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It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. This week on Live in the Bream, we have somebody who is so multi-talented, multi-hyphenated, it's difficult to know exactly how to describe her, but you know and love her if you are a Fox viewer.
She is a doctor, she's a professor, she's a best-selling author, and she is a colleague and a friend. I'm so excited to welcome Dr. Nicole Sapphire to Live in the Bream. Shannon, thank you so much for having me on. I've always wanted to be on this podcast. Okay, well, we are here to make your dreams come true. So we're excited to have a conversation with you and talk about this beautiful new book. You've got Love, Mom, Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood.
Um, you of all people have spoken so beautifully of your own journey into motherhood and everybody gets there in a different way if they're a mom. But what I love is that though it was initially unexpected for you, it did not slow you down. It was, um,
you know, just a beautiful part of your life that was from, you know, much of your life. I know you're, you're so much of your energy is dedicated to being a great mom. But it didn't mean that you had to exclude everything else that you had hoped and dreamed for your life as well. Well, that's right, Shannon. And you know, most people know me as doctor, but what I'm most passionate about in my life is being a mom of
three beautiful, amazing boys. And when I was given the opportunity to share my story, which my motherhood journey was very unconventional. For those who haven't heard, you know, I became pregnant when I was 17 years old. And, you know, I'll be honest, it certainly wasn't the easiest part of my life. And in fact, it was actually, you know, isolating. I had a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings of rejection and insecurity and
But I really leaned on my faith and on my family. And I realized that it wasn't going to be that moment that defines me. In fact, that opportunity.
ops, that that situation is what was going to motivate me, motivate me to be the person who I am today. And I can tell you while that was, of course, a very unexpected, unplanned part of my life. It is what has defined me as the person I am today. Well, I love that you share your story so openly and it's beautiful and it's hopeful. And we have all kinds of mamas that people will recognize from Fox as part of this book, Love Mom. It's
Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood. It is out beginning April 16th. So a great Mother's Day gift, but you've got Rachel Campos Duffy and Martha McCallum and Ainsley and so many others that share kind of their wit and their wisdom, the ups and downs, the joys of motherhood. And this beautiful book that really is
a love letter to moms and from moms. You know, Shannon, what I really absolutely love about this book is I went to all of these women. Many of them are Fox moms, some of whom you just mentioned, but many of them are not Fox moms, but they're all people that I've essentially have a relationship with. So one was actually a patient of mine. One is a gold star mom that I knew. And in it, I said to the
the moms when I approached them about the book, about being in the book, I said, listen, just like social media, you know, it can't just be we're putting our best foot forward and making it thing like everything is just rainbow and sunshine all the time. Because let's be honest, that's not really what life is. I said, so to be in this book, we have to be our authentic self. We have to talk about the highs and
and the lows and get to the nitty gritty of it. And I am so grateful that these women did just that. And they talked about things in this book that they haven't actually spoken about publicly before. And we all had to really tap into some of our emotions, you know, and some of the moments that maybe we kind of wish we could just push under the rug a little bit. Because the overarching mantra, if you will, of this book is that we kind of all have a
ups and downs in our life. But if we kind of lean on our friends, lean on our family, and certainly get closer and stronger in our faith, you know, we will overcome whatever it is that's thrown our way. And in it, you also have little tidbits of advice, we put in a bunch of scriptures and quotes and anything that you need for a little quick reference, just to kind of give you some motivation, some inspiration.
Yeah. And I kind of think that these stories, the vulnerability, the transparency is going to be encouraging to other moms because, you know, sometimes this picture is painted of motherhood, that you should know what you're doing from the get go. And the moms can handle any crisis and that you could do it by yourself and be a superwoman. But you touched on such a good point there that we should look to our community and our family and our friends and people.
To help us, you know, when you're feeling overwhelmed or there's a situation you haven't faced before, some other mama out there definitely has.
Yeah, and you know what we did in this book too? I mean, you have to laugh at some of the things. Sandra Smith talks about how she pulled up to school one day with her kids and all the other kids had like some big poster presentation and she just looked at her son like, oh my gosh, we didn't do it. And so immediately she had that mom guilt and we talk about mom guilt because let's be honest, mom guilt is actually a real thing. And Jennifer Hegseth's mom actually said it, Beth. She said, you can't sh**
all over yourself. And I just love that because, you know, shoulda, woulda, coulda, we do that in our brains all the time. You can't should have done this. So you kind of just have to move forward and learn from things. And sometimes you just have to laugh at things and say, you know what, I'm doing my best. And as soon as you acknowledge that you can't be everything to everyone at every moment, and you kind of forgive yourself a little bit, um,
you actually kind of are freeing yourself. But one thing, you know, I just talked about Ainsley with earlier this week on Fox and Friends is, you know, studies show that if you have a strong faith, if you have a connection with your house of worship, whether it's a church or a synagogue or a mosque or whatever it is, there are actually decreased rates of mental health or mental illness and increased rates
rates of this overwhelming sense of fulfillment. And that was certainly a common theme amongst a lot of these stories was that during times that were difficult by leaning on faith and leaning on their church community or whatever it is that gave them such strength and support. And it's a common misconception to think if you lean on, or if you ask for help from people that that's a sign of weakness, well,
No, it's not. Leaning on people and asking for help, that is going to make you stronger because we are stronger together.
Absolutely. And people can share their burdens. And we think about things that each of us has been through. And then we hear a friend that's walking through that same path to be able to throw them a lifeline and say, like, listen, I wouldn't have chosen that hard part of my journey. But knowing that I can then hopefully turn it around to be a benefit or comfort or help or advice for someone else is a beautiful thing. It's really powerful. And that's that whole sense of community.
I want to make sure, too, that we mention the Love Mom live show on Fox Nation. Tell us about this. I mean, everyone on this list is somebody that you're going to want to hang out with and you were all together. It was so fun, Shannon, let me tell you. So we put together a whole live audience. I don't know how many people were there, but there were a lot.
And then myself, Martha McCallum, Sandra Smith, Janice Dean, Carly Shimkus, we all sat down and we just kind of talked about some pretty common mom topics. And then we took questions from the audience and we tackled conversations about mom guilt, about when's the right time to start a family. Spoiler alert, there is no right time. It's just
with the time that it happens is going to be right for you. You know, that whole work-life balance, also another spoiler, there's no such thing as that. And just making sure that you take time for yourself because if you aren't taking care of yourself mentally and physically, you're not going to be good for anybody else. So the importance of self-care and, you know, oddly honest, we just, we kept going over time. We were laughing, you know,
The questions from the audience were amazing. It was just truly wonderful. But one thing, you know, Shannon, I told my 94-year-old grandfather this week about the book. And he watched one of the segments. And he called me. And you know what he said? He's like, I can't believe you told everyone you got pregnant in high school. He's like, aren't you going to be embarrassed? And I'm like, that's the whole...
I'm like, yeah, cat's out of the bag on that one. No, but that's the whole point, right? Because you have to be your authentic self. You have to be honest to people. And not that I think anybody should go out and have unplanned pregnancies, but the bottom line is if you find yourself in a difficult situation, whether it's unplanned pregnancy or any other difficult situation, the point is it doesn't mean life's over. It doesn't mean...
all those dreams and goals that you had before that moment are gone. It just means that you're going to have to carve a path and kind of go around it. You may, you're probably still going to get to the exact same destination that you originally set out on. You're just going to go a different way and it's up to you and those around you lifting you up to get you there. We'll have more live in the Bream in a moment.
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Again, we're talking to Dr. Nicole Sapphire about her new book, Love Mom, Inspiring Stories, Celebrating Motherhood. It is out and available now and a great Mother's Day gift idea, if I don't say so myself. I want to talk about some of the areas that you guys focused on. First of all is resilience. And you write personally in this portion of the book, too, in addition with some others sharing their stories about resilience.
I got to think of when I think of resilience, I think of mamas. I mean, they are putting out fires all the time and handling everything. Kind of what's your message on that particular issue?
There's no such thing as a mom who hasn't tapped into her resilience at least once, twice, maybe 10,000 times, because there are constant up and downs throughout motherhood. And I'm talking about not just, you know, the things that kind of come our way, but even emotionally, just right after you have a baby, your emotions really cause some highs and lows. And so, you know, we talk about feelings of anxiety, feelings of depression or anxiety
You know, things that kind of halt us in our tracks and make us think that maybe we're never going to get where we want to be. And really, when it comes to resilience and kind of pushing through some of these obstacles, you just have to believe in yourself.
Mm hmm. Yeah. And you certainly did that and you modeled it. And your story is such an inspiring one for people who have to get in there and keep fighting, which we're all going to have to do at some point. There's also a section on faith. We hear from a number of our co-workers, but another woman as well. You know, I love listening to and I'm just going to mention the people that, you know, we know, but Kaylee.
McEnany Ainsley Earhart, who, you know, we see them on TV and we know that their faith is strong, but you don't know when it's really strong for them too. It's not just like I say, it's not just in the happy moments. They are really leaning on their faith in all aspects of their life. Ainsley actually talks about her divorce when she is,
And how difficult that is, not just as her as an individual, not the fact that she is a mom, but also the fact that she's in the public eye. And so when you have such a strong faith, I mean, to consider divorce, that takes it to another level of difficulty and heartbreak. And then she lost her mom just shortly after. And so she talks about how she leaned on her faith so much to guide her and provide her comfort to get her through some of that tumultuous time. Yeah.
Yeah. And she talks about how when life doesn't go the way you plan it,
It can be really unsettling. You may think as a little girl, you have this whole thing mapped out and how things are going to be and rarely do our lives line up with exactly what we think is going to happen in the plan that we have. But I love Ainsley's encouraging words that God's in it anyway. Like he is never unaware of what's happening in our life and he can use things, whether we make good or bad decisions or have unexpected twists and turns that he's always working. And I love that she shares that as well.
Next in the book, you have a section about purpose. And Carly Shimkus is one of the moms we hear from there. And you know what? It was so funny because when I interviewed Carly for this book, she was a brand new mama. She was still out on maternity leave. So it was wonderful. But I thought it was so important that...
to tap into what new moms are feeling because sure, I can remember what it was like to have a newborn. Ainsley can, Martha can, Jennifer Griffin can. We can all kind of remember, but wouldn't it be great to have someone who's living it, living it right then and there? And that's exactly what it was.
And she had all the feels, lots of tears of joy and sadness. And I was such, it was probably one of the best interviews because I mean, who doesn't love Carly? Carly is an open book herself. But what I really, really enjoyed about Carly and one thing I've known Carly for a long time is that she and her husband have had a long distance relationship for such a long time. Myself and my husband, we had a long distance relationship too. And so I always empathize with her knowing that Carly
while she was dating, they were long distance. When they got engaged, they were long distance. And even once they were married, they were long distance. And then as they were trying to figure out time to have a baby, and she tells a really funny story about how they would essentially have date nights to try and have a baby and it would take flying to see each other to do it. But that's it. I mean, that's what it is because there's...
There's no perfect timing. There's no perfect way. It's just your way. And it worked for her. And she has a beautiful family and everything kind of, you know, everything that she has right now has come through hard work and just believing in this true love. She knew her husband was the one for her. There was no, you know, faltering in that. And she's like, it doesn't matter if we live in separate states. Like this is the only man I'm ever meant to be for. And they were both pursuing their careers. And sometimes you have to do that. It's a little give and take.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, marriage and love are always, and certainly motherhood about sacrifice. I mean, the joy that you get in return is exponentially beyond what you sacrifice. But tough things do take that. Us being selfless is
And thinking of other people and sometimes putting them first and finding a way to celebrate each other and support each other. Again, we're talking to Dr. Nicole Sapphire, the new book she has out, Love Mom, Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood. You also have a section on valor. And when I saw that Jennifer Griffin was there, I thought, hard to find a...
of a better person, think of a better person to talk about those things. And by the way, what I love in the book too, there are pictures of everybody and their families and they're precious. I think everybody will love to see that, those personal touches and getting to see those sweet kiddos faces, some of them at all different ages now. But I love Jennifer talking about, you know, being a hardcore journalist in the Middle East, working and living often in dangerous places and conditions, but being a mom in the midst of that, that's a unique thing to do.
Jennifer's story is just beyond comprehension. I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Jennifer in D.C. in her home and her home emulates her entire life. She has just pieces of furniture and art just from all walks of her life. And her story, just talking about, you know, putting on, you know, a dress.
one of those, the wartime jackets when she was like nine months pregnant and carrying her breast pump with her as she was going to interview a general. And she's like, please, could you store my breast milk in a refrigerator? Thank you so much. And you know what? And that's what working moms do sometimes. She is just so, so inspiring. And obviously her professional career and then she...
had a breast cancer diagnosis, a completely unexpected. And the way that she has just changed her entire life after that diagnosis is just truly admirable. But another story in this section is one that I am so excited about, Shannon, Alicia Hall.
That name may not mean anything to most people, but she is the wife of Benjamin Hall, Ben Hall, who is another of our war correspondents here at Fox News, who, as you know, Shannon, he was hit by one of the bombs covering the war in Ukraine, suffered some severe injuries. And he actually wrote an incredible book about his time and everything he went through.
But what we decided to do was talk to Alicia and get her perspective on that entire time. And it really just puts the other side of that equation together to show what this woman, this strong and
incredible woman, mother of three girls did to keep her family together and keep those kids okay when they didn't ever know if their father was coming home. I am so glad that she is a part of your book of these stories because it's so true. So often people who aren't in the headlines and don't want to be in the headlines are
are really heroes as well. And that is certainly the case with her. And I hope will be such an encouragement to any parent that finds themselves in life's most unexpected, difficult, tragic times, just to see her beauty of strength and of hope and believing and what she did to fight to keep her family together and take care of her kiddos, as you said, in the midst of
Just something no woman, no mom would ever choose to walk through. So inspiring. Okay, the last part of the book, Love Mom, deals with acceptance. And you write in here, it's important to be there for your family and your job. We can be there for both, but we also have to listen to our own self and accept that we cannot be everything to everyone every time.
And I feel like at some point that's a lie that mamas have been sold that you got to be superwoman 24-7 or you're not doing a great job. And I'm glad that you put this in here and say you can't do it 24-7, 365 for everyone all the time everywhere. You're going to have to give yourself a little bit of grace.
Absolutely. Because as I've said, if you aren't strong yourself, if you're not in a good place yourself and you run yourself ragged, you're not going to be good for anybody else. So you have to be as strong physically and mentally as possible. And with that comes forgiving yourself and taking some time for yourself. Martha McCallum has an incredible story that I just love in this book because she's
She decided to put herself like many women do on the back burner. She ignored some physical symptoms for a while. She was focusing on her kids. She was focusing on her job and
And then unfortunately, she put herself off too long and she ended up in the hospital. And because of that, she actually had to miss a very special occasion for one of her kiddos. So while she was ignoring herself, trying to take care of her kiddos, ultimately she had to miss something because she wasn't taking care of herself. So it just takes us full circle to remember you have to care for yourself because you're not going to be there for them in the future if you're not taking good care of yourself right now.
So true. And listen, when your doctor tells you, you got to listen, people. She knows of what she speaks. Okay, the book is Love, Mom, Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood by Dr. Nicole Sapphire. Best-selling author, doctor, professor, colleague of ours at Fox. So many wonderful things. I always wonder, and people always ask me this, when did you find time to write a book?
Somehow you just do it. And I'm so proud and excited for the one that you have put together. So many beautiful stories here. And also want to remind folks on Fox Nation, you can watch the Love Mom Show, which has Dr. Sapphire and a panel of Carly Shimkus, Janice Dean, Martha McCallum, and Sandra Smith.
Get the book now. Give it to your mom. Let her know how much you love and appreciate her. Nicole, congratulations on the book. Thank you for putting something so beautiful into the world. Thank you so much, Shannon. Appreciate being on. Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.
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