The truth about motherhood isn't always reflected in the images of motherhood presented to us by media. There's a lot of celebration of perfect motherhood.
In real life, we know there's no such thing. There's a whole legion of moms doing their best, but there are no perfect ones. There are moms who accept help and moms who do it all on their own. There are moms who have supportive partners and moms who tackle all the work themselves. There are all kinds of moms — but no perfect ones.
That message is seen so sparingly that it feels refreshing when a celebrity mom acknowledges the lesser-talked-about sides of being a parent. You can always count on these celebrity moms to be honest about all the wonderful, terrible, and mystifying moments motherhood brings to our lives.
Ali Fedotowsky
Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky has gotten candid about how motherhood rocked her world. In an interview with Today shortly before her oldest child's first birthday, she revealed how chaotic things got for her.
"For the first eight months of Molly's life, we never had anyone else watch her — not even a family member. After months of no breaks and little sleep, I legit had a mental breakdown," she shared.
"I remember I was in our kitchen, crying to Kevin on the phone, saying, 'I can’t do this anymore. I need help.' I was holding Molly. She was screaming. I was screaming. It was like out of a movie — I lost my mind."
Ashley Graham
Ashley Graham has been a mom for just over a year, but it's been a pretty enlightening experience for her.
"Something interesting that I've learned about motherhood in relation to criticism is that, when you're pregnant, everyone's obsessed with you," she shared with Harper's Bazaar.
"But what happens when the baby comes, is that everybody has an opinion about how you parent — even though they told you, 'Don't take advice from anybody.'"
Blake Lively
Blake Lively is the mother of three little girls. Unlike many celebrity moms, she's never shied away from the fact that it's not all fun and Instagram-perfect pictures.
"Having a baby is just living in the constant unexpected," Blake told the Los Angeles Times.
"You never know when you're gonna get crapped on or when you're gonna get a big smile or when that smile immediately turns into hysterics. It might be like living with a drug addict."
Jillian Michaels
Jillian Michaels admitted to mishandling a big issue with her daughter, Lukensia. "One evening, when my daughter was maybe 6, she said to me that she thought gay people were gross, or gay was gross. And I freaked out," she admitted to People.
"When people talk about parenting being hard, I don't find that it’s 'all the sleepless nights' or the poopy diapers. It's these kinds of moments that bring you face to face with all of your deep, dark issues, where you don’t handle it well. And I really wish I had handled it differently in the moment."
Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff is now a mom of three, but she's been keeping it real about motherhood from the jump. In a May 2020 essay for Refinery29, she opened up about the guilt taking over and constantly judging herself and feeling judged by everyone else.
"Once you become a parent, you know that your biggest responsibility in life is to take care of your children, make sure they're happy and feel loved, and that they turn out to be good human beings. It's hard to do that when everything you do is scrutinized and picked apart," she said.
"I love my kids more than anything. I cannot imagine not being a parent. But I don't always like them. I'm constantly cleaning up after them and they're both always running in two separate directions and it's absolutely exhausting. It's also the best, most rewarding thing."
Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde is one of the refreshingly honest moms who admits that she doesn't always want to be with her kids and that she values her career quite a bit, too. She started with her honest takes right after having son Otis, when she opened up about her post-baby body.
"I am not in perfect shape. 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," she captioned her Shape cover.
"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."
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen has been raw and honest about all the different aspects of motherhood in a way most women couldn't imagine. She was yet again relatable when she one day tweeted, "I am having a very rough day and it would help me a lot if any moms would like to share stories of their kids being mean to them." Moms had an outpouring of stories about such days, because some days we're stuck with little jerks.
Shonda Rhimes
In an essay looking back on the early days of motherhood, Shonda got real about the romanticization of sleepless nights.
"Twelve years later the memories of those nights, of that sleep deprivation, still make me rock back and forth a little bit," she wrote for Motherwell Magazine.
"You want to torture someone? Hand them an adorable baby they love who doesn't sleep."
Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis opened up about a tweet about parents who admit to not always liking their kids in an interview with Glamour.
"Children are [expletive] crazy. They're also suicidal," she shared.
"Like, at the park, certain jungle gyms have an opening for older kids to jump out of. [Wyatt]'s 19 months; she can't jump. She just walks off it as if she's on a pirate ship.
"Another important thing to learn is that kids have a personality that has nothing to do with you. I have a really sweet daughter. She wants to hug all the other kids. I didn't teach her to be sweet. It has nothing to do with me. I've realized you can control only so much."
Pink
Pink's never afraid to share an unpopular opinion on parenting or anything else. She marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn't care how others feel about it. It resonates with other moms and led to this beautiful moment.
"A really sweet Mama came up 2me tonight at the grocery store and told me some nice words about how she gets strength from my parenting cause I'm not afraid to [expect] up in public," she tweeted.
"We cried together. It's so hard. Y'all. I wish us mamas could give ourselves and each other a break."
