When photographer Bruce McBroom was commissioned to create Farrah Fawcett's poster, he was given strict instructions from the poster company, ProArts. McBroom revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he was told, "It's gotta be her great hair, she's gotta be smiling, she's gotta be in a bikini and they've gotta be drop-dead, sexy pictures." But, when Fawcett arrived for the shoot, she informed McBroom she didn't own a bikini. Instead, she appeared with her red one-piece, and he was forced to work with it. Luckily for all, it worked out.
In a 1984 interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters, Fawcett revealed she was "happy" she was able to pull off the shoot in a one-piece suit instead of a skimpy bikini. "I mean, certainly it's sexy because that's my figure, and my nipples were showing," she said. "But, that's me."
But there was actually a serious reason why Fawcett didn't want to wear a bikini. According to OK!, on the REELZ docuseries, "Autopsy: Farrah Fawcett," forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter revealed that Fawcett suffered from "a little-known medical condition" — Pyloric stenosis — which resulted in surgery on her stomach at age 28, just one year before she posed for the poster. A source in the docuseries noted that Fawcett was "very self-conscious" about the large scar on her stomach from the surgery, which is why she refused to wear a bikini for the poster that would ultimately be seen around the world.
