Adele has opened up about her struggles with breastfeeding and branded the pressure on new mums as 'f***ing ridiculous'.
The singer, who is mum to three-year-old Angelo James, was asked about breastfeeding by a group of audience members at one of her London O2 Arena gigs, and didn't hold back when it came to sharing her thoughts on the matter.
'It's f**king ridiculous, and all those people who put pressure on us, you can go f**k yourselves, alright?,' the 27-year-old singer replied. 'Because it's hard. Some of us can't do it! I managed about nine weeks with my boobs (I mean I trip over them – I've got a very good push-up bra). Some of my mates got post-natal depression from the way those midwives were talking. Idiots.
'Breastfeed if you can but don't worry, [formula milk] Aptamil's just as good,' she continued. 'I mean, I loved it, all I wanted to do was breastfeed and then I couldn't and then I felt like, "if I was in the jungle now back in the day, my kid would be dead because my milk's gone".'
Adele told fans that she 'only managed about nine weeks with her boobs'
The empassioned speech comes just a week after TV chef Jamie Oliver publicly launched a campaign to encourage women to breastfeed.
Speaking during an interview with LBC Radio, Jamie said, 'We need to support the women of Britain to breastfeed more, anywhere they want to. If you breastfeed for more than six months, women are 50 per cent less likely to get breast cancer. When do you ever hear that? Never.
'We have got a problem with breastfeeding. And if you think about it, breastfeeding is the beginning of the story - before school dinners, before sugar. It's something that's very natural to us - it's easy, it's more convenient, it's more nutritious, it's better, it's free.'
While Adele's words may not have been directly aimed at the father of four, who is currently expecting a fifth child, some listeners said at the time that his words may have contributed to the pressure new mothers feel when it comes to breastfeeding, with many taking particular contention with the use of the word 'easy'.
Jamie and his wife Jools, who is pregnant with the couple's fifth child
'It is not easy for every mother. I really struggled - I desperately wanted to but I had to stop after six weeks,' one commented, while another added, 'There's too much pressure put on ladies to do it anyway. We get looked down on if we do not breastfeed from the off.'
The Department of Health encourages women to breastfeed for at least the first six months of their child's life, but the process can be difficult for a number of reasons, including babies not latching on, tongue-tie and painful nipples. According to figures released in 2016, only one in every 200 children in the UK is breastfed up to 12 months.
