I just said ‘God's people would never say that in Ireland’. I quickly shut up though because I remembered I was a 19-year-old who was presenting a TV show that he owned.”
The 30-year-old quit the industry several years ago after battling with an eating disorder and she said she had to give it up ‘to get better.’
I noticed I wasn't as skinny in school
While modelling did have a role in her illness, she said she felt like she would have struggled with her weight regardless.
““Part of me would have said that it was from starting modelling and being constantly told you needed to lose weight.
“But I do think I would have always developed an eating disorder. I remember noticing my weight in secondary school and being conscious that I wasn't maybe as skinny as another girl. I do think society teaches young women that weight loss is a very good thing.
“Your worth was based on a number of the scales so I do think I grew up with that mentality and then obviously the modelling industry really reinforced it.”
Throughout the boom, the Tipperary star was a regular face in campaigns, as well as appearing on TV shows such as Celebrity Bainisteoir.
She often had to model in bikinis, including in her role as a manager on the GAA show.
The youngest of three girls in her family, Roz said she hid the illness from those around her.
'DESTRUCTIVE INNER MONOLOGUE'
She told former Irish President Mary McAleese in All Walks of Life: “I would eat in front of them and then not eat and then over-train. Food gave me a huge sense of control when I didn't feel like I had any control. My inner monologue to myself was so destructive.
“It really negatively affected everyone who I was around and probably ruined a lot of friendships and relationships along the way. My biggest fear was that I had built up this lie that I was this in-shape person who eats whatever she wanted all the time naturally this way which just was not me.”
But soon her loved ones started to notice: “I was in the relationship at the time, he pointed it out to me.
"My older sister kinda confronted me which I didn't take well at all and I do think it affected our relationship for a few months because I was very angry with her for doing it.
“I didn't want to get help because my eating disorder was me, it was a part of me, it was why people liked me. It was why I was being successful and I didn't want to give that up.
“I think a lot of people going through disordered eating struggle with that people aren't going to love them when they put on weight.”
She sought professional help and she said it was ‘the best investment’ she ever got.
Since leaving the industry she has become a successful author, with three cookbooks, a lifestyle website and is seen by fans as a body positive role model, using her special media to show all sides of her life.
“I use my social media to be the younger voice that I needed to hear. I think social media is fantastic in terms of its opened up and it’s given a voice to so many people. But obviously with that comes a huge amount of negativity…
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“Someone who is leaving nasty messages like that has to be deeply unhappy in their own life- I actually have quite a lot of empathy towards them because imagine giving that much time to someone else and not living your own life.”
- All Walks of Life airs on RTE One tonight at 8.30pm.
