Ali Landry Says Comments About Her Body and Sex Appeal Were ‘Not Something I Ever Felt Comfortable with’ (Exclusive)

Ali Landry first met the public as Miss Louisiana, going on to win Miss USA 1996. Following her win, Landry began getting opportunities in the entertainment industry. Landry quickly became known for her beauty and her body, but tells PEOPLE that kind of attention wasn’t comfortable for her.

Courtesy of Ali Landry; Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage

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Ali Landry first met the public as Miss Louisiana, going on to win Miss USA 1996

Following her win, Landry began getting opportunities in the entertainment industry

Landry quickly became known for her beauty and her body, but tells PEOPLE that kind of attention wasn’t comfortable for her

Ali Landry spent years being regarded as one of the world’s sexiest women, but she never asked to be.

Thanks to a suggestive Doritos commercial that aired during Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, Landry was introduced to the world in a way she’d never anticipated. That was, in part, because she didn’t know the commercial would air during the big game and be seen by such a wide audience.

Speaking with PEOPLE about the major career moment, it’s what happened in the aftermath that stayed with Landry, 53, long after the commercial stopped airing. “My agent, when it aired, he’s like, ‘Tomorrow, your life will change.’ And I just laughed and I thought that was a joke,” she recalls.

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

“Then the next day, I remember getting a call from a record label to see if I could sing because they wanted to offer me a record deal. And I can’t sing, but that was just an example of what started happening. That was the beginning of it all,” she says.

In 1998, she was named one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by PEOPLE, and she has been listed as one of FHM magazine’s 100 Sexiest Women in the World list multiple times.

Courtesy of Ali Landry

For Landry, her motto was to “Take it as it all came,” but that proved easier said than done with so much discussion around Landry’s beauty. “I was getting a lot of attention because of my image, which was not something that I ever felt comfortable with,” she says. “I was on a lot of those ‘hot’ lists and I always felt like, ‘This is not a representation of who I am. I am so much more than that.’ ”

Despite the persona being built as her own in the public eye, Landry says, “I’m the type of person that doesn’t get out of my lounge chair without wrapping a towel around myself.”

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“When I look back, I was in all these different magazines in a swimsuit, but I was definitely more modest than what was portrayed. And I did feel like for the beginning part of my career, I had to fight against that image so much,” she says. “Of course, I loved and appreciated the people that represented me, but I wish that I would’ve had choices.”

Using some of her swimsuit shoots as examples, she continues, “It was great because I got the attention that moved my career forward in the business. But again, I had to fight against that image for a while. I’m grateful for it, but I also think I would have preferred if things would have gone in a bit of a different direction.”

Courtesy of Ali Landry

Time and a shifting landscape have given Landry more agency in how she presents herself to the world and what projects she takes on. She shares, “In the past 15, 20 years, I have really been able to do things that I think are more a representation of who I am and what I want to put out in the world.”

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Today, Landry continues to work in acting and hosting, in addition to working behind the camera with husband Alejandro Gómez Monteverde. When she isn’t working, she’s juggling the busy schedule that comes with three kids in their teen years and young adulthood.

“Honestly, I do feel very, very blessed. I feel so happy with where our family is, where my marriage is. My kids are good. They’re thriving. We’ve been so blessed with work. Life is good,” Landry says. “I don’t want to ever take that for granted. It’s easy just to kind of go about and not acknowledge it, but I really want to realize that and really stop and just sit in gratitude because I do feel really, really blessed.”

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