The joys of giving birth can quickly dissipate when we open our favorite celebrity magazine to see a star bouncing back from pregnancy in what seems like days, leaving our confidence at rock bottom. But not all celebrities take the hardcore approach and rock a six-pack weeks after giving birth. In fact, many stars, including Pink and Hilary Duff, are downright real and inspiring, sharing the honest truth about what it's like post-pregnancy.
Every woman and every woman's body is different. We're individuals, after all. So after having a baby, there are a million plus ways we recover and rebound in body, mind, and spirit, and for most of us, everything takes time. A lot of time.
Pregnancy and its aftermath take their toll in a variety of ways — they can (and mostly likely will) zap our energy and ability to remember a dang thing, and while many women will lose the pounds they gained in pregnancy, some won't and probably not one of us will look the same as we did before pregnancy, no matter what we do. And that's OK! It's normal. We grew and gave birth to human beings!
Celebs are no different, but only some of them will speak openly about it. These celebrity moms took the time they needed to lose the baby weight, focusing instead on what was best for themselves and their newborns, not the number on a scale or the opinions of others.
Drew Barrymore
After the birth of her second daughter in 2014, Drew Barrymore didn't rush to get her pre-pregnancy body back, confessing to People magazine, "It took nine months to [gain it], so it should take nine months to get off."
Kelly Clarkson
She has faced her share of body-shamers online, but Kelly Clarkson doesn't let her weight define her, telling Redbook magazine eight months after her daughter was born, "I don't obsess about my weight, which is probably one of the reasons why other people have such a problem with it." Thank you, Kelly, for being so downright real!
Hilary Duff
This girl gets it! Hilary Duff didn't expect miracles post-birth and is proud of what she created, saying, "It takes time. It takes nine months for your body to get that way, and it's putting on that weight on purpose. The second I start to get down like, 'What happened to my body?' I look at my beautiful baby — and I've never been more appreciative for this body that I have."
Reese Witherspoon
We thought she looked great after baby, but Reese Witherspoon admitted losing baby weight was slow. “I don’t know if I’m bouncing back, I’m slowly crawling back. You just have to be gentle and patient with yourself and just sort of you know … slowly get back to your health.”
Kristen Bell
Don't stress is Kristen Bell's baby weight loss mantra after welcoming daughters Delta and Lincoln with husband Dax Shepard. She confronted Hollywood's impossible standards with her tweet that said, "I'm proud to sit out of the baby weight rat race."
Kerry Washington
We like her style! Kerry Washington takes the no-stress approach to baby weight loss, telling E!, “I’ve always been a person who really approaches health in a proactive way. I work out, I eat right, so those were the things I continued to do once the doctor said I could, but not to be crazy about it. I’m breastfeeding, so I can’t starve myself.”
Amy Adams
Props to Amy Adams, who took the baby weight loss one step at a time after she had her daughter, Aviana, with husband Darren Le Gallo, telling Parade magazine, “I’ve been working out when I can, and I’m trying to eat in a healthful way, but losing weight is not my number-one priority."
Jennifer Garner
We love how Jennifer Garner is realistic about her post-pregnancy body after three children, saying: "From now on, ladies, I will have a bump. And it will be my baby bump. And let’s just all settle in and get used to it. It’s not going anywhere. I have a bump. Its name is Violet, Sam, Sera.”
Kate Winslet
As a mother of three kids (Mia, Joe, and Bear), Kate Winslet knows how stressful the postpartum period can be. Citing being too busy kept Kate's mind off her post-pregnancy weight. "To be honest with you, after having a baby you end up being so busy with the baby and the nursing," she said.
Pink
She wasn't mad with her body, she was impressed with the accomplishment of birth. Pink eventually lost the 55 pounds she gained during pregnancy, but she didn't rush to get there. She opened up to People magazine, saying, "[But] it was slow because I literally couldn’t even do a sit-up. I’d had to have an emergency C-section so I was numb. And exhausted. I was really afraid because my whole life is based on abs and core.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Setting priorities, like caring for her baby and not obsessing about weight, was Jennifer Love Hewitt's goal. She focused on eating for the baby and starting to focus on a healthy eating relationship for her daughter without worrying too much when the weight would come off.
“I really thought I was going to be super consumed with trying to get my body back to the way it was before, and now that I’m a mom, I’m like I don’t want to be that girl again because that girl didn’t have a baby and didn’t have a great husband and didn’t have this blissful existence that I’m having now," she told Us Weekly in 2014.
Shakira
Having a husband who likes her with curves helped Shakira not stress about dropping baby pounds. She told Glamour magazine, “He doesn’t like [me] too skinny. That takes the pressure off. I already have a lot to worry about.”
Jenna Fischer
Actress Jenna Fischer admits that losing baby weight is not easy, telling People magazine, “It’s taken me every day of 10 months to lose the weight. I did it slowly and I did it moderately … but if there’s one thing I could do for a new mom, it’d be to alleviate her of any guilt or any stress over the idea of having her body look a certain way.”
Selma Blair
Sometimes the scale never goes back to where it once was. Shortly after giving birth to her son, Selma Blair admitted to Cosmopolitan magazine, "Momma likes to eat. Momma is in no rush to look beautiful anytime soon."
Alyson Hannigan
This couldn't be more IRL. Alyson Hannigan took to Twitter to write, “I think by Hollywood standards I’m supposed to be in bikini shape now that my baby is 4 weeks old. … My workout goal: Food drops in lap, not on belly.”
Alyssa Milano
Even when Alyssa Milano was pregnant, she wasn't afraid to gain weight. "A female body is not made to look good in a bikini," Milano said to Fit Pregnancy. "It's made to give birth and have a baby and be a cozy companion for it afterward. And for my body, that meant putting on a lot of weight."
Chrissy Teigen
After giving birth to two kids — Luna and Miles — Chrissy Teigen simply isn't all that worried if she's carrying around a little extra weight. In 2019, she admitted on Twitter that she weighed about 20 pounds more than she did before having Miles.
"I never lost the last bit because I just love food too much," she wrote. "Just coming to terms with my new normal, when I had this certain number for so long!"
Ashley Graham
Ashley Graham has always been a champion for body positivity at any size, and that includes herself. After welcoming her first child, Isaac, in 2020, she told People that she's loving the way her body has changed.
"It looks so simple and beautiful, but powerful," she said. "I've got more weight on me. I [have] stretch marks, and in the beginning I really had to have a lot of conversations with myself and tell myself, 'Okay, new body, new mindset.' But after this photo shoot, I felt so empowered because I was like, 'Yes. I look good. I feel good. This is my new mom bod.'"
Nikki Bella
As a pro-wrestler, it made sense that Nikki Bella wanted to be able to get back into shape the way she was before having Matteo, and she's been open about the journey with her followers on Instagram. She's been keeping everyone updated via her Instagram stories about her fitness routine and weight.
Bethenny Frankel
This Real Housewives star told Health that she isn't too concerned about when the baby weight will come off, and she doesn't even have a scale at home.
"I just weighed myself for the first time — I don't have a scale — but I'm probably three or four pounds more now," she said. "Maybe that will take a long time to come off, and I don't really know that I want to take it off. I'm just kind of not even concerned about it."
Jessica Simpson
After Jessica Simpson's third child was born, this mama was on a mission. She set out to lose 100 pounds, and she did it — in less than a year, at that! She focused on walking and moving her body and keeping her diet in check, sharing the journey with fans on social media in the process.
Katy Perry
After she and fiancé Orlando Bloom welcomed their first child, Daisy Dove, in 2020, Katy Perry has embraced her new body, and shared the not-so-pretty parts of new motherhood on Instagram, too — including her precious moments wearing her pumping bra and postpartum underwear, weight be damned. She's even copped to wearing Spanx.
Serena Williams
As one of the most legendary tennis players in the world, of course Serena Williams has always been fit. And after having daughter Olympia, she told Allure that while it took eight months to get her body back to a place she was happy with, she was never too worried about it to begin with.
“After I came out [of the hospital], I had a stomach, but I thought, 'This is kind of cool. I have a stomach because the baby was there,'" she said.
Kate Hudson
In an Instagram post she shared in 2018 after having daughter Rani Rose, Kate Hudson wrote that her health was her concern, not necessarily her weight.
"The routine with our baby is getting more familiar and I’m ready to start taking a little time in the day focusing on myself," she wrote at the time. "For me that means my health. Why? Because I wanna be around a long time for these three kiddos of mine."
Kim Kardashian
Though Kim Kardashian used a surrogate for her two youngest kids, Psalm and Chicago, she carried kids North and Saint herself, and she said she struggled with her body not bouncing back as quickly as others did.
"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," she wrote on her now-defunct app, according to Shape. "That's not me."
Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway, who is a mom to Jonathan and Jack, took to Instagram to share her thoughts on postpartum weight gain in 2016.
"There is no shame in gaining weight during pregnancy (or ever)," she wrote. "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). 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."
