Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder Apologize for Birth Control Controversy

Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder took to social media on Saturday to respond to criticism over their birth control story.

Additionally, the couple also defended the way they started a family, but realized that some people are actually affected by “reproductive coercion.”

The controversy started when Reed revealed in an interview that Somerhalder “threw out all my birth control pills” while they were on vacation.

“We decided that we wanted to have children together, and it was just time. But unbeknownst to poor Nikki, she didn’t realize that I was going to go in her purse and take out her birth control,” Somerhalder said on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy podcast. “By the way, it was the beginning of the pack, so I had to pop all those suckers out.”

Somerhalder was met with criticism for throwing out his wife’s pills behind her back, but Reed took to social media again to clarify the story.

“To anyone who has been affected by reproductive coercion, we are deeply sorry,” she and Somerhalder wrote in a joint message. “That is an extremely serious issue, and women’s rights is something that is incredibly important to both of us. It is something we’ve been very vocal about, and something that is very close to our hearts.”

“We never expect a lighthearted interview we did poking fun at EACH OTHER and how WE chose together to get pregnant, a goofy moment in Barcelona with our two best friends and the anticipation of the start of our journey together as we went from two to three, to turn into something representing a very serious matter,” the note continued. “However, if this somehow sheds a light on a topic that definitely needs mainstream attention, then we are grateful for the unintended consequence.”

“It’s a shame that outlets chose this as their way into a very serious discussion, as we are certainly not qualified to be the faces of this topic,” they concluded. “We are two happily married people who chose TOGETHER to have a baby. The end.”

Reed and Somerhalder welcomed their first daughter, Bodhi Soleil, on July 25.

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