New Jersey’s media-persecuted ‘Tan Mom’ Patricia Krentcil made worldwide headlines again this week, appearing in an In Touch magazine photo-interview after the magazine challenged her to stop suntanning for an entire month.

The In Touch story — and widespread media accounts of it — falsely gave the impression that Krentcil’s now-infamous axle-grease-thick rub-on and spray-on “black-face” media appearance this spring was a UV tan. It wasn’t.

“It is astounding that media outlets continue to suggest that Krentcil’s dark photos were a UV tan — she has publicly stated many times that she was using creams, lotions and sprays in combination to get as dark as she possibly could,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “Whatever possessed her to use that much self-tanning cream most likely involved a non-tanning-related issue more core to her own self-perception that the magazines and dermatologists didn’t even address. Instead, they used her as an unwitting pawn to promote their for-profit anti-UV agenda. They used her.. This is a person who never wanted any of this attention, and when the entire media universe camped out at her house 24/7, she was clearly overwhelmed.”

In Touch gave Krentcil the opportunity to tell her story her way in exchange for taking a one-month tanning hiatus. But Krentcil says she isn’t about to go cold-turkey and stop tanning — she just wants to be left alone. “I might squeeze a tan in here or there. I wish none of this had ever happened. It was blown out of proportion,” Krentcil told In Touch. “And that’s the other thing – I am sick of talking about tanning.”

Krentcil was charged with child endangerment after her then-five-year-old daughter alleged to a school official that she took her tanning at a tanning salon. Krentcil has said her daughter has stood in a room outside of a stand-up unit while Krentcil tanned, but that her daughter has never been in a tanning unit. She told In Touch the charges should be dropped soon because a grand jury reviewing the case will not find one person to support the allegation.