Bella Thorne has claimed that the Disney Channel almost fired her for wearing a bikini on the beach when she was 14 years old.
During Tuesday’s (27 December) episode of Emily Ratajkowski’s High Low With EmRata podcast, Thorne opened up about several instances where she felt sexualised as a child.
She claimed that Disney Channel almost fired her after photographs surfaced of the star wearing a “two-piece” on the beach.
Thorne starred as CeCe Jones opposite Zendaya on Disney Channel’s Shake It Up from 2010 to 2013.
The 25-year-old actor said: “One time I almost got fired off the Disney Channel because I was 14, and I wore a two-piece on the beach.”
She explained: “This stylist that I was hanging out with put this chain on me that’s, like, a body chain. I don’t know? I don’t care. There was a fan, they got a photo of me on the beach.”
“I almost got fired,” she said. “It was all over the media, it was literally viral in that time. It was, ‘How dare this little girl do this? This is so disgusting.’”
The Independent has contacted Disney for comment.
Thorne claimed that “people” put Disney “under pressure” after the photographs of the 14-year-old actor on the beach were made public.
She continued: “They were like, ‘Hey, we’re getting a lot of heat for this. Everyone’s getting heat for this because you’re in a bikini on a beach, so she needs to make sure she goes out in boy shorts and a loose t-shirt next time she’s at the beach.’”
On the same podcast episode, the Midnight Sun star also recalled a time, four years prior to the former instance, when an unnamed male director claimed that she was “flirting with him” and making him feel “uncomfortable”.
Thorne said that she was just 10 years old at the time.
She explained: “I had a director give me feedback once, and I was 10. 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’,” Thorne recalled.
The actor added that the moment made her “find fault” in herself.
Thorne said that she is now stunned by the allegations, considering she was a child at the time: “I don’t give a f*** what the f*** I said. I don’t care if I said, ‘Eat my pussy right now. [I was] 10 years old. Why would you ever think that [I was flirting]?
“Also, you’re in a director session; you can’t really say or do anything. You do the scene; you say hello, and you walk out. There is no time to go sit on your lap or make you uncomfortable. What the f*** are you talking about?”
