Fergie, the American songstress best known for hits such as Big Girls Don't Cry, has opened up about how 'mummy shaming' has impacted her since giving birth to her son Axl in 2013.
Opening up to Lorraine Kelly on the ITV talk show last week, mum-of-one Fergie described how after she gave birth to her son Axl - now four - she began to feel the pressures of juggling her career with motherhood.
The strain of being a working mum was made even more difficult to bear by 'mummy shamers' who criticised the star for continuing her singing career whilst raising her son at the same time, and the singer said that the guilt left her 'sobbing in the car' on the way to work on multiple occasions.
'As a woman, the men can have all the career in the world and still have children. If you're a mum and you have a career, it's the mummy shaming: "You can't do that anymore, you're a mum!"' Fergie told Lorraine.
'It's the worst. I remember going to the studio the first couple of times and sobbing in the car,' she revealed. 'It was the weirdest thing ever. That had never happened to me in my life. I'm going, "What is this?"'
However, Fergie was determined not to let the mummy shamers win, defiantly pursuing her career in spite of their cruel comments.
'What am I supposed to do?' the 42-year-old asked. 'I love singing and dancing. It's who I am as a human.'
Fergie shares her son Axl with her former husband, actor Josh Duhamel. The couple revealed earlier this year that they had separated after five years of marriage. Despite her heartbreak over the end of her marriage, Fergie admitted that the couple are trying their best to put on a united front for their son.
'It's not easy, it's never easy something like this. But you know, he [Axl] comes first and we've got to make it happen,' Fergie confessed.
'We're with him all the time, we're just not with him together all the time. We try to do a once a week thing where we're all three together.'
