8 Times Celebrity Moms Got Real About Motherhood

In an essay for InStyle, Kate Hudson wrote about feeling like a bad mother sometimes.

“Some days I feel like I should win best mom of the day award, and some days I find myself doing strange things that don’t have any real purpose, in faraway corners in my house, and I realize I am literally and deliberately hiding from my children,” she wrote. “Even though every primal ounce of the nurturing, domestic woman in me gets pulled, I’m a hunter as well. And I love to hunt! And as a woman I feel that somehow we are supposed to feel apologetic about wanting both. But I don’t want to apologize for that anymore. Being both already comes at an emotional cost, without adding society’s antiquated idea of the traditional roles of man and woman in the home.” (Photo: Getty Images)

During an event promoting her movie Bad Moms, Christina Applegate told her own “bad mother” story: “My daughter once, when she was 2, slammed the door in my face,” she said. “And without even thinking, my husband [Porno for Pyros rock star Martyn LeNoble], and I both flipped her off. … She didn’t see us! The door was closed… And then we looked at each other like, ‘Wow. We are horrible people.’” (Photo: Getty Images)

Speaking with Us Weekly, Hilary Duff talked about the sleep deprivation that comes with having kids. “You’re very sleep-deprived. Sometimes you have a crying baby and you can’t do anything to get them to stop crying,” she said. “You feel, as their mom, that you should be able to have all the answers and be able to take care of them so easily. But, babies don’t come with a manual and you don’t always know what’s going on. So, it’s easy to get frustrated and it’s easy to blame yourself — especially being sleep-deprived and on a hormonal roller coaster!” (Photo: Getty Images)

Joking about the perils of having three sons in the home, Gwen Stefani mused about starting a new life on The Ellen DeGeneres Show: “The other day we were driving home and I was thinking, OK, Motel 6. If I can just find one and go there and disappear,” she said. “Disappear from my life.” (Photo: Getty Images)

How’s this for real?

“At the time I only had one kid, but with two on the way I was always hearing talk about golden mystical baby things and precious time,” Bowen told More. “And, I was like, ‘Who the f**k are you talking to?!’ If you could see me naked, you would weep. Children are like crazy, drunken small people in your house.” (Photo: Getty Images)

Among many of the truths Amy Poehler dropped in her memoir Yes Please, she talked about balancing motherhood and her career and, more importantly, how she doesn’t feel conflicted about it.

“There is an unspoken pact that women are supposed to follow. I am supposed to act like I constantly feel guilty about being away from my kids. (I don’t. I love my job.)” Poehler wrote. “Mothers who stay at home are supposed to pretend they are bored and wish they were doing more corporate things. (They don’t. They love their job.)” (Photo: Getty Images)

Blake Lively has an apt metaphor for living with children: “You never know when you’re gonna get crapped on or when you’re gonna get a big smile or when that smile immediately turns into hysterics,” Lively told the Los Angeles Times. “It might be like living with a drug addict.” She’d better be ready for another little addict in the house, because Lively is currently pregnant with her second child. (Photo: Getty Images)

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Halle Berry — mother of Nahla, 8, and Maceo-Robert, 2 — talked about the difference between boys and girls: “You know, I’m nursing both … I breastfed Nahla and I’m nursing my baby. When I would put Nahla on the boob she would go [imitates light sucking] a nice little girly suck; with him, it’s like he’s like sucking the life out of me.” (Photo: Getty Images)