Tyra BanksTyra Banks has confirmed that, as you may expect, she’s hurt by tabloid reports criticising her weight.

Model turned chat show presenter Tyra has gained 30lbs (just over 2 stone) since her modelling days but doesn’t think she should be criticised as much as she is.

She told People magazine recently: “I get so much mail from young girls who say, ‘I look up to you, you’re not as skinny as everyone else’.”

“So when [magazines] say that my body is ugly and disgusting, what does that make those girls feel like?”

But that’s not to say she’s completely comfortable with her filled-out form: “I still feel hot, but every day is different. It’s when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don’t fit now and give me the muffin top, that’s when I say, ‘damn!’”

“I feel more comfortable when I’m lighter - I sleep better, I snore less, I have more endurance when I work out, my arms look better.”

“[But] if I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there - the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those things.”

She added that her fuller figure might be detested by the tabloids but the producers of her show think she’s better bigger: “they think it’s better when I’m at 155 pounds - at 145, they feel I’m not as relatable.”