Yahoo Finance Kim Kardashian Says She Has 'Empathy' For Britney Spears And Opens Up About Media Shaming
Kim Kardashian West has opened up about her own experience of media shaming, admitting that she has a lot of ‘empathy’ for Britney Spears after watching the Framing Britney Spears documentary.
Produced by FX and The New York Times, the documentary charts the singer’s rise to fame, the way the media has treated her during her career, her long-standing legal arrangements and the #FreeBritney movement. Since its release, several celebrities have spoke about in support of Spears, with the singer’s ex boyfriend Justin Timberlake sharing a public apology to her and singer Janet Jackson.
On Friday, the mother-of-four took to Instagram to discuss her own experiences of being in the public eye and the media shaming which meant she felt unable to leave her home following the birth of her eldest daughter North West in 2013.
After watching the documentary, Kardashian wrote on Instagram Stories of Spears: ‘The way the media played a big role in her life the way it did can be very traumatising and it can really break even the strongest person.’
The beauty mogul continued, noting that no matter how famous a person is ‘no on deserves to be treated with such cruelty or judgment for entertainment’.
The star – who reportedly recently filed for divorce from her husband of almost seven years Kanye West last month – went on to share her own experience of public shaming, opening up about the insecurity she felt during her pregnancy with her first child.
‘When I was pregnant with North I was suffering from preeclampsia, which made me swell uncontrollably. I gained 60lbs and delivered almost six weeks early and I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like – as well as being compared to Shamu the Whale by the media,’ she wrote.
Although the exact cause of pre-eclampsia is not known, the NHS states on its website that the condition is thought to occur 'when there's a problem with the placenta, the organ that links the baby's blood supply to the mother's'.
Kardashian West noted that looking at photos of herself in the media and online at the time made her feel ‘so insecure’.
‘I had this fear of wondering if I would ever get my pre baby body back. I was shamed on a weekly basis with cover stories that made my insecurities so painful I couldn’t leave the house for months after. It really broke me,’ she revealed.
In addition to sharing photos of numerous magazine covers and social media posts of her during her first pregnancy, the reality star noted that she was able to ‘take these frustrating, embarrassing feelings and channel it into motivation’.
‘But to say this didn’t take a toll on me mentally would be a lie,’ she added.
The star concluded her posts by encouraging everyone ‘involved in the business of shaming and bullying someone to the point of breaking them down’ to ‘reconsider and instead try to show some understanding and compassion’.
‘You just never fully know what someone is going through behind the scenes and I’ve learned through my own experiences that it’s always better to lead with kindness,’ she wrote.
Kardashian shares daughters North and Chicago, and sons Saint and Psalm with West.
While Spears has not yet directly addressed the documentary, following its release last month the mother-of-two shared a video of her performing her song ‘Toxic’ on stage and told her followers: ‘Remember, no matter what we think we know about a person's life it is nothing compared to the actual person living behind the lens.’
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