Bachelor Nation star Madi Prewett got real about external validation and how it affected her early relationship with now-husband Grant Troutt.
“I think that has been one of the struggles for me is, like, self-obsession with validation and approval,” Prewett, 29, said on the Monday, July 14, episode of her “Stay True” podcast. “That was something I struggled with really badly in high school. [I] would find little things that I knew would get me attention or, you know, flirt certain ways or post certain ways.”
She added, “[I] was madly in love with Jesus, and still would find myself looking for validation in other people. I remember even Grant, when we first started dating, would call me out [over] how I dressed a little bit.”
Prewett and Troutt, also 29, confirmed their romance in May 2022, and they got married that October.
During Monday’s episode, Prewett said that Troutt questioned “what was the heart behind” the clothes she wore and what she was “trying to get out of that.”
“And, you know, I got a little defensive,” Prewett admitted. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean? You don’t know me. We just started dating.’ Honestly, I’ve learned anytime I’m trying to justify something, usually there’s a little sin there [and] there’s something more to uncover.”
Eventually, Prewett learned that she had been “searching for this validation and approval in other people.”
“I tell other people that they are affirmed and accepted and approved and loved by an almighty God,” she said, “and yet I myself question [that and] don’t always believe that.”
Prewett hit a setback in her self-acceptance journey after giving birth to her and Troutt’s daughter, Hosanna, in January.
“I’ve shed many tears that my body does not look the way it once did,” she said. “My hair is falling out, my face is breaking out [and] all the things. It’s crazy how it’s like, ‘Oh, this beautiful gift of bringing life into the world that’s such an incredible miracle, [but then there’s] the things that come after, like, your body looking different. I was out to here [with my baby bump], and now my body is trying to figure out its new little situation.”
She continued, “I have had so many thoughts of just, ‘Man, I hate the way that I look and I can’t fit into any of my clothes,’ and that’s so frustrating and humiliating.”
