Katie Lee is not here for the haters. The chef defended her parenting skills after an Instagram troll accused her of holding her 3-month-old daughter, Iris, too much.
“I’m sure you’ve been told this, but it’s not good to hold Iris so much,” the user wrote in a message shared on Lee’s Thursday, December 3, Instagram Story. “She needs time for her back/spine/stomach muscles to develop. Not a ‘Karen’ just trying to help.”
The West Virginia native, 39, replied, “Mom shame much? Not to worry, my baby gets plenty of tummy time, activity time, etc.”
The new mom went on to share a supportive message from another Instagram follower saying she held her baby boy “through naps for months,” and he now walks, crawls, sprints and climbs “with ease.” Lee reposted the message, gushing, “Messages like these are why I love my followers.”
The former Top Chef host gave birth to her and husband Ryan Biegel’s infant in September, but experienced mom-shaming even before the little one’s arrival. One month prior, after posting a photo of a bottle sterilizer, the Comfort Table author was pressured to nurse.
“They call breast milk liquid gold for babies. Hint hint,” the troll messaged her in August.
The Endless Summer Cookbook author announced her pregnancy news in February, four months after she exclusively told Us Weekly about “still” struggling to conceive.
“There are so many women who go through this and just kind of keep it to themselves,” Lee told Us in October 2019. “I’ve had so many of them reach out to me through social media and hearing other people’s stories and sharing your stories is a way for women to [find] comfort together. My heart just goes out to anybody who’s going through that.”
She and Biegel, 38, tied the knot in September 2018 in Italy and had a hard time starting a family “right away,” the Miami University grad wrote via Instagram in April 2019. “I couldn’t wait to get pregnant! I naively thought it would be easy. I had to have surgery to correct a problem, got an infection, then I was so run down I got shingles. My doctor advised us to try IVF. We just finished the intense process only to get zero healthy embryos. Not only is IVF physically exhausting, the emotional toll is unparalleled. We were filled with hope and excitement only to be crushed.”
The Beach Bites With Katie Lee host went on to write that while it “hurt” to be constantly asked whether she was pregnant, she and the producer planned to “keep working towards it.” Lee concluded, “Someday we will have our happy new beginning and I pray any of you experiencing the same will have yours too.”
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