Baring all: naked model who jumped off Times Square ledge tells of mental illness and seeks empathy

A fashion model who strutted naked on a Times Square ledge before leaping off says he wants people to respond to mental illness with more compassion.

In a first-person account that appeared Sunday in the New York Post, Thai-born model Krit McClean shared the details of his manic episode on a sunny morning in late June.

The 21-year-old Columbia University student said he had stepped off the subway near Times Square with blisters on his feet from walking barefoot “and was overwhelmed with fear. ... I was in the throes of paranoia. I thought evil people were out to get me.”

Heading toward his apartment on Manhattan’s West Side, he noticed a Times Square billboard for Express jeans that urged people to “Express Yourself.”

“I obeyed. I immediately took off my clothes,” he said. “Being naked, I thought, was the most truthful way of expressing myself.”

Then he climbed the red stairs behind the TKTS booth that sells discounted Broadway tickets. “I started collecting old gum, cigarette butts and coins — and ate it all. It was my way of disposing of the garbage.”