They are blissfully in love now but plus size model Tess Holliday has admitted she treated her fiance Nick Holliday "very badly" when they first started dating.

The 29-year-old, billed as the world's first size 22 model, met the Australian on Tumblr in 2012 after he praised her for being an inspiration to curvy women.

Fuelled by the remarks made by her friends about her weight, Holliday reveals that she questioned whether she deserved to have an attractive boyfriend who also treated her well.

The US star told The Guardian in a candid interview: "I was like, this guy's never going to give me a chance in hell because he's so hot.

"Because I've never really had good-looking boyfriends before. My friends would always tell me, 'There's no way you're going to get a nice guy and a hot guy – you're fat, you need to settle for one or the other'. I told them, I deserve both."

?Denim sweethearts?

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As their long-distance relationship continued to blossom, Nick eventually moved to the US and proposed to the model shortly after in 2014.

The Milk Model Management client admits that her first real life encounter with her husband-to-be was not the romantic meeting most would expect.

Attributing her "bad" treatment of Nick to the missing father figure in her life, Holliday explained: "I wasn't very nice to him, just because I had never had somebody treat me well before and I didn't know what to do.

"So I treated him very badly. Don't we all have daddy issues, though? I dunno. I see my friend Nadia, who's a plus-size model, post pictures saying how much she loves her dad and I'm like, 'I don't even know what that's like'."

Holliday previously used Tess Munster as her professional name, but she changed her moniker to use Nick's surname when she signed to the modelling agency.

During the interview, the cover star was complimented by a male passer-by, prompting her to address the male attention she often receives, particularly from African-American men.

She revealed: "I do admit that black men love me. I always forget that, and then I come to a black neighbourhood and I remember."

Holliday has taken the fashion world by storm after being signed by London-based Milk Model Management this year, becoming the first plus size model of her size and height to be signed to a mainstream modelling agency.

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