Paulina Porizkova is putting the Internet-fueled rumors about her departure from America’s Next Top Model to rest.

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In an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show set to air today, the supermodel, who appeared as a judge on Tyra Banks’s hit competition show from 2008 to 2009, insists that her firing — which she recalls as happening “a day before her birthday” — was strictly business.

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“I got a call from the producers,” Porizkova tells Williams. “They didn’t actually say this, I paraphrase this, but basically said ‘the show needs to cut some fat, and you’re the fat.’ … this is the way I say it, because I thought it sounded cool. But two days later I see all over the blogs: ‘Paulina gets fired because she is fat.’ And I think, ‘Do people not know what a metaphor is?’ “

Last year, in an appearance on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Porizkova described the decision made by producers as a matter of necessity. “I really believe they just felt like they didn’t need me, which of course they don’t.”

But Porizkova maintains a high opinion of her former employer. “[Tyra] is the hardest working woman I think I have ever met,” she tells Williams. “She doesn’t sleep.”