Who is Bianca Balti? Former Victoria’s Secret model reveals she was denied fashion show walk due to cancer

Bianca Balti is slamming Victoria's Secret for allegedly denying her bid to walk the fashion show while she tackled cancer.

The former VS model, 41, published an essay on Substack about her encounter with the famed lingerie company. Balti, who has been undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer since October 2024, shared that she penned a letter to VS the week before the October 15 fashion show to let her walk.

However, they shut down her request, she said. Bianca Balti wrote,

“I don’t know exactly where the courage came from but I did it. The only things we regret in life are the chances we don’t take. So I asked myself, ‘What do I have to lose?’ and went for it. I searched LinkedIn for email addresses and sent this open letter to anyone I could find at the company.”

Bianca Balti is an Italian model. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year and also underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2022 after it was discovered she had the BRCA1 gene. She is most known for having walked the runway alongside the likes of Gisele Bündchen and Adriana Lima.

Read Bianca Balti's open essay to Victoria's Secret below:

In her Substack essay titled 'I Asked Victoria's Secret to Let Me Walk,' Bianca Balti said that she reached out to the lingerie company to represent other women dealing with cancer.

'I reached out to Victoria's Secret and offered myself to walk in this year's Fashion Show,' she wrote. 'I stand for every woman who faces cancer and still dares to feel beautiful.'

Once a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, she said that the idea came to her when she saw an Instagram post about the legendary fashion show. The date it kicked off, October 15, marked exactly one year since she underwent her first chemotherapy session, and she felt like the coincidence was a sign.

'Life doesn't script moments this aligned by accident,' she wrote. 'On October 14th, I celebrate one year since my first chemotherapy session. On October 15th, your show returns - during Breast Cancer Awareness Month,' she wrote in her letter.

She outlined how she emailed anyone at the company, and even scoured LinkedIn for addresses. In her letter, she called on the brand to broaden its image and represent women like her, i.e., cancer survivors, those with scars, and more.

'Inclusivity means making your audience feel seen,' Bianca Balti wrote. 'One in three women will face cancer in their lifetime. One in eight will face breast cancer. Thousands will face ovarian cancer. I am one of them.'

The model first strutted the Victoria's Secret runway in 2005. In her essay, she also pointed out the diversity of last year's fashion show, noting:

“Two trans women, three plus-size powerhouses — Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Devyn Garcia — and an age range that stretched from 22-year-old Lila Moss to 56-year-old Carla Bruni.”

She then outlined why she should be included this year:

“Not (only) because I’m beautiful but because I represent the millions of women who have, have had, or will have cancer. I want to show them that a diagnosis is not the end of beauty, or confidence, or sensuality. That scars don’t erase who we are. That life after cancer can still be bold, sexy, and full.”

As for the response from Victoria's Secret, she said that they “kindly” denied her pitch, claiming that the full cast was already in place.

“And that’s okay,” Bianca Balti continued in her essay. “I made this bold move because ever since I got sick, I’ve felt a responsibility to bring hope not just to women with cancer, but to everyone learning to live again after hardship. 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,” she added.

Some of the models this year included WNBA player Angel Reese, Jasmine Tookes, Olympic gymnast Suni Lee, iconic supermodels Graham, Gigi, and Bella Hadid, and more.

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