A Victoria’s Secret model has condemned tabloids for publishing topless photographs of her and said the incident left her feeling “violated”.
Sara Sampaio, a 25-year-old Portuguese model who has been a Victoria’s Secret Angel since 2015, criticised the press for invading her privacy and disseminating the photos without her consent.
Sampaio said the photos were taken while she was “privately minding her own business” in a non-public place on holiday in the south of France. She emphasised the sharp distinction between professionally posing for photos as a model and her private life and said she had been subject to body-shaming since the images emerged.
“How would you feel if you woke up one morning to find pictures of your 25-year-old daughter topless all over the Internet?” Sampaio wrote in a post on her Facebook page.
“I had no idea that there was someone far away with a big telescopic lens taking pictures of me,“ she continued. “Some of you may say that I'm a public figure and it comes with my job. Others that I'm used to being photographed in swimsuits. There is a difference, though.”
“It's my job, yes I get paid for taking pictures, but I give my consent to take them. I have my professional life and I have my private life. We all go to work, some to an office, some to a studio, but when we come home people should respect our privacy.”
"What kind of society do we live in where people are paid money to spy on others, take pictures and invade their privacy. As a young woman, I feel violated. Not only do I wake up to see pictures of myself all over the internet but then I also have to suffer abuse from people body shaming me.”
Sampaio has also appeared in the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and in magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, GQ and Elle and worked for beachwear brand Calzedonia.
A representative for Sampaio declined to comment.
