Pop star Ellie Goulding has opened up about the sexism she experienced when she returned to work after becoming a mum.
The two-time Brit Award winner, 34, has also spoken candidly about how motherhood affected her body image.
Ellie and her husband Caspar celebrated the birth of their first child together, Arthur Eve Winter Jopling, in May.
The singer has since returned to making music as she looks to balance being a mum and her successful career.
Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Ellie said: “There's one thing that I've definitely noticed and observed, which is that I get asked a lot like, ‘Oh, you’re already working'. 'Wow. Wowzer!’
“Caspar, hasn't been asked that once, not once has he been asked like, ‘oh are you sure you want to go back to work,’ whereas I've had it a lot.
“It's always kind of like, ‘oh well done, well done for becoming a mum when you're working, it's well done to you.’
“It's still mad that we still think that women can't do both. We can multi-task and we can work. And you know, it is a challenge. And I also really, really respect women who just want to be a mum, because it is a full-time job.
“There's the emotional side. There's the physical side. There's so much care that goes into a new baby.”
The Starry Eyed-hitmaker stressed: “Especially if you're breastfeeding, you have to get up in the night so you're not going to be able to function that well the next day, if you've been getting up, trying to breastfeed, which is what I did.
“It's knackering but also I've made the decision to get somebody to help me or get family to help me and go back to work so that I remember who I am before baby and keep my identity.
“I went back to work three weeks after I gave birth and yeah, it was a bit sore and I was a bit all over the place, but I wrote so many good songs.
“So I'm really, I'm really glad that I did. And I think we should all be allowed to make our own decisions.”
The singer, who married Caspar at a star-studded ceremony in York in 2019, was also happy to speak about how much motherhood has affected her image.
“I just had a flashback to maybe two or three weeks after I gave birth,” revealed Ellie.
“I was walking around in this comfy t-shirt and some leggings, I was doing yoga or some postnatal thing and my belly was just like hanging out and I just didn't care.
“I've never cared less about my body being exposed. And Caspar walks in, I think we had a builder at the time and I didn't care. I just didn't think, ‘I need to cover up.’ And it didn't seem like anyone cared either.
“You just had a child, and also this comfortability in knowing that I'm not my normal self and not feeling an urge to lose weight, not feeling an urge to look, in inverted commas, ‘how I used to look.’
“It's like you do appreciate your body just a little bit more because you realise that it's done something pretty cool.”
