Actress Brooke Shields, who is known for her beauty and a career that has spanned decades after she shot to fame as a child model when she was 12, said that she was constantly called fat by her mother and that lowered her confidence.

"I modelled swimwear when I was 15, and even then, I didn't think I had a swimsuit body," she added.

"I was a cover girl, not a supermodel. I was neck-up – the face, the eyebrows – and I was always described as athletic, not rail-thin, not a runway model... Those messages, they seep into your consciousness."

Subsequently, Shields embarked on an ill-fated marriage to tennis ace Andre Agassi, whom she divorced in 1999 after just two years, to escape the clutches of her overbearing parent, who also served as her manager.

"I needed Andre to separate from my mother. I'd spent my life, 24/7, being so worried that my mother was going to die, and my whole world was wrapped around keeping her alive," she said.