Kirstie Alley regretted revealing bikini body on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006

Kirstie Alley expressed regret for showing off her body in a bikini during a 2006 talk show appearance.

Two years earlier, the actor – who died on Monday (5 December) from cancer at the age of 71 – began her weight loss journey, joining Jenny Craig’s program in 2004 as a spokesperson.

After successfully losing 75 pounds (32 kg) with the program, Alley went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to reveal her new figure.

However, later speaking on Larry King Live in 2010, the Look Who’s Talking star called her bikini appearance “so stupid”.

When asked why she did the reveal, she responded: “Let me tell you something very stupid about myself.

“This is what I said when I did that: no one is allowed to take photographs. And I thought, well, there’s no photographs, so this will be the end. I’ll walk out, I go blah blah blah, and that’s the end of that,” Alley explained.

“All they have to do is take a frame shot,” she acknowledged. “Little did I know that this would be all over YouTube, it’s had millions of hits.”

The late King further questioned whose idea it was to have her strut around the stage in a two-piece bathing suit.

“Of course it wasn’t Oprah’s idea – she doesn’t have stupid ideas!” Alley replied. “It was my idea. I just thought if I could get myself to come out here in a bikini, then I know that I am liberated. And then I realised, ‘Oh my god! Now I have to live with this, the rest of my life.

“I made some errors in my life,” she added.

Alley was vocal about her struggles with weight and often used her story to empower and inspire others on a similar path.

In one of her final TV appearances in April, Alley sang her heart out on the US version of The Masked Singer, before her third-round elimination.