The reason Rebecca Maddern agreed to get down to her undies

After recent photographs of Rebecca Maddern in her underwear caused a stir, the journalist says she’s happy to be seen as a body-image role model.

When friends started to text Rebecca Maddern at 7am last Sunday, she knew that her story about being in the best shape of her life at the age of 43 – it featured in a recent issue of Body+Soul – had taken on a life of its own.

“I started my career as a newsreader – and you never see newsreaders’ legs.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

While she was prepared for people to see the photos of her posing in a bodysuit and blazer in the magazine, she didn’t expect them to also appear on the front page of Sunday papers around the country.

“I’m not going to lie, I was a little embarrassed,” Maddern, mother to three-year-old Ruby, tells Stellar On Friday.

“Never did I think I’d be on page 3 of the paper in my underwear. I think it’s

because I started my career as a newsreader – and you never see newsreaders’ legs.”

Find more exclusives in this Sunday’s Stellar.

However, the co-host of Weekend Today and Australian Ninja Warrior, who says she’s usually a conservative dresser, is still happy she took part in the photo shoot.

“I feel like it’s part of my responsibility, as a strong woman in the media, to be a role model. To show myself, as an older woman, having a wonderful life and career,” she explains.

“I hate the thought that women aren’t going to the beach because they’re worried about the bad bits of their body. We have to just enjoy our lives.”