Roz Purcell has claimed Donald Trump called her “chunky” after she took part in Miss Universe.
The 30-year-old represented Ireland at the Miss Universe pageant back in 2010, and was subsequently signed to Trump’s modelling agency in New York after she came seventh in the competition.
Taking to her Instagram Story, Roz shared a campaign video for Hillary Clinton, which was posted back in 2016 during the US presidential election.
The video features an interview with 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who has alleged Trump called her “Miss Piggy” after she put on some weight after winning the pageant.
Donald Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”
Her name is Alicia Machado. #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/0wrISjJe6z
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 27, 2016
During an interview with Fox News in 2016, Trump appeared to defend his remarks by saying Alicia was “the worst (Miss Universe) we ever had. The worst. The absolute worst. She was impossible.”
“She was the winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem… not only that, her attitude.”
“And Hillary went back into the years and… found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa, and it wasn’t quite that way, but that’s OK. Hillary has to do what she has to do,” he said at the time.
After sharing Alicia’s interview, Roz wrote on her Instagram Story: “When I met him in NYC after Miss Universe he kept saying I was going to be so successful ‘but you know you’re chunky so you can’t do what other models do’. As he gestured his hands going out wide to the sides.”
“Now I wouldn’t care. But I was 19, so embarrassed that he (one of the most famous people in the world) actually said that to my face as a negative.”
“I still always have to stop myself referring to my body as chunky like it’s a bad thing,” she added.
Goss.ie have contacted Donald Trump’s press office for a comment.
Last year, Roz admitted she developed an eating disorder in her early 20s, around the same time she was working as a model in New York.
Speaking on her podcast Bite Back, Roz said she “developed a really bad pattern of bingeing and purging”, and admitted that she was “completely shattered with insecurity”.
Roz’s issues with food continued when she moved back to Ireland, but finally when she turned 25 – she decided to “go get help” and started going to cognitive behaviour therapy.
She said: “At age 25, a lot of things seemed to happen all at once. From a break up, which I know we all go through, to my sister being diagnosed with cancer, it put everything back into perspective.”
After releasing her podcast, Roz took to Instagram and said recording the first episode was a “huge healing experience”.
She wrote: “The first episode is just me something I wasn’t originally going to do but just happened and in a way its been a huge healing experience to put that out there to move on.”
“So today I shared my journey and now it’s time for everyone to share there’s and start talking more about it.”
“I am so happy I woke up and remembered what life was actually about (not a number on the scales) so I’m using this podcast to share my journey and importantly the things that helped me. I always thought that’s just who I was I had this attitude towards my body so deeply ingrained that I would be stuck there forever.”
Roz continued: “When I look back on photos its always with mixed emotions, happy I’m not that person anymore but also really sad that I wasted so many years thinking I wasn’t good enough: missing opportunities, relationships, time with family, holidays, just life!”
“I was never good enough I always thought if I got smaller things would be better, I would be happier and that life would fall into place. I based all my self worth on what size I was.”
“I was always congratulated for losing weight, our society tells us its a good thing and people would always commend it, one of the hardest parts about getting better was the fear of what people would think and my own fear that putting on weight was seen as a failure or a bad thing in society,” she admitted.
“It definitely got worse before it got better and it’s something I still have to work on sometimes there’s triggers whether that’s being online or someone commented on my shape but it has gotten much easier to manage.”
“I’m finally at an age and time in my life where I thought if never be, I would rather use my page on social to be a place to make someone feel good rather than feed my own ego and I don’t really need validation off people or strangers to tell me I’m enough,” Roz added.
On this week’s episode of Goss Chats, Goss.ie CEO Ali Ryan chats with award-winning makeup artist and MRS Glam creator, Michelle Regazolli Stone.
The celebrity MUA opens up about the ups and downs of living through the pandemic, and how her makeup range saved her.
#GossChats is sponsored by top Irish aesthetic clinic Haus of JeJuve.
