20 Celebrity Moms Who Talk Honestly About Their Postpartum Bodies

Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff is all about acceptance when it comes to her postpartum body. “I’m proud of my body,” she told Women’s Health in a May 2022 cover story. “I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through. I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through.” But she’s also cognizant that the postpartum image that celebrities present is not always true to reality. “I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body and someone put me in the most flattering position,” Duff commented of the nude photoshoot she did for the magazine.

“I have just gained a lot of respect for my body,” the mom of four added, per The Bump. “It’s taken me all of the places I need to go. It’s helped me build a beautiful family,” she added. “I feel like the older I get, the more confident I get in my own skin. And my body’s been many different shapes and sizes and I’m really just fascinated by, one, being a woman. And two, all the changes that your body can go through throughout your lifetime.”

Jessie James Decker

In April 2018, country singer Jessie James Decker kept it real about her post-baby body, posting to Instagram a photo of her belly just three weeks after pregnancy. 

“I’m still very swollen,” she wrote, adding that her third pregnancy was “by far the hardest recovery, but I’m feeling stronger every day. Little Forrest is such an amazing baby and the easiest one of the 3.”

Decker describe the body’s ability as “incredible” and said she was “so grateful” of the experience. “I know i say this after each baby but remember what our bodies just when through for 9 months and be proud, don’t stress over post baby body, just enjoy your new baby because these are beautiful moments and memories you will cherish forever (aaaand drink your coffee to survive the no sleeping all night long ha!)”

Keke Palmer

After the birth of her son, Leodis, in February 2023, Keke Palmer got real about her ability to get back into shape — and the fact that it had a lot to do with her career and resources. “It’s my job,” Palmer said on an August 2024 episode of her podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, per E! News. “I don’t want people to think that I’m also setting unrealistic standards because I can afford a trainer. I can afford meal prep. I can afford a lot of things.” She added that her fitness is a matter of “investing in my career, because it’s my career to look good,” and that it’s a “personal choice” to prioritize herself in this way.

“I never want to put it on anybody,” she emphasized. “I always want to make it clear that when I am talking about fitness, health and wellness is that, ‘Your journey is your journey. You figure it out the way you can.’ And when you look at these celebrities and people in the industry, know that it is their job.”

Anne Hathaway

“There is no shame in gaining weight during pregnancy (or ever),” Anne Hathaway wrote on Instagram in 2016, a few months after giving birth to her first son. “There is no shame if it takes longer than you think it will to lose the weight (if you want to lose it at all),” the Idea of You star went on, before addressing the reason why she paired the caption with a photo of homemade jean shorts: “There is no shame in finally breaking down and making your own jean shorts because last summer’s are just too dang short for this summer’s thighs. Bodies change. Bodies grow. Bodies shrink. It’s all love (don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.)”

Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet is refreshingly honest when it comes to talking about her postpartum body — and about weight in general, especially in our strange age of Ozempic. “I have a crumble baby belly, boobs are worse for wear after two kids,” Winslet told the Daily Mail in 2008. “I’m doing all right. I’m 33. I don’t look in the mirror and go, ‘Oh, I look fantastic!’ Of course I don’t. Nobody is perfect. I just don’t believe in perfection. But I do believe in saying, ‘This is who I am, and look at me not being perfect!’ I’m proud of that.”

In 2014, after the birth of her third child, Bear Blaze, she took on the whole notion that people are expected to lose weight after giving birth. “It keeps coming up and people keeping saying ‘look how great she looks three weeks post-baby. Wow, fantastic!’,” Winslet told Stylist. “Not ‘wow fantastic’… I mean that’s not right, it’s not possible… My little boy is 16 months old now and honestly it’s really only in the last three or four months that I’ve truly felt completely back to where I was before I had him. And that’s the right way round.”

Kerry Washington

In 2015, Kerry Washington recounted a story where her manager told her she was starting to look more like her pre-baby self. “She meant it as a total compliment, but we had this great conversation where I was like, ‘You know what? I try really hard not to use that language, because it’s not about going backward in life,’” Washington told Self. “I’ve been really focused on not being ‘back’ to anything, but being the best version of myself right now.”

“My body is the site of a miracle right now,” continued Washington, who now has three kids. “I don’t want to be pre-miracle.”

Hilaria Baldwin

Only 24 hours after the birth of her third child, Leonardo, Baldwin shared an intimate postpartum underwear selfie on Instagram.  

“I did the same thing right after Rafael was born,” she wrote in September 2016. “It always makes me a bit nervous to do something like this, but I feel that in the age of such strong body shaming, I want to do all that I can to normalize a real body and promote healthy self esteem. Many of you know that I love to show the process of life’s experiences on the body and I am a firm believer in how a good diet and the right balance of exercise make us happy, healthy, and strong.”

Jeannie Mai

Jeannie Mai gave an unfiltered look at new motherhood on Instagram in January 2024, just a few weeks after announcing the birth of her daughter, Monaco, with now-ex husband Jeezy. Mai admitted that “while being a new mom is the most exhilarating moment I have ever experienced in my life— nothing prepared me for postpartum.” The ultra-honest caption was accompanied by a photo of Mai relaxing on her couch in a bralette and Frida Mom postpartum briefs, which the TV host said she’d “been LIVING in… LEGIT the best damn thing!”

Mai also noted that she hadn’t expected “all the things I’d need just to sit, lay down, walk, or even hold our baby… the 4th trimester has been the hardest trimester yet, but I’m a happy, healing mom over here.”

Zooey Deschanel

“To expect someone to look like her pre-baby self immediately is odd,” Zooey Deschanel told Redbook in 2016, after the birth of her daughter in 2015. “You just grew a human and then birthed that human — there’s a lot that needs to go back to where it was. All your organs move around, for chrissakes!”

Olivia Wilde

Count Olivia Wilde among the moms who are so over the idea that they need to get “back in shape” at all. “I am not in perfect shape,” Wilde wrote in an essay for Shape in 2015, per HuffPost, after giving birth to her first child in 2014. “In fact, I’m softer than I’ve ever been, including that unfortunate semester in high school when I simultaneously discovered Krispy Kreme and pot,” the now-mom of two went on. “The photos of me in this magazine have been generously constructed to show my best angles, and I assure you, good lighting has been warmly embraced. The truth is, I’m a mother, and I look like one.”

Wilde doesn’t believe that any parent needs to “shed any physical evidence of their child-bearing experience,” she continued. “I don’t want to waste my time striving for some subjective definition of perfection.”

Serena Williams

Serena Williams has been open about her postpartum journey since the birth of her second daughter, Adira, in August 2023. She tracked her fitness with a Valentino denim skirt that she bought when she was pregnant, with the intention of wearing it “when I don’t have a belly,” the retired tennis star said in a January 2024 Instagram video. After attempting to get the skirt on, Williams shelved it for a few months, then tried again in May. “I’ve been gym-ing a lot, but I don’t know if the needle is moving,” she said. When the skirt failed to rise above her hips again, Williams was honest about her reaction. “Can’t say I’m happy about this,” she said. “It’s getting there… it’s like an inch higher.” In a follow-up video in July, Williams said, “we’ve made a lot of progress!” as the skirt reached over her hips. “I might have to do one more video. Hopefully the next one is it.”

We love Williams’ honest about her postpartum journey and the time it’s taking to get to her goals. “Loving yourself is essential,” she wrote in a February 2024 Instagram post. “I find that I have to remind myself of that self-love through all different stages in my life. Right now I love that my body is not picture perfect… I love getting to know a new version of my body. It is a change, but it’s a change that has been well worth it.”

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian was under intense scrutiny after her pregnancies (and always, TBH), and she’s been open about what that pressure was like, and why it was difficult for her to lose weight.

“After I had Saint, I decided to set goals for myself,” she wrote in a now-removed blog post in August 2016, after giving birth to Saint in 2015. “I was motivated, but it was tough! It isn’t easy to just bounce back. I was so jealous of women who had these cute little baby bellies and would gain 25 pounds — and then, a few weeks after giving birth, somehow look exactly like they did before they were pregnant, lol. That’s not me… 

“As North gets older, she’ll start to be more aware of herself and her body,” Kardashian went on, referring to her eldest daughter. “Her attitude toward her body is directly related to my own, so it’s my responsibility to make sure she understands that positive body image comes from having a healthy self-esteem. We all have our hang-ups and things we might want to change, but my curves make me who I am. So I embrace my body and the changes I’ve gone through. If anything, those changes remind me of what I’m able to create with my body: two little angels that I love beyond words.”

Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell is known as one of the fitter celebs out there, but she was honest about how tough it was to get there after having two kids. “Having children obliterated my abdominal wall,” the mom of two told Women’s Health in 2019. “Good night. That’s a wrap. And I thought, Well, it’s never going to come back. What do I need it for? I’m married. Spanx exist. You don’t get everything all the time.”

Now Bell embraces the physical strength she’s found through workouts like Pilates. “I’ve always felt mentally strong because I’m adept and can banter and hold my own in a good conversation,” she told the outlet. “But I’ve never felt physically strong. I felt waifish…or pregnant. And I’m loving the fact that if we ever get attacked by ninjas, I would be a valuable asset.”

Carrie Underwood

When it comes to losing weight after pregnancy, “there is a lot of pressure,” Underwood told Glamour in 2015. The country star and mom of two is practical about those expectations. “I will never have my pre-baby body back, no matter how hard I try,” she said. “My body changed to make another human being, and that’s amazing. I have much more respect for my body after that. I think it’s all about feeling good, and I feel good… [New moms] just need to feel good — cut yourself some slack.”

Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore approached her postpartum body changes with humor and realness. “After making two babies, holy cow, does your body do some crazy stuff!” the mom of two told Glamour in 2015. “It’s hard to stay positive and love yourself,” Barrymore continued, comparing herself to “a kangaroo with a giant pouch; everything’s saggy and weird.” A mindset shit is crucial, she said. “You think about how beautiful it is that you’re able to make children. When I lose sight of that, I exercise, read Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, and spend time with my kids. Then I start to see things that are bigger than myself.”

Chrissy Teigen

From the pain of peeing after birth to ripping her new clothes to accommodate her ever-increasing bust size, mom of four Chrissy Teigen doesn’t mince words when it comes to postpartum body changes. She’s also quick to defend moms who face criticism for slimming down quickly after giving birth. 

“I think some people actually get really weirded out if you do bounce back too quickly, because you really should be at home with this little thing and taking care of her and not be so concerned,” she told People in 2016, per E! News. “But you’ll never have the right answer, and you’ll never be right to everybody, so you just live and do what you can do best.”

Amy Adams

We’re obsessed with Amy Adams’ take on postpartum: “”Being pregnant finally helped me understand what my true relationship was with my body — meaning that it wasn’t put on this Earth to look good in a swimsuit,” mom of one Adams revealed to Parade in 2010. Louder for the people in the back! “I was like, ‘Look, I can carry a baby! I’m gaining weight right, everything’s going well.’ And I’ve had that relationship ever since.”

Keira Knightley

Giving birth helped Keira Knightley see her body for what it was: incredibly strong and capable. “I have to say, as a woman, you hate certain parts of your body,” Knightley admitted to Elle in 2015. “You go through those periods where you look in the mirror and you think, ‘Oh, if only I had different legs or arms’ or whatever. You go through pregnancy and labor and then feeding the kid, and you go, ‘Wow, my body is totally amazing, and I’m never going to not like it again, because it did this, and this is fucking extraordinary.’”

Jennifer Garner

Back in 2014, Jennifer Garner addressed speculation that she was expecting a fourth child with then-husband Ben Affleck in a firm but funny way. The 13 Going on 30 actress told Ellen DeGeneres in October 2014 that she dealt with rumors about a baby bump by admitting that yes, she does have a baby bump — but she’s not pregnant again. “I have had three kids and there is a bump,” Garner said. “From now on, ladies, I will have a bump, and it will be my baby bump… It’s not going anywhere. Its name is Violet, Sam, and Sera.”

Kelly Clarkson

Clarkson, who is mom to a son and a daughter, faced nasty criticism about her post-baby weight but has faced it with her trademark grace and good humor. 

“I don’t obsess about my weight, which is probably one of the reasons why other people have such a problem with it,” she told Redbook in 2015. “There are just some people who are born skinny and with a great metabolism — that is not me. I wish I had a better metabolism. But someone else probably wishes they could walk into a room and make friends with everyone like I can. You always want what someone else has.”