The comment that stopped Rebecca Adlington from shaming her own body

Rebecca Adlington stopped feeling shame about her post-pregnancy body when a friend whose child was born prematurely said she would have felt lucky to have experienced stretch marks.

The legendary sportswoman represented Britain in the Olympics for years and won multiple gold medals along the way, but despite her success, she still couldn’t shake her struggles with her body image.

Mum-of-two Rebecca, 34, explained that she is ‘proud’ of her body – ‘it gave me four Olympic medals … it makes me perform at my very best.’

However, she found herself ‘moaning’ about her stretch marks after welcoming her kids in front of another mum friend whose daughter was born extremely prematurely.

What her friend said to her in response ensured Rebecca never felt bad about her post-pregnancy body again.

The Olympian spoke candidly to Metro.co.uk’s Mentally Yours podcast where she said ‘going through pregnancies’ makes you realise ‘the human body is amazing.’

‘One of my friends, bless her, had a very, very premature little one. Who is totally okay, but I was moaning to her one day about my stretch marks and all this sort of stuff.

‘And she turned around to me and said “I would love to have stretch marks because I never got that chance.” Because her little one came before she could even get to that stage of pregnancy.

‘And that has totally stayed with me,’ she said.

‘That’s from nine, eight years ago when I had Summer, and it completely stays with me all the time. When I want to moan about my stretch marks or this wobbly bit on my tummy that never seems to go. I just remember that and think “I’ve given birth to two very healthy children. I’m not bothered about a stretch mark, that’s fine.”‘

In the same chat with Mentally Yours, Rebecca reflected on her devastating miscarriage last year, followed by a dangerous bout of sepsis.

She described the moment they learned there was no heartbeat as ‘shocking’ and ’emotional,’ admitting it as completely unexpected as she was having regular pregnancy symptoms and had not noticed anything wrong.

Rebecca recently revealed that she and husband Andrew Parsons are expecting another child together, sharing the news almost exactly a year after the miscarriage and battle with sepsis.

She and Andy already share son Albie, two, and raise Rebecca’s daughter Summer, eight, together, who Rebecca shares with ex-husband Harry Needs.

Early in September, Rebecca made the happy announcement from, fittingly, the happiest place on earth – Disneyland Paris.

Wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, the athlete couldn’t have looked more excited as her other half and their kids placed hands on her growing bump.

Her caption read: ‘Our own bit of magic ✨Baby number 3 on the way ❤️.’

Rebecca is supporting SMA® PRO Follow-on Milk and Growing-up Milk. To find out more about their TRYathlon campaign and for information on the importance of Vitamin D and Iron for toddlers, head to www.smababy.co.uk  and @smanutritionuki

Pregnancy loss helpline

For emotional support, you can contact Miscarriage Association’s pregnancy loss helpline on 01924 200799 or email [email protected].

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