‘Eat less chocolates, more salads’: Ex-AFLW star Moana Hope’s dark revelation

The 33-year-old revealed in a series of Instagram Stories her pregnancy had helped her finally reach a point where she can accept her body for what it is. She said she was once told by a club staffer while playing footy to “eat less chocolates and more salads”.

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Hope who revealed she was pregnant in December, shared a photo of herself with wife Isabella Carlstrom and daughter Svea on Thursday.

She said it was pregnancy that “flipped the switch” for her to be able to accept her body after allegedly being body shamed while in the AFLW system.

“I really want to share something with you guys that I’ve never spoken about before,” she said in a series of video clips. “I want to share this with you because it relates back to something I’m going through with pregnancy.

“I don’t even know how to say this but when I played AFLW, my first year of AFLW, I had someone super senior, super high up at the club pull me aside and said to me, ‘You’re fat, you need to eat less chocolates and more salads’. That is a legitimate thing that was said to me.

“I was in complete shock. I had gone my entire life, I never ever had to worry about body image issues or anything like that. Nobody, you know, my mum never said anything, my family, the people around, no one ever spoke about their body image in a negative way, or mine, so I’d never ever had something like that.

“So you can imagine how shocked I was you know. I was at a new club, I was really excited and to be told from somebody I really respected something so hard and so not related to what I was doing there was full on.

“And I’ll be honest, I was pretty fit then. When I was told this I was pretty fit. I hadn’t torn my PCL yet, I was generally OK.

“Once that happened, I went into a shell — like a shell of thinking my body wasn’t good enough and thinking that I was too overweight and I literally wouldn’t get in the pool anymore for recovery in a sports bra because I was worried my body wasn’t good enough for them and I seriously started to develop some body image issues of what it should look like.”

Hope admitted body image issues are something she has been dealing with to this day. Even when going to the beach with her wife, she said she tried to avoid getting into a bikini or sports bra and would try to stay fully clothed “even though my body was then and still is bloody amazing”.

She continued: “I wish that I never experienced that and I think you know, him saying that, I wish it never had that impact on me.

“But in saying that, the reason why I’m talking about this is because pregnancy, for some reason, has flipped that switch for me and you can tell by the smile on my face how much I don’t feel that way. I’ve been in a sports bra for the last three weeks and I think I have an amazing body. I think my body is absolutely perfect and I’ve not felt that way since before I started AFLW.

“I wish I’d never let someone’s opinion do that to me and I wish it didn’t take being pregnant for me to come to this realisation because I feel like I’ve just lost five years of just being me, like I’ve always just been me for my entire life.

“I don’t know what it is, my body is unbelievable. The fact that right now it’s growing a baby human is just the coolest thing and I feel kicks all day now and I just think that the fact my body, a woman’s body can do that, no person in this entire world, no man, no person can tell me any different about my body. I think it’s perfect.

“I think all women need to know that their body is perfect the way it is.”

Hope continued, saying the body expectations on women were not the same for men but there is no ideal body for anyone.

“You don’t have to look one way to be classified as beautiful or sexy,” she said. “Whatever it is you want to be, you just be you and that’s beautiful and that beats all that other fake stuff for real.”

Hope said it was extra important to be herself as she raises a daughter and wants to ensure her children are empowered and don’t let other people’s opinions affect them.

Family life front and centre for Hope, Carlstrom

Hope and her Swedish model wife Carlstrom had their first child, daughter Svea Hope Carlstrom, in November 2020 and revealed their intent to have a second child together just months later.

While Isabella carried Svea, this time around Hope fell pregnant and appears to be enjoying her pregnancy.

Posting a beach photo with her family and sporting a growing baby bump from Jan Juc Main Beach in Victoria, Hope posted: “I’m so in love with my girls. We have a new hobby in exploring Victoria and the beautiful beaches it has to offer. And I’m also trying to over come my fear of the oceans crabs and sharks.”

Hope was one of the first major stars in the AFLW, having had a stellar career at state league level, including becoming the first woman to kick over 100 goals in a VFL Women’s season in 2016, before playing a few seasons of the AFLW.

But she was delisted by North Melbourne after the 2019 season, and her focus became her family. After marrying in August 2019, the couple soon announced they were pregnant with their first child.

Hope shared photos of her wife’s labour from their home before Svea’s birth. Last year, Hope said the couple had spoken about having three children.

She joked to Woman’s Day: “I want a houseful of babies. But we’re aiming for three at the moment.

“I was able to pull Svea out and put her onto Bell’s chest and in that moment I felt an overwhelming sense of love and protection that I’ve never felt before.”

The couple revealed Carlstrom’s labour lasted 14 hours in an interview with Stellar magazine. Her blood pressure plummeted and doctors rushed to stabilise it.

From that point Carlstrom struggled with fatigue and lethargy and during her six-week check-up, doctors discovered she still had 5cm of retained placenta.

“They had to do an emergency operation,” Hope recalled. “Now with more tests, we’ve found that Bell has hardly any iron (so) we’re doing iron transfusions to hopefully get her back to feeling healthy and happy.”

Originally published as ‘Eat less chocolates, more salads’: Ex-AFLW star Moana Hope’s dark revelation