Life wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows when Nicole Eggert joined “Baywatch” as Roberta “Summer” Quinn in 1992.
On the most recent episode of the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast, Eggert opened up about her experience on the hit show.
Eggert joined “Baywatch” for season 3, but she was originally meant to appear in a spin-off of the show that had a “‘90210’-esque feel at the beach.
The spin-off was meant to be “a high school at the beach training to be lifeguards,” but “Baywatch” became so popular, the second series was never created, Eggert revealed.
“And they were like, ‘Spin-off nothing. This is what’s working, and we want it to stay like this,'” she said.
Eggert “politely bowed out” of “Baywatch” after two seasons because it wasn’t what she signed up for.
“I had some crazy idea in my head that if I left the show, I would be able to detach myself from the stigma that the show had given all of us as actors, which is not a thing,” Eggert said.
The “Baywatch” stigma translated into her dating life, too.
“People have an idea of who you are, and that could be a number of things. And I think it’s harder for people to get to know you without this preconceived notion that they have going in,” Eggert said.
Nicole said she’s “not like anyone” she’s played onscreen, which has thrown people off in her dating life.
Steve Kmetko, the host of the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast, asked Eggert what it was like being on the biggest television show in the world.
“Weird,” Eggert simply admitted. “We were being ripped apart in the press.” Due to the negative press, “the casting doors were not opening anymore,” according to the actress.
“And then all of a sudden it was like we were called ‘Baywatch bimbos’ and these dumb bimbos on the beach, and it’s T&A.
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“And then on the other hand, you have this No. 1 hit on your hand, and it’s like what a kerfuffle. What a mess,” Eggert admitted.
After Eggert stepped away from the hit series, she returned to the “Baywatch” universe in 2003 for “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.”
Eggert told People magazine in 2024 that she didn’t know what she was signing up for when agreeing to join the “Baywatch” world.
“Oh my God, we’re going to be in a bathing suit all day every day?” she remembered thinking on day 1.
“All the girls worked out and were super tiny and fit, and I was like, ‘Whoops.’ And the one-piece bathing suits were not flattering. I didn’t want to wear it at all,” she said of the iconic red swimsuit. “It just wasn’t what I signed up for. It was a totally different show and ballgame and not where I wanted to be.”
While on break from shooting “Baywatch,” Eggert, then 18, decided to go under the knife. “I regret it now, of course,” she explained of getting breast implants.
“I look at all these younger girls doing it and think, ‘God, leave your bodies alone!’ But when you have to put on that one-piece, and it’s like you’re so flat that it’s like pleating, you got pleats across the front … you’re like, ‘What is this?’ Nothing you can do. You can’t stuff it with anything. You can’t do anything.”
With time, Eggert started to question why she’d really gone through with the procedure. “It was a stupid 18-year-old decision,” she admitted to People.
Since getting the initial implants, Eggert has had several breast augmentation surgeries. In 2015, she appeared on an episode of “Botched,” wanting a breast reduction.
In January 2024, the actress announced she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Eggert first felt pain in her breast and gained 25 pounds within three months. Believing them to be symptoms of menopause, she was surprised to locate a lump during a self-exam in October 2023.
“It really was throbbing and hurting,” she previously told People. “I immediately went to my general practitioner, and she told me I had to immediately go get it looked at. But the problem was, I just couldn’t get an appointment. Everything was booked. So I had to wait until the end of November to get it done.”
Results later showed that she had stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer. Both of Eggert’s parents had cancer.
