Chrissie Swan was so desperate to stop photos of herself smoking while pregnant being published, she was willing to spend $53,000 to buy them herself.

Chrissie's management company Watercooler was locked in a bidding war with Woman's Day until midnight on Monday, offering up to $53,000 before the images were finally purchased by the magazine for $55,000, Fairfax Media reports.

Watercooler part-owner and Chrissie's friend Ian 'Dicko' Dickson confirmed the company was in negotiations to buy the controversial images, but claimed it was only willing to pay $10,000 for them.

Chrissie tearfully confessed to smoking while pregnant with her third child on her radio show yesterday.

She said she had quit smoking completely when she was pregnant with her first child Leo, but had started again about a year ago and hadn't been able to stop, even though she is currently seven months pregnant.

"I tried to go cold turkey like I did with Leo and I was confident that I could do it," she said. "But I couldn't do it. And I just failed and failed. Time after time.

"I'd win for a few days and then I would have a cigarette and I would feel terrible and wracked with guilt and then I'd be off the cigarettes for a week and then I'd get stressed out and I'd have one again.

"Giving up is so hard and, I've really learned that in these last six months. These are not excuses, there are no excuses for smoking, absolutely none. I don't have one, I would, I would love to find one and I can't."

Chrissie said the stress of her radio shows, her TV show Can of Worms and her weekly column and taking care of her family made quitting nearly impossible.

After weeks of trying to stop smoking, she decided she would "go easy" on herself and smoke five cigarettes a week.

It was while she was smoking one of those few this week that a paparazzo snapped the pictures that have become the talk of the country.

"I begged the photographers not to run the story because I know how bad it looks, it is bad," Chrissie said.

"I cannot explain it. I knew it was wrong but there's so much terrible judgement that only awful people and bad parents and idiots and bogans smoke during pregnancy and I didn't feel like I belonged in any of those categories."

Chrissie also appeared on The Project last night to talk about the issue, and again broke down in tears discussing her "shameful secret".