Meghan King. Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
Her 2023 resolution. Meghan King revealed she will no longer show her children’s faces on social media after their photos were allegedly used against her as an “intimidation tactic.”
“For 2023: I’m staying focused. No more showing my kids’ faces. No more filters, ever,” King, 38, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, January 4. “Boundaries, grassroots efforts, femininity, deleting and blocking assholes who troll my page: my promises to myself and to you this year.”
The post — which featured her daughter Aspen, 6, and twin sons Hart and Hayes, 4, whom she shares with ex-husband Jim Edmonds — had emojis or objects placed over each of their faces to obscure them from the photos. (King and the retired athlete, 52, were married for five years before calling it quits in 2019.)
The former Real Housewives of Orange County star then directed her followers to her blog, where she further explained why she would no longer be sharing images of her little ones on the internet.
“My children’s images were used against me as an intimidation tactic recently,” she wrote in a post titled “Burn Baby Burn,” which was published on Wednesday. “The thought of using the images of my innocent children to attempt [to] hurt their mother is … I don’t know if there’s a word to describe the depth of the disgust that incites inside me. But I am lucky here, I have complete legal control over the use of their images and I’m putting an end to that.”
The “Intimate Knowledge” podcast host added that her kids are also “individuals” who once “felt like an appendage of mine” but “now they feel unique and I love watching them spread their wings.” King described one of her children as someone who “loves the limelight,” while revealing that another “hates it.” The third, however, “doesn’t know what to think,” but all three are too young to “understand what notoriety means.”
She added: “I am going to insulate them from it until they are old enough to be slowly ushered back in if they so choose. Poof. Bye bye Aspen, Hayes, and Hart’s faces from the public eye from this day forward.”
Meghan King. Courtesy of Meghan King/Instagram
King also referred to 2023 as the “year of me,” noting that she is feeling more “present” and has “eliminated all antidepressants and hormonal supplements” from her life.
“I am enforcing boundaries and angering people because I’m standing up for myself in new ways that weren’t expected before. I am present,” she wrote. “I will explore my sexuality if I want to, and I will honor plutonic [sic] and non-traditional relationships in ways Western society has done the disservice of making us believe are unimportant. I am present.”
The reality star’s declarations come more than one year after her split from Cuffe Biden Owens. The twosome tied the knot in October 2021 but called it quits just two months later. King revealed in July 2022 that the pair’s whirlwind marriage was officially annulled.
While the relationship ended quickly, King exclusively shared with Us Weekly in September 2022 that the experience helped her learn how to approach romance in the future.
“That taught me a big lesson that I need to figure out how to be good within myself and my children, our own little family unit,” she told Us. “It’s hard, but I cannot put them through that or myself through that again, and I won’t do it.”