What started as a night in New York for a steak dinner and some Fashion Week events with friends has turned into a strong social media moment for The Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member Jackie Mark Goldschneider, who is taking to Instagram to defend her stretch marks—and challenging any comments associated with them.
“This sweet picture from last night turned into a discussion of my stomach on social media, so let’s talk about stretch marks, shall we? My beautiful stomach held 4 healthy children, and those stretch marks remind me every day of how powerful my body is and how much mothers endure during pregnancy,” the 43-year-old captioned on a shot taken with cast mate Melissa Gorga.
“I won’t airbrush my body to perfection so you see a fake version of me or an unrealistic picture of a mother,” she continued in the post. “I love myself and I know that beauty is found in our imperfections. No woman should be ashamed of their stretch marks or anything else about their bodies. Like Eve Ensler said, ‘Stop trying to fix your body. It was never broken.’”
This isn’t the first time the mother-of-four has been vocal about body ideals, as she’s discussed her decade-long battle with anorexia on the show.
“I’m really proud of coming out of the other side because it was so hard,” she previously told People. “It’s really not a way to live. It’s horrible. It was absolutely horrible. And I’m hoping that I can help people out there like me, who usually just suffer in silence. Because I wish I knew that one day, I’d get through it. That was always a fear of mine that I would never stop doing this.”
