Over the next weeks and months, there will be a lot of analysis of “why the internet was bad for talking about the Princess of Wales” and blame-gaming about who did what wrong. Multiple things can be true all at once: the online speculation about Kate absolutely became rude and unpleasant; Kensington Palace grossly mismanaged everything for months; and Buckingham Palace did little to step in and right the ship or provide cover, guidance or support for King Charles’s cancer-stricken daughter-in-law. If anything, we heard and saw repeatedly that Buckingham Palace was “quite enjoying” Kensington Palace’s disastrous public relations fiascoes, and Queen Camilla seemed downright gleeful at times as the “last royal standing.” I guess my point is that a lot of people are backtracking, including the king:
King Charles is supporting his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton amid her cancer diagnosis. On Friday, the Princess of Wales, 42, shared a personal video message that she is undergoing treatment after post-operative tests following her abdominal surgery in January “found cancer had been present.”
Charles, 75, who is also undergoing cancer treatment, is “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson tells PEOPLE.
King Charles and Princess Kate were both hospitalized at The London Clinic in January, and the monarch has “remained in the closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law throughout the past weeks,” the spokesperson adds. Both King Charles and Queen Camilla “will continue to offer their love and support to the whole family through this difficult time.”
Something I keep thinking about is how few times Charles has seen William and Kate in person this year. Charles reportedly checked in on Kate at the London Clinic in January and no one said William was there. There were also reports that Charles and William saw each other in Sandringham in February. But beyond that… are they just emailing? Talking to each other through staff? Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also released a statement:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday that Kate, the Princess of Wales, should be afforded the privacy to focus on her treatment and be with her family, following news that she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
“The Princess of Wales has the love and support of the whole country as she continues her recovery,” Sunak said in a statement. “She has shown tremendous bravery with her statement today. In recent weeks she has been subjected to intense scrutiny and has been unfairly treated by certain sections of the media around the world and on social media. When it comes to matters of health, like everyone else, she must be afforded the privacy to focus on her treatment and be with her loving family.”
There were other public statements of support for Kate, including tweets from President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden as well. The Bidens regularly contact public figures dealing with cancer, especially after Beau’s death.
Jill and I join millions around the world in praying for your full recovery, Princess Kate. https://t.co/jtLp8Uo23d
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 23, 2024
Gossip history: Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani’s marriage fell apart in the summer of 2015 and the immediate rumors involved Gwen being sick of his cheating, specifically his alleged years-long affair with their children’s nanny. While Gavin never publicly admitted to bangin’ the nanny, Gwen made it pretty clear at the time that she had learned something which shook her to her core and did irreparable harm to their marriage. Within a few months, Gwen moved on quickly with Blake Shelton and the rest is history – Blake loves her sons fiercely and Gwen is (in my opinion) a million times happier with Blake than she ever was with Gavin. The only one salty about any of this is Gavin. For years, there have been occasional reports that Gavin hates that his sons adore Blake, and Gavin doesn’t appreciate the fact that Gwen and the boys spend so much time in Oklahoma. Their divorce was not a happy “conscious uncoupling” where everyone gets along for the sake of the kids. There’s bitterness there, and it’s on Gavin’s side. Speaking of:
Gavin Rossdale wishes he had “more of a connection” with ex-wife Gwen Stefani. The Bush frontman, who shares three kids with the “Rich Girl” songstress, said in a new interview that he felt “handcuffed” because he didn’t want to “say anything negative” about his ex.
“I never thought I’d ever get divorced. So there’s a simple shame in my life,” Rossdale, 58, said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Amy & T.J.” podcast with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes. “I feel bad for my kids, that’s it,” he went on, noting that both of his parents had been married three times and he never wanted his kids to have a similar experience.
“I wish I could have found a way to not have that in their lives. It wasn’t fun for me to come from a broken home. It can be quite debilitating for kids … the overriding things is you don’t want to let your kids down,” he said of sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10.
The British hitmaker, who wed Stefani, 54, in 2002, split from her in 2015 amid rumors he cheated on her with their nanny.
“The biggest thing would be when you see the kids that sometimes there’s a loss. It’d be nice if there was more of a connection with the person who made them with me,” Rossdale added, without naming the No Doubt singer directly.
“I go to a lot of events where there’s ‘the other team,’ so to speak, and I just feel really proud of myself in my consistency as a father. I know in my heart that I’m super consistent,” Rossdale said, seemingly referencing Stefani and Shelton, 47.
He went on to describe their “debilitating” divorce as a “very contentious, hugely emotional, flared-up situation.”
“Less said, soonest mended and I said nothing,” he went on. “I’m handcuffed because I would never want to overly say anything negative about [my sons’] mom. That’s just not right.”
He added, “I think that there’s no accidents in life so you are where you’re meant to be. So I don’t live in regret … life just unfolds how it should.”
The undercurrent of this seems to be “how could SHE leave ME” with a heavy dash of “why is she so much happier with HIM?” I’ll be generous to Gavin – apart from the alleged nanny-banging, no one ever accused him of being a bad father. He loves his kids and wants to be a big part of their lives and that’s nice. But Gavin’s complaints about his divorce and how there’s still some acrimony between he and Gwen… like, you’re not the victim here. She never would have divorced you if you weren’t f–king around so much. What really bugs me the most is that he’s positioning himself as the more mature one – “Less said, soonest mended and I said nothing.” GMAFB.
Shakira has had a rough few years. In 2022, she learned that her longtime partner Gerard Pique was cheating on her with Clara Chia Marti in their shared home in Barcelona. Shakira left Pique soon after, and he turned his side-chick into his official. Shakira left Barcelona and moved to Miami, but not before the Spanish tax authorities claimed she owed them millions. Shakira made a lot of noise about fighting until the bitter end, but she ended up settling and taking a suspended sentence. Presumably, she’s done with Spain completely now. There was some good news though – she released a diss track about Pique which became a huge crossover hit, and now she’s releasing a full album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. Shakira chatted with the Times of London about leaving Pique and Spain, and her fresh start in Miami.
The pressure to sing in English back in the day: When she crossed over to the anglophone market in 2001, she says, “it was a true challenge for me to export my music in Spanish. There wasn’t so much receptivity from any gatekeepers in the industry and I felt sometimes that I was carrying a whole mountain on my shoulders, like Atlas. It was really hard to gain the respect of a very male-oriented industry that was also very prejudiced against Hispanic artists. All of that has changed. It’s a much more democratic world in which people make their own decisions about who they want to listen to.”
Her diss song, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”: “It helped me exorcise a lot of the demons that were tormenting me. And it felt good.” She won a Latin Grammy for the song, which was presented to her by Sergio Ramos, formerly of Real Madrid, the sworn enemies of Piqué’s Barcelona. That was mischievous of the organisers. “Or a cosmic joke,” she says with a smile.
What her sons think about her diss track: “They know that there’s only one way to live life and it’s accepting the pain. And each one of us has different ways of doing that.” For her it’s writing songs, and the same goes for Milan. “When his father and I were going through separation, he wrote two amazing songs, the kind that will bring you to tears.”
Putting her career on hold for Pique: “For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football. There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
She hangs out with the Beckhams in Miami: “I’ve talked to Victoria quite a few times since I arrived. We’re always talking about when I’m going to go watch a match and I know Milan wants to. We haven’t been able to meet up yet, but we’re on WhatsApp. I met David a long time ago, when he used to play for Real Madrid. That was before I started my relationship with one of the Barca players.”
She thinks Pique will regret his choices: She’s more forthcoming about Ultima (Last), a pretty piano ballad on which she sings: “Surely with time you’ll regret it/ And some day you’ll want to come back to my door.” Is that about…? “Voldemort, that one that shouldn’t be mentioned? It’s hopefully the last song that I will write about this, and to him.” It was the final song she wrote for the album. “I felt that there was still something there, stuck in my throat, and I needed to get it out. I played it to the marketing head at Sony and he started crying. I’d never seen a man cry in my studio before.”
Whether she learned of Pique’s affair through missing jam: Did she discover Piqué’s alleged infidelity via a pot of jam? It was claimed in the Spanish media that some of her jam disappeared from their home in Barcelona. She knew that Piqué and their children hated jam and the suggestion was that another woman had eaten it. It’s an outlandish story, but, well, this is Shakira. She claims not to know what I’m talking about, which seems unlikely, and insists it’s “not true”.
“For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football. There was a lot of sacrifice for love.” In 2022, Shakira gave a cover interview to Elle, where she went in further detail – in a raw way – of the sacrifices she made to live in Spain, to be with Pique, to put her career on hold to have children. While I know she has no regrets and she loves her sons very much, I’m just reminded yet again that Gerard Pique is a selfish douchebag and that women should always avoid these one-sided sacrifices. Pique got a global superstar to give up her career and be a stay-at-home mom without having to “sacrifice” anything himself. Then he cheated on her and bad-mouthed her to all of his friends and on and on. Normalize sending your exes to prison.
The entire British and international press have been begging Kensington Palace to put the Princess of Wales in front of a camera and simply have her thank everyone for their support and provide some kind of explanation for what’s going on with her. Finally, today, they did just that. No more games, no more manipulated photos, no more weird TMZ sightings. The Princess of Wales now says that she underwent major abdominal surgery and after the surgery, the doctors found the presence of cancer. She is now being treated for cancer. Here’s the video:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to her. If you recall, in January, Kensington Palace released a formal announcement about Kate’s abdominal surgery. Nowhere in that statement did the word “cancer” appear, although within the same newscycle as the statement, palace sources were telling reporters from every major news outlet that Kate did not or does not have cancer. You can say… well, her focus was on her recovery and, as she says in this video, figuring out what to tell her children. I understand that, and I have sympathy for it, but it’s just another example of Kensington Palace burning through their credibility and goodwill.
This video also means, I’m sure, that all of the talk about Kate turning up to church on Windsor on Easter Sunday is gone as well. This is effectively an extension – as it should be! – on her recuperation time.
Lenny Kravitz on Channing Tatum, who is engaged to Zoe Kravitz: “He’s a great guy. We got on really well. We hang out, and we talk. He’s a very soulful human being. He was raised well. He has manners and class.” [Buzzfeed]
Gisele Bundchen looks a bit freshened up to me. [Socialite Life]
Celine Dion announced the starting lineup at the Bruins game. [LaineyGossip]
People are obsessed with the X-Men ‘97 trailer. [OMG Blog]
Ben Affleck is filming The Accountant 2. [Just Jared]
Things are moving in the right direction for President Biden. [Pajiba]
Sydney Sweeney stepped out in black lace. [Go Fug Yourself]
It’s nice to see Fan Bingbing out and about. [RCFA]
Would Lisa Rinna do RHOBH again? [Seriously OMG]
This 90 Day Fiance woman looks like Selena Gomez. [Starcasm]
Megan Fox confirms that she & Machine Gun Kelly did break off their engagement for a time, but it kind of feels like they never put the engagement back on? [Hollywood Life]
In 2021, News Corp bought TMZ. TMZ was already flirting with right-wing politics and making misogyny a glossy, tabloid adventure, and the News Corp purchase just solidified it. TMZ was also flirting with royal coverage long before they were bought by the Murdochs, but this year, TMZ has really stepped up their royal gossip. It’s probably because all of the Murdoch-owned outlets work with some kind of tabloid synergy – The Sun and TMZ held the exclusives on the video of Prince William and Kate at the Windsor Farm Store last weekend, and TMZ initially doubled-down on the British reporting. Then they remembered their roots, and suddenly skeptical American TMZ editors were talking about maybe that wasn’t really Kate in the video and maybe the doubters had a point.
All of which means that TMZ quickly threw together a “special” called TMZ Investigates: Where Is Kate Middleton? It aired on Fox last night, and they managed to do an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan. Guess what? Piers has some doubts about all of the palace manipulations, especially with the Mother’s Day photo (not the farmer’s market video though?).
Kate Middleton couldn’t have taken her infamous Mother’s Day photo the week before it was posted, because unlike the photoshopped image projects … IRL she looked much more sickly at that time … at least, according to Piers Morgan.
We sat down with the famed British host and journalist for our new Kate Middleton documentary — airing Thursday night on FOX — and he revealed some intel on the princess’ appearance during the first week of March … the time when Kate and the palace claim that Mother’s Day pic was snapped.
According to Morgan, a source who saw Kate at that time told him she looked a whole lot thinner than usual, and nowhere near the glowing picture of health shown in the now infamous photo. Morgan did acknowledge Kate’s a thin woman under normal circumstances … but the person who saw her said it was beyond her average skinny appearance.
Yeah, I think we’ve pretty much established that the Mother’s Day frankenphoto was cobbled together from likely several older photos. Piers’ statement that he knows someone who saw Kate and she was a lot thinner than usual… that actually says a lot about the authenticity of the farmer’s market video too, because the “Kate” in that video was regular Kate-sized, except with longer legs and a different gait and a much younger-looking face.
Watch @PiersMorgan break down why the viral Mother’s Day photo of #KateMiddleton and her children could NOT have been taken the week before it was posted. Join Piers & other experts on ‘TMZ Investigates: Where Is Kate Middleton?’ TONIGHT at 9/8c on @foxtv https://t.co/D9FYKBZqoy pic.twitter.com/IL4JowVx4N
— TMZ (@TMZ) March 21, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
Queen Camilla went to Isle of Man on Wednesday, and then she flew to Belfast and had events throughout Thursday. Did you know that the Windsors are still extremely careful about how they visit Northern Ireland? They rarely announce their visits in advance and they rarely spend the night, although Camilla reportedly did spend Wednesday night in Belfast ahead of her day of engagements. I was sort of surprised to see that some of Camilla’s engagements were so informal too – some of them were just popping into smaller bakeries and delis in Belfast and checking out the local delicacies. She apparently left Belfast with several grocery bags full of food. Which is sort of nice. She also chatted about how King Charles is doing:
Queen Camilla offered a new comment on how King Charles is doing while receiving cancer treatment during her solo trip to Northern Ireland. On Thursday, the Queen, 76, stepped out in Belfast to check out some of the city’s artisan and family-run food shops, where she briefly spoke about her husband’s health at the Arcadia Delicatessen.
“He’s doing very well. He was very disappointed he couldn’t come,” Queen Camilla said after shop assistant Brenda Robb gave her a get-well card for the King, 75, and shared well-wishes, Hello! magazine reported. According to the outlet, the royal had something playful to say when someone cracked a joke about men “not being the best patients.”
“I try to keep him in order,” Queen Camilla replied about her husband of 18 years.
The Queen spoke about King Charles again during a stop at the family-run Coffey’s Butcher, which has been in business since 1929, when she accepted a gift of the store’s specialties including vegetable rolls, beef sausages and Belfast pickle.
“I shall take these back to my husband. He will really make the most of them,” Queen Camilla said of the treats, Hello! Reported.
The Queen also popped into Knotts Bakery, where she made no promises that the fruit loaf and iced madeira they gave her would make it home for the King to sample. “She said she’d eat some of them on the way home,” family bakery co-owner William Corrie the outlet.
Honestly, this is a good way to keep people updated on Charles’s health – not everything needs a press release or formal palace statement. It can just be Camilla, answering questions informally during her events. It begs the question: why couldn’t Prince William do the same for Kate? Also, it helps that Charles has been doing events too and that he’s been photographed clearly and repeatedly since his cancer diagnosis. While Cam was in Belfast, Charles was greeting some diplomats at Buckingham Palace too.
It’s just too funny, to think back on how many “royal experts” insisted that Meghan Markle was just some wannabe starlet on a cable soap opera. They desperately tried to make Meghan sound unsuccessful, broke, trashy, and like she should be grateful for whatever crumbs the Windsors gave her. Let’s be clear – in Hollywood, nearly every actress wants to get a TV show, especially a well-written show with a sexy/fun character. Meghan loved working on Suits and now, years later, the show has become a massive hit on streaming. Suits was the biggest television success story last year because of the absolutely bonkers streaming numbers. It was so big that now a new Suits show is being developed (without Meghan or most of the original cast). So, here’s a hilarious addendum to Suits’ long-running success: the BBC has purchased the entire nine-season run to air on broadcast television and on their iPlayer streaming.
Suits is continuing to cash in on its current popularity. The BBC has acquired all nine seasons of the hit American legal drama, along with mockumentary St. Denis Medical and the series continuation of the hit Best Man films, The Best Man: The Final Chapters, for its TV channels and the BBC iPlayer streaming service.
It acquired the three titles from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution.
Set in a New York City law firm, Suits stars Patrick J. Adams (Old School) as Mike Ross, who uses his photographic memory to talk his way into a job as an associate working for successful “closer” Harvey Spector, played by Gabriel Macht (Love & Other Drugs), despite being a college dropout who never attended law school. Together they win lawsuits and close cases, while at the same time hiding Mike’s secret. Suits boasts a stellar ensemble cast that also includes Gina Torres (Westworld), Sarah Rafferty (Brothers & Sisters), Rick Hoffman (Billions), Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) and Meghan Markle (Remember Me).
“This is a really exciting and enjoyable trio of star-studded series: the hotly anticipated comedy, St. Denis Medical, the sassy, romantic comedy-drama, The Best Man: The Final Chapters, and the smart and stylish legal drama, Suits,” said Sue Deeks, head of BBC program acquisition. “We couldn’t be more delighted to bring them all to BBC viewers.”
So, there you go. The BBC saw the popularity of Suits on streaming last year and they wanted a piece of it too. The BBC! The same organization which gently carries water for the Windsors at every turn, that same BBC is like “wow, Meghan Markle’s TV show was actually really great and people should see it!” Plus, those Brits just like to pretend that they still “own” her.
The royalist media has some understanding that the Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day frankenphoto fiasco cannot be buried or ignored. They tried that and it came back and bit them on the ass. So they’ve been trying other methods of deflection and minimization – first it was “everyone edits photos,” then it was “Kate just wanted her kids to look cute.” Then it was “but Prince Harry and Meghan manipulate their photos too,” only that was such an egregious lie, every outlet has now backtracked on their claims. Throughout it all, I haven’t even gotten the sense that William and Kate understand how badly they f–ked up and how their haphazard propaganda means that the monarchy’s credibility has taken a huge hit. Speaking of, Camilla Tominey wrote another piece about the fiasco after her first effort landed with a dull thump. “Picture agencies, paparazzi and the Palace: The battle to control the truth” is partly a history lesson of how “the Windsors have always taken their own photos,” but there are several interesting quotes critical of poor, “demonized” Kate and William. And because it’s Tominey, there’s a lot of whataboutism with the Sussexes too. Some highlights:
The Mother’s Day photo: Yet the decision by picture agencies to issue a “kill notice” withdrawing the Mothering Sunday photograph, which was taken by Prince William but edited by his wife, lays bare a tension that has been building in recent years over the extent to which the royals have exercised that control. It’s not just a problem that members of the Royal family are sidelining professional photographers, and consequently the picture agencies that distribute their work, such as Getty Images, Reuters and Agence France-Press. It is also the amateur nature of the editing – and its implications for a media trying to be as accountable as possible to the public.
Photo agencies can’t trust the Windsors: As Martin Keene, a former group picture editor at the Press Association, points out: “All picture agencies have truth and accuracy [in] their DNA – it’s something that really matters to them. The only thing that they have is their trust and their credibility and they need to know that, for their clients and the people who look at their pictures – the readers, the viewers – that their picture really was what the photographer saw when the picture was taken, and that it hasn’t been manipulated since that time.”
Control freak royals: One former royal photographer explained: “A lot of this has stemmed from William and Harry being control freaks when it comes to pictures of their own children. They grew up hating the paparazzi for chasing Princess Diana around and have had a tendency to tar all royal photographers with the same brush. So, with the odd exception, we no longer see royal photographers – the ones who cover the day-to-day official engagements and all the overseas tours – being invited in to take more candid family photographs. Instead, the royals either photograph their children themselves or choose their own pet photographer to take more intimate shots. And that can sometimes lead to problems.”
An agency insider criticized Kate: While photographic agencies do allow photographers to make minor adjustments to images (such as cropping), photographs which have been digitally manipulated must carry an editor’s note before being sent out. According to one agency insider: “It’s nice that the Princess has been shooting her own stuff but she appears to have no understanding of the gravity of what she’s done by changing the image before putting it out for circulation.”
Archie’s christening photo: The picture agencies are now investigating two other photographs, including Prince Archie’s official christening picture, taken by fashion photographer Chris Allerton in 2019. Getty said the portrait – showing the two-month-old with Meghan, Prince Harry, King Charles, Camilla, William, Kate, Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland and Princess Diana’s sisters – had been “digitally enhanced”, a claim Allerton has described as “a load of cobblers”. It came after an editor’s note was placed on an image of the late Queen with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren which was snapped by Catherine in August 2022 at Balmoral. As the controversy around Allerton’s photograph shows, however, even using professional photographers can present a challenge for the royals – especially if they are perceived to be “in the pay” of the principals. Royals have traditionally always had their “favourites”. For Diana, it was Tim Graham. For Camilla, it is Hugo Burnand, who took the official Coronation photographs.
Using a favored professional photographer: As one picture editor explained: “The trouble with this approach is the images produced are designed to cast the subject in as favourable light as possible. Therefore the images aren’t a true representation. It’s not the same as having a photojournalist take the pictures from a position of complete impartiality.” Invariably such photographs end up being “edited” by a spin doctor, rather than a professional picture editor, which can again lead to problems. “These people aren’t trained to spot inconsistencies and potential manipulations,” added the picture editor.
Michael Middleton just got tossed under the bus too: “The truth is that the royals have got form when it comes to manipulating their own pictures. I remember being quite suspicious of some images taken by Kate’s father, Michael Middleton. There was obvious blurring and movement and darkening. Elements of it have been going on for years.”
Again, the controversy over Archie’s christening photos was a complete lie and Allerton spoke out in his own defense and Getty backtracked and removed the note. Tominey is just tossing Allerton and the Sussexes in the conversation as yet another deflection from how badly the Waleses f–ked up. That being said, Tominey at least acknowledges the f–kup. The thing is, the conversation about “it’s bad to have a favored professional photographer” is kind of weird given the fact that we’ve gotten some very prominent examples of photographers coming out to defend their integrity within this same newscycle. They tried to say Misan Harriman manipulated his portrait of the Sussexes, and Misan clapped back HARD. Same with Allerton. If anything, this shows why the palace should always use professional photographers who are willing to defend themselves and their work. Also: that mention of Michael Middleton is a warning shot, huh?
As you probably know, when it comes to medical research, women are under-represented. The most famous example was the lack of female crash test dummies, but studies on issues like heart disease and cancer have also mainly focused on male participants. Enter Lululemon. The popular yet pricey athleisure line funded a study to research breathing patterns in “elite” female runners. The tests were conducted on treadmills, with the participants doing different treadmill workouts while wearing custom sports bras that were adjusted to different levels of tightness around their rib cages. Surprise! The study found that wearing a sports bra that’s too tight around your rib cage may “compromise” a woman’s ability to breathe properly while exercising, which can also affect their running performance. Lululemon really dropped all that money to tell us something every single woman who’s ever worn a sports bra while exercising could have told them for free.
Be cautious: It turns out that wearing a tight sports bra while exercising may not be good for your health, according to a new study. The study, which was published in the National Library of Medicine, was funded by Lululemon Athletica and conducted by the University of British Columbia. During their research, they examined the breathing patterns of nine elite runners.
While on a treadmill, runners wore custom sports bras that could be adjusted to different tightness levels. The bras were designed for individuals with rib cage sizes ranging from 30 to 34 and cup sizes of B or C. Throughout the study, the runners engaged in various treadmill workouts, during which they adjusted the tightness of their sports bras differently for each session.
The study — which focused on the tightness only around the rib cage — revealed that women who wore a sports bra that was too tight took fewer breaths and exhibited a higher breaths-per-minute rate, noting that “respiratory function may become compromised by the pressure exerted by the underband.”
However, those who wore a less constrictive sports bra “resulted in a decreased work of breathing,” and improved one’s running economy by decreasing submaximal oxygen uptake.
“People ask, ‘What sports bra should I wear?’ I say, ‘Wear one that is correctly fitted,’” Shalaya Kipp, the lead author of the study who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, told the Washington Post. “That’s probably the biggest thing that would help.”
Specifically, the study showed how wearing a looser bra had a 1.3% improvement rate for a person’s running economy. Kipp told the outlet that a 2% increase in running economy would help a three-hour marathon runner improve their time by three minutes.
“It was quite invasive,” Kipp, who also competed in the 2012 Olympics and participated in the study, said. “It’s the hardest experimental protocol I’ve ever had someone do.”
“A decline in lung function makes breathing harder, which is especially critical during exercise or daily physical activity,” she added, per the outlet.
I think most of these results are common sense. Of course wearing a too-tight sports bra is going to make it more difficult to breathe while running. Wearing anything too tight from your hips through your shoulders is going to make it difficult to breathe! I think the problem most women run into when buying a sports bra is wanting to feel that extra support to avoid bouncy boobs. Running when you’re flopping around is equally as painful and annoying. So, just like with everything else made for women, the struggle is real. Also, I wonder if Lululemon sponsored this “study” as a way to promote whatever wildly overpriced custom sports bras they want to sell to women with cup sizes C or less. Be the heroes, Lululemon! Give us a supportive yet comfortable sports bra for under $50!
On a more serious note, I do want to take a minute to do a quick PSA on the topic of too-tight sports bras. Obviously, this will not be the case for most women, but if your sports bra suddenly feels too tight without reason, please consider getting checked out by your doctor. My friend is a marathon runner. She had a routine mammogram last winter and it was clear. This past fall, while training, she noticed her sports bra felt too tight and that she was having trouble breathing. It kept happening, so her doctor sent her for another mammogram and she ended up being diagnosed with Stage IV triple negative breast cancer. I don’t want to be a downer or scare anyone! But, it’s been weighing on me, so I thought it was important to mention it just in case it could help any of you out there.
Photos credit: Andrea Piacquadio, Andres Ayrton, The Lazy Artist Gallery and Monstera Production on Pexels