Standing by her decisions. Kelly Stafford shut down mom-shamers who took issue with her and husband Matthew Stafford not bringing their youngest daughter on a family vacation.
Kelly, 33 — who has been married to the quarterback, 35, since 2015 — shared a carousel of Instagram photos on Wednesday, April 5, depicting a trip to Hawaii. Her followers were quick to notice that the duo’s 2-year-old daughter, Tyler, was missing from the snaps.
“What about the youngest girl? Did you leave her behind again?” one Instagram user commented.
Another chimed in: “Does Tyler go on any family vacays?”
The Georgia native — who also shares twin daughters Sawyer and Chandler, 6, and daughter Hunter, 4, with Matthew — took to her Instagram Story later that day to set the record straight.
“Knew it would happen. Pregnant-stars-slam-mom-shamers-ahead-of-babies-births/”>People already shaming us for not bringing Tyler,” she wrote alongside a photo of her little one smiling in a nightgown and rain boots.
She continued, teasing an upcoming episode of her “The Morning After With Kelly Stafford” podcast, “We make decisions for our kids that benefit them … not that we need to explain ourselves. If you wanna know, I’ll talk about why we made those decisions on my podcast.”
This isn’t the first time the University of Georgia alum has faced criticism for her actions. In November 2021, she was asked to leave SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles after she threw a soft pretzel at a San Francisco 49ers fan who was trolling her.
“I’m an idiot. He was saying a bunch of things that were aggressive towards our crew but zero excuse,” Kelly wrote in an Instagram comment after the incident. “I tried to apologize, but in the end I knew I was wrong. Will always stand up for my guy and everyone I love, but obviously needed to do it completely different! … I’m embarrassed too! Sorry you had to witness me in my weak moment!”
Kelly revealed how her husband reacted to her behavior during a subsequent episode of her podcast.
“He said, ‘Well, I wish I was as accurate as you were, but I guess only one person in the family was accurate that night,’” she shared.
The couple recently celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary, which Kelly commemorated by sharing a throwback photo of their nuptials.
“8 years and counting. Love you @matthewstafford,” she captioned the Instagram snap.
In addition to celebrating their relationship milestones, Kelly has been honest about the pair’s ups and downs in their marriage. In a March 2022 episode of her podcast, she opened up about previously being a “terrible wife” amid insecurities about her postpartum body.
“It was really hard on our marriage because of my feelings toward my own body,” the mom of four explained. “I was so insecure. I was in such a bad headspace. … I did not want to get intimate because I had s—t hanging everywhere.”
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Kelly added that focusing on her family and letting her “body fall into place” helped her get past the challenging time.