Cindy Crawford reveals how the 1986 Oprah interview left her feeling like ‘chattel’ and why it still resonates today

• Cindy Crawford reflects on a 1986 interview she did with Oprah in a new docuseries for Apple TV+.
• Crawford was early in her career when Oprah asked her to show off her body during an interview.
• Now, the supermodel says she realizes the awkward moment “was so not okay.”

Cindy Crawford opens up about her early life and career in the new Apple TV+ docuseries “The Super Models” — and reveals that she feels differently about a 1986 appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey” show than she did at the time.

The clip from the 1986 interview (shown on the first episode of the docuseries) features a then 20-year-old Crawford and her Elite Model Management representative John Casablancas. After Oprah introduces the supermodel, she then says: “Did she always have this body? Stand up just a moment.”

Crawford gamely stands up to show off her physique, smiling awkwardly while the audience is silent.

“Now this is what I call a body,” Oprah says.

The talk show host goes on to ask Casablancas if Crawford had to go through a “training period.”

“With Cindy, it was much more — psychologically, she was not sure if she really wanted to model,” Casablancas answers.

In a new interview for the docuseries, Crawford reflected on the awkward moment, which was her first of several appearances on Winfrey’s show.

“I was like the chattel or a child, be seen and not heard,” the supermodel says. “When you look at it through today’s eyes, when Oprah’s like, ‘Stand up and show me your body. Show us why you’re worthy of being here.'”

Crawford continues: “In the moment I didn’t recognize it, only when I look back at it am I like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so not okay, really. Especially from Oprah.'”

Representatives for Crawford and Winfrey didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

Elsewhere on “The Super Models,” Crawford reveals that she would routinely faint during her early career photo shoots in Chicago with fashion photographer Victor Skrebneski.

“I passed out there more than once. Especially right before lunch, if you were hungry, you would faint. Then they would prop you back up, and you’d do it all over again,” Crawford shares.

“It wasn’t about, ‘Oh wow, you’re so pretty, we’re gonna take pictures of you,'” she says of the attitudes towards models at that point in her career. “It was like, ‘Your job is, you’re helping me sell this jacket. We’re all here to sell this jacket.'”