Mother of 3 whose photo went viral stops by The Today Show to explain herself

Oct 19, 2013 12:31 GMT  ·  By
Maria Kang and the photo that got her accusations of bullying and fat-shaming other mothers
   Maria Kang and the photo that got her accusations of bullying and fat-shaming other mothers

This past week, Maria Kang went from a businesswoman mother of 3 from California to the latest viral star, the “What’s Your Excuse” mom who has incited such polarized reactions after posting a photo of herself in workout gear, with her 3 kids.

You can see the photo in question attached to this article as well.

Maria was on The Today Show the other day to explain how she feels about being the most talked about mother online right now and, as you can see for yourself in the video below, she maintains the idea was to get people inspired from the start.

However, she understands why people reacted negatively to it, even accusing her of being a bully and of fat-shaming other moms by showing off her ripped body after 3 kids.

Still, Kang stresses, all she wanted to do was to motivate women to start taking better care of themselves.

“I think they see it as, you know, I have a child, or I have two – and if she can do it, so can I,” she says.

Maria doesn’t have a personal trainer and she doesn’t work as one either, but she makes no secret of knowing precisely what the best exercises for her body were because she used to be a personal trainer in college.

Other than that, though, there is really nothing special about her.

“I’m just like any other mom. I’m a real mom. My job is not a personal trainer. I just make it a priority,” she says.

“People are wondering, ‘How are you doing it? How are you holding up?’ You know, I built the stamina, I've given birth three years in a row, and I'm ready for this,” Kang continues.

Kang initially posted the now-viral photo to her Facebook months ago, and she chose to repost it when she saw how critical some people were of it. It went viral afterwards, with Kang saying all those who were offended by it should look for the problem in themselves, not in her.