- Sameera Reddy experienced postpartum depression and gained significant weight after childbirth in 2015
- She faced public scrutiny and trolling due to weight gain and changes in appearance postpartum
- Her husband advised her to create a new identity beyond the beauty image sold in films
Sameera Reddy stepped away from films for a while to take care of her family and raise her children. However, she has been active on social media, sharing her nutrition journey, funny reels with her mother-in-law, and her fitness routine.
However, in a recent interview with Hauterrfly, the Aakhri Sawal star opened up about panic attacks, postpartum depression, and menopause. She also addressed colourism, trolling, self-worth, and shared advice on self-love.
Sameera Reddy On Dealing With Postpartum Depression
Actors who embrace motherhood often face scrutiny about their bodies. Take, for example, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Since she gave birth to her daughter Aaradhya in 2011, she has been a constant subject of trolling on social media.
She has been criticised for the way she looks, how she dresses, and how she acts with her daughter. Speaking on the subject, Sameera Reddy shared that when her son Hans Varde was born in 2015, she had a nervous breakdown.
"I had postpartum depression, I had put on a lot of weight and went to 100 kg, and had such hormonal issues that it was the beginning of the breakdown," she shared.
"Didi apko kya ho gaya? Aap itni moti kaise ho gayi," the actor recalled how a vegetable vendor also commented on her weight gain.
However, her husband, Akshai Varde told her, "Sameera you can't blame everybody for judging you because you have sold them that. You have sold them that sexy Sam."
He advised her to neither forgive them nor give them any benefit of the doubt, but understand that she was a part of an ecosystem and had sold her beauty to these people. "You have to just let them be."
Akshai further told her that she had sold the image of a dusky woman with makeup and a fit physique on the silver screen, so after she put on weight, people couldn't recognise her as the way she looked before.
He asked her to create her own identity, perhaps a new one, because everyone else had bought into this idea of beauty, and she had sold it through her films.
She added that her husband's advice helped her overcome other people's perception of her.
Sameera Reddy On Menopause Awareness
Sameera Reddy called out the double standards of society: when a woman is giving birth, everyone comes forward to take care of her, feed her nutritious food, and coddle her like a queen. However, when the same woman is experiencing menopause, she is asked to go through it in silence.
"It is traumatising," the actor said, adding that not much information is available about the subject, even on the Internet. She said that people often believe that since it's a natural process, they leave women to deal with something that causes hormonal havoc in the body, mood swings, and other challenges.
Sameera said menopause deserves as much research and attention as childbirth and pregnancy, so that women know what to expect, their partners understand how to support them, and they have access to the right nutritional guidance.
Also Read | Dhurandhar Star Danish Pandor's Diet And Fitness Routine: Jeera Water, A Garlic Clove, 40-Minute Workouts