Chrissy Teigen and Shay Mitchell open up about the struggles of motherhood and feeling 'inadequate'

Megan Sims
Updated ·3 min read

Chrissy Teigen and Shay Mitchell are swapping motherhood stories in a new interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, touching on postpartum depression, social media, and their new partnership with Pampers.

“I know it’s very, very hard to be a mother right now,” author-and-model Teigen, 34, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “The reason why I fell so deeply into postpartum with Luna — it was a lot of not knowing if what I was doing was right. And with Miles, I knew that there are many different ways to do it correctly.”

Teigen, who shares daughter Luna, 3, and son Miles, who turns 2 in May, with musician John Legend, has been open about experiencing postpartum depression, a mood disorder that can cause anxiety, sadness, and overwhelmed feelings, according to the Mayo Clinic. “I couldn’t figure out why I was so unhappy,” Teigen told Glamour in 2017. “I blamed it on being tired and possibly growing out of the role: “Maybe I’m just not a goofy person anymore. Maybe I’m just supposed to be a mom.”

After her diagnosis, Teigen felt “so exhausted but happy to know that we could finally get on the path of getting better.”

Mitchell, 32, who in October welcomed daughter Atlas with her boyfriend Matte Babel, also tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “You know, looking back, some of the best stories my parents have are their missteps, as I like to call them. As so, I want a bunch of those.” She adds, “Every day, I’m trying to find the balance — it differs from day to day — but it’s a process, you know? I’m still figuring it out.”

Adjusting to motherhood was its own challenge for Teigen. “People told me that when I had a boy, they would just love me unconditionally,” says Teigen. “[Miles] was a little tough, he was hard to break through to, and I felt like something was wrong with me because he wasn’t my ‘mommy’s boy’ and it was hard.”

Teigen compared the experience to that with her firstborn. “Luna and I could not be more close — Miles and I, at this point now, are very close, but you cannot set those standards with people. You cannot say that a boy’s going to come out and automatically be attached to their mother” just like a girl and her father. “You just never, never, never know.”

The model mother says she loves sharing moments with her children online. Indeed, both children take up cute space on her social media channels.

For parenting advice, Mitchell says she picks and chooses what suits her parenting style. “...Some of it’s great and some of it, I’m like, ‘Thank you very much....” however she’s confident that she’s giving her best to motherhood.

Teigen and Mitchell have partnered with Pampers to #ShareTheLove, a campaign to support mothers. “So many women, 9 of 10 women, feel like they're not doing things the right way. They feel like they are making mistakes, they feel like they are inadequate and it's not fair,” says Teigen.

Adds Mitchell, “I’ve been there constantly and I have to remind myself too — I feel like, with this campaign, it is so important to truly share the love...I recognize how that simple, ‘You are doing amazing’ goes so far when you hear it from anybody.”

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