Kim Kardashian Called Out the "Nasty" Media Criticism She Got While Pregnant With North

Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan, Getty Images

Kim Kardashian appeared on the limited podcast We are supported by... hosted by Kristen Bell and Monica Padman on August 11th. During their conversation, Kardashian opened up about how she was scrutinized by the press during her first pregnancy with daughter North in 2013, so much so that it actually changed her on a personal level.

"I was not a good pregnant person," Kardashian told Bell and Padman. "I was not a cute pregnant person. I did not like it. I hated it. I hate how I felt. I hate how I looked."

Kardashian, who has four children with Kanye West, said that she was so used to seeing her mother and sisters "looking so cute" during their pregnancies, having easy deliveries, and "snapping right back"—however, she said, "That wasn't me."

"The media did really brutalize me over gaining a lot of weight," Kardashian said. "It would be covers of magazines like, me and Shamu [the whale] and 'who wore it better?' It was really, really, crazy."

Kardashian said that she was often compared to Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, who was also pregnant with Prince George at the time.

"[The media] would always compare me to Kate Middleton, and it would say like, 'Kate the waif, and Kim the whale.' It was so nasty."

Though she doesn't think this kind of stark comparison would fly in today's society, back then it killed her self-esteem, Kardashian admitted. "I can't believe that this was acceptable and that this was okay. I would sit at home and cry all the time."

And what she didn't know at the time was that she was struggling with a pregnancy-related condition called preeclampsia, which causes swelling in the feet, face, and other parts of the body. Ultimately, her pregnancy and related conditions caused Kardashian to gain 70 pounds, and the negative media attention made her not want to leave the house after giving birth until that extra weight was shed.

"I felt so much pressure at the beginning," she told Bell and Padman. "I wanted to start working out again, [but] I was too embarrassed to go to a gym because I didn't want people to look at me. I would sit in my mom's garage ... and I'd have my daughter in the stroller and I would just work out in the garage." Although she felt great about herself after getting in shape, she realized that the negativity changed her.

"It really did change me," she said. "It just changed how much I wanted to give. It changed me as a person."

She pulled back from posting on social media and has redirected her attention elsewhere—her SKIMS shapewear line and her social justice are two avenues she's explored in the past decade. As Bell said, the media-caused comparison has nothing to do with Kardashian, and everything to do with society's lust to pit women against each other, and sadly, that is too true.