Cindy Crawford's regret about iconic Playbοy spreads: I should have gone completely nude

Cindy Crawford‘s only regret about posing nude is that she wished she had shown more when she was younger.

While discussing her decades-long career with Net-a-Porter, the supermodel extraordinaire opened up about her decision to go bare for photographer Russell James’s new book, Angels, as well as taking it off early in her career for Playbοy.

“Part of the reason I wanted to do it was that I thought, at what age is being naked not beautiful anymore?” she said of posing nude for James. “Is there a sell-by date on us? I don’t look the same as I did at 20, 30 or even 40. If we take care of ourselves, why not? Am I frolicking on the beach in a string bikini? No. But there is a place where I want to feel beautiful naked, in my private life, with my husband. [Russell] was tapping into that real place – not high heels, not a lot of makeup, not coy, just a real woman who doesn’t have clothes on.”

Crawford said that she now questions why she didn’t show more earlier as a young model. She first posed for Hugh Hefner’s lad mag in 1988, when she was 20. It was a big deal at the time — she risked lucrative endorsement deals by showing as much as she did, but maintained full editorial control over the photos, she has said. Crawford also said that seeing fellow model Paulina Porizkova in the magazine, in 1987, inspired her to pose. (She did a second shoot for the magazine in 1998.

“I look back at some of my old Playbοy pictures and I think, ‘Why wasn’t I walking around naked all the time?’” she said of the shoots she did with acclaimed shutterbug Herb Ritts. “I’m not getting younger. So I want to celebrate who I am today.”

Crawford’s two children with Rande Gerber, Kaia and Presley, have followed her into the modeling business with her 17-year-ol daughter especially being a bright star on the scene. Last year, Kaia became professionally eligible for runway modeling, so Crawford traveled with her to get her acclimated. But mom made it clear her daughter’s doing the real work.

“Kaia had some advantages,” Crawford admitted. “She is my daughter and people know that. But when people say that I bought her a cover of a magazine, I think, if I was going to buy a cover for someone, it would be me! If I could get someone into a fashion show, I would be getting it for myself.”

Crawford is clearly protective of her brood — both in real life and online. She talked about the discouraging comments both kids get from strangers on social media. “I can’t believe how hateful people can be,” she said. “As much as people put garbage on my Instagram, it doesn’t bother me. But when they do it to my kids I think, grrr.”

She continued, “But you’re not supposed to go after [the haters]. It’s shocking. We’re becoming more immune to it because people just lash out. We have to be so politically correct in one way. If you’re not famous, you can say the most hateful stuff. God forbid you [as a celebrity] offend the wrong person.”

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

• Miley Cyrus goes undercover in boy drag for ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ premiere

• Luke Perry hospitalized after suffering a ‘massive stroke,’ according to reports

• Michael Jackson accusers detail alleged sexual abuse in new interview