COURTING controversy is nothing new to supermodel Emily Ratajkowski.
The American beauty found global fame dancing in a nude-coloured thong in the video for US singer Robin Thicke’s 2013 song Blurred Lines.
But that seems tame compared to her latest stunt — posing topless, with a glass of sparkling wine in hand, while pretending to breastfeed a plastic baby doll.
In the same shock shoot, a “lover” in boxers is pictured at her window as she nurses the doll.
But that seems tame compared to her latest stunt — posing topless, with a glass of sparkling wine in hand, while pretending to breastfeed a plastic baby doll.
Emily, 35, who has previously been linked to Harry Styles, shared the controversial images with her army of 27.9million Instagram followers.
It was to promote an explict essay she wrote, titled MotherF***er, for lifestyle and culture website The Cut.
But is this bizarre shoot — in which she has been accused of sexualising breastfeeding — an act of genius from the Gen Z favourite rumoured to be worth £6million? Or a sign her star power is waning?
Many believe the backlash is what London-born Emily had hoped for.
A source says: “She has perfected the art of turning internet outrage into a multi-million pound brand.
“For every ‘disgusted’ comment, she gets another thanking her for her honesty. The business she has built around her body and brain is astonishing. Emily is incredibly intelligent, but most people don’t see that.”
The insider adds: “Women abhor and adore her in equal measure, and most men lust after her.
“She wants to empower women, she is open about her sexual expression.
“When people tear her down, it only goes to prove her point about how she is perceived by people.”
Emily’s Instagram post from her latest photoshoot drew more than 8,000 comments within hours.
Nude images The size 6 model pouts toward the camera while pressing the toy to her 32C chest.
She wears a black leather blazer and matching trousers, heavy eye make-up, and her brunette hair has been styled as dishevelled.
One Instagram user wrote: “That photo is genuinely disturbing.”
Another said of the shot: “When art becomes awkward, uncomfortable and unnecessary.”
Others called it a “desperate cry for attention” — which echoes criticism recently faced by Emily’s close pal Sydney Sweeney.
American actress Sydney shocked viewers of US coming-of-age TV drama Euphoria when the 28-year-old’s character Cassie Howard dressed as a baby while making content for her OnlyFans account.
It seems Emily and Sydney — both regulars on “hottest woman in the world” lists — will go to extreme lengths to make headlines.
Emily’s MotherF****er essay has also proved divisive, as she reveals she turned to casual dating after her marriage to Sebastian Bear-McClard failed in 2022 following the birth of their son Sylvester.
She writes about motherhood and marriage: “It was a violent transition into a new reality of screaming baby on my aching tit and ring on my swollen finger.
“And then, in a time period that felt both instant and excruciatingly slow, my marriage collapsed. Six months after my son was born, my husband and I stopped having sex. Less than a year later, we separated.”
The divorce was finalised last year and she reveals how it changed her as she began “compulsively dating”.
But Emily, who spent the first five years of her life in London before moving to the US with her family, writes of her time before that: “I knew that boys didn’t treat girls they thought of as sluts tenderly. Boys didn’t fall in love with, want forever with, raise babies with, or take care of sluts.
“I wanted to be taken care of — desperately. I tried to be a ‘good girl’.
“Keeping my body count low was insurance. I thought it meant no one would ever cheat on me, that I’d always be loved, happy and safe.” But she adds: “None of that had turned out to be true.”
In graphic detail, she recalls dates with a man she refers to as the “elder millennial” — and performing a sex act not long after they first met.
She writes: “I’d found everything I’d come there for — a praying mantis devouring her mate.”
Sparing the blushes of the men she has previously dated — including a whirlwind romance with Brad Pitt, and US comic Pete Davidson — Emily uses pseudonyms in the essay.
She adds: “I decided to f*** my way into a new kind of woman. I wanted to destroy the Madonna, the special girl I’d worked so hard to be before an eight-pound baby had torn my vagina in two, and replace her with the whore.”
She goes on to write that, “men are turned on by motherhood”, adding: “I’d been so scared that, as a single mother, I was unlovable, used up and discarded. I soon came to find out it was quite the opposite of ‘they don’t care’. In fact, they liked it. There were many men who experienced the loneliness that comes with years of selfishness. They were particularly attracted to the idea that being a parent meant self-sacrifice was a given in my life. Did they want me as their mummy? Maybe.”
Emily was first signed as a model at age 14 but got her big break in the controversial Blurred Lines video.
She was then named as one of the world’s “hottest sex symbols” by Rolling Stone mag, and soon after announced as FHM’s “fourth sexiest woman in the world”.
Emily, who was born to an English mum and American dad, moved into acting while also modelling for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, DKNY, Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu.
But as her fame grew, she became vocal about protecting women.
In 2016, she went to war with US photographer Jonathan Leder, who used Polaroid images of her from a shoot four years earlier in a book she claimed was a “violation”.
Emily said she believed the photos were taken for a magazine — and that she did not give consent for the pictures, which included nudes, to be used in a book.
She wrote at the time: “Five out of the now hundreds of released photos were used for what they were intended: an artful magazine shoot back in 2012.
“These photos being used without my permission is an example of exactly the opposite of what I stand for — women choosing when and how they want to share their sexuality and bodies.”
She was supported by Kim Kardashian — who similarly has turned controversy into cash.
The pair posed topless together for a selfie taken in a bathroom after Kim was reviled for posting a naked photo online.
Emily captioned the shot: “We are more than just our bodies, but that doesn’t mean we have to be shamed for them or our sexuality.”
It led to uproar on social media, as Emily became embroiled in a row with broadcaster Piers Morgan — who claimed they were undermining feminism.
Emily later hit back, explaining: “Kim said to me, ‘You know, when Lena Dunham takes her clothes off, she gets flak, but it’s also considered brave. When Justin Bieber takes his shirt off, he’s a grown-up’.
“When a woman who is sexual takes off her top, it plays into something. The whole idea is that when Kim takes a nude selfie, she’s just seeking attention. That’s not the issue. A woman can be seeking attention and also make a statement. They don’t need to be mutually exclusive.”
Emily later started writing essays that she made into a book, My Body, which became a New York Times bestseller in 2021 — and she also launched her own swimwear business, Inamorata.
The book saw Emily discuss being sexualised and exploited during her career — and allege she was sexually assaulted by singer Robin on the set of Blurred Lines.
Of the video and how it changed her life, Emily writes: “I wasn’t just famous; I was famously sexy, which, in many ways, felt gratifying.”
She adds: “I am complicit. But I also think it’s a mistake to shame a young woman for wearing a tight dress because she wants to be noticed by someone powerful.
“I don’t think we should continue to criticise women for saying, ‘This is how I can succeed and capitalise off of my image or my body’. That is an extension of the same misogyny I’ve seen so much in my life. We are all complicit.”
Those close to Emily believe she will steadfastly continue baring her soul despite the pushbacks that come her way.
A friend says: “Emily’s honesty is uncomfortable for some, but provides validation and solidarity for others.
“People will always have something to say. There’s nothing she can do about that.
“Emily’s said it herself, she doesn’t care what people think. It’s white noise. She is doing what she wants and saying what she wants. It is her truth and it is her choice to say it.”
As Emily put it: “Like any art, there’s a million ways to interpret it. All I can say is that when a woman is naked, that’s not immediately anti-feminist.
“I have no apologies for it, and I’m not ashamed at all.”