Kate Winslet bared her heart and her voluptuous curves for the December issue of Vanity Fair, confessing she has always felt like the “fat kid,” only to have British media cruelly comment that she still is the fat kid and that the photos have been airbrushed.

She is 33, mother to two children, has been nominated for an Academy Award five times, holding the record as the youngest actress ever to garner that many nods, is also an accomplished stage actress and has always talked openly about weight issues, whether her own or those propagated by the media.

Yet here she is, once more chastised for daring to feel good about herself and accused of hypocrisy.

Winslet confesses to Vanity Fair that she never had a desire to be famous because she could never reconcile her image of a famous actress with the image she had of herself: “I didn’t know of any fat famous actresses. I just did not see myself in that world at all, and I’m being very sincere. You know, once a fat kid, always a fat kid.”

The actress goes on to say that sometimes she looks at other women around town – she lives in Manhattan with husband Sam Mendes and children Mia and Joe – and thinks to herself that she should try harder to look as thin and trendy as them, only to think, “They can’t be happy in those heels.”

Kate Winslet has been asked over the years about her peace with her own shape and size and the actress has always been adamant that women should be allowed to feel comfortable in their own skin, whether they conform to glossy magazine standards or not.

There was quite a fuss therefore in 2003 when the thespian appeared on the cover of Britain’s GQ magazine looking not quite like herself, that is, slimmer. At the time, Winslet eventually spoke out, saying the pics had been retouched, that she did not look exactly like in the pictures and that she did not want people to think her a hypocrite for saying size doesn’t matter and then apparently losing 30 lbs.

History seems to be repeating, since as soon as images of Vanity Fair’s new cover popped up the British media was quick to note that Winslet looked uncharacteristically slender and that airbrushing must be the answer to this conundrum. The Daily Mail even enlisted the help of a professional airbrush artist, who swears the beautiful photos have been heavily retouched.

A representative for the actress has replied to the accusations, telling People magazine that Winslet is “furious” about the speculation and that she is in “terrific shape.” The only retouching to have taken place is on skin tone, which is a staple for every photo shoot, the rep said. “What you see is how she looks or she would never have agreed to pose for those shots.”

In one of the Vanity Fair pics, Winslet posed as Belle de Jour, Catherine Deneuve’s character in the 1967 film of the same name, directed by Luis Buñuel, a young housewife who experiments with prostitution.