Sophie Turner Opens Up on Her Experiences With Mom-Shaming

The sad reality is that mom-shaming is a universal experience that affects pretty much every mom, regardless of her age, ethnicity or socio-economic status. If you’re a mom, odds are at some point someone out there will tell you could be doing a better job at parenting. It’s an experience too many moms face—even celebrities like Sophie Turner. In a recent interview with British Vogue, the actress opened up about her own experiences with mom-shaming following her divorce from husband Joe Jonas.

The Game of Thrones actress details the first few days after news broke of their split as some of the worst of her life. At the time she was under contract and on set filming her upcoming series Joan. “My kids were in the States and I couldn’t get to them because I had to finish Joan. And all these articles started coming out,” she told the outlet. Many of these articles used photos from a Joan wrap party to portray her as a partier and “bad mom.”

“I really do completely torture myself over every move I make as a mother–mum guilt is so real,” Turner told the outlet, adding that she had to keep reminding herself that she’s a good mom. “A picture might tell a thousand words, but it’s not my story. It felt like I was watching a movie of my life that I hadn’t written, hadn’t produced, or starred in. It was shocking. I’m still in shock,” the actress added.

The split, the media frenzy and the constant mom-shaming took a toll on Turner, and she disclosed there were days where she felt so powerless she didn’t know how to make it through. It wasn’t until her lawyer reminded her that she was fighting for her kids that she started to shift into a better mental place.

In the interview, Turner also opened up about her experience becoming a mother at 24 and getting her first positive pregnancy test. “When you’re in your early 20s, life is so frivolous. At that point, I really didn’t know if I wanted to be a mother, but something changed in me that day,” she shared. “I just knew I had to have her.” Turner gave birth to her first daughter, Willa, with ex-husband Joe Jonas in 2020, which she shared allowed her to have a long stretch of bonding time. “At that age, everything changes so quickly. One week they’re breastfeeding and the next they’re sitting there eating avocado,” she shared. “It’s a real miracle to just watch them grow up in front of your eyes.” Turner gave birth to the pair’s second daughter, Delphine, in 2022.

Motherhood also helped Turner, who’s previously experienced eating disorders, repair her relationship with her body. “I remember after I had my baby, my therapist asked me how I felt in my body. And of course I was like, ‘Well, there’s milk leaking from my breasts and I’ve been bleeding for a month.’ Then she reminded me how amazing it is that our bodies can do this and how important it is to put all the nutrients in your body so that it can do that. I mean, it sounds so simple, but I never thought of my body in that way before,” she said.

Since her move back to the UK, Turner has realized how important having a sense of community and support are for her mental health. “Now that I’m back home, I’m actually the happiest I’ve been in a really long time. I’m starting over again, rediscovering what I like to do, who I like to be with.”

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