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Emma Nevin

Roz Purcell opens up about terrifying M50 crash where car got stuck under a lorry

Roz Purcell has opened up about her horror M50 crash experience where the car she was in got trapped under a lorry.

The former Miss Universe and her eldest sister Rebecca were involved in the terrifying incident ten years ago. The now 32-year-old spoke to Doireann Garrihy on the Laughs of your Life podcast about the crash, saying it left her "traumatised".

Roz said: "I got into a really bad car crash before, severely bad. I wasn’t driving, my sister was driving, we got stuck under a lorry on the M50. It’s why I didn’t learn to drive until I was 28, it’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I was traumatised."

Read more: Roz Purcell uses house savings to buy forest

The influencer explained that they were trying to turn onto a slip road but the lorry never saw them. "He came into our lane, didn’t see us because we were obviously in a blind spot," she said.

"He clipped the back of the car and we turned into the front of the lorry. It’s the weirdest sensation because the car kind of lifted up and it’s slow-mo and then you just flip under.

“And my sister was going ‘are you ok? Are you ok?’ I had my phone in my hand and I just kept really selfishly going ‘Oh my god I’ve so much life to live, can’t believe I’m not going to achieve it.'"

Roz said that the lorry driver was alerted by other cars that their vehicle was stuck underneath and he pulled over. She said: “Eventually the truck stopped, I think he felt something but he couldn’t see so we kind of skidded out and then the car eventually stopped and we jumped out of the car. And every car on either side stopped, they were all running towards us, ‘I can’t believe you are alive.’”

Roz also opened up to Doireann about how her modelling days were a "miserable time". She said: "I grew up watching America’s Next Top Model and was obsessed with the idea of becoming a model and living in New York. And then when it actually became a reality and I was a model living in New York, I hated it.

"I was miserable. I was so hungry all the time, and I was so hangry. I was living in a house with lots of different models. There was some from Russia, some from Canada, some from America and some from Sweden.

"And it was a really good lesson in becoming friends with lots of different personalities and it was a really good experience to meet people from all over the world.

"Modelling was a great way for me to travel and I suppose learn to have boundaries. But it was just a miserable time."

She added: "If I could go back and do the experience now I’d just enjoy it and try to make the most of it but it’s really hard to enjoy when people are constantly measuring you every single week and there was just nothing more I could do."

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