Victoria's Secret Told Model to Lose Weight

SKOKIE, IL - A former Victoria’s Secret fashion model claims she was told to lose weight by the women’s lingerie retailer twice in 2013.

“My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight,” Erin Heatherton, a 27-year-old model from Skokie, told Time Magazine’s Motto blog. “I look back like, ‘Really?'”

Heatherton, who modeled with Victoria’s Secret from 2008 to 2013 and in 2010 became a Victoria's Secret Angel, said she initially tried to comply with their demands, but decided before her last show her body “just wouldn’t do it.”

“I was really depressed because I was working so hard and I felt like my body was resisting me," she said. "And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat."

Heatherton parted ways with Victoria’s Secret after that incident and later posed as part of the Sports Illustrated 2015 swimsuit edition.

She was born and raised in Skokie and attended Niles North High School, where she played on the basketball team.