Tyra Banks Created Crack Addict Character to Fend Off French Men  12/28/05

Retired supermodel Tyra Banks created a crack addict character to scare off lusty French men when she lived alone in Paris as a teenager.

Banks admits she was terrified when she had to ride the city's subway after late modeling auditions because she'd encounter men who she felt sure meant to do her harm.

So she came up with a crazy bad-lady character in a bid to make sure that creepy men left her alone.

She says, "I lived in Paris for two years from 17 to 19-years old and I'd have to do auditions in the modeling world from 8am to 11pm at night and I was by myself getting off of the subway.

"There'd be these men on the street and I was really nervous and scared that they might attack me or come up to me or do something, so I came up with this character. I didn't give her a name."

Banks would start talking to herself and shaking and shivering.

She adds, "I did that and it made the men who probably wanted to do something think again."