Zoe Balls Cringe-Worthy 90s Lads Mag Memories

has opened up about her uncomfortable experience modelling for lads magazine shoots in the nineties and the pressure she felt to look a certain way.

The TV presenter, 56, said that she often felt like a 'stuffed pig' in clothing that was too tight and compared the experience to 'feeling like a sex doll'.

Zoe spoke about the experience on her podcast Dig It with her pal Jo Whiley, discussing her long-standing discomfort with photo shoots.

'I did a couple of photoshoots, which I used to dread, any sort of male magazine shoots. As you know, I hate having my photo taken. I don't know how to sit. And people do your hair and makeup and you're like, I look like a stuffed pig. 

'And I feel, I used to feel like a sex doll, like, oh, and just feel so horribly uncomfortable.'

However, Zoe said that this did change at one stage when she was able to find her feet in the fashion world and began working with the right people. 

She added: 'But when I did a couple of shoots with great photographers and great stylists that put me in some fab things and I thought hang on a minute, I'm going to work this. So I had a few years of just loving fashion.'

Jo also said that she would be uncomfortable in some past fashion choices and wore 'tight' garments that were for other people's benefit.

She said: 'Back in the day, I would definitely wear stuff that was just too tight and was horrendously uncomfortable. I don't know why I was doing it, for the male gaze or the public gaze'.

Zoe has previously spoken about her dislike of the racy shoots, with magazines such as Loaded, during her tenure as one of the hosts of Top Of The Pops.

Jo co-hosted alongside Jayne Middlemiss and Jo Whiley, who said she 'took one for the team' and volunteered to do the shoots.

Speaking to the Times in September 2025, Zoe said she would arrive at a studio to 'racks of tiny clothes' before being told to 'straddle a chair' for the photos. 

She said: 'It was very male and we just sucked it up, went with it, we were almost expected to play up to it a little bit. It's only years later you look back and think, goodness me.'

Zoe said that she didn't feel like she could reject the requests, explaining: 'There was no saying, "I don't think she wants to do it," you're conditioned to think, "that's just how it is,".

Zoe admitted that if her daughter Nelly, 16, had been asked to do the same things that she had back in the day, she would have been furious.

Loaded magazine folded in March 2015 following a Lose The Lads Mags campaign, which saw the racy titles being pulled from supermarket shelves.

Nuts printed its final issue in 2014, with Zoo and FHM ceasing publication the following year.