After Kim Kardashian watched the Framing Britney Spears documentary, which exposed the misogynistic media scrutiny the pop star faced for years, she’s opening up about feeling the same pressure.
“So I finally watched the Britney Spears documentary this week and it made me feel a lot of empathy for her. The way the media played a big role in her life the way it did can be very traumatizing and it can really break even the strongest person,” Kim wrote via Instagram Stories on Friday (March 5). “No matter how public someone’s life may seem, no one deserves to be treated with such cruelty or judgement for entertainment.”
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In hindsight, Kardashian recalled “a time when I felt this way” during her first pregnancy with daughter North West. The Keeping Up With the Kardashian star struggled with a pregnancy condition called preeclampsia, which is known to cause swelling in different regions of the body and weight gain. Kardashian wrote that she gained 60 pounds and delivered nearly six weeks early.
“I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressure of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like – as well as being compared to Shamu the Whale,” she continued. “Looking at all of the photos of myself online and in magazine made me so insecure and 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.”
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The 40-year-old star shared nearly 30 covers of U.S. and U.K. tabloids and Internet memes that documented “what was supposed to be one of the happiest times in my life” but rather mocked and taunted Kardashian’s weight gain during her pregnancy, even drawing comparisons between her and Kate Middleton, who was six months pregnant at the same time.
“I’m sharing this just to say I really hope everyone involved in the business of shaming and bullying someone to the point of breaking them down might reconsider and instead try to show some understanding and compassion,” Kardashian concluded. “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.”
Kim isn’t the only Kardashian sister that showed support for Spears: Khloe wrote that she was “praying for queen Britney” underneath an Instagram post from Syrian artist and satirist Saint Hoax that elaborated on the terrorizing media coverage of Spears that The New York Times documentary revealed.