Emma Hawkins has revealed the heartbreaking downside of being an AFL WAG.
The wife of footballer Tom Hawkins says that she is sometimes left sobbing after reading cruel online comments about her appearance.
The 36-year-old says a female friend alerted her to the content, and warned her not to take it to heart – but Emma couldn’t resist, and went looking for the comments.
‘I just bawled my eyes out. Hundreds of people commenting on how you look,’ she told Adelaide Now.
‘Another time someone commented that it’s so nice to see a footballer with a normal-looking girl who’s not as skinny as others,’ she continued.
‘I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get to me at times. For sure it did.’
Emma Hawkins (left) has revealed the heartbreaking downside of being an AFL WAG. The wife of footballer Tom Hawkins (right) says that she is sometimes left sobbing after reading cruel online comments about her appearance
Emma says the online trolls affected her mental health, but added the AFL Facebook page, where she found most of the comments, was ‘receptive’ to taking them down.
‘Sometimes you can lose yourself in it because there is an underlying expectation that you can’t have an opinion,’ Emma said of being a footballer’s wife.
‘You can kind of lose yourself in your own identity sometimes. Make sure you do follow your passions and they are the priority too.’
Emma previously told Stellar magazine that she tries to brush off nasty comments from trolls.
Having watched everyone around her with ‘tiny baby bumps’ snap back, the WAG said she now follows ‘like-minded’ people on Instagram.
‘Everyone I’m around had tiny little baby bumps and seemed to snap back to their weight,’ she said.
‘(So) I would follow women who had pregnancies like mine.’
Emma went on to explain that some days she can cope with the negative comments, but on others, it gets to her.
‘I just bawled my eyes out. Hundreds of people commenting on how you look,’ she told Adelaide Now
The pair married in 2016 and share daughters Arabella, seven, and Primrose, four, as well as son Henry, two. All pictured
‘When I’m being trolled or someone comments on my weight – if they say that on a day I’m feeling good, it’s water off a duck’s back,’ she explained.
‘But if they say that on a day when I’ve had no sleep and I’m feeling crap, then it will hit me where it hurts.’
Emma met her sports star husband Tom, 37, in high school and began dating in year twelve.
The pair married in 2016 and share daughters Arabella, seven, and Primrose, four, as well as son Henry, two.
Tom is a two-time premiership player who recorded 359 games with Geelong.
Following a brief stint as an actress, Emma went on to co-found kidswear fashion label Homegrown Kids.
