Bella Thorne says Disney almost fired her over bikini pic when she was 14 

In her latest public appearance, Bella Thorne claimed Disney Channel almost fired her over a bikini pic when she was 14. 

Former Disney star Bella Thorne has alleged that the channel almost fired her over a bikini picture taken of her when she was 14. Speaking to Emily Ratajkowski on her podcast High Low, Thorne said: “I almost got fired off the Disney Channel ’cause I was 14, and I wore a two-piece on the beach,” she said. “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.” 

Trouble came when a fan spotted Thorne at the beach and took a picture, which later went viral and sparked public backlash. “There was a fan – they got a photo of me on the beach, I almost got fired. It was all over the media – it was literally viral in that time. And it was, ‘How dare this little girl do this. This is so disgusting,’” said. 

At the time, Thorne was able to protect her gig at Disney – just barely, since the channel executives were allegedly under massive pressure to fire her. “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 the 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.’” she said. 

In the same podcast appearance, Thorne also claimed that she was rejected for a job at the age of 10 because a director accused her of ‘flirting’ with him. “I had a director give me feedback once and I was 10.” 

“And the casting director calls my agent and my 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 said, to Ratajkowski’s shock. 

Calling it one of the more explicit instances ‘about Hollywood and the sexualisation of children’, Thorne then added: “I don’t give a f**k what the f**k I said. I don’t care if I said, ‘Eat my p***y right now.’ She is 10 years old. Why ever would you think that?” 

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