Nicole Trunfio Breastfeeds Her Baby Boy on Elle Australia Cover
Supermodel Nicole Trunfio graces the cover of Elle Australia’s June subscription issue breastfeeding her four-month-old son Zion.
Photographed by Georges Antoni, the model and first-time mom wears an suede trench coat while her baby Zion, is in the buff. Inside the magazine, Trunfio appears in a 12-page editorial sporting high-end clothing from designers including Chanel, Prada and Miu Miu with a nude Zion. There is also a naked photo of Trunfio holding her son.
Elle is not selling it on newsstands; the cover on newsstand editions shows her fully clothed.
The Australian model made headlines on thursday after she shared a sneak peek from the photoshoot with her 102k Instagram followers with the caption; ‘Wow … Thank you to ELLE @elleaus for such a beautiful cover with my little bundle of joy! My two worlds collide in #juneissue on stands Monday! You will see a lot more of our beautiful son Zion Rain Clark (finally!!!) #babyclark Thank you to the incredible team that made this happen’
The response to the cover has been inevitably mixed however. While some considered it empowering others found it offensive and that it did not normalize breast feeding in public. Many have said that by shying away from putting it on newsstands the magazine detracted from a potentially powerful message. The issue was hotly debated on Friday’s Today show, with Mornings host Sonia Kruger telling Editor-in-Chief Justine Cullen that she ‘wussed out’. In her editor’s letter Cullen said that the magazine did not intend to capture this controversial image. ‘This wasn’t a contrived situation: Zion needed a feed, Nicole gave it to him, and when we saw how beautiful they looked we simply moved her onto the set.’
When Trunfio saw the picture she told Cullen how much the image moved her. ‘When I saw the cover of me breastfeeding, which was unplanned and just natural, I teared up and thought, ‘Wow this is such a special moment where my worlds have collided’.’ However in response to the criticism, Trunfio took to Instagram and Facebook with a follow up message to explain her stance on the image: ‘There is nothing more powerful and beautiful than motherhood. The last thing I want to do is be controversial, so please take this for what it is, let us #normalizebreastfeeding there is nothing worse than a mother that is judged for feeding her hungry child in public. #weareonlyhuman I’m so proud of this cover and for what it’s stands for. I obviously don’t look like this while I am breastfeeding but this stands for all women out there, whether you breastfeed or not, we gave birth, we are women, we are mothers. Thank you to ELLE for being so bold and making such an encouraging, positive and healthy statement. #womenunite’
Nicole isn’t the first celebrity to be photographed while breastfeeding. The topic of breastfeeding has been controversial for quite sometime, with a number of celebs have spoken out in support of the practice with the hope that it becomes completely commonplace. From the fashion fraternity several models have voiced their support for promoting the natural act of breastfeeding.
Famously, Gisele Bundchen in 2013 nursing her daughter and Miranda Kerr breastfeeding her son Flynn when he was born in 2011. In 2014 Natalia Vodianova had posted a stunning black-and-white intimate picture of her breastfeeding her little baby Maxim. Taken by photographer Paolo Rovers the image received much acclaim on social media. In March 2015 Natalia Vodianova posted a beautiful image of herself breastfeeding her son Maxim. The tasteful snap was taken by photographer Paolo Rovers and received much acclaim on social media. Earlier this year Doutzen Kroes appeared in an editorial for the March 2015 Vogue Netherland’s Collectors’ Issue in which she and her husband were pictured with their children, while Doutzen breastfed 5-month-old daughter Myllena Mae. While In April Kroes took to Instagram on sunday to share a photo of herself pumping breast milk on Instagram.
Zion is Trunfio’s first child with fiance and Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. The June issue of Elle Australia is on sale from Monday.
