Nicole Eggert Regrets Getting Implants at 18 to Fill Out Her Baywatch Swimsuit: 'Leave Your Bodies Alone' (Exclusive)

Ahead of her new documentary, the ’90s star opens up to PEOPLE about overcoming her insecurities

When Nicole Eggert starred in the TV show Baywatch in the 90s she was only 18 years old — and miserable.

The former actress, who played Summer Quinn, spent most of the show scantily clad and running along the beach with her hair blowing in the wind.

She thought she had found her dream role, but Eggert wasn’t prepared for the scrutiny that came with it. “I had to get away from it,” the actress, now 52, ​​says during a wide-ranging exclusive interview with PEOPLE at a Los Angeles restaurant. (Days before that, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, which she publicly shared with fans earlier this month.)

Baywatch Alum Nicole Eggert, 51, Diagnosed With Breast Cancer: ‘This Journey Has Been Hard’ (Exclusive)

She felt that the show was exploiting her body and appearance, and she already felt emotionally fragile. Six years ago, Eggert claimed that her ex abused her Charles in charge Costar Scott Baio – who has repeatedly denied her claims – starting at age 14.

On the set Baywatch, during the winter months, filming started at five in the morning, he recalls, and every day was more tiring. Repetitive, sexy slow-motion photos of her wearing a long-legged cherry one-piece were uncomfortable and awkward for her to shoot.

During the first day of filming in 1992, Eggert was shocked. “Oh my god, we’re going to be in a bathing suit every day all day?” she remembers thinking.

Then it hit her. “I was like, ‘Oh, s—,'” she says, recalling her discomfort. Eggert believed she was auditioning for a spin-off series about high school kids in Malibu.

Now she says she wasn’t aware she would become one Baywatch lifeguard: “All the girls were working out and they were super petite and fit, and I was like ‘Wow.’ And the one-piece swimsuits weren’t flattering either. I didn’t want to wear it at all.”

Nicole Eggert (left) and Pamela Anderson (right) on the set of Baywatch.

Baywatch Co/Kobal/Shutterstock

“It’s just not what I signed up for. It was a completely different show and game, not where I wanted to be,” she says, adding that she decided to leave Baywatch after two seasons.

Growing up on the beaches of Southern California and being one of the strongest swimmers in the cast, Eggert felt insecure about her appearance and sexuality.

Nicole Eggert details ‘shocking’ alleged sexual abuse by ‘Chief Charles’ costar Scott Bai

While on break from filming, Eggert decided to get breast implants at the age of 18. “I regret it now, of course,” she says.

“I look at all these younger girls doing it and I’m like, ‘God, leave your bodies alone!’ But when you have to put on that one piece and you’re like so flat it’s like pleats — you have pleats in the front…” she continues. “You say, ‘What is this?’ There’s nothing you can do. You can’t fill it with anything. You can’t do anything.”

As she matured, she began to question the motives behind her choice and the impact it had on her body image. “It was a stupid 18-year-old decision,” she says, reflecting on going under the knife.

She has since had multiple breast augmentation surgeries, and in 2015 appeared on E! reality show Bad to reduce her breasts.

A ‘broken’ bust? This ‘Baywatch’ Girl Wants to Downsize (VIDEO)

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in July 2016 BaywatchOriginal producers Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz spoke about the series, which was later adapted into a film in 2017 starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.

“[Nicole Eggert] he felt a little competitive with Pam,” Berk told the publication. “It was a holiday weekend, and a few days after that she called in sick. Then she came back to the set after she got a nipple.”

Now Eggert is challenging Berk’s claims. She insists that she never felt competitive with Anderson and that she never said she was sick. “Those guys – they really like to make things up,” she says. [about my surgery].”

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson poses for the camera. Fremantle Media/Shutterstock

As for Anderson, Eggert says she’s always admired her natural beauty. “I always knew that Pamela was more beautiful and natural. I kind of wondered why she always wore so much makeup. But that was her thing and the look she wanted. That was the image she wanted to portray, and she succeeded,” she says. “And I always feel like, however you feel comfortable, do whatever feels good to you. And for her, it was a lot of makeup. For me it was like doing makeup on the beach? ‘Oh, this is gross,’ you know what I mean?”

At the peak of popularity, Baywatch — which ran for 11 seasons — brought in 1.1 billion weekly views worldwide, eventually earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most-watched TV show of all time.

More than 30 years later, Eggert is now ready to share her highs and lows in a new documentary detailing her experiences at the beach.

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With the help of directors Matthew Felker and Brian Corso, Eggert produced and stars in the upcoming documentary, Baywatch: The American Dreamwhich delves deeper into the pop culture phenomenon and features members of the most successful cast, who also talk about their personal struggles and thoughts on the long-running syndicated series.

Nicole Eggert at the Airport Marriott Burbank on April 16, 2022.

Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Now a single mother of two daughters, Keegan, 12, and Dilyn, 25, Eggert — who never married (Keegan’s father is Eggert’s ex, actor Justin Herwick; she has never publicly confirmed who Dilyn’s father is) — says she’s reconciled with her past and focuses on her future as she faces a cancer diagnosis.

“I think that experience definitely interfered a little bit with my mental health and my self-awareness and how I felt about myself,” she says of her accusations against Bai. “I think it was damaging and made me very insecure and just not comfortable in my own skin.”

“That, on top of being young and being in the public eye and people constantly looking at me, made me insecure all the time,” she continues. “But I’m happy the truth is out now. I’m proud of myself.”

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Source: HIS Education