Rachael Ray Doesn't Regret Racy Photo Shoot

Rachael Ray 's mother was furious when she stripped down for a racy 2003 FHM photo shoot, but the 40-year-old talk show host has no regrets.

"I think I was 35 at the time," she tells ABC's Nightline in an interview airing Monday. "And I thought about it for a while, and I said, 'You know what? This magazine has as young as 17-, 18-year-olds in hottie bikinis, and these are all actresses, models, pin-up girls. I don't belong to any even remote club of theirs.'"

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"And I thought, 'If I'm gutsy enough to do this, this is a good thing for everybody. This is the everywoman, here she is,'" she adds. "And I did it, and it was the most scared I've ever been, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it again tomorrow."

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Ray also raised some eyebrows for her endorsement deal with Dunkin' Donuts.

Chef Anthony Bourdain famously said the TV spots were "evil" and "like peddling crack to kids."

"I absolutely love Tony Bourdain," Ray says. "I have an enormous amount of respect for him. It's a free country."

She admits the endorsement "wasn't the greatest thing for my PR," but says she respects the company's attempt to make donuts healthier by removing trans fats.

"They came to me and they said, 'We want to make healthier food for America. You drink a lot of coffee. You grew up on Dunkin' Donuts. Have a cup of Dunkin' Donuts on us,'" she says. "They gave their support and their money to [Ray's children's charity] Yum-o. They've been very supportive of me. I don't regret a thing. Not for a minute."

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"I'm an all-things-in-moderation kind of person," she continues. "I do eat a warm donut occasionally. I especially enjoy a cider donut when I'm apple picking. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Ray says she doesn't mind public criticism.

"If you spend so much time thinking about the people who dislike what it is you're doing, you're doing a disservice to the people that employ you," she says. "I'm not employed by those people. I work for the people that want the type of food I write [about], the type of food we share with people."

Ray also says anyone could have done what she's done.

"I absolutely 100 percent believe that," she says. "I'm a waitress from upstate New York. Anyone that likes chatting, that likes to cook, certainly. Could have happened to anybody."

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Ray reportedly earns up to $18 million a year and says "it makes me a little sick."

"It makes my stomach flip. I'm not comfortable with it ... because I don't like to think of my life as that far away from me," she says. "People that make that kind of money -- it's just too foreign of an idea."

Says Ray, "I'm not a chef. I haven't created any new technique in the kitchen. I'm not a rocket scientist. I think I'm good at writing accessible, fun, and affordable meals for the average American family. That's what I think I'm good at."

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