Julia Roberts says her famous hairy armpit reveal wasn't a feminist statement

Julia Roberts says her now infamous 1999 red carpet moment, which exposed her armpit hair, was just that – armpit hair.

Busy Phillips asked Roberts on her new E! talk show Busy Tonight if she was trying to make a feminist statement by deliberately exposing her armpit hair at the Notting Hill red carpet London premiere.

“Also just because of feminism, I’m always thinking about these things – you know, you rocked the hairy armpit at the Notting Hill premiere, and you never really said if that was like a statement,” Philipps said.

“The picture is vivid in my mind actually, from that, from that moment,” Roberts said.

“I think I just hadn’t really calculated my, my sleeve length and the waving, and how those two things would go together and reveal personal things about me. So it wasn’t so much a statement as it’s just part of the statement I make as a human on the planet, for myself,” she added.

So to confirm, it seems that Roberts wasn’t deliberately making a pro-body hair or feminist statement, but simply hadn’t shaved her armpits in some time and didn’t realise how short her dress sleeves were.

Roberts was on Busy Tonight to promote her first leading foray into television – Amazon Prime’s Homecoming.

The podcast inspired series debuted on November 2nd, and has already garnered excellent reviews. The series explores Roberts as Heidi, a former veterans centre case worker whose memory has been mysteriously erased.

Roberts had admitted that acting in television ‘Isn’t for the faint of heart’ and that it is one of the projects she’s worked hardest for.

Homecoming is available to stream on Amazon Prime now.

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