Yesterday afternoon, outlets began picking up Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder's interview with Dr. Berlin's Informed Pregnancy Podcast where Reed said Somerhalder threw out all her birth control pills to get her pregnant the night they decided they were ready to have kids. They had been out with friends and talked about how they all wanted to have children together.
"Unbeknownst to poor Nikki, she didn't realize that I was gonna go in her purse and take out her birth control and...by the way, it was the beginning of the pack, so I had to pop all of those suckers out…" he said during the podcast. He had what he described as her six-minute "freakout" while he did it recorded by a friend there.
Many outlets and commenters have called the the story out as problematic and a possible example of reproductive coercion, an abusive behavior. But as this portrayal of the interview blows up, Reed has taken to her Twitter to try to straighten it out.
"WOMEN'S RIGHTS MATTER, so please don't use false narratives to highlight issues that are truly important!" she wrote. "We should be talking about these things, but using a funny interview between married ppl & twisting it to perpetuate gossip is irresponsible."
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
