INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Cheryl Tiegs Fat-Shames Ashley Graham’s ‘Sports Illustrated’ Cover — States The Model Doesn’t Look Healthy At Her Weight

By Chrissie Williams
Published on: 12:36 PST, Feb 25, 2016

Cheryl Tiegs made headlines when she fat-shamed Ashley Graham’s Sports Illustrated cover. Sports Illustrated released three different covers for their annual swimming suit edition, featuring Ronda Rousey, Ashley Graham, and Hailey Clausen. Tiegs claimed that Graham did not look healthy at her weight, and in the long run, she doesn’t see how “someone her size wouldn’t run into health problems.”

Sports Illustrated revealed that they selected three women that had different body types to showcase that women can be beautiful in every size. Tiegs stated that she wasn’t happy they were showcasing full-figured women in the magazine as she felt it was glamorizing obesity. E! Online reported that Cheryl believes that a woman’s waist should be under 35-inches because that’s what Dr. Oz said on his show.

Tiegs explained that while Ashley has a beautiful face, she doesn’t think her weight was healthy. In the long run, she was concerned that Graham could have health issues as a result of her waist being over 35 inches around. Cheryl went on to state that she thinks that the magazine made a huge mistake when selecting Ashley to model one of the three annual cover slots.

Ashley has spoken many times about her weight, and how she refuses to lose weight just to appease others. Graham also hates the term plus-sized and claimed that she had an agent tell her she would never land a cover gig unless she lost weight. Yet, here Graham is with the gig of all gigs: the coveted Sports Illustrated Annual Swimsuit Edition.

When Ashley first learned that she was selected as one of the girls, she took to social media to call it a “dream come true.” Graham stated in the same post that when she realized she needed to be healthy and happy with who she was a person, that is when her career took off.

“I had agents tell me, ‘You’ll never get on the cover of magazines. You’ll never be an editorial model.’ I had agents wave money in my face and say, ‘If you drop some pounds, you can have a lot more of this!’ And not even THAT was something that encouraged me to lose weight!”

Us Weekly reported that Ashley is hoping her pictures inspire young girls that they don’t have to be thin to be a model, and that’s just not the case anymore.

“I am hopefully going to change the lives of so many different young women. So many young women who have been told that their cellulite is ugly; that their inner-thighs that jiggle and touch are ugly because I have all those things, and I’m on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So they must be beautiful!”

It isn’t much of a surprise that Ashley Graham hasn’t responded to Cheryl Tiegs comments about her weight or magazine photos. Ashley said that in America, sizing has gotten frightening with the clothing manufacturers rolling out not only a size zero but a double zero size. She went on to state both ends of the weight from too thin to obese are not healthy. Graham has stated repeatedly that she isn’t a promoter of obesity or anorexia.

“I think we have to promote women to be healthy at every size as long as they’re getting off the couch and moving their body.”

Do you think Cheryl Tiegs had a point about Ashley Graham’s Sports Illustrated cover? Ashley Graham is far from overweight and looks flawless in her photos. Do you think that women (or people in general) should be more accepting of women of all sizes and not be so quick to judge someone that isn’t a size zero?

Don’t forget to tell Inquisitr what you think about the new Sports Illustrated swim suit edition in the comments below. Do you think Cheryl Tiegs was out of line for fat shaming Ashley Graham?

[Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images]

Share this article: Cheryl Tiegs Fat-Shames Ashley Graham’s ‘Sports Illustrated’ Cover — States The Model Doesn’t Look Healthy At Her Weight
ashley graham
More from Inquisitr