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10 Times Celebrity Parents Were Shamed for Perfectly Normal Activities

Can they live?

By Megan Freidman
victoria beckham harper beckhampinterest

Stars are just like us: They get picked apart for literally everything they do as parents. Whether they breast feed or bottle feed, gain too much weight or not enough weight, or just simply dare to have kids who misbehave every once in a while, celebrity parents can't catch a break. The difference is, when they're criticized, it's by thousands of strangers, not just their meddling in-laws. Check out how stars faced backlash for their totally average, normal parenting decisions.

Victoria Beckham

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The fashion designer and former Spice Girl posted a sweet Instagram celebrating daughter Harper's birthday. The photo, captioned "kisses from mummy," was of her kissing Harper on the lips. Some fans criticized the photo, saying kissing your child on the lips is inappropriate. But far more fans chimed in, saying the photo was beautiful, and even posting photos of themselves kissing their children in response to the online shamers.

Kristin Cavallari

Over the July 4 holiday weekend, the former Hills star posted a photo of her two sons with her husband, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. Critics commented on the photo, saying her sons were too skinny. "The poor child's bones are popping out," one wrote. Cavallari, who openly promotes a healthy lifestyle, rolled her eyes at the comments. "Yep, I starve my children," she responded. "Just blocked the most people I've ever blocked in my entire life. Happy 4th hahaha." Other moms commented on her photo that they too have skinny kids, and no child should be shamed for his or her body type.

Chrissy Teigen

Teigen takes any opportunity she can to defend herself and other moms out there from online shaming. She defended Cavallari on Twitter, saying, "I will never know why parents criticize others so harshly, knowing they'd go insane if they were on the receiving end ALLTHETIME. NO parent out there thinks they're perfect. I loathe these shithead commenters. Who would want to make someone feel horrible for fun?"

She would know: People have shamed her for going out to dinner shortly after giving birth, for picking a female embryo during IVF treatments, and even for eating sugary cereal during pregnancy. Husband John Legend has even had to step up to defend her, saying that if you're going to shame her, you should shame him, too.

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Ryan Reynolds

Wife Blake Lively posted a photo of Reynolds holding their daughter, James, in a Líllébaby carrier. Lively's followers swarmed her comments, saying that the baby was not in the carrier the right way. Reynolds had to go on the Today show to explain himself, saying he hadn't used the carrier before and has since learned his lesson. "I'm a first-time dad and that is not the first mistake I've made and I can guarantee it won't be the last," he said.

Reese Witherspoon

Even when celebrities make delicious-looking cinnamon rolls, they get picked apart for it. Reese Witherspoon posted an adorable photo of the breakfast she prepared for her toddler son, Tennessee, and instantly got shamed online. "What a horrible thing to feed a growing child for breakfast," one commenter wrote. Luckily, the shaming didn't stop Witherspoon from posting more fun "#toddlerbreakfast" Instagrams, and, you know, living her life as a human.

Coco Rocha

When model Coco Rocha had a great customer service experience with an app that delivered formula for her daughter, Ioni, she posted about it on Instagram, not expecting the shaming that would come next. People criticized her for not breastfeeding her child, and it got so bad that she had to respond in a separate photo. "I loved breastfeeding Ioni for the first 5 months of her life and then one day my milk went dry," she wrote. Not that she even needed to explain her parenting to anyone.




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Hilary Duff

Old-school print tabloids can also mom-shame with the best of them. Hilary Duff said she once saw a headline calling her a "C-minus mother," accompanied by a photo of her holding her son, Luca, while he was having a tantrum over a haircut. "Everything I do feels judged or picked apart, and the whole world gets to know about it," Duff said.

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron with her son, Jackson

Duff isn't the only celebrity parent shamed when their kid has a tantrum. A tabloid called Charlize Theron a "monster mom" because her son, Jackson, was having a meltdown in front of the paparazzi. (Do you blame him?) They said she was "dragging" him instead of what she probably was doing, which was calming him down and keeping him safe from photographers.

Coco Austin

Coco, the wife of rapper Ice T and the star of Ice Loves Coco, is the proud mom to a baby girl, Chanel Nicole. Ever since little Chanel was born, Coco has had to deal with a wave of mommy-shamers online. First, they said her baby bump wasn't big enough, then they said she was exploiting her baby online, and then people assumed she just handed her daughter off to a nanny without putting in work. She tweeted: "Some comments really frustrate me at times. Some assume since u have money and live in a 'celebrity world' that you don't do s—! Let me add, I don't have nannies or babysitters. I've been 100% hands on w/Chanel I also clean my own house & do my own laundry #100%wife. I'm totally serious when I say I love being a wife. I like the role I play…I can be crazy coco at times but I have a good heart."

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Kim Kardashian

You name it, Kim Kardashian has been shamed for it. This spring, she posted a naked selfie seen 'round the world, like she does, and the parenting police came after her. "Is that what you're teaching your child?" one commenter snarkily wrote. Kim K was not having that. "I want [North] to be proud of who she is. I want her to be comfortable in her body. I don't want her to grow up in a world where she is made to feel less-than for embracing everything it means to be a woman," she wrote on her website. "I am a mother. I am a wife, a sister, a daughter, an entrepreneur and I am allowed to be sexy."

From: ELLE US
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