LAURA Anderson has bravely opened up about her struggles to accept her new mum body after giving birth to her baby.
The former Love Island icon, 35, is mum to daughter Bonnie, who celebrated her first birthday last September.
But although Bonnie – whom she shares with ex-partner Gary Lucy – brings her a lot of joy, getting used to the body changes postpartum has not been an easy journey.
In a conversation with Kelsey Parker and Georgia Jones on the Mum’s the Word! podcast, Laura revealed that it wasn’t actually her saggier boobs that have made her conscious.
Laura, who was a 32DD before pregnancy, said: ”I prefer my boobs – they’re saggier, they’re smaller. Cause I have fake boobs and they were just too big before – I prefer them [now].
”One of them bends to the right cause she always sucked on that one and her head would always be a bit bent.
”I knew that was going to happen.
”But I kinda like it because I’m like ‘That’s from when I was breastfeeding her’.”
Chatting with the hosts, the single mum admitted that what did, however, bother her was the ”postpartum hair”.
”The hair thing did upset me – because I have postpartum hair. So, I still have stumpy bits of hair, that was kind of annoying.
”My ribs are wider, my hips are wider – but I quite like it,” said the reality TV star who felt ”lucky” for having naturally ”skinny legs”.
After giving birth to Bonnie in September 2023, Laura said that the doctors ”pumped” her with liquid – which allegedly caused her to have ”cankles”.
“Cankles” is a slang term combining the words calves and ankles. It describes a lack of definition between the calf and the ankle, which gives the appearance of them merging together.
”I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t look at my ankles and it really traumatised me.”
Although it didn’t take long for them to go down, the mum-of-one said she felt ”sick” at herself.
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”It really affected me because I’m so used to having really puny little legs.
”I remember Gary saying ‘Why are you so bothered about your cankles? You’ve literally got stitches up your a**hole’.
”I was like ‘I know, but I’m on painkillers, I can’t feel it’,” she joked.
”Maybe I’ve got body dysmorphia and maybe my body is better than I actually think it is,” said the former radio presenter who no longer has the time to work out.
”I have to ask someone to look after her, so I can go to the gym for an hour, and then I have to pack a bag… I can’t be a**ed.”
TOUGH TIMES
Laura has had a tough time of late.
She was recently slammed for being “out of touch” after she complained about a First Class plane journey with her tot.
It came after she rushed Bonnie to hospital in November following a “terrifying” incident.
The drama came against the backdrop of Laura’s long-running feud with ex Gary Lucy, who is the father to her child.
The Hollyoaks hunk recently hit back at a troll who claimed he “never saw” his daughter.
As well as Bonnie, Gary, 42, has four other children. Two daughters and two sons with ex Emmerdale star Natasha Gray.
In June, Scottish star Laura claimed Gary hadn’t seen their daughter for six months.
The reality TV favourite and soap star met and fell in love on Celebs Go Dating and after a whirlwind romance announced they were expecting.
However they called time on things shortly after sharing the news, reunited and then split again.
They sparked rumours it was back on over Christmas time as they spent time together, but Gary has not been seen on social media with his daughter since.
Following their split, Laura insisted to Closer magazine: “It’s early days but I’m trying to focus on her, rather than myself.
“I think putting your personal feelings aside and speaking to the person as a friend rather than your ex helps.
“It’s going to be a journey as she’s only a baby and this is all new to me, but I try to include Gary as much as I can. She has two parents and I want her to know that I always put her first.”
But Laura, who lives in Scotland, and Gary, who is based in Essex, later admitted that things had turned frosty and took a swipe at her ex for his alleged lack of effort.
