Kim Kardashian recalls being mocked for pregnancy weight after watching Britney Spears documentary
- 06 Mar 2021
Kim Kardashian has empathised with Britney Spears about the harmful impact of being negatively targeted in the media after watching the New York Times’ documentary about the Toxic singer.
In the documentary, Framing Britney Spears, which was released last month, it explores the singer’s rise to power, her conservatorship, and the problematic media attention that followed as a result of her fame.
On Friday, the Skims founder weighed in on the documentary on her Instagram Stories, where she said the film made her feel a lot of “empathy” for Spears before comparing her own experience being mocked by the press and tabloids when she gained weight during her pregnancy with daughter North West in 2013.
“So I finally watched the Britney Spears documentary this week and it made me feel a lot of empathy for her,” Kardashian wrote in a series of posts shared to her Instagram Stories. “The way the media played a big role in her life the way it did can be very traumatising and it can really break even the strongest person.
“No matter how public someone’s life may seem, no one deserves to be treated with such cruelty or judgement for entertainment.”
The reality star then went on to reflect on her own experiences with negative media attention, revealing that she remembers “a time when I felt this way”.
“When I was pregnant with North I was suffering from preeclampsia, which made me swell uncontrollably,” Kardashian wrote. “I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like — as well as being compared to Shamu the Whale by the media.”
According to Kardashian, the photos that tabloids published during her pregnancy made her feel insecure, with the KKW Beauty founder noting that she was “shamed on a weekly basis” in the press.
“I was shamed on a weekly basis with cover stories that made my insecurities so painful I couldn’t leave the house for months after. It really broke me,” she recalled
While Kardashian said that she was able to use the experience and her “frustrating, embarrassing feelings” to motivate herself, she also acknowledged that it would “be a lie” to say this “didn’t take a toll on me mentally”.
The 40-year-old then shared dozens of magazine covers from her pregnancy with North, who is now seven, that mocked her weight gain and compared her to other pregnant celebrities, as well as memes that were created comparing her to Shamu.
In the Instagram Story posts, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star said that she decided to reflect on her own experience in the hopes that it will encourage people to show some “understanding and compassion”.
“You just never fully know what someone is going through behind the scenes and I’ve learned through my own experiences that it’s always better to lead with kindness,” she wrote.
Kardashian is not the only celebrity to connect her own experience to Spears, as multiple others have also done so since the documentary aired, including child star Mara Wilson and Paris Hilton.