Anastacia has posed nude in an empowering photoshoot revealing the scars she’s gained as a result of breast cancer treatment and surgery.
The singer, whose full name is Anastacia Lyn Newkirk, took part in the shoot for Fault Magazine to reclaim her body from the media.
“I want to be able to go on the beach and not have the first photographs taken of my body to be ones that I didn’t give,” she said.
“Paparazzi can take a photo of me breathing in and call it a gut or say all the things they want, that doesn’t scare me, but my scars are a part of me and I want to be the one to reveal them.
“If paparazzi photographed them, I’d feel like I was being shamed but being able to release them this way, I feel extremely empowered.”
The 48-year-old star battled breast cancer for the second time in 2013 and underwent a double mastectomy as well as later reconstructive surgery.
She was left with scars on her side and back as a result.
“The surgeons had to go around my tattoo, the scars really should have been on my bra line but to graft skin the surgeons needed to find a place that wasn’t compromised,” she explained.
“I resented them – I resented how large they were but I also understood why I needed to go through all the physical changes.
“My scars are part of my journey and a reminder of all the things I went through with my mastectomy. At this point, I feel great to show them in a way that’s artistic with a respected team in fashion because it’s transformed my body’s ‘faults’ into art.’’
In the shoot, Anastacia appears nude with powerful phrases such as “a silent fighter remains” and “welcome to my truth” written on her body.
The singer recently took part in this year’s ’Strictly Come Dancing’ in order to regain her body confidence and raise funds for Cancer Research UK.
“Every little thing that I’m doing, including ‘Strictly Come Dancing,’ was me trying to reclaim a little piece of my femininity that cancer stole from me,” she said.
“When you have as many surgeries as I’ve had, you lose so many female sensations that you’ll never get back.
“Nipple sensation is something that cancer robbed from my anatomy and I’m used to it now but there is that little part of me that will always be lost. Doing ‘Strictly’ and doing this shoot, I feel like I’m finally becoming the woman that I was again.”
Anastacia said she hoped the photos would remind women to check themselves for signs of breast cancer and urged women to attend their mammograms.
In the UK, women aged 50-70 and registered with a GP are automatically invited for breast cancer screening via mammogram every three years under the NHS. Younger women who notice a symptom of breast cancer should visit their GP, who may refer them for an appointment.
“Cancer and death needn’t go hand in hand,” Anastacia said.
“If you catch it early you can live with it and seek treatment – it’s not spotting it early enough that’s scary.”
You can read the full Fault magazine interview with Anastacia here.