Olivia Culpo Opens Up About the “Scary” Shift of Motherhood
The former Miss Universe gets real about losing and rediscovering herself after welcoming daughter Colette with NFL star Christian McCaffrey.
Los Angeles, October 17 EST: Olivia Culpo didn’t sugarcoat it. Becoming a mom, she said, has been “scary.” Not terrifying in the movie sense more like the kind of fear that sneaks up on you when your whole world rearranges overnight.
On The Squeeze podcast this week, the 32-year-old former Miss Universe talked about what life’s really been like since welcoming her daughter Colette in July with husband Christian McCaffrey, the San Francisco 49ers running back. According to People, Culpo said she’s had “a shift in identity” and confessed that motherhood has left her questioning who she is outside of being a caretaker.
“You go from being completely self-sufficient to having somebody that’s physically dependent on you,” she said. “It’s scary.”
The Fear and the Gratitude
Culpo didn’t sound defeated more introspective. She said she’s grateful for McCaffrey’s support, crediting him for keeping her steady through the sleepless nights and self-doubt that crept in after Colette’s birth. Their relationship, she said, has deepened. They’ve learned to tag-team life, to take turns being strong when the other one isn’t.
That honesty struck a chord. E! News picked up her comments, noting she described “a little bit of an identity crisis.” FemaleFirst reported similar remarks, adding that Culpo is trying to find balance between her business life fashion projects, brand deals, the content grind and the pull of motherhood. She’s not pretending it’s easy.
A Different Kind of Olivia
For years, Culpo’s image has been spotless model-perfect, curated down to the lighting. But lately, she’s showing the cracks, and fans are noticing. She’s spoken about feeling overwhelmed, and Geo.tv even quoted her admitting to battling “low self-esteem lately.” It’s not the kind of thing most public figures are comfortable saying out loud.
Still, she sounds like someone who’s learning to live inside that messiness. “You realize how much you’re capable of giving,” she said on the podcast. “It’s exhausting, but it’s love in the purest form.”
From Glamour to Diapers
Before Colette arrived, Culpo had told People she was “excited and nervous” about becoming a mom. Her close friend Kristin Juszczyk, who’s married to McCaffrey’s teammate Kyle Juszczyk, called her “meant to be a mom” the kind of friend who’s always fussing over others, making sure everyone’s fed, everyone’s okay.
By August, Culpo’s younger sister Sophia gave the New York Post a little family update, saying Olivia was “super hands-on” and handling new motherhood “beautifully.” There was a sense of pride, but also relief. The Culpo sisters have built a brand around beauty and confidence; watching the eldest one trade a makeup brush for a burp cloth felt like a genuine evolution.
What’s Left of the Old Life
Motherhood hasn’t slowed Culpo down much, at least not publicly. She’s still posting, still partnering with Macy’s on her Culpos x INC fashion line, still showing up for her husband’s games when she can. But there’s a difference now a looseness, a little more real life peeking through the filters.
She’s part of a growing group of celebrity moms trying to peel back the shiny Instagram version of parenthood. In the last year, everyone from Hailey Bieber to Sophia Bush has spoken about identity loss and the emotional recalibration that comes with big life changes. Culpo’s version of that story feels grounded not confessional for attention, just human honesty from someone whose life often looks too perfect to be true.
Finding Her New Normal
Fans have responded warmly to her openness, sharing their own postpartum experiences in comment sections and Reddit threads. As E! News noted, the idea of “relearning yourself” after having a baby has become something of a modern rallying cry for women in their 20s and 30s.
Culpo’s take is gentler. She’s not trying to reinvent herself just trying to adjust. “I’m taking it day by day,” she said quietly on The Squeeze. “Trying to be present. That’s the only way I can do it right now.”
There’s no neat resolution to that, and maybe that’s the point. The former beauty queen with the perfect hair and perfect life now sounds like someone who’s realizing perfection was never the goal.
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A bi-coastal pop culture critic and former indie screenwriter, Gia covers Hollywood, streaming wars, and subculture shifts with razor wit and Gen Z intuition. If it’s going viral, she already knew about it.
