Saira Khan is getting real on Instagram! The Loose Women star earned praise from her fans this week after choosing to share a candid photo of her stomach. Saira, 50, posed in a bikini for the snapshot, as she explained her reasons for posting the picture.
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She began: "Nobody really tells you how much your body changes after giving birth. I remember after 6 months, I started back on the exercise and was doing the plank and accidentally looked at my stomach and let out a horrified yelp.
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"WTF!! My stomach was unrecognisable, it looked like a sac just hanging away from my body, skin all dimpled, loose and I was disgusted, mortified and so self-conscious. I thought I was the only person that this happened to. Like anything that is embarrassing, it's not something I heard women talk about. So I just dealt with it silently. I was even embarrassed to talk to my hubby Steve, in case he didn't find me attractive anymore."
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Saira Khan has been praised for her candid photo
The mum-of-two went on to admit: "It's take me over 10 years to be able to share this photo. At 50, I'm not embarrassed anymore. I'm in fact proud that I can accept my body for what it has gone through, survived and keeps achieving for me.
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"I wanted to share this today, to hopefully help other women especially new mamas not feel embarrassed or ashamed about their post pregnancy body and waste valuable time worrying about something so insignificant. Of course if it stops you from enjoying your life, then check out the medical options, to help you to get your confidence and self-esteem back.
The Loose Women star often speaks about her body image on Instagram
"My hubby had never even noticed it? And as he says, I love your body for the child it has given us... he made me laugh when he said 'at least you’ve got an excuse for your loose bits, what's my excuse?'"
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Saira concluded: "Exercise and core workouts have definitely helped to improve the 'sag' over time - but not stressing about it and overly focussing on it at the expense of getting on with enjoying life, has helped me to just say, 'this is me, a wibby, wobbly, woman'."
Saira and her husband Steve with their two children
Saira shares two children with her husband Steve Hyde – Zac, 12, and nine-year-old Amara, who they adopted in 2011, when she was just four days old.
Last month, Saira sat down for an exclusive interview with HELLO! magazine and opened up about the highs and lows of lockdown. "I feel lucky that we as a family have done so well to keep things together," she explained. "Yes, we've had our rows but we've managed and coped really well, which has been a real lesson for us. If we lost everything, as long as we had each other we'd be okay."