Miranda Kerr is breaking her silence on not participating in the recent Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
The 43-year-old model revealed on the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast's Nov. 3 episode that though she was invited to strut down the runway at the Oct. 18 show, which marked her 20th anniversary with the brand, she turned down the opportunity due to second-guessing herself.
Kerr, a former Victoria's Secret Angel, last modeled for the lingerie brand's 2012 show and made a return to runway modeling in September after a nine-year hiatus.
"I was really seriously considering it. I obviously just walked Stella McCartney, and I had a great time. ... My energy was like, wow, this feels so good to be back on the runway. I love this," Kerr told host Amanda
Hirsch.
"When Victoria's Secret asked me, I was like, ooh, that could be fun. I thought of all the funny memories and how playful it was, and how that would be so cool for me to get back on the runway and give them a wink," she continued.
At the Los Angeles show, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley returned to the stage after 16 years. The 39-year-old has two children with "Fast & Furious" franchise star Jason Statham.
Miranda Kerr worried about how 'everyone's in their underwear'
Though she enjoyed showcasing McCartney's spring/summer 2027 womenswear collection during her surprise Paris Fashion Week runway appearance on Sept. 30, Kerr described having a very different reaction to being asked to put her Victoria's Secret Angel wings back on.
"I got really excited, then I got kind of anxious," she explained. "And then I was meditating, and I really fell into [the thought of] how am I actually going to feel when I'm up there on the runway? Everyone's in their underwear, I'm in my underwear; I'm 43, I have four boys. I got this knot in my stomach."
The Kora Organics skincare brand founder, who said she meditates 20 minutes every morning, added, "As much as I tried to meditate and ease it, it was still there. And the only way I could resolve that was to say, 'OK, you're not going to do the show. How do you feel now?'"
The result? "I felt the knot in my stomach release," Kerr said. She continued, "That's why I knew it was the right decision for me not to do it. As much as I was wanting to, something in my gut [said no]."
She told Hirsch, "It also feels like that was then and this is now, and I'm at a different stage in my life," later adding, "Fashion shows and Victoria's Secret are two very different things."
Her comments mirror a brief explanation she shared in an Oct. 17 Instagram post, which described that she "felt in my heart it was right to cherish this chapter as it was."
The Australian model made her Victoria's Secret debut in 2006. Her last time walking any fashion show was Moschino's spring/summer 2018 resort collection in June 2017.
Her oldest child is 15-year-old Flynn Bloom – her son with ex-husband Orlando Bloom – who was born in January 2011. Two months later, she was back to work, making appearances at Victoria's Secret promotional events and other industry parties.
That November, she walked the Victoria's Secret runway – not dissimilar to Barbara Palvin, who walked in the show this year six weeks postpartum, opening up debate about the message this sends to others who give birth.
How Miranda Kerr's sons reacted to her Victoria's Secret career
Kerr told Hirsch that she still made sure to tune into the event, which returned for a third year in its current form after taking a hiatus from 2018 to 2024 following public backlash and declining ratings.
She was playing ping-pong and air hockey with her kids when the fashion show started livestreaming, and she thought: "I want to watch the girls!"
Once she had it up, her 8-year-old son asked, "Mom, what's that?"
"I was like, um, that's what mommy used to do," Kerr recalled. She shared that her 7-year-old replied, "Mom, what do you mean you used to do that?"
Kerr and her husband of nine years, Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel, share three children: Hart Spiegel, who was born in May 2018; Myles Spiegel, born in October 2019; and Pierre Spiegel, whose birth she announced in February 2024.
She admitted that she and Spiegel don't keep any photos from her modeling career on the walls of their home, opting instead to focus on snapshots of their family.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miranda Kerr reveals why she refused to return for Victoria's Secret show
