Kim Kardashian flaunts sexy new post-baby bod

Remember when Kim Kardashian was called a flower-patterned sofa by netizens during her pregnancy?

Well, look who's having the last laugh now. The US reality TV star, 32, who gave birth to her first child, daughter North, in June is the talk of the town after posting a sexy swimsuit selfie on Twitter on Wednesday with only the hashtag "#NoFilter" as a caption.

The picture, which shows Kardashian, bum to camera, in a teeny white bathing suit, has received over 824,000 likes and many comments of the "OMG" and "I'm speechless" variety.

It was so hot that her US rapper-boyfriend and baby daddy Kanye West immediately tweeted back that he was "HEADING HOME NOW" (caps his, not ours).

It seems like Kardashian is just keeping a promise she made before she gave birth to be "the sexiest hot mum", a quote which aired on a recent episode of her TV series Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Judging from the photo, it won't be long before she gets to keep the other part of that promise too - she also said that "as soon as this (pregnancy) is done, I want to do Playboy or some naked shoot".

Kardashian is crowing over critics who savaged her during her pregnancy for weight gain that, according to more extreme reports, was up to 30kg in the first five months alone.

Her friend, model-actress Molly Sims, told HollywoodLife.com that the criticism affected Kardashian so much that it made her "nervous and then her tummy hurt".

IN AWE

Local celebrities The New Paper spoke to who gave birth to their firstborns this year were in awe of how quickly Kardashian dropped her pregnancy pounds.

When we sent Kardashian's selfie to new mum Eelyn Kok, the local actress' first reaction was: "Wah."

"I feel she's posting this just to shut those critics up. But being big from pregnancy is normal." Kok, 35, gave birth to son Zane in April. She married her husband, who is known only as Mr Goh, in 2010.

At her heaviest, she was 19kg over her normal weight. The last time she weighed herself, she was still 2kg heavier than her pre-pregnancy weight.

Local blogger Wendy Cheng, aka Xiaxue, said she completely understands Kardashian's selfie, which also floored her.

Just six days after she gave birth to her son Dashiel in March, she found out she could squeeze into her pre-pregnancy 24-inch-waist jeans - so she took a picture of it and posted it on Instagram.

"It's a feeling of, 'I don't look like a whale any more'," said the 28-year-old, who married American Mike Sayre in 2010.

Kok's no stranger to the feeling too. When she recently found out she could put on a pair of shorts that she had struggled to zip up back in September, she took a picture and posted it on her Instagram account.

But both Kok and Cheng said they would never take a photo of themselves in such a sexy swimsuit, no matter how celebratory they felt about their slimmer post-pregnancy selves. "If I was (Kardashian), I would post that picture, but I wouldn't wear something so slutty," said Cheng.

Added Kok: "I'm sure there are clothes that would show off my post-natal figure just as well.

It doesn't have to be a bikini."

julrasul@sph.com.sg

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