"I can hand on my heart say, that in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with the photo, post and context."
Sophie had shared several snaps of her son in celebration of his 15th birthday. It included photos from when he was a baby, his teenage years, to one of Sophie wearing a green leopard print bikini while hugging him.
"Happy 15th Kai," she simply captioned the post.
But she was forced to edit the caption after some people had a "problem" with her wearing a bikini while hugging the boy.
"When Kai woke up, I was in the pool and yes - in a bikini (as I am most days). I wanted a photo straight away as he wanted to ride his bike and go out riding all day immediately.
"Do I have a problem wearing a bikini in front of my sons? NO WAY. Why? Because I'm not sexualised to him, nor have I ever been," she wrote.
Sophie told news.com.au none of her family or friends felt uncomfortable with the photo — nor did the majority of her mostly female following.
"It definitely won't change (how I post)," she reiterated.
Sophie drove home the message on her Instagram page, which boasts half a million followers, that people need to "stop sexualising bodies".
"If you have an issue, maybe you should look into why you feel you have to sexualise a woman's body instead of it simply being a mum and her son at the pool!" she said.
It was a stance shared by many of her followers, who also hit out at those complaining about the image.
"If the thought crossed your mind that a mum in a bikini next to her son is sexual then you do some inner work and figure out why you even had that inappropriate thought," one woman wrote. "That's a you problem, not a Sophie and her son problem."
The Gold Coast influencer and nutritionist, who has 6-year-old twins as well as sons aged 14 and 15, has since shared a post flaunting her ripped figure in a green bikini.
It was a photo taken previously during her time on holidays in the Maldives, but proved to be a defiant move against the avalanche of criticism she has since copped after sharing the bikini snap with her teenage son.
"I do think a positive has come out of this — opening the conversation of how we raise our kids and how we change the narrative moving forward," Sophie told news.com.au.
Sophie said she had "deliberately raised" her boys, who she had when she was 18 and 19 respectively, "in a way that has not sexualised a women's body".
"When the boys were younger, if they walked into the bathroom while I was showering, I would never shy away and push the door closed. I always made sure they never saw me being shameful of my body," she said.
Sophie said she was shocked to be reading that she was "asking for this" and "deserved" the backlash.
"Because I am in a bikini, I am not worthy of having a mum title?" she asked.
On Wednesday, Sophie and her son Kai appeared on Sunrise, telling the programme she was "so surprised" by the backlash.
"When I posted the photo, I had just had Invisalign on my teeth, so when I posted it, the first thing that I thought or considered was can you see my Invisalign in the photo – nothing to do with the bikini," she said on Wednesday.
"I think there's a lot of context missing from the photo also. We were actually hanging out in the pool where the photo was taken from."
Kai added that he was "so confused", telling hosts David Koch and Natalie Barr he "doesn't understand" the controversy.
"I didn't even have a second thought of it when I saw the picture at first, then my mum told me she got slammed on Instagram for posting that picture," he said.
In a video shared to her Instagram on Tuesday, Sophie gave her son the platform to address how he felt about the negative reaction. The teen labelled it as "dumb".
"There's nothing wrong with the picture. You're in a bikini 24/7, that's your job. We're always at the beach. There's nothing wrong with it," he told his mother and viewers.
Sophie, who has won numerous titles and world rankings in bodybuilding, reminded followers her sons grew up watching her competing on stage – in a bikini.
"I have worked really hard to get to where I am today and to be able to build The Bod to where it is today and having them there and be part of that journey has been really important to me," she said.
"I've never felt ashamed or had any sort of judgment – even from my very religious family – of being able to have that career choice."
Sophie told news.com.au she would never speak on her kids' behalf and wanted Kai to speak his mind.
"I didn't brief him or anything," she said.
"That live (video) is 'what you see is what you get'."
Sophie's followers were also dumbfounded people had an issue with her photo.
"Mums wearing bikinis is NORMAL. This blows my mind," one follower wrote.
"It's gross that people even think that way️. You're literally a mum taking a photo with her son on his birthday. I can't believe people even want to sexualise that," said another.
"How sad you have to explain yourself. For god's sake people, it's SKIN, we all have it, she's not naked," another commented.
Sophie said she hopes her voice "helps educate and even trigger a different thought process or perspective — even for a minute".
