The reality star regrets an ‘insensitive’ Instagram story in which she appeared to glamorise anorexia.
Yesterday, Ashley Graham published the first episode of her new podcast Pretty Big Deal and was joined by Kim Kardashian West.
During the chat, Ashley and Kim spoke extensively about body image and Kim revealed that before she started high school, her father wrote her a “four or five-page letter about body confidence” in which he urged Kim to take care of and respect her body and ‘not let a man take advantage of her.’ She said she felt self-conscious of her physique because aged eleven, she had ‘huge boobs’.
Kim told Ashely that she still possesses the letter and often re-reads it. She plans on penning a similar letter later on to her kids to encourage the same kind of body positivity her own father instilled in her.
This naturally led to discussing the controversial Instagram story Kim posted in July, in which Khloe commented on Kim’s weight loss and this led the sisters to exchange comments that seemed to frame anorexia as desirable, saying things like ‘Oh you’re so anorexic looking, you look so good.’
Kim received a lot of backlash for being insensitive to people suffering from anorexia and irresponsibly posting the story.
She expressed regret for doing so during her chat with Ashley:
“I honestly, looking back and having said that, I 100 percent completely understand where people would be coming from that felt that way. So my intention is never to offend anyone and I really you know, apologise if I offended anyone”.
She continued:
“I know people that have serious eating disorders that have been in and out of the hospital for 15 years, close people, so I’ve like been through, I’ve experienced it enough to have known better. It was insensitive”.
This could teach us all to never speak flippantly about mental health issues and to especially be aware of the language we use around eating disorder suffers.
You can check out the podcast episode here.
For further information, see www.bodywhys.ie or contact the Bodywhys Helpline on 1890 200 444.
