Christy Turlington Says Her Son’s Basketball Opponents Passed Around Her Nude Photo to Heckle Him

Christy Turlington says she wanted “to disappear” at one of her son’s basketball games when the opposing team passed a nude photo of her around as a way to bully him.

“I was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner,” she recalled in a feature from Harper’s Bazaar, published on Wednesday, April 24. “But at the same time, I was like, ‘This is so rude!’”

The photo in question was from an old shoot of hers. Turlington, 55, called it a heckling tactic used against her son, Finn, now 18, that turned “into a bigger thing” when the school got involved. Though she wanted to disappear in the moment, she added, “I don’t feel embarrassed about anything. Regretting things is a waste of time.”

Turlington shares Finn and daughter Grace, 20, with her husband of almost 21 years, Edward Burns.

The incident ran counter to her typical inclination to blend in, avoiding unwanted attention.

“Being a person who is quiet and studies people, I think I learned how to not stand out,” she said. “My mom never said, like, ‘Oh, here’s how you’re going to protect yourself.’ I think I just really paid attention, honestly.”

Though she still models, Turlington has embraced motherhood as a full time job — not just with Finn and Grace, but as an advocate for moms everywhere with her nonprofit, Every Mom Counts.

She founded the organization in 2010 and since then has helped over 1.5 million mothers make their pregnancies and births safer.

“I feel lucky to have the option [to model],” she said. “It’s still my livelihood. I don’t take a salary here [at Every Mother Counts] because that doesn’t feel right, but this is my main job.”

It’s important to Turlington that she continues to model, which she has been doing since her teens. But similar to her reaction to the incident at her son’s basketball game, she’s trying not to let others dictate how she’s perceived. At Grace’s suggestion, she turned her Instagram comments off as to avoid anything too “pointed or mean.”

And because of her age, Turlington is well aware that some may want to paint her as an aging model, rather than just a model.

“I don’t want to put myself out as the face of aging beauty,” she said. ​​“I’ll be 60 in five years, and I want to start thinking through what the next five years will be for me personally.”