Mandi Vakili, the sister of Love Island star Anna Vakili, angered social media users after admitting breastfeeding made her feel “uncomfortable” in an awkward rant
An influencer who sparked fury over her mocking of mums breastfeeding in public has apologised.
Mandi Vakili, the sister of Love Island star Anna Vakili, angered social media users after admitting breastfeeding made her feel “uncomfortable” in an awkward rant.
However, she also slammed the “hate campaign” against her, saying that the amount of abuse she received in retaliation was unjustified. She claimed that she had been told to “kill herself”, called a “paedophile” and told that she would be attacked in the street.
The sisters were speaking on their joint podcast when Mandi, 34, expressed her disgust over mothers choosing to breastfeed their babies in public. One social media user wrote: “Honestly the way she puts her ‘opinion’ across is immature and pathetic. She’s entitled to her opinion but this portrayal and imitation/ description of breastfeeding is utterly childish and does nothing for other women’s rights or confidence. The mockery shows us where her level of intellect and integrity sits.”
In a make-up free apology video, Mandi has since expressed her regret over her comments. “I want to address the clip that has been going viral,” she began. “The first thing I want to say is please direct your anger towards me and not my co-host, my sister Anna. She didn’t say anything, I feel like she’s just suffering because of the comments I made.
“I just want to make it clear that I never said – and I don’t even think – that a woman shouldn’t be able to breastfeed wherever she wants, whenever she wants, however she wants. I don’t even think that and I never said that. I said that whenever a woman is breastfeeding without a cover and an entire breast is exposed and I’m there in a public place, I get a little bit awkward and uncomfortable.
“But seeing how many women are genuinely affected and upset about my comments, I am really sorry, this really should not have been shared on a public platform. I had no idea that there is already so much stigma, judgement and battles that mums are going through surrounding this topic. So I need to educate myself, I need to do better. So I didn’t realise how much of a sensitive topic this already is for women and mums.
“I do think that even though I was wrong and I can take accountability, I don’t think it was a justified amount of abuse I received the last two days. I’ve been told to kill myself, I’ve been threatened to killed, my family’s been sent abuse and threats… my partner… even people I know have said if they see me they’re going to attack me. I cancelled my plans yesterday because I was so scared of getting attacked by someone. I’ve been called every single name under the sun, the most vile things, like paedophile, ‘infertile forever’ – just really horrible things.
“I think, instead, this comment I made could have opened up a discussion and it could have opened up debate and it could have been an opportunity for us to all educate each other and for me to be educated myself. Instead, [it became] a violent hate campaign towards me. It may be possible I felt that way or had that opinion because of my environment from my upbringing, my culture, my friends and I’ve never been around anyone who’s been confident enough to breastfeed completely exposed and maybe that conditioned my feelings and that’s conditioned me.
“Also, I want to say that if you know me as a content creator and you know the podcast, you know I’m very extreme and exaggerated and over the top and graphic and loud about everything I talk about and I dress everything I say in a very comedic way. I take the p*** out of my sister, my boyfriend and I do that with everything. So maybe that’s why a sensitive topic cam across as even more insensitive and I want to apologise for that as well. I understand that certain topics can’t be spoken about in that way.
“I would really like to thank everyone who shared constructive criticism, given me advice and spoken to me in a constructive, helpful way.”
Mandi received hoards of support from her friends and family, with Anna posting a heart emoji with “love you”, while Love Island star Tanyel Revan wrote: “Love you!”
While one social media user commented: “Do you know what, fair play for this video. I’m a mum of 2, really struggled to bf etc etc and felt judged and bla bla but tbh – before you’re a mum you’re not to ever know what it’s like until you’re there. Yes maybe you could have projected it better but we’re all human – make mistakes and you’re being accountable! Love that. Everyone with a huge platform that jumped on a hate train towards you to influence others to do the same was ickkkky.”
However, others were less impressed, with one commenting: “You don’t know it’s a sensitive topic at 34 years old?” While another wrote: “I breastfeed for 2 years and one of the reasons it was so difficult in public so I dont accept this.”
A third commented: “The way you worded this is so much better than how you originally did (even though I still don’t agree BUT we’re entitled to our own opinions!) it was the way you said it that came across really nasty-I think was the main problem. All you can do is learn from mistakes and move forward.”
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