Outlander actress Nell Hudson has received an outpouring of support from fans after she bravely opened up about her struggles with body confidence during her first pregnancy.
The English star, best known for playing Laoghaire MacKenzie in the hit time-travel drama, took to Instagram to share black-and-white photographs of herself while expecting. In her post, she admitted that despite hearing many mothers speak of falling in love with their bodies during pregnancy, she did not feel the same way.
Hudson, who married husband Maximillian King earlier this year, reflected on seeking help for an eating disorder “a long time ago” and confessed she thought she would feel fine when she had a baby. However, she wrote: “For me, it didn’t happen when I was pregnant.” She criticised modern beauty standards, saying women are “force fed, like geese bred for foie gras, images of thinness as beauty.”
The actress declared that she has “never felt more confident, healed, beautiful, whole, amazing” and that this came after giving birth, not before. She concluded: “Yes I grew a 9lb baby but my bum, whilst large, is still somehow completely flat. Hooray for my healthy beautiful body.”
Fans flooded the post with supportive comments, with many sharing their own experiences of body image struggles during and after pregnancy. One follower wrote: “I got my bulimia in control when I had kids 20 years ago… generally the older I get the more thankful I am to be alive in this imperfect body of mine.”
