Journalist Samantha Brick still thinks she’s the world’s most beautiful woman

But the piece took its toll on journalist Samantha Brick, who ended up losing friends due to the subsequent backlash.

Appearing on This Morning on Thursday to talk about the article, she told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: “When I wrote the article I didn’t think it would have the impact that it did at the time, so I didn’t tell anyone about it.

“My husband knew I would write a few articles a month about myself, our life and friends – all the kinds of things a journalist like myself normally writes about.

“And so suddenly there was this tsunami of comments amongst my social circle.”

While some friends feared she’d turned her pen to them next, which Samantha insisted she’d “never do”, others got tired of defending her.

“(They said) ‘I don’t want to have to defend you anymore, I don’t want you in my life anymore’,” Samantha sighed.

“And it was that brutal. I wasn’t ghosted – I was just cut off.”

Now, 10 years later, Samantha has penned another article insisting she’s more beautiful than ever.

In the Daily Mail article, she wrote: “I may be 51, but I still have charisma… That’s far more seductive than having a Love Island-style face full of filler, spending hours in a salon to walk out with bizarrely painted fingernails or drop a small fortune on those awful hair extensions.”

Holly then asked why, if Sam is trying to promote an outlook of self acceptance and confidence, she’s judging other women who have chosen to have cosmetic enhancements.

“I think the only reason I flagged that is because a lot of women are spending money they don’t have on those hair extensions, fillers and nail art and we only have to look on certain social media/Instagram type accounts to see that it’s becoming normal now,” she said.

“And I don’t want to spend a fortune on Botox. And I want women to know it’s OK not to have to do that.

“At the end of the day, you do you, and we should all celebrate women for what they are.

“But it’s so normal now – having to go down that route of the, for want of a better expression, ‘Love Island look’ – and I think it’s really important for woman to realise that there is another option and the world won’t end and you’ll still have friends and you’ll still fall in love if you don’t do that.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun and has been reproduced with permission.