She told her radio co-host Rove McManus that seeing the racy shot of herself on the front of the Australian edition of Maxim has “made my blood boil”.

Sam, 26, says the photos were taken in December, 2014, when she “wasn’t in a great frame of mind” after being dumped by Bachelor winner Blake Garvey for Louise Pillidge.

They were used for a topless cover shot in Maxim’s February, 2015, edition, and again in its Hot 100 issue.

But what’s ticked Sam off even more is that she says the magazine has now photo-shopped her hair dark and enhanced her breast size.

“Smack bang, right on the front cover, they’re implying that I’ve done a second photo shoot, I’ve returned to Maxim, they’ve actually photoshopped my hair dark — because I was blonde and now I’m a brunette, says Sam.

“They’ve enhanced my boobs, I am quite flat chested and I’m OK with that and brought in my waste and it’s just — I personally feel like it’s a bit disappointing because I don’t look like that.

“I’m a huge advocate for being a good role model for young girls and just embracing what you look like.

“I don’t have a big chest area and that’s OK and I just feel like they’re kind of exploiting my body, even though they own the photos.”

Sam, now head-over-heals in love with The Bachelorette beau Sasha Mielczarek says it wasn’t just the photographs that were published which were made to appear new.

“Even the article that’s inside, again, it’s like ‘she’s returned back to Maxim’,” she says.

“And I haven’t. And I’m not proud of the fact I did that shoot and I’m quite disappointed in myself and it’s a shame that they’ve altered it so much.”

Maxim‘s editor in chief Santi Pintado was “surprised” by Sam’s reaction given her enthusiasm for doing the shoot in the first place.

“It’s no secret magazines retouch images. The only thing we’ve done is pretty much darken her hair from the shoot,” he says.

A natural self-confessed ‘tomboy’ at heart, Sam recently reiterated to her younger Instagram followers not to be influenced by what they see on the TV and in glossy magazines.

“I feel very flattered when young girls comment on my photos or send me DM’s about how much they look up to me and they want to be as pretty as me,” she writes.

“Which is so lovely and adorable, but this is the every day me [referring to the sans make-up shot]…no filter, no edits, dark circles, messy hair, break outs, uneven skin tone. And I wouldn’t change anything about myself!

“What you see in magazines and on TV is the result of hours in the make-up chair with very talented hair and make-up artists.

“I’ve said it before, but it’s what I live by…love yourself, be yourself, exactly the way you are.”

To find out more about Sam and Sasha, check out Sasha’s most revealing secrets yet about The Bachelorette here.