![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/03/09/18/newFile-7.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp)
Emily Ratajkowski celebrated her son’s first birthday with a series of nude photos showcasing her former baby bump as she wished herself a “happy birth day”.
The 30-year-old model and actor shared the slideshow of pregnancy photos to her Instagram page on Tuesday 8 March, writing in the caption: “Happy birthday Sly/happy birth day to me/happy women’s day to all.”
The images featured Ratajkowski, who welcomed her first child, Sylvester Apollo, in March 2021 with producer husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, in a bathtub cradling her pregnant stomach. In the third photo, Ratajkowski is seen lounging in a large, pink chair, while the final image showed her son.
The photos prompted praise from the supermodel’s followers, with one fan writing: “Of course he has an [International] Women’s Day bday. Hbd Sly and to his mama.”
“Happy birthday, and Happy International Women’s Day,” someone else wrote.
Ratajkowski previously revealed her fears about raising a daughter, and her concerns about her child being sexualised from a young age. “I wanted a daughter initially, but when I found out I was having a son, I was so relieved,” Ratajkowski told Elle. “Because I think that it would bring up - I want more children, so it might be something I deal with later - being sexualised way before puberty and being aware of it.”
The New York Times bestselling author has also been open about her own sexualised childhood, which she detailed in her book of essays, My Body.
During an episode of The Independent’s Millennial Love podcast, Ratajkowski, who previously accused Robin Thicke of sexual assault, also spoke out against men who have sexually assaulted women.
“There’s this thing of like, ‘well not all men’, but if we’re able to name the men that are this way, there will be some kind of healing,” she said on the podcast. “And the truth is I don’t think it’s about good and bad men, it’s about a system that men exploit, sometimes subconsciously.”