Actor Katharine McPhee found herself at the center of controversy this week after her husband, David Foster, shared an image of her post-baby body.
But, it wasn’t the sunbathing snap that alarmed people, it was the caption that accompanied it.
Foster shared a picture of McPhee onto his Instagram account, showing her sitting criss-cross on a patch of grass while wearing a high-cut black bikini. He captioned the image, “what baby!” alluding to the actress giving birth to their first shared child back in February.
The post received heavy backlash from women criticizing it for feeding into the harmful narrative that new mothers need to lose their “baby weight.”
Katharine McPhee responds to haters
The Smash actress quickly took to her Instagram feed to clap back at the haters. Posting an image of her posing in a red one-piece bathing suit.
McPhee wrote, “ok the press around my husbands photo he posted of me is so dumb… so I hope this photo helps lol I’m sorry but we are not sorry. And for all of you who can’t deal with it maybe this helps.”
She continued to share about her unhealthy relationship with her weight. McPhee wrote that she’s “struggled with weight” throughout her life. “I lost this baby weight without dieting. Zero. Diets are the worst and I’ve had zero pressure from anyone,” she added.
“I’ve let me [sic] body do its thing and found a great workout. That’s it. And guess what? I’ll probably gain weight again at some point too. Who cares? BUT people freaking out about what my husband captioned seriously get a life…” she cheekily expressed in support of her 72-year-old beau. “Stop being so offended by what people post who have zero impact on your life and move on. Maybe you should have more of an attitude of like, let’s say… “oh that’s nice he thinks his wife is hot.” I cannot with this overly sensitive society right now.”
Katharine McPhee feared an eating disorder relapse during her pregnancy
Earlier this year, the Country Comfort star appeared on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast to reflect on her pregnancy. She opened up about one of the biggest struggles she faced, which was her fear of relapsing into her eating disorder habits. The 37-year-old said, “It just suddenly came up in a way that hadn’t been present in a long time.”
People Magazine noted that she went on to state, “[I’ve] felt really stable in my life in the last four or five years, and my weight has been more consistent.”
McPhee continued to say, “but feeling like there was a relapse after getting pregnant was really shocking and upsetting and concerning for me, because I was suddenly so obsessed with food, starting from this first trimester, and I had such a distortion of the way that I looked.”
While McPhee’s troubled history with food and her passionate response to criticism has been heard loud and clear, people still seem divided on the controversy. But all is well as the happy couple seems to remain unbothered. At the time of reporting, Foster’s post remains on his Instagram account with its original caption.
Katherine McPhee is a beautiful lady and a great actor and singer. Leaver her and David akone as you haters gonna hate no matter what th3y do and say.