Let's start with a very clear statement: It is never okay to ask a woman if she's pregnant. Ever.
Olivia Attwoodhas been forced to answer questions (yet again,) speculating about her being pregnant. The Love Island star was due to compete in the current series of the ITV show, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, but had to withdraw just 24 hours after joining her campmates. Her representatives later citied it was down to 'medical grounds'. From that moment on speculation grew about the cause of her departure and the overwhelming narrative from the public was that she was pregnant.
Despite explaining her exit was due to being dangerously anaemic on numerous morning talk shows - and addressing the pregnancy rumours - viewers are still questioning her. On Instagram Olivia was asked by a fan, 'Are you pregnant?' Olivia answered the question on her Instagram story, 'Like 3000 of these [questions]..nope. No Pregnancies. Let's stop asking women this all the time too.'
Addressing her exit in further detail, Olivia was adamant she 'wanted to leave the subject behind', adding, 'If you take a look, the reason is out there. I gave an interview in my words and a chat on This Morning.' Adding, 'I know it doesn’t make sense to a lot of you, but it also doesn’t make a lot of sense to me if that makes you feel better.'
The fact that Olivia even feels like she has to answer this question is upsetting. It is even more shocking that in 2022, people still think this an appropriate question to ask a woman. News flash: It's not.
We understand celebrities are public figures, so there is often this idea that we are owed every bit of information about them. With Olivia being a reality star, this is even more heightened, but she is still a human being with feelings. Celebrity or not - pressuring a woman to comment on their body sets a dangerous precedent.
Pregnancies are personal to each individual woman and you never know what struggles they are going through behind closed doors. Could you imagine if she’d been trying to get pregnant for ages, but hadn’t been able to? Or if she’d had a miscarriage like the 1 in 4 women in the UK according to Tommy's? Or she could not want children at all. Could you imagine what it would feel like to have everyone online speculating about it in such detail? It's horrible.
Let's leave this damaging narrative behind and stop questioning women on their status is life. From intrusive questions about marriage to kids, it's all incredibly overwhelming.