Paulina Porizkova has claimed that she saw a penis for the very first time at the age of 15 when a photographer exposed himself to her.
The supermodel recalled the sexual harassment during a conversation with Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris on their Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk.
During the episode, which was released on Wednesday (16 November), Porizkova said she was in Paris at the time of the “traumatic and offensive incident”.
“Getting hired for any kind of a job was such a big deal because I thought that every job would be my last and you wanted to be the nice little girl who obliged everybody,” the 57-year-old Swedish model said.
She recalled a moment when she was sitting in front of a makeup mirror with a makeup artist and hairstylist, when the photographer for the shoot walks up to her from behind.
“Then I feel something on my shoulder, it’s kind of warm and heavy. And he’s laughing at me and the makeup artist [is] laughing at me, and the hairdresser is laughing, everybody’s laughing,” she continued.
Still confused, Porizkova said she asked what it was and described the object as “almost [looking] like a flower but it feels like pantyhose stuffed with mashed potatoes”.
It was only when the photographer “retracted it and zipped up his fly” that the young model realised it was his penis, she says.
Porizkova told Pinkett Smith that it was “certainly the first time I saw a penis”.
In 1984, the model became the first central European woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. She also appeared in a number of films and TV shows, including as a judge on America’s Next Top Model.
Elsewhere in the interview, Porizkova opened up about the moment she learned she had been cut from her late husband Ric Ocasek’s will shortly after his death.
The couple had been married from 1989 until his death in 2019, but separated in 2018. However, they lived together until his death and were not legally divorced.
She told the hosts that she discovered the Cars frontman’s will while looking for an outfit for him to be buried in, and that the will stated Ocasek did not plan to provide for her “because she abandoned me”.
Porizkova said her initial reaction was that it was a “lie”.