Ellie Goulding has said she embraced her body after giving birth and felt comfortable letting her belly “hang out”.
The chart-topping musician, 34, welcomed her first child with art dealer husband Caspar Jopling in April.
She told the Reign with Josh Smith podcast she felt no pressure to lose weight after giving birth to Arthur Ever Winter Jopling.
She said: “I just had a flashback to maybe two or three weeks after I gave birth.
“I was walking around in this comfy T-shirt and some leggings, I was doing yoga or some postnatal thing and my belly was just, like, hanging out and I just didn’t care.
“I’ve never cared less about my body being exposed. And Caspar walks in, I think we had a builder at the time and I didn’t care. I just didn’t think, ‘I need to cover up’. And it didn’t seem like anyone cared either.
“You just had a child, and also this comfortability in knowing that I’m not my normal self and not feeling an urge to lose weight, not feeling an urge to look, in inverted commas, ‘how I used to look’.
“It’s like you do appreciate your body just a little bit more because you realise that it’s done something pretty cool.”
The Love Me Like You Do singer said she had faced sexist comments since returning to work and was surprised by how many people had been shocked by her decision.
She said: “There’s one thing that I’ve definitely noticed and observed, which is that I get asked a lot like, ‘Oh, you’re already working. Wow. Wowzer.’
“Caspar, hasn’t been asked that once. Not once has he been asked like, ‘Oh, are you sure you want to go back to work?’, whereas I’ve had it a lot.
“It’s always kind of like, ‘Oh, well done for becoming a mum when you’re working, it’s well done to you’.”
Goulding said it is “mad” that many people still believe women are unable to work and be a mother.
“We can multitask and we can work,” she added.
“It is a challenge. And I also really, really, really, really respect women who just want to be a mum because it is a full-time job.
“There’s the emotional side. There’s the physical side. There’s so much care that goes into a new baby.”
Goulding and Jopling tied the knot at York Minster in August 2019.
Listen to Reign with Josh Smith at podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reign-with-josh-smith/id1549676420
