Sharna Burgess has opened up about her struggles with body image over the years – and how it led her to consider cosmetic surgery.
“Over the years, the only reason I didn’t get a boob job in my 20s was because I saw someone who was muscular like me get a boob job and it looked like a bodybuilder,” Burgess, 38, shared on an episode of her and fiancé Brian Austin Green’s podcast, Oldish, on Wednesday, October 18. “I was like, ‘I don’t want this.’ And that was the only reason I didn’t do it. But other than that, I was under the impression that I wanted bigger breasts because other people had them and it was feminine and attractive. I was even influenced by those things.
“My mum is an incredible woman, but I’ve heard all my life about her insecurities about her body or her shape because she’s always been very critical of herself,” Burgess explained. “She was always very hard on herself about a lot of things. And I say this with such deep love, but there was always something in the negative tone. I think that has left its mark on me, having that negative language about my body.
Burgess noted that she considered having liposuction to “have the gap between my legs like other people have”.
“My body is not built that way. And this was before social media,” she said. “This was in a time when my mum was my representation of the language about her body.”
Burgess concluded the episode by talking about the importance of using positive body language around children. Burgess and Green, 50, share 16-month-old son Zane and the actor is also father to son Kassius, 21, with ex Vanessa Marcil and Noah, 10, Bodhi, nine, and Journey, seven, with ex-wife Megan Fox.
“I think what’s really important for us to focus on in the home, not just for our children but for ourselves, is the language we use in the mirror; the language we use around our children about the way our bodies are changing and forming and shaping,” she told Green. “Find something beautiful to change that language. Even as you’re working internally to accept these things about your body.”
Burgess has previously been open about her post-partum body.
“My body was completely recognisable after giving birth. Every ounce of water in my body has gone to my vagina and down lol,” Burgess wrote via Instagram Story a month after giving birth to Zane in June 2022, alongside a mirrored photo of herself holding her son while wearing a robe over her postpartum underwear. “Postpartum is serious business guys. The body just has to work its way through it slowly. Ladies, our bodies are amazing. I’m in awe and wonder at what’s happening, all the while practising a new level of patience with myself. And it’s worth every bit of it.
In the same month, the professional dancer shared that she has not put any pressure on herself when it comes to her postpartum body.
“Honestly, I thought I would [feel pressure]. I thought I would because I was an athlete and my body is my career – it’s not just about the aesthetics on the outside, it’s about how my core feels to be able to dance and do what I do,” Burgess exclusively told Us Weekly. “I thought I would feel that pressure. [But I don’t feel any pressure on myself.”
