Fitness star Sophie Guidolin’s son reacts to ‘dumb’ bikini backlash

Queensland fitness star Sophie Guidolin’s teen son has spoken out about the image of his mum wearing a bikini while hugging him.

Queensland fitness star Sophie Guidolin has shared a candid video with her son following the “mind-blowing” reaction she copped for posing in a bikini with her boy.

The 32-year-old mother-of-four, who is the founder of leading online health and fitness program The Bod, shared several snaps of her son Kai in celebration of his 15th birthday.

One of them included a now viral image of her wearing a green leopard print bikini while hugging the teen.

However, some of her half a million followers had a “problem” with the photo saying it was “too sexualised”.

Sophie, who has six-year-old twins as well as sons aged 14 and 15, hit back demanding people “stop sexualising female bodies”.

Sophie Guidolin, 32, posted this snap with her son Kai, in celebration of his 15th birthday, not realising it would cause such controversy. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

“Having a body is normal, having body parts is normal. It’s not sexualised, it’s not shameful and it’s something I really, really reiterate and drive home here with my boys,” she said in an Instagram story on Sunday.

“So when they see me in a bikini they don’t think anything other than: ‘Mum’s tanning, Mum’s going to the beach, Mum’s going for a swim.’

“They don’t see me and be like, ‘Oooo what a sexy bum you’ve got.’ So stop sexualising bodies and bodies will stop being sexualised.”

The Gold Coast influencer and nutritionist has since shared a video with her son Kai in the hopes it will help “educate and even trigger” a different thought process or perspective on the matter.

She was forced to defend the snap after some branded it ‘sexualised’. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

Sophie shared a video with her son Kai, who branded the negative reaction as ‘dumb’. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

In the live Instagram footage, Sophie gave her son the platform to address how he felt about the negative reaction, to which the 15-year-old labelled it as ”dumb”, adding he didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

“There’s noting wrong with the picture. You’re in a bikini 24/7, that’s your job. We’re always at the beach. There’s nothing wrong with it,” the young boy told his mother and viewers.

“It’s so dumb,” he continued. “There’s no reason for this to be happening. If you go back to when we were in Hamilton Island it’s the exact same thing … (so why now).”

Sophie asked him again if he saw anything “wrong” with the photo, to which he reiterated: “I still don’t get what’s wrong with it.”

Kai said he didn’t see a problem with his mum hugging him while wearing a bikini. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

She asked him how he feels when she wears a bikini in front of him and when she hugs him while wearing a bikini.

“Normal,” he repeated several times.

“I would like to normalise the narrative of our bodies being simply that and it not being sexualised,” the fitness star said.

“There is nothing sexualised about that photo. I would often hug him, cuddle him, snuggle him in bed. I’m very close with the boys, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

“I would really like to use this as a positive to be able to perhaps open up the conversation in your homes as well in relation to how that narrative looks for you and your kids.”

Sophie said she would like to normalise the narrative ‘of our bodies being simply that and it not being sexualised’. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

Sophie said when one follower accused her of oversexualising her pose in the image, she questioned if it would conjure the same reaction if it were a father in boardies, shirtless hugging his daughter.

“I genuinely don’t believe it would,” she said.

“I just wanted to get Kai’s perspective because it’s very mind-blowing to us – all of us don’t understand how this has even become this”.

Sophie said she had “deliberately raised” her boys, who she had when she was 18 and 19 respectively, “in a way that has not sexualised a women’s body”.

[And] has allowed them to know every single woman has a vagina, every single man has a penis. It’s apart of our human anatomy and not something to be sexualised.”

The mother-of-four, said her boys, now 14 and 15, grew up with her competing on stage, wearing a bikini. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

Sophie, who has won numerous titles and world rankings in bodybuilding, reminded followers her sons grew up watching her competing on stage, in a bikini.

“I have worked really hard to get to where I am today and to be able to build The Bod to where it is today and having them there and be part of that journey has been really important to me and I’ve never felt ashamed, or had any sort of judgment.

“Even from my very religious family of being able to have that career choice.”

In an Instagram post, Sophie said her kids have seen her naked and [they] understand “I am a woman, their mum, I am human and I have skin.”

Sophie, who runs a multimillion dollar fitness empire, often shares snaps wearing a bikini. Picture: Instagram/sophie_guidolin

Some of Sophie’s followers were dumbfounded people had an issue with her photo.

“Mums wearing bikinis is NORMAL. This blows my mind,” one follower wrote.

“It’s gross that people even think that way‍️. You’re literally a mum taking a photo with her son on his birthday. I can’t believe people even want to sexualise that,” said another.

“Most couldn’t understand what “all the fuss” was about with a mum wearing a bikini in front of their children.

“How sad you have to explain yourself for god sakes people it’s SKIN we all have it, she’s not naked,” another commented.

Since sharing the controversial bikini photo on Sunday, many have continued to defend the mum, agreeing that people should “stop sexualising bodies”.

“If the thought crossed your mind that a mum in a bikini next to her son is sexual then you do some inner work and figure out why you even had that inappropriate thought,” one woman wrote.

“That’s a ‘you’ problem not a ‘Sophie and her son’ problem.”