Rachel Hunter loses her weight battle as she piles on the pounds and bursts out of her corset

A year away from her 40th birthday, it seems that model Rachel Hunter has lost her weight battle and piled on the pounds.

The normally svelte glamour girl was bursting out of her corset on American TV show Celebrity Circus, on which she is a contestant.

However, the weight gain has clearly not affected her sex symbol status after being voted one of the best ever Playboy Bunnies earlier this week.

Rachel Hunter on new show Celebrity Circus (left) and pictured in 2004 (right)

The former wife of Rod Stewart famously teamed up with Slim-Fast to help people lose weight.

But the former supermodel-turned-actress has obviously not taken her own advice.

When she teamed up with the weight loss company, she said: 'I have always tried to be my own person and live up to my own definition of an ideal size that feels right for me and for my body.'

Rachel Hunter pictured with host Joey Fatone on the new US show in Los Angeles

But Rachel has also famously slammed women for getting too thin, claiming that too much weight loss prematurely ages the face.

She added: 'Catherine Deneuve once said that as a woman gets older, she has to choose between her face and her bottom - I'd choose my face within two seconds.'

And Rachel might just have taken Catherine's words to heart if her latest appearance in her circus outfit is anything to go by.

The 5ft10in model, who once took over from Penny Lancaster as being the face of underwear brand Ultimo, shot to fame in the late 1980s with her voluptuous body.

When she joined Slim-Fast as a spokesperson last year, she said she hoped to become a role model for regular-sized women everywhere.

And the model spoke candidly about pressures on her weight.

’There are times when you go, “If I was thinner, I could do that.” Maybe I can’t do that any more. I think finding something, feeling comfortable with it and being OK with that is important.'

She admits that bread and cheese are her big weaknesses and that she was at her heaviest after she had her children.

She explains: 'Oh God, does that suck! The last 10lb took me at least five years to go down. I put on 40 to 45lb.

'I remember a friend of mine – her little girl goes, “What are those dimples on your leg?” I was like, “Oh, no!” I don’t know how some of these women do it. They get back their figures like that.'