Supermodel Coco Rocha reveals she cried at Hawaii airport because she was mom-shamed
Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha is probably one of the most prominent figures in the industry. As a result of her professional success, her personal life is often an object of discussion. Her two little children Ioni and Iver do not escape the preview of this criticism either. In 2015, Coco was on a family vacation; her daughter Ioni was just six months old at the time.
It was then that she posted on Instagram about the GoButler app that helped her acquire formula in time of need. Her post received a lot of backlash, as fans immediately criticized her parenting skills for feeding her newborn formula milk instead of breastfeeding. Coco was left absolutely distraught by the comments people made.
She admitted to Fox News that she found herself crying at Hawaii airport over the crude things people were saying. Some comments even called Coco lazy and self-centered from choosing not to breastfeed her little one. Of course, many other fans came to Coco’s defense and shut down the haters. One fan commented, “A mother should be able to make her own choices about how she feeds and cares for her child.
It's her business and no one else's. Take a chill pill people.” Another commented, “Some mothers can't breast feed because of health issues - I am one of them! Don't judge until you know someone's whole story. Women should support other women's choices no matter what their own choices or beliefs are! It's called feminism - look it up.”
Coco told Fox News about her reaction to being mom-shamed. She said: “I remember crying at the airport in Hawaii and [my husband] James started helping me with what I would write to people. I was emotional about that because no one knew why I did it but thought their opinion mattered.”
She continued: "This was my first mommy-shaming, which was shocking to me. I thought as moms, as women, we come together. But this was my first, and not my last, mommy-shaming experience. It did open a dialogue that I guess needed to be heard. But on the other hand, it was a very private thing. And this wasn’t what I was posting about. I was posting about an app. And here we are talking about the way I mother.” She also took a moment to speak about how things have changed with time; she admits to having thicker skin now.
“There are still days, not so much with Iver, I would cry in the shower over my choices that I felt were right when people were telling me they were wrong,” she said. “Or how people would say such nasty things. Sometimes you literally laugh at them."
She also openly admitted that she deals with haters by simply blocking them. She seems to be adopting a no-tolernace policy when it comes to negativity. She said: “Some people go to the point of pure negativity and attacking instead of creating a conversation about it, which I’m totally fine with,” she said. “If you want to have a conversation on my social media, I’ll have it. But to just be negative? I now block everyone. I’ve blocked them all, which is good for my health.”
Coco also went on to explain why she had to start feeding Ioni formula milk in the first place. As a parent for the first time, she was quite determined to do everything right for her child—which included breastfeeding. However, four months after Ioni was born, Coco’s “milk went dry.”
She explained, “I pretty much couldn’t make milk overnight, which was quite shocking to me. My pediatrician pretty much explained to me that … She was pretty much really hungry. And I wasn’t creating enough milk. So right away I had to make a decision about formula … Sure enough, she latched on that bottle … For quite some months, she was exclusively formula-fed.”
While on one hand Coco wishes to shield her adorable children away from the limelight, she knows it is a rather unrealistic demand. Thus, she came up with a great strategy to give paparazzi what they want while maintaining control over what is exposed about her children. She decided to give her children their own Instagram accounts, which she controls. She opened up about why she made the decision.
She explained: “The reason why I do it is because if I give you enough, you will not want much more from me. A lot of my friends, when they don’t give anything, that’s when the paparazzi show up at schools, in front of their houses. The first time I brought Ioni out, a paparazzo decided to take photos of her right inside her stroller and we said no. And he said, ‘The freedom of the press.’"
She continued: "We decided we would have social media … so you never have to wonder what my children look like … There are people out there who feel like they need to know everything. I give a little bit so we can get the privacy we want.”