Mumbai: ‘Yeh Hai Mohabbatein’ star Divyanka Tripathi fails to understand why women are expected to quickly return to their pre-pregnancy bodies after childbirth. The actress, who gave birth to twins in May this year, said women experience significant physical and emotional changes after childbirth.
“I don’t know whether society is evolving or not; I just don’t understand this. Also, to some extent, unrealistic expectations are reinforced by the standards established by actors,” she told PTI in an interview.
She added, “For instance, if someone asks me, ‘Wow, you bounced back in the third month’, I will tell you, ‘It’s not wow’. I want to show the realistic picture; it isn’t easy. You experience body pain and brain fog and you really need your family’s support,” she said.
Katrina Kaif recently faced trolling for gaining weight after the birth of her son, Vihaan, which sparked a debate online about the scrutiny that female actors face for their appearance.
Known for TV shows like ‘Yeh Hai Mohabbatein’, ‘Banoo Mein Teri Dulhan’, ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’ and OTT series ‘The Magic of Shiri’, Tripathi, who is back on the small screen just six months after the birth of her twins, said it’s not easy to bounce back physically.
“I feel I’m a new human being altogether. Now, I’ve got to make every single part of my body new again. So, it means a lot of hard work, patience and a lot of time. I heard from fellow actors that it could take two to three years to return to the same routine. I thought they would say, ‘You’ll do it quickly’. But it takes time and it’s important that we give a woman that time to recover from this phase and support her. Holding her back by saying, ‘No, you can’t do this. Just sit at home’ is also not right. Whatever a woman feels like doing, she should be supported.”