Brooke Shields calls 1980 interview with Barbara Walters 'practically criminal'

Brooke Shields has opened up about the interviews following her 1980 Calvin Klein jeans ad, calling the questions asked "practically criminal".

During a conversation with Dax Shepard for his podcast Armchair Expert, the 56-year-old was asked about the infamous campaign, which sparked an intense public backlash.

The advertisement showed the then 15-year-old Shields posing and reciting a series of lines that could be interpreted as sexual innuendo.

The backlash to the campaign resulted in the model/actress doing multiple high-profile interviews with media outlets, including one with Barbara Walters. The TV journalist asked her several invasive questions about her sexual history, which Shepard described as "maddening".

"It's practically criminal," she stated. "It's not journalism."

Earlier this year, Shields reflected on the intense scrutiny she received for participating in the ad, admitting she was "naive" to the tone but insisted the public outcry was "ridiculous."

"I was away when they all came out, and then started hearing, 'Oh, the commercials have been banned here, and Canada won't play them.' And paparazzi and people screaming at me and screaming at my mother, 'How could you?' It just struck me as so ridiculous, the whole thing," she told People in October. "They take the one commercial, which is a rhetorical question. I was naive, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think it had to do with underwear, I didn't think it was sexual in nature. I would say it about my sister, 'Nobody can come between me and my sister.'"