Christy Turlington Reflects on ‘Wanting to Disappear’ After Her Son’s Peers Shared Her Nude Photo
Plenty of parents struggle to keep their cool at their kids’ sporting events — getting fired up at the referees for missed calls, or at the coaches for benching their kid, or at the other players for being poor sports. But at one of her son’s high school basketball games, Christy Turlington didn’t want to yell.
She wanted to vanish.
The legendary supermodel is mom to kids Grace, 20 and Finn, 18 who she shares with actor Ed Burns, and at one of Finn’s games, the opposing team passed around a nude photo of her from an old photoshoot. It was a heckling tactic that just reeks of high school bullies.
“I was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “But at the same time, I was like, ‘This is so rude!’…All I wanted to do was disappear.”
Because duh. Sure, those pictures exist and this could have happened sooner, but of course, Turlington didn’t want them used as a way to taunt her son and his teammates.
And yet, she said she’s not embarrassed. In fact, she told the outlet she’s not embarrassed about anything. “Regretting things is a waste of time,” Turlington said, making us love the fashion icon even more.
The day Turlington’s daughter was born was as frightening as it was joyous. Turlington hemorrhaged after Grace was born, and it was that terrifying experience that inspired her to found Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit centered around maternal health and making pregnancy and birth safe for women worldwide.
The organization has helped support more than 1.5 million women, families, and healthcare workers and invested more than $42 million in raising awareness and developing community-led solutions, per Harper’s Bazaar. Incredibly, Turlington doesn’t take a salary at Every Mother Counts even though it’s now her main job. “That doesn’t feel right,” she said, acknowledging how lucky she is to have the option to take a modeling gig to earn an income instead.
We wouldn’t fault her if she did take a salary, but we’re incredibly moved to know that the millionaire really is putting the needs of moms (and moms-to-be) ahead of her own. Even as she juggles being a mom of two. Even as she juggles her transition into empty nester territory. And even as she deals with the boyhood bullsh*t a team of teens thought would be fun to thrust upon her family.
These celebrity parents are sharing the struggle — and sweetness — of raising teenagers.