Former Victoria’s Secret Angel Bianca Balti says the lingerie brand turned down her request to walk in its 2025 fashion show while she continues treatment for ovarian cancer.
The Italian model, who began cancer treatment in October 2024, said in a recent essay on Substack that she had reached out after feeling inspired by the brand’s recent efforts toward diversity and inclusion.
Balti, 41, revealed that she sent a heartfelt letter to the company during the week of Oct. 6, asking to participate in the Oct. 15 show.
“I don’t know exactly where the courage came from but I did it,” she wrote. “The only things we regret in life are the chances we don’t take.”
In her letter, addressed to the Victoria’s Secret Team, Balti expressed that while she’s “not the youngest, curviest, or fittest,” she is “strong, brave, and alive.”
“Having me on that runway wouldn’t just be a personal dream fulfilled; it would send a message to millions of women: ‘Life goes on in the face of adversity. You are not less of a woman. You are sexy. You are unstoppable,’” she wrote.
Balti said she later received a “kind” reply from the company informing her that the show had already been fully cast. She said accepted the decision with grace, writing, “I tried. It didn’t happen. But I have no regrets. Cancer taught me that life is too short not to try—and that trying never kills you.”
In the essay, the model also praised the diversity of the 2024 show, which featured trans and plus-size models, and argued that her inclusion would have represented “millions of women who have, have had, or will have cancer.”
Balti, who previously walked in the 2005 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, underwent a preventative mastectomy in 2022 after discovering she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two years later.
Victoria’s Secret has yet to comment publicly on Balti’s account.
