Kim Kardashian Feels ‘Empathy’ for Britney Spears, Recalls Being Shamed by Media During Pregnancy

Kim Kardashian is empathizing with Britney Spears’ rise to fame after the release of Framing Britney Spears put renewed attention on how the pop star was mistreated by the media as it relates to her ongoing conservatorship legal battle. The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star opened up Friday on her Instagram Story about how her own struggle with preeclampsia while pregnant with daughter North, now 7, traumatized her due to the way she was body-shamed in the media.

“So I finally watched the Britney Spears documentary this week and it made me feel a lot of empathy for her,” Kardashian began. “The way the media played a big role in her life the way it did can be very traumatizing and it can really break even the strongest person. No matter how public someone’s life may seem, no one deserves to be treated with such cruelty or judgment for entertainment.”

Looking back at her first pregnancy, the KKW Beauty founder recalled suffered painful and dangerous complications such as swelling, which caused her to gain close to 60 lbs. and deliver six weeks early. “I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like,” Kardashian wrote, reminding her followers of a popular comparison meme circulating at the time of her wearing a black and white dress next to Shamu the orca whale.

Looking at photos of herself plastered on the cover of tabloids made the reality star “so insecure” and fear if she would ever get her “pre-baby body back.” The emotional trauma surrounding the media coverage of her pregnancy was “so painful I couldn’t leave the house for months after,” Kardashian added. “It really broke me.”

The Skims businesswoman said she was lucky to be able to take those negative feelings and “channel it into motivation to get me where I am today,” but added that to say it “didn’t take a toll on me mentally would be a lie.” Kardashian concluded that she only felt compelled to share her story in the hopes that people in the “business of shaming and bullying someone to the point of breaking them down might reconsider and instead try to show some understanding and compassion.” She reminded her followers that no one knows what another person is really going through, and that love and kindness are the ways she’s found in life to best relate to one another.