Deepika Padukone stayed away from the public eye for a while after she gave birth to her daughter Dua in September 2024. The actor is slowly returning to work and is now juggling the life of being a new mom and one of the top actors in the Hindi film industry. In a recent interaction, Deepika spoke about the same and shared how she is discovering her new role as a mother and the guilt she feels whenever she leaves Dua, even if it is for a short while. She also shared how a director almost took a jab at her for taking motherhood “seriously”, which, she found to be quite bizarre.
Speaking to Marie Claire regarding the big change in her life and her work after becoming a mom, she said, “I don’t know if [work] will be what it used to be before I had a baby, and I don’t even know if I want to be that way…is [this] my new routine and schedule? Let’s see how that evolves.” Deepika agrees that she wants to do things at her own pace, but some didn’t agree with this approach. She recalled an instance when a director wanted to meet her, but she couldn’t commit because she had to be home with her daughter. She said, “He turned around and said, ‘Oh, looks like she’s taking motherhood very seriously.’” The Chennai Express actor didn’t agree with the filmmaker’s choice of words. “I don’t know if that was a compliment or a jab. What does that mean, taking motherhood seriously? Yeah,” she said.
Deepika has the help of her family and nannies, but she still has to convince herself not to limit her identity to just being a mom. However, she accepts that the mom guilt is quick to come up. “I do have to tell myself that your life doesn’t end the minute you have a child, and that you do need to get back to your life, or at least a part of your life before you had a baby…but every moment where I’m not able to be with her, there is guilt,” she said.
The pregnancy itself wasn’t easy for Deepika. During the interaction, she admitted that her pregnancy was complicated and said, “I went through a lot in the eight, nine months of being pregnant and delivery,” she said and added, “Suddenly you’re discovering body parts because they hurt. But that rib pain was, oh my God.”
Post-delivery, Deepika started with swimming, Pilates, functional training, and other exercises to reconnect with her body. She said, “I was very sure that once the delivery happened, and that was successful, that I was going to just be in the moment, just love my body, love my baby, and just replenish my tank…thanking my body, respecting my body.”
