Tennis champ Naomi Osaka made headlines recently by pulling out of the French Open, after being fined for refusing to participate in the traditional post-match press conference. Now Pink has joined the chorus of celebrities who are supporting her decision.
Osaka first announced that she wouldn’t take part in the press conference at the Open for mental health reasons, and explained that she was practicing self-care by declining to participate. After being fined $15,000 and threatened with disqualification for other events, she withdrew from the Open.
In doing so, Osaka explained that she’d suffered “long bouts of depression” since 2018 and has had a “hard time coping.” She further explained that she gets “huge waves of anxiety” speaking to the media, and finds it very “stressful.”
“For whatever it’s worth I’m proud of Naomi Osaka for putting her mental health, her well being above everything,” Pink tweeted. “If we don’t take care of our health, our wellness- well then who will? What do we have if we don’t have our health? Don’t we know by now that success isn’t worth our life?”
“She’s (Naomi) an example I would show my children,” Pink continued. “‘Listen babies, you can work hard to master your craft, but you do it on your own terms, and screw anyone if they don’t get it.’”
Pink also praised fellow tennis star Venus Williams for her comments at the press conference on Tuesday. Williams told reporters that she handles press scrutiny by remembering that no journalist will ever play as well as she can.
“Your answer to media scrutiny was everything and you are a goddess and I just love and support the people in the world DOING IT, not the ones TALKING ABOUT THOSE DOING IT,” Pink told Williams.
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