Another Miss Universe contestant recalls being body-shamed by Trump

Miss Australia Jodie Seal, who completed with Alicia Machado in the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, says Donald Trump mistreated the contestants.
 By 
Jerico Mandybur
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Just days after U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton re-told Alicia Machado's story of reported fat-shaming at the hand of Donald Trump when she was Miss Universe, another contestant from the beauty pageant has come forward with similar allegations.

Former Miss Australia, Jodie Seal was a fellow contestant in the 1996 pageant alongside Machado and has told Inside Edition that the Republican presidential candidate called the girls "some pretty horrible names" during her time as a contestant. Trump owned the pageant at the time.

"He said to me, 'suck your stomach in. Suck your gut in.' He always wanted us to be sexy," Seal told the program.


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"He’d walk by while we were eating … he put a lot of the girls down."

Aside from saying that Trump made the girls feel bad about their bodies, Seal said she found him "controlling."

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Miss Australia 1996 Jodie Seal photographed in London in 2009. Credit: getty/Jorge Herrera

Inside Edition also spoke to a contestant in the 2014 pageant, Miss Sweden Camila Hanson, who said she had no negative experiences with Trump.

"I had a few conversations with him. A few interactions. He sort of popped up when you least expected it, during rehearsals. I thought he was a nice man," she said.

Machado's testimony was referenced by Clinton in the first presidential debate Monday night, when she said "He called this woman ‘Miss Piggy.’ Then he called this woman 'Miss Housekeeping,' because she was Latina. She has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado. She's a U.S. citizen now and you can bet she's going to vote this November."

Machado is actively campaigning for Clinton and was featured in an online ad after the debate.

Topics Donald Trump

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Jerico Mandybur

Jerico Mandybur is the editor of Mashable Australia. Previously, she worked as a digital editor at SBS, Oyster Mag, MTV and ASOS. Tweet her at @jerico_m.

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