Model and actress Brooke Shields has opened up about what it was like to once be the “most famous virgin in the world”, and the “creepy” situations she was forced into as a teenager.
Speaking on her iHeartRadio podcast, Now What? with Brooke Shields, Shields, 57, admitted to her friend Ali Wentworth she regrets being so open about her virginity.
“I mean, I think it was, in hindsight, a bit of a mistake for me to be so open about my virginity because it never left me alone,” she explained.
Listen to a snippet from Brooke Shields’ podcast episode above.
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Shields said she had made the decision to talk about virginity in a 1985 book that, although it was credited to her, was actually written by someone else.
As a result, Shields said she soon became “the most famous virgin in the world”.
The book, titled On Your Own was intended to help new college students who were leaving home and adjusting to young adult life. It was released when the young actress started as a student at Princeton University.
“In it, there was one part of a chapter, where I discuss – not abstinence per se – but owning your choice,” she explained.
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“I would get a lot of fan mail from kids saying, ‘Oh, my boyfriend’s pressuring me, and I don’t want to have sex. What do I do? My narrative was, ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.'”
She revealed that while the topic of virginity was only a small part of the book, it immediately became “the most talked about” thing in the media.
She was then forced into “creepy” situations where she had to speak about her virginity to “old” male interviewers, which was uncomfortable for her.
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“There was something to be in the line of fire, at such a young age, in that way. I gained a resilience. It did sort of set me up to be ready for anything,” Shields revealed.
She went on to say that she actually regrets waiting until she was 22 to have sex, admitting she feels like she missed out on experiencing the “joy” of sharing that with a partner when she was young.
“I have regret around [waiting], because there was a sense of joy and freedom that I should have been able to feel within a relationship that was so lovely and so beautiful and sweet,” she added.
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