Meghan King. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Meghan King doesn’t regret her choice to stop sharing photos and videos of her kids online — despite its negative financial effect.
“When I stopped showing my kiddos, my income dropped drastically, which is disturbing and validated my decision,” King, 39, wrote via her Instagram Story on Tuesday, May 14. “It also forced me to add a new career to my plate @meghankingrealty.”
King shared her statement in response to an article about children and social media shared by The New York Times, though she did not share a link to the specific story in her post. The New York Times has published a handful of recent articles about the effects social media has on kids and whether adults should use their children for content.
“The fact this was so deeply investigated and published by The NY Times means this is a huge problem,” King said of the report in her Instagram Story post. “This was kind of a sneak-attack article which makes me believe this has been a hidden issue for a while.”
RHOC‘ Alum Meghan King’s Sweetest Moments With Her Kids” width=”400″ height=”225″ data-fallback-img=”/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Meghan-Kings-Sweetest-Moments-Kids-0001.jpg?quality=86&strip=all”/>
Proud parent! Meghan King has three children with ex-husband Jim Edmonds and loves documenting her lives with the little ones on social media. The Real Housewives of Orange County alum became a mom in November 2016 when daughter Aspen arrived, two years after her and the former professional baseball player’s St. Louis wedding. “Jimmy and […]
She went on to call the outlet’s article a “tough read,” adding, “I’ve made a full-time living promoting products including occasionally using my children directly in ads. I’ve saved that money for them in a trust but it’s a strange moral line to toe: stay home [with] them by using them in ads, or get a traditional job and see them less but keep them off social media. Which is better?”
King shares daughter Aspen, 7, and twin sons Hart and Hayes, 5, with her ex-husband Jim Edmonds. Back in January 2023, she announced that she would no longer share her kids’ faces online.
“Boundaries, grassroots efforts, femininity, deleting and blocking assholes who troll my page: my promises to myself and to you this year,” she captioned a slideshow of Instagram pics that featured emojis over her kids’ faces.
Her upload directed followers to a blog post in which she claimed that photos of her children were used as an “intimidation tactic” against her. “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,” she wrote at the time. “But I am lucky here, I have complete legal control over the use of their images and I’m putting an end to that.”
Love conquers all? Not so much. Meghan King and Jim Edmonds faced cheating allegations, fertility struggles and Bravo cameras before their marriage fell apart in 2019. The former Real Housewives of Orange County couple tied the knot in 2014. Edmonds, a retired baseball player, had been married twice previously. He shared two daughters, Hayley and Lauren, with […]
Since then, she has continued to share glimpses into her kids’ lives with fans via social media — but she always censors their faces.
Earlier this year, King exclusively told Us Weekly that her coparenting relationship with Edmonds, 53, was improving after years of ups and downs. “Things are good. We’ve come a long way,” she shared in March, noting that the pair are currently “splitting custody” of their three little ones.
“It’s been smoother sailing, but I think it’s also because they’re older too,” she added. “Life stages change situations.”
King and Edmonds endured a messy divorce after parting ways in 2019. Their divorce was finalized in 2021, after which King moved on with Cuffe Owens, Mike Johnson and others.
