Bella Thorne has claimed she got in trouble with Disney Channel executives after she was photographed wearing a bikini on the beach aged 14.
The 24-year-old moved to Los Angeles from Miami after she landed a role on Shake It Up opposite Zendaya – and alleged the hot water she found herself in was partly due to a difference of swimsuit etiquette in Florida.
Appearing on the podcast Going Mental, the actor was in the midst of discussing her childhood in the sunshine state and what working from an early age was like when she mentioned the alleged Disney debacle.
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Thorne said: "It was really weird for us when we came to LA because you know, we used to change on the beach in Miami for photoshoots. I wore a bikini like every day for my whole life.
"And then when we came here, we saw that just wasn't the case and then I remember I got in trouble when I was in Disney because I wore a bikini on the beach and that was just really crazy for us, like we're literally from Miami.
"Like, 'what do you mean? It's a bikini. Like I'm not naked.' So yeah it's definitely a culture change."
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This isn’t the first time Thorne has publicly discussed the furore which she claims almost cost her job on the series.
Recounting the incident in 2018 to Under The Influence, the Midnight Sun actor said she didn't think much of her bikini at the time and simply wore it because she liked the design.
She said: "I almost got fired. Someone took a photo of me in a bathing suit. Yeah, it was a sexy bathing suit. It's black, it's got a little bit of, like, fun little lace underneath. My mom picked it out. It was cute."
But according to Thorne, Disney Channel executives allegedly saw it differently and she was sternly reprimanded for being photographed in the two-piece aged 14.
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"They said, 'You're lucky that Bella has such a fan base that we can't afford to fire her at this moment in time, but if she does one more other thing, we will,'" the TV star claimed.
Thorne revealed that the threat was particularly scary as her family were reliant on her job following the death of her father, who died in a motorcycle accident when she was just nine-years-old.
At the time, she added: "The reason that we took Shake It Up really in the first place was because we were about to be living on the street.
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"So, it wasn't really a choice so yeah, when it was like, 'Hold up there'. Though I did get off the channel at 15 and a half, so it wasn't even really that long of me being on it."
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Topics: Celebrity, Disney, Bella Thorne
Lisa McLoughlin