New mom Chanel West Coast is “obsessed” with her baby girl, but postpartum life has come with its challenges — particularly when it comes to body image.
“I gained a lot of weight,” the Ridiculousness alum, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly on the pink carpet at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday, September 12, adding that “body changes” are one of the hardest aspects of motherhood. “My knees were hurting so bad, but it’s been a long struggle to get my body back.”
Chanel hinted that fans would get an in-depth look at her postpartum recovery on her upcoming “super reality” show, which does not yet have a release date, before confessing that she had liposuction after giving birth last year.
“I believe in being honest about things,” she said. “I had liposuction, it was the scariest, hardest thing I’ve ever went through.”
According to Chanel, the procedure was “even worse” than her emergency C-section. “It was a lot,” she told Us. “And I was like, ‘Dang. … I wish some of these girls who did this put it out there more,’ because I didn’t know how hard it was. I will say though, that it was a great jumpstart to get [my body] back to where I was.”
The MTV personality explained that she felt “a little bit” of pressure to snap back after becoming a mom. “Obviously, I’m getting into doing a whole new show and I knew I was going to be back on camera so soon,” she told Us. “So I wanted to look good, not just for myself, but also for my fans and for all the people watching the show. I don’t want people to watch and be like, ‘Wait, this isn’t the Chanel I love.’ You know what I mean?”
Chanel welcomed her daughter, Bowie Breeze, with boyfriend Dom Fenison in November 2022. She exclusively told Us at the time that she was “overjoyed” by her “healthy” baby’s arrival, gushing, “She is perfect in every way to me and her daddy and we are so grateful to have her in our lives.”
Nearly one year later, Chanel is “happy” with her body. “I’m still trying to get a little skinnier to fit in a few clothes in my closet that I cannot get back into,” she told Us on Tuesday. “We’ll see if I get there.”
Fenison, meanwhile, is supporting his partner every step of the way. “I mean, it’s something that a man could just never understand, having your body change like that and all that,” he said at the awards show. “So I feel like she’s doing a great job.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
