Beyoncé Discusses Difficult Childbirth and Embrace of Her New Body

The singer gets candid in her history-making September issue for Vogue.

On Monday, Vogue unveiled its September issue featuring Beyoncé who, as reported, had “unprecedented control” over her images and accompanying interview. The history-making issue, which features the first black photographer to shoot the magazine’s cover, offers a handful of candid personal details from the notoriously private singer, including her thoughts on her heritage and the significance of lifting young and diverse artists in creative fields.

“If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in,” she told Clover Hope, “they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own.”

Beyoncé also shared her experience with an emergency C-section during the birth of her twins, Rumi and Sir, and the dramatic shift the difficult delivery caused in her body. She also revealed that she had suffered toxemia and was on bed rest for over a month. “After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery,” she wrote in a personal essay. “Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery.”

“I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover.”

And with refreshing honesty, Beyoncé described her acceptance of her new body, one she described in Vogue as “curvier” and proudly featuring a “FUPA.” (For the uninitiated, that’s the acronym for Fat-Upper-Pussy-Area.) Let the body-positive quote serve as unofficial permission for women to appreciate their Beyoncé-approved FUPA.

To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real. Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it. But right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate