American singer Beyonce has talked frankly about race, motherhood and body image in a cover story for US fashion magazine Vogue.
The 36-year-old said her now one-year-old twins were born in an emergency Caesarian section because their health and her own was in danger.
They spent many months in intensive care, she said in the magazine's September issue.
She disclosed that when her twins, Rumi and Sir, were born on June 13, 2017 she weighed nearly 100 kg, in part because she was "swollen from toxemia" and had been on bed rest for over a month.
Toxemia is a blood pressure disorder that happens in pregnant women.
The mother-of-three recalled that after the birth of her first child, Blue Ivy, in 2012 she put pressure on herself to lose the baby weight quickly.
"Looking back, that was crazy," she said. "After the twins, I approached things very differently."
For example, she said she has been patient with herself and enjoyed her "fuller curves," and she wore no wigs and little makeup for a series of photos that accompany the article.
"To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I'm in no rush to get rid of it," she said.
Her husband and the children's father, rapper and entertainment mogul Jay-Z, has been a "soldier" and a strong support system, Beyonce said.
"I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father."
Beyonce, who has commented on racial issues in the US in the past, also revealed that she had discovered that she is descended from slaves.
"I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective."
The feature marked the singer's fourth time on the magazine's cover.
Australian Associated Press
