Rosie Huntington-Whiteley credits her parents’ "consistent support and encouragement" with "keeping her going".
The 32-year-old model – who has two-year-old son Jack with fiance Jason Statham – says her mom and dad help her stay grounded and always tell her to grab ahold of the "once in a lifetime opportunities" she is lucky to be handed.
On the advice they gave her when she decided to leave school to embark on a full-time career in modelling, she recalled: "I remember my mum saying to me – I had a bit of breakdown – and she said to me, ‘Your father and I will support whatever you do.
‘This sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think you should run with it because it seems to be going pretty good.’ "And so at 17 I decided to leave school, go full-time, and I’d spend a lot of time in Paris and in Europe, I went to New York for two weeks and then I called my mum and was like, ‘I’m not coming home, I’ve bought my first apartment’, and she was like, ‘Great, go for it’. It’s truly been the biggest gift my parents could of given me as the encouragement to fly and to let me go."
The blonde beauty also admitted that it makes her anxious for the day her little boy starts making his first career and life choices.
She added to the ‘Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham’ podcast: "This is the thing, now being a mum I look back on that and I think, ‘Gosh’.
"Everyday I’m with my son I think, ‘That’s one last day I have of you in my arms.’
"You really start to think of these things.
"That’s why I’ve always consider it of being the greatest gift that they could ever give me was to give me the encouragement, and the support, and still to this day, I know they’re there in the same house I grew up in.
"They’re consistent support and normal and grounded.
"I think it’s kept me going through all the ups and downs."
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s parents’ support got her through ups and downs
