Molly Sims Criticized for Being ‘Too Fat’ at the Start of Her Modeling Career

The early days of Molly Sims’ career were a tough time for the model-turned-actress.

“The moment I crossed over into modeling, it was only how I looked,” Sims, 50, recalled in a preview clip of her upcoming interview on the Sunday, April 7, episode of the GVC+ and HSN+ series Getting Grilled With Curtis Stone. “I never knew that my nose was crooked.”

While host Curtis Stone insisted that her nose is “not crooked,” Sims explained that it is a result of a childhood injury.

“The photographer would be like, ‘Can you move over a little bit to your left? Can you move a little bit to your right?’” she continued. “And finally after, like, two weeks of modeling, I’m like, ‘Is there something wrong?’ They’re like, ‘Your nose is crooked. You’re not symmetrical.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And then, you know, [I was told I was] ‘Too fat, too big, too blond, too dark.’ I mean, it was definitely a stressful time.”

As a result of the harsh comments she received, Sims said that her relationship with food became “very difficult,” especially coming from a southern background where her mom and aunts would cook all the time.

“I think it definitely was hard, that transition of food, because I never really thought about food. I was in college, going to Wendy’s, eating a Frosty with French fries,” Sims explained. “It went from that to basically, I wouldn’t say starving myself, but pretty much. So, it was such a drastic [change]. I had a lot of support from my mom and my dad, but it was hard.”

Stone, 48, chimed in, noting that she was likely “blending in” at the time with others in the fashion industry who shared her same strained relationship with food.

“I think you don’t know what you don’t know until you know. I think I was very lucky not to get too deep,” Sims continued. “I mean, I got down to pretty skinny, to pretty thin, because [of] the pressure — the pressure of being sent back home. … You know, when I went originally, [the agency] told me I was too fat, I would never work, and they had given me a ticket of, like, $737. They were like, ‘You’re never going to be able to repay this.’”

The clip concludes with Stone calling Sims’ experiences “brutal,” to which she added, “It was like being a ballerina or being an athlete. You become very, very disciplined.”

Sims left her studies at Vanderbilt University in the 1990s to pursue her modeling career. Her risk ultimately paid off as she has since become one of the industry’s biggest models, appearing on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and more magazines.

Following a handful of small roles, Sims got her big acting break playing Delinda Deline on the NBC series Las Vegas, which ran for five seasons from 2003 to 2008. She has since appeared in films such as Yes Man, The Wrong Missy and Yes Day, as well as shows such as Royal Pains, The Carrie Diaries, Men at Work and Barely Famous.

Sims tied the knot with her husband, Scott Stuber, in 2011, and the two went on to welcome three kids – Brooks, 11, Scarlett, 9, and Grey, 7.

Contrary to the comments about her appearance she received at the start of her career, Sims’ self-titled beauty and lifestyle blog is all about celebrating people’s individual beauty. “This is storytelling through one lens. It may click open on travel, on food, on parenting, on culture, on anything. But at the heart of our narrative, there is beauty,” her blog’s description reads. “There is beauty everywhere.”