Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has addressed the pressures of "bouncing back" after she had her baby, and how challenging she found media reports that childbirth had "ruined" her body.
In a new interview with Ashley Graham, who is currently expecting her first child, the British model spoke candidly about her post-baby weight gain and how "humbling" the changes to her body had been. The full conversation was recorded for Graham's podcast, Pretty Big Deal.
"I was kind of taken aback by some of the comments that people had… and the narrative around how women are supposed to look,” said Huntington-Whiteley. “It was just shocking to see someone write, ‘Another Body Ruined After a Baby.’ I was like, what the fuck? Sure, I haven’t bounced back, it’s seven months later, but like...
“I was quiet for a couple days but you get on, it makes you stronger," she continued. "But really it was more like, really – are we still at a place where we have this pressure of ‘bouncing back’ after a baby?”
Huntington-Whiteley said she had put on 55 pounds during her pregnancy. She gave birth to her son, Jack, in June 2017.
“Listen, I enjoyed myself. I let the reins go,” she told Graham. “It’s a new experience, so you’re kind of like, ‘Well, let’s see how this goes’. And six months in, I was like, ‘What? This is crazy! It was an intense journey. It was so magical to see – towards the end I just walked around naked. So by the end I just felt really empowered in my body, but it took a minute to get there.”
After she'd had her child, she went back to the gym, but having had "a certain body type", she didn't find the process easy - and it gave her a newfound understanding and respect for others who don't enjoy working out.
“I will say working out in the gym and looking back at myself and feeling like shit, I was like, now I understand how hard it is for some people to get to the gym," she explained.
“I cannot tell people how to feel about their bodies, because everybody has a different experience.”
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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Style File
