Brooke Shields’ horror as she woke from intimate op and surgeon said: ‘I’ve tightened you up a bit’

For a certain generation of men she will always be a picture of physical perfection – but Brooke Shields says she spent much of her life feeling anything but perfect.

And in an exclusive interview for You magazine the Eighties star reveals during a procedure she underwent to address what she saw as one of her physical flaws her surgeon performed an intimate procedure without her consent.

The Blue Lagoon actress and Playboy cover star tells of how she elected to have surgery following the birth of her two daughters to reduce the size of her labia, which she says had caused her discomfort since high school.

But she says the Los Angeles gynaecologist who performed the procedure, known as a labiaplasty, told her after she woke up from the four-hour operation that he had also “tightened you up a little bit”.

Describing the incident, the 59-year-old tells You that the doctor had told her that “after two kids, everything is looser”, but had ignored the fact she had delivered her daughters via caesarean section.

“There was a real ‘I threw this in for free, little lady’ vibe to his delivery.”

While she considered taking legal action, she decided at the time that she did not want the incident reported in the Press.

Ten years on, she has included her recollections of the episode in her new book, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, because she “cares less” – and wants other women with labia issues to not feel so alone.

Her own issues were, she says candidly, “like you’re in a boxing gym and you have two little speed bags (suspended teardrop-shaped punching bags) between your legs”.

She adds: “You’ve got girls living in discomfort, thinking they’re ugly, and a guy is like, ‘Oh, that’s weird’ and they’re f***ing ruined for the rest of their life.”

Indeed, the former child star has written the book to confront the trials of ageing in a society that still thinks of her as the sex symbol cover star.

A child model, she was just 11 when she appeared in controversial film Pretty Baby and then, almost naked throughout, in Blue Lagoon.

At 14, she became US Vogue’s youngest cover star and by 21, was in Playboy.

There was also a well-publicised but short-lived marriage to US tennis star Andre Agassi. She admits, however, that she has spent much of her life feeling uncomfortable in her own skin – until now.

Four years ago, aged 55, she realised she “felt pretty and sexy and confident but, like, for me”.

But she has railed against the invisibility of women in middle age.

“I wasn’t being met with any positivity,” she says.

“Everywhere I looked, marketers were bypassing me. I get it, I’m not the ingenue any more.”

The star also reveals in the interview she looking for a British film project because she “loves the UK”.