Joey King says she dips in and out of therapy: 'It’s nice to vent to someone who has absolutely no stake in your life'
The Unwind is Yahoo Life's well-being series in which experts, influencers and celebrities share their approaches to wellness and mental health, from self-care rituals to setting healthy boundaries to the mantras that keep them afloat.
Joey King is a soon-to-be bride, but she has no interest in “shredding for the wedding” — or any of the other things women are told to do in order to look perfect on their walk down the aisle.
“I don't think it's talked about enough for like the societal pressure to be ‘snatched’ on your wedding day,” The Act star, who announced her engagement to Steven Piet in March 2022, tells Yahoo. “We all want to look our best. We all want to feel our best. But the most important part is the festivities before a wedding — there are so many wonderful things to celebrate and enjoy, and family and friends to celebrate with … I cannot go to these things and feel this love if I'm constantly worried about what I am putting in my mouth … I'm missing the point of the celebrations entirely.”
“No one's like, ‘Oh, s**t, her ankles could have been a little slimmer in those shoes,” King jokes.
The 24-year-old, who recently partnered with Hill's Pet Nutrition on their “Clear the Shelters” campaign in part due to her passion for her own rescued pets, is less focused on the size of her body, and more on feeling good in her own skin. While the star of action movies like The Princess and Bullet Train has professed a love for exercise in the past, she says that she now toggles between wanting to work out and needing to give her body a break.
“I don't push myself to do an hour of excruciating workouts every day anymore because that's how you fall out of love with something,” she says, adding that she recently took “three months off” from working out. “If I move my body for at least 15 to 30 minutes a day, and I don’t feel like doing a big, heavy workout, that's enough for me. My favorite part about having dogs honestly is that it forces you to get up and take a walk twice a day.”
King has previously spoken about entering therapy while in lockdown during the pandemic. She’s not in therapy anymore, but she says her favorite thing about it is that she can turn to it when she needs to find “perspective.”
“I dip in and out of therapy when I need to,” she says. “It’s nice to vent to someone who has absolutely no stake in your life. I’m so pro therapy, but I’m not always in it. I get nervous and I leave, and then I come back, and I’m like, ‘Did you miss me?’”
One thing that King has learned to manage is negative comments on social media, noting that there’s “been an uptick in the last five years and it really stuck around.”
“Originally, I was so down about it, but then I stopped looking, and I felt so much better,” she says. “My day- to-day life — that's my real life. That's my bubble. That's filled with my people. I genuinely have no problems with myself.”
Still, sometimes comments seep through. “Yesterday, someone commented that they genuinely hate me so much, they're so sorry, they don't know why they feel this way but they just can't stand me and they hope I have a beautiful rest of August,” she says with a laugh. “I was like ‘Wow, OK. At least they gave me well wishes at the end.’ I just find it humorous at this point.”
