Mia McKenna-Bruce has shared that she received sexist comments from people after returning to work when her baby was just six weeks old.
The actress, 28, welcomed her son Leo with her partner Tom Leach in 2023 and went back to work several weeks after to promote her drama/coming-of-age movie, How To Have Sex.
However, Mia has now said that ‘the world’s not cut out for working mums’, as she recalled the sexism she experienced upon her return to work on Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show podcast.
She said: ‘The world’s not cut out for working mums, it’s still figuring that out. If I find other working mums on set, we gravitate towards each other. We’re just like, “This is crazy. What we’re trying to do here.”
She continued: ‘And the mum guilt that comes along with it is insane because I’m doing something I love so much and I never want to stop, but I love my child, and there’s that thing of like, “I’d give anything up for my child.” And then I’m like, “But I’m not giving up my work.”
‘It’s that balance, and then I’m like, “Oh, I’m teaching him that his mum really chased her dreams.”
Mia McKenna-Bruce has shared that she received sexist comments from people after returning to work when her baby was just six weeks old
The actress, 28, welcomed her son Leo with her partner Tom Leach in 2023 and went back to work several weeks after to promote her drama/coming-of-age movie, How To Have Sex
‘But it’s hard because I see on every job that I go on, mums struggling to even see their children, or if it’s like trying to plan when perhaps the right time to have a baby would be, which is something a lot of guys wouldn’t have to think about.
She added: ‘Whereas for us, it’s very much like, “Well, if I’m pregnant, how am I going to take time out of work? Who’s having the baby? Am I going to take time out of work?”
‘I went back to work six weeks after I had [my baby]. I was doing press stuff for How To Have Sex, and so many people were like, “Oh God, where is he, where’s the baby?”
‘And then I’ll be like, “Oh, he’s with his dad.” And they go, “Oh, you’re so lucky he can have him.” If it was the other way around, no one would say that. No one would. They wouldn’t even question where the baby is.
‘There would just be the assumption that the mum has the baby. It’s so interesting that’s where people’s brains go to: “You’ve just had a baby, so where’s the baby? Why aren’t you with him?”‘
Elsewhere on the podcast, Mia opened up about why she needed to go back to work for her maternal mental well-being.
She said: ‘The best thing I did was go back to work. When I say to people that I went back six weeks after having him, they’re like, “Whoa.”
She continued: ‘I know for me, I needed that. I needed to know that I could carry on being Mia. On the drive back from the hospital, I was sobbing, and I was like, “I just want everything to go back to normal.”
However, Mia has now said that ‘the world’s not cut out for working mums’, as she recalled the sexism she experienced upon her return to work on Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show podcast
She said: ‘I went back to work six weeks after I had (my baby). I was doing press stuff for How To Have Sex, and so many people were like, “Oh God, where is he, where’s the baby?”
She continued: ‘And then I’ll be like, “Oh, he’s with his dad.” And they go, “Oh, you’re so lucky he can have him.” If it was the other way around, no one would say that’
‘I was like, “I don’t know how to be me and how to take care of a baby.” And they just go, “there you go.” And he was quite ill at the beginning, and it was like, “Now he’s fine, go home.”‘
She added: ‘And it was like, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to navigate this.
“I don’t even know who I am, let alone raising a thing that cries at me.”
‘And it’s like you’re just left to kind of figure it out for yourself, and your brain just goes on a complete spiral.
‘The thing to get me out of that was going back to work and being like, “Oh, I can talk about what I love doing, and I can go back to being me and the world still turns and the baby is fine.”‘
Listen, subscribe and watch Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show on Spotify.