Gail Porter claims lads mags never paid model 'a penny' for racy photoshoots

17 April 2023 , 20:39

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Gail Porter claims lads mags never paid model 'a penny' for racy photoshoots

TV personality Gail Porter has claimed that 90s stars were “taken advantage of” by racy lad mags and revealed that she was never "paid a penny" by them.

The 52-year-old presenter has opened up about her time shooting for the magazines and told how it was something a lot of TV presenters were doing in their 20s.

The telly favourite, who previously hosted shows including Top Of The Pops and The Big Breakfast, has revealed that she was “quite vulnerable at the time” and never even got given a copy of the magazines she was featured in to keep.

Gail, who often speaks out on her experiences with alopecia, confessed that she thought it was fun at the time, and it wasn’t until she reflected on the experience when she was older that she thought “We got taken advantage of quite a lot”.

Gail Porter revealed that she was never "paid a penny" by the racy magazines (Rex Features)

She told the Daily Star: “I never got paid for anything that I did - I never got paid for FHM, GQ, or a lot of magazines that I did.

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"Some others may have got paid, but I never did, and I was quite vulnerable at the time.

"They were saying 'This is going to be great for your career, it will be great fun, and think of the pics you can give your kids when you're older'.”

Gail told the publication how her mum, who sadly passed away, and her grandad had kept copies of the magazines she posed in for free for her but that she doesn’t want to look at them.

She also explained that she would never strip off again to re-create her controversial FHM picture in the future.

Gail famously helped sell a million copies of FHM when her naked image was projected onto the Houses of Parliament without her consent in 1999.

She was devastated by the stunt bit and re-created the look on her own terms at age 39.

Gail has revealed that she was “quite vulnerable at the time” (PA)

She recreated the image at age 39 (PA)

Asked if she would ever re-create the infamous snap again in her 50s, Gail said: "Never in a million years. No, never, no."

The star was 28 at the time the controversial publicity campaign was projected onto the government building amid a marketing ploy for FHM's 'sexiest women' campaign.

Gail previously told how she couldn't "leave the house" after the stunt and was left mortified.

She explained in 2020: "I got asked to do a photo shoot for the front cover and I thought that was great.

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"The first thing I heard about it was on the news the next morning - there was my bottom on the Houses of Parliament.

"They had projected the image as a publicity stunt for FHM's 100 sexiest women but I knew nothing about what they were planning.

"Then the negative comments started and I go really depressed, so depressed I didn't want to leave the house."

Lucy Domachowski