Sabrina Elba reveals her mother was a victim of female genital mutilation while growing up in Somalia and almost died giving birth to her as a result

Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina has revealed that her mother was a victim of female genital mutilation while growing up in Somalia.

The model and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, 34, told the Reign with Josh Smith podcast how her mother Maryam Egal was subjected to the procedure.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures that involve the removal of all or part of the external female genital organs or other damage to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The practice has no health benefits for girls and women and causes severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications during childbirth and an increased risk of newborn deaths.

As a result, Maryam almost died giving birth to Sabrina due to the health complications it had caused.

Sabrina supports several campaigns against FGM, which she believes is her ‘moral duty’.

Speaking about her mother on the podcast, she said: “My mother actually tried to protect me so much from some of the things that she was going through or dealing with, and I was having a conversation this morning and I was thinking about it.

‘For example, I am a big supporter of FGM, or female genital mutilation. It is quite common in Somalia, but actually happens all over the world.

‘I knew my mother was a victim, but I was in the House of Commons, I was there to advocate and speak to some of the survivors, and they were talking about the difficulties of giving birth because of what they had gone through and I call my mom and I were like, “Oh mom, you know, some of the people I talked to had been through this.”

“And she says, ‘You don’t even know I almost died when I gave birth to you.’ And I immediately thought: ‘what?’ We didn’t have these conversations because she was trying to protect me.

“I still started, you know, advocating for things that had happened to her, because I think subconsciously I was trying to create a better world for the little girl that was my mother, without even knowing it and kind of thinking about it.” know. because I knew she had been through these things.”

She added, “But it’s so hard to have these conversations with your parents. For example, they are emotional people.

“And I can’t tell you that day, I was like, ‘I just want to do so much more.’ I can do more. It is not enough.’

“And there are so many people like her who suffer in silence because they have to or need to be powerful, because the world doesn’t support them, you know, and my mother is a huge inspiration in my life.”

Sabrina has been an advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls worldwide for many years and became a UN Goodwill Ambassador together with her husband in April 2020.

It comes after Sabrina last week opened up about collaborating with her husband Idris as they launched their own skincare line, S’ABLE Labs.

Sabrina, who met the 51-year-old actor in 2017 before they tied the knot in 2019, was at BeautyCon in Los Angeles to launch her line.

She opened up in an extensive interview with People where she discussed how different it was working with her husband – days after the couple were spotted at the Defender Rugby World Cup in Paris.

The model and media personality admitted there was “a big learning curve” when I started working with her husband.

“It’s not a perfect partnership, but we’ve definitely developed ways to work together,” Sabrina said.

“We started a podcast to see how other people did it, and we learned so much,” she added.

“I think it’s about having the right boundaries and understanding that, as you know, finding work is not the same as finding date night,” she added.

‘There are suitable options; work hours, for example, have been a big learning curve for me,” she admitted.

S’ABLE Labs’ skincare line is an extension of the wellness brand they both launched in 2021.

She added that she “can’t imagine doing it with anyone else” except her husband Idris.

Sabrina was born and raised in Canada, but is of Somali descent, which reveals the reasons behind the creation of the border.

“Growing up, I always thought there was nothing that addressed my unique skin care concerns, especially when it comes to having melanin-rich skin,” she said.

“So things like post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Just finding products that address it holistically, rather than solving the problem after the fact,” says Sabrina.

‘We are primarily looking at how we can inhibit the overproduction of melanin. So we make antioxidants, we make anti-inflammatories,” she said.

‘There are so many great ingredients on the (African) continent that are so popular that I saw my mother using them when I was growing up. So I’m just trying to get all that in there,” Sabrina adds

Sabrina adds that she and Idris wanted to have “minimal impact on the planet” with “maximum” results with their skincare products.

‘Black consumers really care about the planet. They care about the luxury of their products without having to pay exorbitant prices or just use good quality ingredients that we think we made,” she explained.