Bella Thorne has claimed that she was almost "fired" from Disney Channel after sharing a bikini picture when she was 14 years old.
On a recent episode of Emily Ratajkowski’s High Low With EmRata podcast, the two child stars discussed how it felt to be constantly sexualized in their respective lines of work.
Thorne recalled a story from her childhood where she was demonized for wearing a bikini on the beach. She claimed that backlash was so bad that it allegedly almost got her fired from her stint on Disney Channel.
"I almost got fired off the Disney Channel ’cause I was 14, and I wore a two-piece on the beach," she told the host. "This stylist that I was hanging out with put this chain on me. It’s like a body chain? I don’t know! I don’t care."
"There was a fan," she continued. "They got a photo of me on the beach [and] I almost got fired.
"It was all over the media – it was literally viral [at] that time. And it was, 'How dare this little girl do this. This is so disgusting,'" she said.
The 25-year-old starred alongside Zendaya Coleman on Disney Channel's hit show Shake It Up, which originally premiered on the network in 2010.
After three years, it was eventually canceled, and Thorne went on to appear in other projects like Habit, The Babysitter, and her most recent work in the romantic drama, Game of Love.
The actress alleged that the situation resulted in her receiving the blame for the uproar and claimed that Disney was "under pressure to fire me" but didn't in the end.
Elsewhere in the interview, Thorne revealed how she lost an acting role because a casting director accused her of "flirting" with him - despite being just 10 years old at the time.
"I had a director give me feedback once and I was 10," Thorne recalled. "The casting director calls my agent and the agent calls my mom, and they’re like, 'So she’s not moving forward because the director felt like she was flirting with him and it made him really uncomfortable.'"
She continued: "What the f*** are you talking about, man?! I don’t give a f*** what I said! I don’t care if I said, 'Eat my p**** right now!’ [I was] 10 years old. Why, why, would you ever think that?"
"Also, him feeling that it was a real issue," responded Ratajkowski.
"Also, you’re in a director session," Thorne added. "You can’t really say or do much.
"You do the scene, you say 'hello,' you walk out. There’s no time to like: 'Let me go sit on your lap or make you feel uncomfortable.'
"What the f*** are you talking about, man?"
The 25-year-old went on to state that she thinks about the moment every day.
"I’m trying to find almost fault in myself," she explained. "Like, 'What did you do, Bella? What did you do that made him feel like this?' And every time, I’m like, 'Bella, stop it.' Even that thought right there is becoming part of the problem... It drives me crazy."
Beyond her mainstream acting career, Thorne has also delved into the adult entertainment industry with her director debut movie called Her and Him, and in 2020, she joined OnlyFans and became the first-ever person to earn $1 million in her first 24 hours on the subscription-based platform.