Former Miss Universe: Trump Called Me 'Miss Piggy'

She says his bullying left her needing therapy
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2016 1:23 AM CDT
Former Miss Universe: Trump Called Me 'Miss Piggy'
Alicia Machado is seen at People en Espanol's "50 Most Beautiful" gala in New York.   (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

The first woman crowned Miss Universe after Donald Trump bought the pageant says she was treated so badly by the tycoon that she needed therapy and battled eating disorders for years. Alicia Machado, who was 19 when she won the tiara in 1996, tells Inside Edition that Trump bullied and insulted her after she put on weight in the months after the pageant. "He called me Miss Piggy," she says. "I was very depressed in that moment." Trump told radio host Howard Stern that Machado was an "eating machine" and invited around 100 members of the media to watch her work out, she says.

Machado—one of dozens of women interviewed for a recent New York Times story on Trump's treatment of women—says Trump told the media that she was "someone who likes to eat" and had put on up to 50 pounds, when the real number was more like 15. Machado, who is Venezuelan, says he also mocked her lack of fluency in English and called her "Miss Housekeeping," Politico reports. The 39-year-old, who became a telenovela superstar in the years after the pageant, will be sworn in as an American citizen just before the election—and she won't be voting for Trump. "He can't be a president," she tells Inside Edition. "For sure he is not a good person." (A game maker's "Trump survival kit" sold out fast.)

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