Torah Bright responds to trolls over breastfeeding photo on Today

Aussie Olympian Torah Bright has hit back at the online trolls who criticised her beautiful breastfeeding photo with 10-month-old son Flow, which went viral last week.

Speaking to Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon on the Today show on Wednesday morning, the 34-year-old snowboarder addressed the photo, which she shared alongside a collection of images to celebrate her first Mother's Day, and some of the backlash it received.

The gold and silver Olympic medalist captioned the images with: "Becoming a mother has unleashed something inside of me."

She told hosts Karl and Ally that the images were "honouring my journey as a mother."

"I was just surprised and I think the only reason why I took the time - to be honest, I feel really silly even coming here talking about it because I was like, 'It's a non-issue'," Torah said.

"If you didn't like the photo, that's fine," she continued.

"My main thoughts and the sadness I did get from reading some of the comments, the motherhood journey, we need to be supported, we need to find the village to support each other, encourage each other."

Ally agreed, telling Torah she saw the picture as a "celebration" of motherhood and breastfeeding.

She then asked the mother whether the negative comments were hurtful - to which Torah said she was lucky she has a "really thick skin".

In the caption of the photo, Torah wrote: "It's deeply spiritual. It's primal. It's raw. it's fierce. It is pure"

"I am mother. My prayer for all mothers, now and in the future is that they be heard. Honoured. Respected and encouraged to trust their intuition."

But the headstand photo sparked quite the debate online.

Some thought it was "powerful".

"Stop it, your head stand nursing photo is EVERYTHING," one person wrote, with another saying: "That headstand photo is insane."

However, others left hurtful comments, slamming the star.

"This is way too much. It's not about handstands and seeing how that child could actually latch on for likes," one person wrote.

“It’s not all about you love, just feed your kid normally," was another comment.

Torah also took to her Instagram on Sunday to respond to the backlash, writing she was 'saddened' by the comments.

“In my world, mothers should be each other’s cheerleaders,” she said, adding “it’s hard enough”.

“Embrace our quirkiness and finding the joy in every s****y thing that is motherhood.

“We all do it differently, it is not wrong or right.”

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