{"id":98602,"date":"2025-08-26T15:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/98602\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T15:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:42:06","slug":"ted-lasso-actor-keeley-hazell-talks-everyones-seen-my-tits-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/98602\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted Lasso’ actor Keeley Hazell talks ‘Everyone\u2019s Seen My Tits’ book"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 The cafe is tucked away on Mercer St., an intimate escape just steps from bustling SoHo streets and storefronts displaying luxury fashion. The bar is stocked with wine and coffee, the walls are lined with books and the air is filled with the aroma of fresh paperbacks. It\u2019s the perfect setting to meet Keeley Hazell<\/a>, whose debut book, \u201cEveryone\u2019s Seen My Tits: Stories and Reflections from an Unlikely Feminist<\/a>,\u201d was released Aug. 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A former Page 3 model, Hazell\u2019s honest memoir divulges more than celebrity gossip or how she landed topless in \u201cThe Sun\u201d at only 18 years old. Hazell, now 38, shows readers what the 2000s tabloids did not, boldly confronting her emotional turmoil in a way that can only be accomplished with the distance of years (and with \u201clots of therapy,\u201d she says), from the humiliation of revenge porn to parental trauma, class struggles, sexuality and the experiences that prompted her \u201cunlikely feminism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The provocative book title was born in her late 20s, and the hyperbole \u201cencapsulates the feeling of being a teenager,\u201d Hazell says. Her publisher expressed concerns about getting the title promoted on broadcast television but Hazell says there was \u201cno other title.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rationally, Hazell knew that not everyone in the world had seen her topless, but in the early days of her career, she felt exposed and scrutinized in day-to-day life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everyone around you, and that\u2019s what matters when you\u2019re young. When you\u2019re in adolescence, you care what everybody thinks,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her story parallels evolving conversations on OnlyFans, sex work and female empowerment \u2014 even akin to debates on whether Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> is catering to the \u201cmale gaze.\u201d Today, signs with the phrase \u201csex work is work<\/a>\u201d can be found at women\u2019s marches and on bedazzled T-shirts, and Carpenter\u2019s provocateur status is praised by adoring fans. But when Hazell\u2019s modeling career launched, she says the conversation was less nuanced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the assumption that somebody like myself, who has modeled in a hypersexualized way, is catered to the male gaze,\u201d Hazell says. \u201c18 years ago\u2026 it was like, \u2018You’re not a feminist if you’re catering to the male gaze or partaking in these oppressive systems.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hence, an \u201cunlikely feminist\u201d was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keeley Hazell says \u2018my story is a story of social mobility\u2019<\/p>\n

In the book\u2019s first chapter, Hazell recounts being asked by a journalist, \u201cAre you a feminist?\u201d Her response: \u201cI\u2019m not.”<\/p>\n

She understood that men and women were treated differently, and her girlfriends would talk about how \u201cmen seemed to have it easier.\u201d But the word itself? \u201cFeminist\u201d wasn\u2019t even in her vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Hazell was raised in a poor, working-class family in Grove Park, a district of South East London. Her mother was a dinner lady, and her father was a window fitter; the couple separated when she was 13. Hazell \u201cscrounged for chicken and chips money,\u201d and in her memoir, recalls the first time she used her sexuality for monetary gain. At 13, she and a friend prompted a cab driver to masturbate in front of them before stealing his wallet and fleeing. Repulsed by the encounter, she never did it again.<\/p>\n

But Hazell says the scene was integral to the book\u2019s central story, which is fundamentally about class and social mobility, rather than feminism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the UK, the class system is structured so differently from the US. We don\u2019t have the American dream,\u201d she says from the SoHo cafe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those from working-class backgrounds, the options were limited. Hazell struggled to find a job in a retail store and it took her mother four years to secure a job in a supermarket. Modeling became a means of advancement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think my modeling is a feminist act at all. I think it’s an act of social mobility and trying to better myself monetarily, in order to advance in life,\u201d she explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2024, a report<\/a> from the Sutton Trust found that while only 7% of people educated in the UK attend private schools, 35% of Bafta-nominated actors were privately educated. In 2019, the Sutton Trust<\/a> also reported that those holding top jobs in British politics, the judiciary, media and business were five times more likely to have been to private school than the general population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before becoming a Page 3 model, Hazell knew the stereotypes that accompanied the lifestyle. Glamour models were designated as \u201cdumb\u201d or \u201cfame-hungry.\u201d But as she formed friendships with fellow models, her perception of the industry changed dramatically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize how much of this is bred out of coming from a lower socioeconomic background, and this is one of the ways to make money,\u201d she tells USA TODAY.<\/p>\n

Sex workers are having a moment. But is the discourse missing the mark?<\/a><\/p>\n

Keeley Hazell didn’t want to talk about revenge porn, but she did so anyway<\/p>\n

In 2007, Hazell was a victim of revenge porn after her ex-boyfriend, called \u201cTheo\u201d in the book, released their sex tape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hazell grappled with revisiting this. She understood that by talking about it, people would be reminded that the tape existed. For years, she\u2019d been silent. Even having a private conversation about the experience would cause her to \u201cburst out in tears.\u201d She felt that people saw the incident as her fault, and speculated that she had facilitated it to advance her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would I talk about that with anybody, when there\u2019s no understanding of the violation that\u2019s taken place?\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But \u201cto elicit any sort of change, you have to confront these things,\u201d she adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keeley\u2019s openness about her trauma is part of a larger movement to destigmatize victims and demand accountability for image-based sexual abuse<\/a>, which victims sometimes refer to as \u201cdigital rape<\/a>\u201d and a \u201cviolation of the body<\/a>.\u201d While anyone can be victimized,\u00a090% of the victims of image-based sexual abuse are women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While researching revenge porn, she traced it back to the 1800s, when men used to paint crude pictures of women on postcards<\/a> to destroy their reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs time has evolved, men haven’t gotten better. Laws come in, and they just find ways around it. Back in my era, you shared a video or a photo. Now, that\u2019s a criminal offense,\u201d she says. But AI created a new loophole: deepfakes, which are addressed in the US Take It Down Act<\/a>, but still circulate on social media platforms like X<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just like a continued evolution of men finding ways in which to shame and suppress women and ruin their lives. And it ruins their lives because it works,\u201d Hazell says.<\/p>\n

Grok, pornographic selfies and AI: Their selfies are being turned into sexually explicit content with AI.<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the tape’s release, she experienced a total shutdown of her sexuality.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have sex with anybody for over a year and a half,” she says. She decided to make a decision based on her mental health rather than monetary gain, and ended her glamour modeling career.<\/p>\n

“It was like, there’s no point in doing this and having this money if I’m going to want to jump out the window,” she says. “I needed to reclaim my own sexuality so that I can understand it. It was the process of that reclaiming, and then healing.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Ted Lasso\u2019 character Keeley and media misrepresentation<\/p>\n

When Hazell was approached by Jason Sudeikis<\/a>, the cocreator of \u201cTed Lasso<\/a>\u201d who is referred to only as \u201cJ\u201d in her book, she says he wanted to dispel the stereotypes that had plagued her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018I see you. The way you are in real life and how you’re presented in the media are two very separate things,\u2019\u201d she recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the show\u2019s character Keeley Jones, a model-turned-PR consultant for AFC Richmond, is like an \u201cSNL version of me,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally, Hazell was meant to be cast as the fictional \u201cKeeley,\u201d but the role went to Juno Temple<\/a>, who Hazell says comes from a \u201cvery privileged background\u201d that contrasts her lived experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was difficult for me,\u201d she admits. \u201cWhen it\u2019s something that is integral to me and has my name, I don\u2019t want it to be used in any sort of way unless it\u2019s authentic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I feel somewhat cheated is that it becomes a representation of these things, but it doesn’t actually bring about change,\u201d she continues. \u201cYou’re selling this idea and this concept that there’s no evidence of in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the book, she writes about this tension: \u201cKeeley Jones defied the stereotype \u2013 proving that women can be multifaceted. I only imagine how wonderful it would\u2019ve been to play that Keeley who breezes through life never stigmatized by her past.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she recognized that she didn\u2019t have control over the show\u2019s narrative, and it was happening \u201cwith or without her.\u201d Acting in \u201cTed Lasso\u201d as \u201cBex\u201d contributed to her \u201ccomplicated relationship with the show,\u201d but allowed her to be present as the character \u201cKeeley\u201d came to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keeley Hazell\u2019s fan base is \u2018very male,\u2019 but the book is \u2018for everyone\u2019<\/p>\n

Hazell wrote this memoir to understand her past, but the hope is that anyone reading \u201cEveryone\u2019s Seen My Tits\u201d will \u201clearn something, or be entertained,\u201d she says. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fan base has always been very male,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd if we talk about revenge porn, these things are done by men to women.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She wonders if her book will impact male readers: \u201cIf men can have a greater understanding, does that change things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Before launching her acting career, it was suggested that she change her name to distance herself from Page 3. But Hazell doesn\u2019t want to hide from the assumptions people have about her, and \u201cEveryone\u2019s Seen My Tits\u201d lays her past bare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As her book concludes, she writes about the power in knowing yourself. In reclaiming your voice when others have taken it from you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve reached a point now where I\u2019m just owning it, embracing it, and I wouldn\u2019t want to change it,\u201d she says as we wrap up our conversation. \u201cI regret a lot of things, but now I\u2019m more conscious of the systemic class barriers that were in place. I\u2019ve accepted regret as part of life, but also, I understand my choices more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n