Beauty queen Tegan Martin starved herself after told she was “too fat” for Australia’s Next Top Model

BEAUTY queen Tegan Martin claims she was told she was “too fat” for Australia’s Next Top Model, prompting the 24-year-old to starve herself.

BEAUTY queen Tegan Martin has revealed she was told she was “too fat” for Australia’s Next Top Model, later starving herself to fit the fashion model ideal.

The former Miss Universe Australia told her I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! campmates she once suffered from “borderline eating disorder” soon after auditioning for Top Model where she was told she was “too commercial”

“I was (told I was) too fat for Next Top Model,” the 24-year-old said.

“They made out like I was far too commercial. There is your high fashion and your commercial and I’ve always had curves, boobs and a bum and that is why when I lived in Paris I had to starve myself to work. It is disgraceful but lucky I am out of that patch now.”

Tegan Martin has revealed she was told she was “too fat” for Australia’s Next Top Model. Picture: Nigel Wright/Ten

Martin is originally from Newcastle, following in the footsteps of another Novocastrian beauty and Top Model host Jennifer Hawkins by trying out for Miss Universe in 2011 and 2013.

She represented Australia at the international pageant in Miami in 2014, placing sixth overall.

Her celebrity campmates were shocked by her Top Model revelation.

“For an adult, who should know better, to tell a young girl that, I think that is really irresponsible actually,” three-time Olympian Lisa Curry said.

Singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte added: “I have had body issues; I think every woman I know has had body issues. I think at the end of the day you just have to be satisfied with yourself and treat your body with love and respect, who cares.”

It has taken time but Martin said: “I love my bum now”.

A spokesman for Foxtel said the broadcaster had “no comment in regard to Tegan Martin’s alleged claims regarding Australia’s Next Top Model.”

Martin is one of 12 celebrities competing on the latest season of Channel Ten’s I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Tegan Martin now works as a fashion and brand ambassador. Picture: Instagram

Prior to entering the jungle, she also revealed to News Corp she has struggled with intense anxiety and also suffered severely from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

“It was the hardest year of my life and I have come through that now and I am really grateful for having gone through that because my resilience is much stronger,” she explained.

“Not many people know that in between those (Miss Universe) appearances and whatever I had to do, the crazy routine I had that year, I was at home struggling to get through.”

Although it has been three years since Martin competed in Miss Universe, she says it has been hard to shake the stigma of being a pageant contestant.

Tegan Martin onstage during The 63rd Annual Miss Universe Pageant Picture: Alexander Tamargo / Getty

“It is so annoying, it is never going away,” she said.

“I was under contract with an organisation where I couldn’t drink in public, I couldn’t put a step out of line, I had to have my legs crossed properly, I had to speak perfectly. Obviously I am thankful for what it has done for me and it is the reason why I’m here today but it is so different to what my real personality is like.”

* The journalist is in South Africa as a guest of Channel Ten.