hol+ with Dr. Taz MD | The Future of Medicine is Holistic

Fertility, motherhood, and grief are rarely experienced in isolation. They overlap, compound, and quietly reshape how a woman sees herself, her body, and her future.
Many women move through loss while still being expected to function. They carry grief while building families. They navigate pregnancy, postpartum, and fertility decisions while holding careers, relationships, and public identities together. From the outside, it can look composed. Inside, it often feels fragile, confusing, and deeply human.

This is not failure.
This is not weakness.
And it is not something that needs to be fixed.

In this hol+ conversation, Dr. Taz sits down with Whitney Port for an honest, grounding conversation about motherhood without the myth, and finding peace after profound loss. Whitney shares what unfolded after The Hills, including the loss of her father, who was also her business partner, and how grief reshaped her identity, marriage, and mental health during a pivotal season of life.

Together, they explore the realities that are often softened or skipped entirely. Pregnancy that does not feel joyful. Postpartum that feels disorienting. Breastfeeding struggles that take a real toll on mental health. And the invisible pressure women carry to do motherhood and fertility “the right way.”

Whitney also opens up about her fertility journey, including recurrent miscarriage, IVF, surrogacy, and failed transfers. She speaks candidly about the emotional spiral that can happen when you are someone used to achieving goals, but suddenly face something you cannot control. Rather than centering the story on struggle alone, this conversation focuses on what helped her find steadier ground: learning to stop future-spiraling, returning to the present, and holding gratitude alongside grief.

This episode is a reminder that healing does not mean bypassing pain. It means allowing space for it, while slowly reconnecting to meaning, relationships, and self-trust. It reframes fertility and motherhood not as tests of worth or discipline, but as deeply relational, emotional, and embodied experiences.

Dr. Taz and Whitney Port discuss:
 • Life after The Hills and the identity shift that followed
 • Losing a parent and navigating grief while building a family
 • Motherhood without the myth of constant joy
 • Pregnancy, postpartum, and mental health honesty
 • Breastfeeding pressure, pumping, and maternal burnout
 • Fertility, IVF, surrogacy, and the emotional weight of uncertainty
 • Why high-achieving women struggle most with loss of control
 • How to stop future-spiraling and return to the present
 • Sharing your story publicly while protecting what is sacred

About Whitney Port
Whitney Port is a television personality, entrepreneur, podcast host, and creative consultant. Known for starring on The Hills and The City, she now uses her platform to speak openly about grief, anxiety, fertility, body image, and modern motherhood, helping women feel less alone in experiences that are often hidden.

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Follow Whitney Port:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitneyeveport
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@whitneyport
Website: https://whitneyport.com/
Podcast: With Whit

Follow Dr. Taz on Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/drtazmd/
https://www.instagram.com/liveholplus/

Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://holplus.transistor.fm/subscribe
Subscribe to the video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@DrTazMD/podcasts

Get your copy of The Hormone Shift: Balance Your Body and Thrive Through Midlife and Menopause

Host & Production Team
Host: Dr. Taz; Produced by ClipGrowth.com (Producer: Pat Gostek)


  • (00:00) - Grief after dad’s diagnosis and loss
  • (00:30) - Dr. Taz introduces Whitney Port
  • (01:30) - Pregnancy was not “the best time”
  • (02:00) - Fertility pressure, self-blame, finding the right team
  • (02:30) - Dr. Taz fan-girl moment and why Whitney’s story matters
  • (04:30) - Reality TV then vs now
  • (06:30) - Who Whitney is beyond the show
  • (08:00) - Losing control of your narrative (editing + portrayal)
  • (10:15) - The gifts of the show and creative platform
  • (11:30) - Dad’s illness, grief, identity shift
  • (13:30) - “I Love My Baby, But…” and being vulnerable on YouTube
  • (16:00) - Marriage, grief fog, and coping
  • (18:00) - Breastfeeding, pumping, mastitis, mental health
  • (21:00) - What we’re not telling new moms (trust + noise)
  • (23:00) - Body image, female bodies, and acceptance
  • (27:30) - Fertility journey begins: miscarriage cycle
  • (29:30) - Surrogacy conversation and failed transfers
  • (32:00) - Age, hope, and continuing the journey
  • (33:30) - Shame, grief, staying sane, gratitude shift
  • (37:30) - Finding the right doctor and the lab factor
  • (42:30) - Preparing physically and emotionally this time
  • (44:00) - Privacy boundaries in public life
  • (46:00) - Advice: purpose, staying in your lane
  • (50:30) - Businesses, creative consulting, entrepreneurship
  • (56:30) - What makes you hol + where to follow

Creators and Guests

Host
Dr. Taz Bhatia MD
Dr. Taz Bhatia is a triple-board-certified integrative medicine physician and founder of hol+, where she brings together science, spirit and the human experience to deliver holistic, whole-person care.
Producer
Pat Gostek
Founder of ClipGrowth.com - End-to-End YouTube, Podcast & Clips Management (you just record).

What is hol+ with Dr. Taz MD | The Future of Medicine is Holistic?

hol+ with Dr. Taz MD is redefining holistic medicine as the future of healthcare—integrating modern science, functional medicine, and time-tested healing systems to treat the whole human, not just symptoms. As a 2025 Webby honoree and pioneering show, hol+ dares to enter the next dimension of health-where both science and spirit converge to drive our health, happiness, relationships and family ecosystems.

Recent guests include mental health advocate and author, Sophie Gregorie Trudeau, best-selling author, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Emmy-winning host, actor, and health enthusiast, Cameron Mathison, supermodel Carol Alt, veteran actress and sometimes medicine woman, Jane Seymour, author and journalist, Tamsen Fadal, wellness advocate and cancer thriver, Kris Carr. 
 
From cutting-edge and innovative experts to celebrities and thought leaders, veteran TV personality, author, and trople board-certified physician, Dr. Taz MD, the host of hol+, leads these game-changing conversations - redefining the future of medicine.

On the heels of her successful 8-year-long podcast, Super Woman Wellness, which boasted over 1 million downloads, hol+ continues to be recognized as a show to watch, recognized in the same category as the Mel Robbins Podcast in the 29th Annual Webby Awards.

Whitney Port: [00:00:00] That was a really hard period of time because my dad got sick at that time. He got diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer, literally like a year, maybe after I had moved home from New York after the city was wrapped and my dad was my manager like, and he was my right hand, and he was an entrepreneur and had a lot of experience in the fashion industry and helped me launch my clothing line.
Whitney Port: Oh wow.
Dr. Taz: Okay.
Whitney Port: So when my dad got sick, my like whole world fell apart. 'cause he was, I mean, he was my dad, but he was also my partner in everything.
Dr. Taz: For years, [00:00:30] millions of people have known Whitney Port as a TV personality and lifestyle creator. But today her most meaningful work is rooted in advocacy, honesty in women's health.
Dr. Taz: As a mother, an entrepreneur navigating anxiety loss, IVF and surrogacy Whitney has become an unexpected voice for women who feel confused, unseen, or overwhelmed during some of the most emotional years of their lives.
Whitney Port: So for those few years after, my dad was [00:01:00] sick for a year, and then he passed a year after he was diagnosed, and it was a lot of grieving for me and like figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do.
Whitney Port: So. It was me and Timmy kind of being quiet and like grieving and figuring out what we were going to do, and then I got pregnant. I was not thrilled to be pregnant and not thrilled for what was happening to my body and not feeling my best.
Dr. Taz: I mean, everyone's like, oh, I had the best I,
Whitney Port: and some people do.
Dr. Taz: And some people do. Yeah. And I'm like, [00:01:30] that was not my experience.
Whitney Port: That was not my experience either. From the second I found out I was pregnant, I was like sick. And then I was. Nauseous halfway through.
Dr. Taz: In this episode, we explore how stress, hormones, grief, and identity intersect during fertility challenges.
Dr. Taz: We talk about the self blame. So many women experience the pressure to do fertility the right way, the noise and misinformation online, and the power of finding the right medical. And emotional team.
Whitney Port: I feel like [00:02:00] one day something clicked for me and I was like, if I only have Timmy and Sonny for the rest of the, my life, like that's amazing.
Whitney Port: Like I'm so lucky to even have one.
Dr. Taz: I'm gonna date myself here, but in my early years of med school and residency, I used to take brain breaks by watching shows like The Hills or the City starring none other than Whitney Port. I wanted Whitney on the show to talk about what I've seen since she started in those shows.[00:02:30]
Dr. Taz: She's built businesses, fashion brands. She's been a mother. She's been on an infertility, infertility journey of her own, has. Been open and honest about the pros and cons of being pregnant, what anxiety and body image looks like and means, and how to navigate it all so publicly. We are all still watching.
Dr. Taz: I invited Whitney onto the show today so that we could hear her story from her words and maybe learn a little bit about what it takes to navigate the [00:03:00] many different roles that we all as women have to juggle every single day. I can't wait for you guys to meet her and learn more. She is as amazing in person as she was back then on the hills.
Dr. Taz: Please join me in welcoming Whitney to the show. Okay. I have a lot of pinch me moments in my life, but I'm gonna be a hundred percent honest here. Uh, I was a fan girl at one point coming through. Where was I? I think I was in maybe, uh, college and med school.
Whitney Port: Oh my gosh,
Dr. Taz: maybe past. Med [00:03:30] school,
Whitney Port: was it?
Dr. Taz: I don't remember
Whitney Port: it.
Dr. Taz: Reprieve in med school. You're rep, lemme just turn off my brain
Whitney Port: and watch the hell.
Dr. Taz: It was totally my reprieve. Yeah. So I'm right there with so many people. Oh. Who maybe when they hear your name, like that's like kind of our instant connection. Right. And I'm sure that's super annoying as
Whitney Port: well. No, no, no, no.
Whitney Port: It's not annoying at all. I mean for, I, I fan girl about people too. Okay,
Dr. Taz: good.
Whitney Port: No, I watch reality almost. My whole life at this point, and like I'll see [00:04:00] people that I'm like, oh my God. Like I can't believe it. So, no, it's not annoying at all. It was like such a special time in my life and I'm like really actually so grateful for it now.
Dr. Taz: Well, and you guys definitely, I mean, I don't know what it was like behind camera, but like. It appeared that there was a lot of like chemistry. Mm-hmm. And it was kind of like novel for the time, at least. Completely. I mean, reality TV was not that big of a deal.
Whitney Port: No. It was one of like the first docu series dramas.
Dr. Taz: Yeah. You
Whitney Port: know, and it was coming off of Laguna Beach and then the [00:04:30] hills and then the city, and there was obviously the whole saga, but really before that it was like, yeah. The real world was kind of the similar thing to it. And then there were all's true. The competition forgot shows The Bachelor and Temptation Island, and those started coming about, but there wasn't anything as like really like documentary, but real People's Journey's lives.
Dr. Taz: It was kind of
Whitney Port: like a journey
Dr. Taz: a
Whitney Port: bit completely. And now it's everywhere.
Dr. Taz: Now it's everywhere.
Whitney Port: The on ensemble cast is [00:05:00] everywhere
Dr. Taz: all the time.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: You know, even I've been asked. To be in a few different reality things.
Whitney Port: You have real houses of Atlanta.
Dr. Taz: Uh, that was one. Oh my god. Married to medicine was the other one.
Dr. Taz: Yes.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: But I So you
Whitney Port: think about it for
Dr. Taz: a second. I thought about it for a second. Yeah. But I wasn't really sure that we wanted to open up, you know? So, I mean, the only reason I'm bringing it up is 'cause that was a risk, right? For you guys. Yeah. I'm sure it was a risk. And it,
Whitney Port: but we were so young.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: So I was 20 years old when I started doing the hills, and I didn't have as much to lose.
Whitney Port: Yeah. I didn't have a [00:05:30] child, I didn't have a husband. There wasn't like a whole life that I had to protect. Like I was still really coming into my own. So for me it wasn't as scary. But now if someone came to, did you do it again? No, I don't.
Dr. Taz: No. Not at all.
Whitney Port: I mean, like. Uh, no, not with my family. Family involved.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: That was my concern too. Yeah. Well, are you still connected to everybody? Does. Is the crew still fight here
Whitney Port: and there? Honestly, like, I actually, for
Dr. Taz: my dream role, please say yes.
Whitney Port: I like, yeah. How honest do you want me to be?
Dr. Taz: You [00:06:00] be honest?
Whitney Port: Um, no, so. Kelly Catron actually from the Hills and City Days. I just had a call with her last week 'cause she's doing PR for a company that I'm working with.
Whitney Port: Okay. So like I still chat with Kelly. Other than that, um, I haven't kept like in super close contact with anyone. Um. Everyone kind of like dispersed, went their dispersed Yeah. Went their separate ways. And I think just like wanted to lead different lives. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: Which is normal.
Whitney Port: Totally. It's like college [00:06:30] friends.
Whitney Port: It's the same thing. Like, everyone's like, are you still friends? And I'm like, well, are you still best friends with all of your college friends? Right.
Dr. Taz: And you grow and you, you become, you know, maybe slightly different versions of those people. Completely. You know, so if. Nobody knew about the Hills or about any of the shows and they met Whitney Port.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: What would you want them to know about you?
Whitney Port: Oh my God. Good question. Yeah. Um, what would I want them to know about me? I think that [00:07:00] I am. Like the middle child of a really big family, um, that I grew up with, like an art teacher and um, an entrepreneur as a dad. So those two combined I feel like made me, that's interesting.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: I think that I am. Like, have more personality than probably was shown on the show. Mm-hmm. And like a little bit more wit about me, no pun intended. Um, I [00:07:30] think sometimes I could, was like put into a little bit of a box of like the one that always just had the dramatic looks or that Lauren was venting to.
Whitney Port: And I think that, um, more of that I'm like. Like running the show as opposed to like letting things kind of happen to me. Ooh,
Dr. Taz: I like that.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: So you've really turned into your own version of a boss girl?
Whitney Port: I, yeah, I've, I, I feel that way and maybe don't like say that out loud, [00:08:00] but I do feel confident in like the, in the woman that I've become and she's always sort of been in there, you know?
Dr. Taz: I'm sure. Yeah. What were some of the biggest challenges of that time and how did they help you as you move forward?
Whitney Port: I think the biggest challenges for me were just worrying that. Sorry. I think the biggest challenge for me was that I was worried that I was going to be misunderstood, that we were filming this show, but that there were all these editors [00:08:30] and producers behind it that were creating an image of me.
Whitney Port: Yeah. Not the image of myself that I knew. To be. So I just remember going into filming, just feeling always like exhausted by the conversations we would have to have beforehand of like how this conversation was going to go and then just being worried afterwards that they were going to spin something.
Whitney Port: Like I just felt for me, like it, it took some. Power and control away from my own narrative. Yeah. And who [00:09:00] I thought I was, you know, so that took a little bit of time after the show to really like, figure out who I was and that I wasn't just this like quiet girl, um, being told what to do.
Dr. Taz: That reminds me, you'll probably appreciate the story.
Dr. Taz: So when I got married,
Whitney Port: yeah,
Dr. Taz: it was 2004 and I had been doing some work for media, like segments on CNN and stuff like that. Just more medical, you know, medically based, yeah,
Whitney Port: yeah.
Dr. Taz: And we randomly got reached out to by a [00:09:30] production company and. Blanking on the show's name. I think it was on Bravo, but it was a wedding show.
Whitney Port: Okay.
Dr. Taz: And they were like, we'd love to film your wedding and we're gonna provide you with a wedding planner too. So we're like, okay, yeah, this sounds great. And so sure enough, they're like, in our wedding and in our business, everyone had to sign releases and all this other stuff. There's this whole thing on our wedding.
Dr. Taz: They take this, they take two lines that my husband said and turned him into this character that obviously his priorities are not on the wedding. Like blah, blah, [00:10:00] blah, blah, blah. Like, like painted him into this insane, into this whole different, he's like, that's not what we were talking about. So you
Whitney Port: see the power of
Dr. Taz: that, that yes, he was so upset.
Dr. Taz: He's like, for eons now people are gonna watch this documentary and think that my priorities, you know,
Whitney Port: so I know that's
Dr. Taz: hard. So anyhow, so I can definitely empathize with sort of that push pull that, you know. That came. What were the gifts?
Whitney Port: The, oh my God, the gifts are like innumerable, like I. If I had the chance to do it all over again, like I would do it in a [00:10:30] heartbeat.
Whitney Port: I think the experiences that I got, the people that I got to work for, like working for Kelly Catone, working for Dan Von Furstenberg, um, all the
Dr. Taz: gotta be incredible.
Whitney Port: Incredible, yeah. Like being able to have a fashion show when I was 23 years old at Bryant Park that Kelly Catron helped me produce and have that.
Whitney Port: Be on a TV show, and then being able to now like use my creativity in a way that really lights me up. Like, I don't know that I would've had the opportunity as easily to do [00:11:00] that. You know? I think that it just gave me such a platform to be able to do all the things that I love,
Dr. Taz: which is incredible. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: And I know you've built an incredible presence for yourself, which we will talk about in just a second, but as you left that period of your life and you moved into the next Yeah. How did things unfold? What were some of the things that you got attracted to? You started a family, you know, tell us a little bit about what kind of happened next.
Whitney Port: What happened next,
Dr. Taz: though Well held to the Whitney that we never got to see after the show. Totally.
Whitney Port: So what happened was I moved back to Los Angeles. [00:11:30] Um, my hus, my hu now husband came to Los Angeles as well. He was from New York. And that was a really hard period of time because my dad got sick at that time.
Whitney Port: He got diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer. Literally like. A year, maybe after I had moved home from New York after the city was being was sorry, after the city was wrapped. And my dad was like, was my manager like, and he was my right hand and he, like I said, was an entrepreneur and had a lot of experience in the fashion industry and helped me launch my clothing [00:12:00] line.
Whitney Port: Oh
wow.
Dr. Taz: Okay.
Whitney Port: So. When my dad got sick, my like whole world fell apart. 'cause he was, I mean, he was my dad, but he was also my partner in everything. And
Dr. Taz: he already launched a business too.
Whitney Port: So I had launched a business, I had launched my clothing line, Whitney Eve, while I was filming the city in New York.
Dr. Taz: Okay.
Whitney Port: And so for those few years after my dad was sick for a year and then he passed a year after he was diagnosed. And it was a lot of grieving for me and like figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do.
Dr. Taz: [00:12:30] Yeah.
Whitney Port: It was really like, now that I think about it, that was like a very, you know, trying time. 'cause the show was over.
Whitney Port: I'm like, what am I gonna do now? I mean, social media was starting to become a thing. So I was year was
Dr. Taz: that,
Whitney Port: that was 2013. Okay. Um. So. It was me and Timmy kind of being quiet and like grieving and figuring out what we were going to do. Um, and then I got pregnant.
Dr. Taz: You
Whitney Port: did? It [00:13:00] was like, it was like that phase.
Whitney Port: It was that phase. And then we got married and it was planning a wedding and then we got pregnant and that was one like
Dr. Taz: right away? Yeah.
Whitney Port: Yeah. Like really right away. Like we. We got pregnant and then, sorry, we got married and then a year later we started trying and it just happened within a couple months of starting to try.
Whitney Port: Did so then. Is when we launched our series on YouTube called I Love My Baby, but which was really the first foray into me like [00:13:30] actually being very, very vulnerable again, like letting cameras back into my life in an actually much more vulnerable and raw way than the hills. And this. City were for me 'cause it was Timmy filming me, um, in my moments where I was not thrilled to be pregnant.
Whitney Port: Right. And not thrilled for what was happening to my body and not feeling my best. Right. And we,
Dr. Taz: I didn't love being pregnant. Can I just say that for a second? I that, am I allowed to say
Whitney Port: that's 2025? We are allowed to say
Dr. Taz: that. I not, I mean everyone's like, oh, I had the [00:14:00] best I love
Whitney Port: and some people do,
Dr. Taz: some people do.
Dr. Taz: And I'm like, that was not my experience.
Whitney Port: That was not my experience either from this. Second, I found out I was pregnant. I was like, sick, sick. And then I was nauseous halfway through, but I couldn't throw up and I just had to eat nonstop and I was gaining all this weight and I felt like such a lack of control.
Whitney Port: And, um, I was sad that my dad wasn't there. It was just all these different things. It was not the pregnancy that I kind of envisioned for myself. And like, I'm like, what kind of pregnancy did I envision? Like, what, what do you
Dr. Taz: right.
Whitney Port: [00:14:30] We, we don't know what we, I think we romanticize
Dr. Taz: it. We're gonna be like
Whitney Port: completely No.
Whitney Port: Like these glowing goddesses. Exactly. With REITs. Wake up with Reese around our heads. Exactly. You
Dr. Taz: know?
Whitney Port: Exactly.
Dr. Taz: Flowers everywhere.
Whitney Port: Exactly.
Dr. Taz: I dunno. Something.
Whitney Port: So, um, so Timmy, who was a producer, I had met him on the, on filming the. The city. He was like, you know, Whitney, if you're feeling this way, there has to be so many other women feeling this way.
Whitney Port: So he started filming me just talking about how I was feeling at my [00:15:00] lowest. And we started putting it out on YouTube and it was like, oh my God. There were so many women that resonated. Felt that resonated. And I felt, I was very scared to put it out at first 'cause it felt like I was one of the earlier voices to talk about this.
Whitney Port: But then it, I think that like. We, my goal now has to become to normalize these conversations and to allow people to not feel so alone in them. And that's what I have found has [00:15:30] been like one of my superpowers in doing this and utilizing social media is that vulnerability. But that was what we launched during that time and then that has just continued to take on.
Whitney Port: A bunch of different jobs and roles for me.
Dr. Taz: That's incredible.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: Now in the process of becoming a mother Yeah. And a wife, you know, were there challenges you didn't expect and how did it impact your work and kind of all of [00:16:00] that other stuff. I
Whitney Port: think as a wife it's been pretty easy. I'll be perfectly honest.
Whitney Port: We just celebrated 10 years being married. Congratulations. And like, I really like, of course there were hurdles. There were hurdles in where, you know, when my dad passed and the years following that where I was like pretty depressed. And I think that he, I wasn't the person that he married, you know, I was going through a lot of pain and so those years were.
Whitney Port: Were hard for us because I just felt like unlovable because I was [00:16:30] so sad. And, um. Did
Dr. Taz: it put a strain on your relationship?
Whitney Port: Yeah, I think for those few years it did, for sure. But then I think once I was able to get out of that fog of grief, like he, he was able to see why I was that way and I was able to understand it more and learn how to cope with the grief more.
Whitney Port: And, um,
Dr. Taz: grief is a real thing. Grief
Whitney Port: is a real
Dr. Taz: thing. People skim over it. And I don't know if you took [00:17:00] time to. Heal or just do thi I don't know what you,
Whitney Port: yeah, like it wasn't like I set specific time to heal, but it was like I made sure that I was facing it. Like my sisters and I joined this support group called Our House, where you're in it for a year and you meet once, you meet once a month and you are, you talk to other people who have lost a parent at a young age and.
Whitney Port: So I was facing it, like [00:17:30] I was making sure I was talking about it. Um. I, and I couldn't hide from it. Like my dad was such a big part of my life. So it's important to face it in whatever way it comes. And there's no right or wrong way to grieve, you know? You just have to let it come. It looks different, and it looks everybody, it looks different, but I think it's important to.
Whitney Port: To feel the feelings and to not push them down as much as possible. But, so that was a, that was a hard phase for us. And then in terms of being a mom, I mean, the beginning was [00:18:00] definitely the hardest. Like the breastfeeding for me was,
Dr. Taz: oh, I'm just,
Whitney Port: just
Dr. Taz: with you on all this
Whitney Port: stuff. Mess. Like, if I could swear I would, but it was just a mess.
Whitney Port: Yeah. Like I just thought, okay, if the milk comes in, great. Feed, you know? Yeah. Like, I had no idea how complicated the latching would be and the schedule of it, and the responsibility and the pumping. And I ended up, um, exclusively pumping for six months, got [00:18:30] mastitis like three times. I remember after the second time getting mastitis, I was like, I'm, I have to be done.
Whitney Port: And then I did it again and I, I start. I started pumping again and got it again. Then I was like, okay, it's been six months. Like I need to put myself outta this misery. Yeah. Looking back, I think that's my biggest regret is that I continued to pump and breastfeed for that whole time. Yeah. As opposed to really enjoying the first experience of my child's life.
Whitney Port: It, I don't, I just know that my mental health [00:19:00] is more important than that.
Dr. Taz: Did you have an issue with. Mental health and anxiety through these journeys. I mean, we ha We know about the TV phase. Yeah. We know about building a business and the anxiety that that can bring. Yeah. You lose your father, then you're in also this birthing phase of new opportunities.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: You know, you've talked about mental health in the past, you know, what was happening with you from a mental health standpoint.
Whitney Port: I feel like I was really handling it well up until my dad died. Like I [00:19:30] really feel like even the whole show thing, I had a good head on my shoulders. My parents just, they just, I feel like they just raised me, right?
Whitney Port: Mm-hmm. I grew up in Los Angeles. I like wasn't phased by Hollywood. Right. I didn't need to do, I wasn't trying to do the show to be famous. Right. Like I always wanted to be in fashion. So I was looking at the show as like a platform for fashion. Right. Gotcha. During that whole phase, like I, I think I handled it well.
Whitney Port: Um, and social [00:20:00] media wasn't a thing yet, so there weren't as many opinions. It was like, not until my dad died and, um, I got pregnant, that I started to really be hit by some like real adult emotions.
Dr. Taz: Mm.
Whitney Port: And I think. That has just been an evolution. I've learned the things that really work for me. I've done talk therapy, um, mindfulness and meditation courses, working out, um, [00:20:30] all, you know, all sorts of things like having a podcast that's very cathartic for me.
Whitney Port: Like saying my, my issues and what I say to myself inside, outside is like, super, so
Dr. Taz: skill.
Whitney Port: Super helpful.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: So. I wouldn't say that I necessarily like struggled with it in a deep, deep, deep way, but I think I've had anxiety and depression just like everybody else around certain shitty things that have happened.
Whitney Port: You wouldn't
Dr. Taz: think, you don't think of yourself as a [00:21:00] chronically anxious person?
Whitney Port: No, I don't.
Dr. Taz: Anybody along those lines.
Whitney Port: I really don't. I
Dr. Taz: really, what is it that we're not like. Telling young girls, young moms, you know, as they go into these phases of their journey in turn, like just prepping them for what's coming up.
Dr. Taz: I, I mean, it kind of caught me, like my husband says that and I don't remember it, which is really weird, but like he thinks I was depressed for the. First month of my daughter's birth. He goes, you barely came downstairs. You [00:21:30] know? And I, and I know a lot, you know what I mean? So intellectually I know a lot, but
Whitney Port: what, right.
Whitney Port: But sometimes you're so flooded by all those things. You don't even realize what's
Dr. Taz: going, you don't realize it. Like, what are we not down?
Whitney Port: I think the biggest thing is that we're not like trusting ourselves to like trust our gut to know that. What we're doing is enough and that what we're doing is right for our baby.
Whitney Port: Like I think we just go into this and so many people are comparing their journeys to others and how it should be or what they should be doing, [00:22:00] and there's just no power and should, like, I, I think that people need to own their own experiences and not be questioning themselves so much. And like even when they are feeling.
Whitney Port: Down and out that knowing that, that those are normal feelings that everybody feels and not shaming themselves for it. Yeah. So I think it's just a matter of like, just, just knowing, um, that you are in the best past [00:22:30] that you can. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: I mean, I think, and you mentioned this in the, this definitely happened to me, but like I think part of the depression and anxiety is the physicality of all of this.
Whitney Port: Well, yes. So. And the exhaustion.
Dr. Taz: The exhaustion.
Whitney Port: So like, yeah. And the shift of your life. Like it, it becomes, it's a sense of freer freedom that has completely been stripped away, and that is a depressing. Thought like the idea that [00:23:00] we feel like we're like losing this piece of ourselves and we're losing this sense of freedom is very, very overwhelming.
Whitney Port: And I think it's okay for us to feel a little bit down and out while we're dealing with that, you know?
Dr. Taz: And then there's a lot of the body image. Part of completely, right? Yeah. I gained, you know, I think I've shared the story before, but I think I gained 72 pounds and I'm not
Whitney Port: 65 pounds.
Dr. Taz: Not a tall, you're tall
Whitney Port: at least.
Whitney Port: So for me, I mean, I know you, but when I say that, people are like, I didn't see that, but I'm like, I, [00:23:30] I felt it.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: But. Yeah, that was a thing too. It's, I, looking back on it, I always said if I were to get pregnant again, like I would never speak badly to myself about how my body was changing, because that was such a waste of time too.
Whitney Port: Um, or your body's doing an incredible thing and it like. It doesn't matter.
Dr. Taz: It doesn't matter. But it's so hard to pass this message down. You know? [00:24:00] Bodies, female bodies. And I'm curious, especially with you growing up in LA and then
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: Being in On tv. On tv, yeah. And this other stuff. 'cause that's a different level of pressure.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: But female bodies were meant to be dynamic and flexible. You know, we can't, and now the GLP one era is here, and like everyone's like reverting back, which, which is fine. Whatever makes you feel good in a healthy way. I'm not, you know, I've written a lot of those prescriptions myself, but, um, but the issue is, it's like, how do we still have some [00:24:30] acceptance around the fact that we aren't supposed to be a certain size all the time?
Dr. Taz: I know. You know, I mean, you can aspire for health and you can and aspire to wellness, you know, but at what point? Like, how do, how do we reconcile that? I'm curious how you did living here.
Whitney Port: Yeah, I, it's so hard because I think that we're fed so many of these images in ways we don't even realize it. Like we're just living in this life.
Whitney Port: I think we're all just like s. Such sometimes [00:25:00] unconscious consumers, and we're not even realizing how much of this body image stuff is being absorbed into us. So I think like the first step is realizing that, like being conscious that. That is what's happening around us, um, and forming our own opinions as opposed to like allowing companies to form them for us.
Whitney Port: And then I also think like, yeah, it was, it was hard for me. I remember seeing myself on TV for the first time when [00:25:30] I was 22 years old and I was in college, like super healthy, but I was like, I need to lose some weight. Yeah. I was like, I don't really like how my face looks on tv. TV and I don't really like how my arms look.
Whitney Port: And I remember it was, yeah, that was an era of like early two thousands. Swear,
Dr. Taz: you know, about the early two thousands,
Whitney Port: not a good time for women, that body image. So that, that. Definitely I remember that thought, like, so I'm [00:26:00] completely guilty of it. I think that, um, now I'm in a whole different place where I've gotten to a point where I.
Whitney Port: Like life got, so, life got pretty stressful for me at a certain point with like the infertility stuff and my dad stuff where I just like forgot to kind of feed myself.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: And it wasn't because I was trying to be anything. 'cause I'm really, I'm, I'm, I am a pretty confident person. Like I don't get [00:26:30] swayed by what other people look like.
Whitney Port: But, um, I just wasn't making myself a priority and I like. Lost a ton of weight and now I'm working on intuitive eating. Ah. And like, okay.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: And like, just eating what feels good to me and not overthinking it.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: Um, but for me, my journey, it's not about a looks thing. It's not about how I'm gonna look on the red carpet.
Whitney Port: It's like I just, I wanna be healthy.
Dr. Taz: So you don't feel that pressure?
Whitney Port: I do not [00:27:00] feel that pressure. Goodness. I mean, and I don't think why I. Like have lost weight is because of that pressure. It was like a completely unrelated personal thing. Um. And now I look at the fuller bodies and I'm like, I want that.
Whitney Port: Like I want the tush. Mm-hmm. I want some muscle it, you know?
Dr. Taz: Definitely. You mentioned some of that, something really important [00:27:30] though. So your fertility journey.
Whitney Port: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: What happened there? Because you got. Quickly,
Whitney Port: so quickly. So it was really confusing for me because like I said, I went off birth control and within two months I was pregnant and it was a super healthy, great pregnancy.
Whitney Port: Like granted I didn't feel good, but like he was wonderful. The baby was amazing. He was healthy and great. It's like I
Dr. Taz: got what I needed was
Whitney Port: great. Yeah. Everything was like seamless there. And then about a year after I had him, I got pregnant again and miscarried at [00:28:00] um, 10 weeks and then. Proceeded to miscarry like four more times and then decided to finally go to see a fertility specialist.
Whitney Port: Um, and went to a fertility specialist. And you're
Dr. Taz: skimming over those, but each of those
Whitney Port: Okay. Yeah, sorry.
Dr. Taz: No, no, no.
Whitney Port: I'm just saying I know I skimm because yeah.
Dr. Taz: I mean that in itself is a load,
Whitney Port: a big load.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: Hence why I lost a lot of weight during that period of [00:28:30] time. And, um. Yeah, I think people didn't understand and like what you
Dr. Taz: were going
Whitney Port: through.
Whitney Port: What I was going through and a lot of people for about a couple years ago was when like the comments on my weight were at its height, and that was at the point where I was going through all this. I was undergoing, I was freezing embryos and then thinking about doing a transfer and basically what happened was, so I had these miscarriages all very.
Whitney Port: I had to grieve over and over and over each one, and over [00:29:00] each one. They were all happening around like nine to 11 weeks, and then we decided to go see the fertility specialist. We froze embryos. I was going to do a transfer I the week of the transfer I got. Stomach virus and was throwing up nonstop and ended up like tearing up my, um, esophagus, had to get like an endoscopy and basically like had to cancel the transfer and [00:29:30] was realizing that I think I was having like a physical reaction to all the stress like this, the stress of.
Whitney Port: Like doing the transfer. Yeah. And it not working again, and it being my fault. So that was when I like really hit a low and Timmy and I had to have a real conversation and I had to say like, I really, I don't think I can do this. Yeah. Like, I really don't think I can do this. I'm losing myself. And he was like, well, what about a surrogate?
Whitney Port: And I was like, I, I, that had definitely [00:30:00] popped into my head, but I wasn't really ready to say that out loud yet. And as soon as he said it out loud, I was like. Yeah, I, I think, I think we should do that. Like I, if we can, I like, let's, let's start to explore that.
Dr. Taz: Did you feel pressured? To have the second child.
Dr. Taz: Did you guys want a second?
Whitney Port: Like what? We wanted a second child. Okay. I felt a lot of pressure to have a second child. I still do feel like kind of incomplete.
Dr. Taz: Mm.
Whitney Port: And I feel like now whenever I'm talking to moms and [00:30:30] we're talking about like packing or traveling or doing anything, like I never, I always has to have to justify that it's easier for me because I only have one.
Dr. Taz: Mm.
Whitney Port: I'm like, well. Or like, I can't really say I am like that tired or, you know, I just have this insecurity about only having one. But I also, to me, and I did always want more than one, so. I, it wasn't like he was pressuring me, right. It was an eternal [00:31:00] pressure. It just like, it felt like we were supposed to have another soul in our family.
Dr. Taz: You family, you were from
your
Whitney Port: family too and from a big family. Um, so I was just like, I really, we wanted it and we still wanted it. And so long story short, um, we ended up doing a transfer with the surrogate. Over a year ago, and it was a failed transfer. We did another transfer with the same surrogate.
Whitney Port: It was another failed transfer. We [00:31:30] decided to then take a breather from the whole thing for a little while and like kind of, you know, realign and decide if this is what we really still wanted to do, and we did. And so we decided to just basically change up all the. Um, change up all the factors and find a new fertility doctor.
Whitney Port: Do a new round of embryo freezing and find a new surrogate.
Dr. Taz: Oh,
Whitney Port: and so we did that last summer.
Dr. Taz: Okay.
Whitney Port: And now we are literally [00:32:00] just about to sign the contract with our surrogate. To do the transfer hopefully in the next few months.
Dr. Taz: Oh my gosh. I'll be rooting for you guys.
Whitney Port: So that's where we are and I, I'm 40 now and I feel tired and like, do I wanna do this?
Whitney Port: But then I just saw Sienna Miller is Pregnant's 43 and I was like, and she's even pregnant and doing it.
Dr. Taz: Had a 56-year-old patient
Whitney Port: stop.
Dr. Taz: I was [00:32:30] 56.
Whitney Port: That's amazing. I love this for us.
Dr. Taz: Yeah, she was 56. Yeah.
Whitney Port: I mean like go. And there should be no cap on it. There is it.
Dr. Taz: If you
Whitney Port: can do it, you can do it.
Dr. Taz: Yeah. I played a prank on my husband because I've been talking about this and you know, ours are 18 and 16.
Whitney Port: Yeah, but you
Dr. Taz: and I was like, guess what? He's like, shut up. Right. Is
Whitney Port: there Actually, that would be a funny trend.
Dr. Taz: It's like there's no way, you know, so, but no, I, I can resonate. So, you know, I sit with all kinds of. [00:33:00] Patients. I sit with a lot of women, lots of different ages. 56-year-old patient I'm talking to you about just felt the same way you did that she had gotten one via IVF and you know, all of those things.
Dr. Taz: But somebody was missing and every reproductive endocrinologist told her, no, we're not doing it. It's unethical. All the things. And she found somebody to say yes. You know, I think she had to travel up to New York and she did it, and she has two children now. You know, versus, versus just having one. You know?
Dr. Taz: But that journey of [00:33:30] infertility, wherever people experience it, whether they experience it with their first or they experience it later on,
Whitney Port: yeah.
Dr. Taz: In itself is so filled with like despair and shame and grief, and like all insecurity. Insecurity and all of this lack of
Whitney Port: control,
Dr. Taz: all of this stuff. Mm-hmm. Like as somebody who's kind of.
Dr. Taz: Had to navigate a lot of different things and now you're in, in this space. Yeah. And you're actively in it. Yeah. I know it sounds like it, you know?
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: How, how did you [00:34:00] navigate that and stay sane?
Whitney Port: Um, I mean, there were moments where I definitely wasn't, but I am really lucky to have a great partner Yeah.
Whitney Port: Who had supported me in the right way all the way through and made it about me, not about him. Um, which is what we need, right? Because like it is us doing the majority of the shit, like it's my body going through it. Um, but I, um. I think for me it has [00:34:30] really been trying to stay in each moment and not future spiraling.
Whitney Port: Like at the beginning when I was going through all this stuff, I think I was just like continually going into the future and being like. Like this is never gonna happen. Or, and it would give me like, a lot of anger. I, the anger was coming out in a lot of different ways, like even towards my siblings, towards Timmy.
Whitney Port: Like I think I was angry about it and I. I had to, like I [00:35:00] said, like I, I had to start going to therapy and like really talking about it and figuring out like how I was going to come from a place of gratitude, and that's what I ended up doing. Like, as cheesy as it sounds, I feel like one day something clicked for me and I was like, if I.
Whitney Port: Only have Timmy and Sonny for the rest of of my life. Like, that's amazing. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm so lucky to even have one. So I need to come from a place of like being grateful for where I'm at [00:35:30] now and stop wanting for more and looking at it like, if we do get it, it's a blessing. But it took me time to get there.
Whitney Port: It did. It just, it took a lot of me, like listening to myself talk. Um, to come to terms with where, where my life was at.
Dr. Taz: You know, it's interesting, my observation has been that women who are very, I called you a boss girl earlier, women who are very motivated, who have [00:36:00] businesses and careers and all these different things, you know, they've always had a goal and they've been able to accomplish that goal.
Dr. Taz: Struggle with this one big time. Oh my big time. And I feel like it kind of. Is bidirectional, like it kind of influences the outcome to a certain extent too, but, but they just cannot wrap their heads around, I want X, why is X not happening? And it's such a spiritual journey and an emotional journey and an energetic journey to kind of get to the place that you're at right now.
Dr. Taz: Some people don't get there. You know, and [00:36:30] it's, it's such a struggle. So I feel like for anyone listening or watching, if they can just hear that, kind of be grateful and present in the moment that you're in, because this is not like taking an exam or making a hundred, or building a billion dollar business.
Dr. Taz: This is, this is a very. Different journey and it's a very female journey.
Whitney Port: And there's, and right, like you said, like we have no control over it. I mean, granted, we don't, to some extent, really have control to, to some extent.
Dr. Taz: Yeah. But
Whitney Port: so much of our lives, we feel like, okay, [00:37:00] if we do this, then this is, this will be the result and I have this goal and I can achieve this.
Whitney Port: And then for, for us to not be able to,
Dr. Taz: it feels like failure.
Whitney Port: To finish the task. Yeah, it definitely like, it definitely for me affected my confidence.
Dr. Taz: How is your medical experience through all of this? Like in terms of, you know, we're not trying to call anything out, but in terms of like just finding the right doctor, [00:37:30] going through the procedures, being told what to do, prepping for the transfers, you know.
Dr. Taz: What was that experience like? It's not an experience I personally have been through. I know my patients go through it. Yeah. But I'm just curious.
Whitney Port: It is, it's a lot and it's exhausting. Um, my first doctor, like, I don't have anything bad to say about my first doctor, but I did feel like there were just so many patients in his practice that things were getting looked [00:38:00] over.
Whitney Port: Um. And I wanted a, someone a little bit more assertive and he wasn't as assertive as I would've liked him to be. Like I wanted him to take more control as opposed to tell me like, here are your odds, like how do you feel about it? And so that was something that. I struggled with at the beginning with him, just never feeling like fully confident in the decisions that he was making.
Whitney Port: Mm. Um, [00:38:30] but then my second doctor has been unbelievable. Like I'll say her, Dr. Kate the Fisher out of at Spring Fertility in New York, like just held my hand through everything. Wow. And made the whole process super easy or as easy as it possibly could be. And I just felt so confident in her in every decision.
Whitney Port: It was like, no, we're doing this. We're doing this. Here's the plan, let's go. And like I really felt like I had a leader and an [00:39:00] advocate, and I think that's an important energy to look for in a fertility doctor,
Dr. Taz: what would you advise young women or women of any age who are going through this process? What would you tell them is their.
Dr. Taz: Kind of trying to a figure this out.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: Right. Like, I don't know if they ever figured out for you with the,
Whitney Port: well, no, I never, I never ended up doing like a deep, deep dive. I mean, basically what I think we realized, because even when I did, um, embryo retrieval like I had. Or sorry, egg retrieval. [00:39:30] I had so many eggs, but when they were being made into embryos, they just weren't healthy.
Whitney Port: So I think it was just my eggs just weren't and mixed with Timmy sperm, like it was like a quality thing or something.
Dr. Taz: Gotcha.
Whitney Port: Um, but. I, but it's hard to know. 'cause then we put the really super high quality embryos into the surrogate and you would think that they would work. So I don't, nothing. I don't ever, I don't know.
Whitney Port: But I would say that, I [00:40:00] think the biggest thing I've learned is to start thinking about this like as young as you can
Dr. Taz: really.
Whitney Port: Like, as annoying as that sounds and as expensive as it is to just freeze embryos when you feel like is the right to, or sorry to free not embryos, to freeze ovaries, um, as early as you think you can, like in your twenties, mid late twenties.
Whitney Port: Um, I [00:40:30] certainly wish that I had some of my eggs from that time. Um.
Dr. Taz: So they, it sounds like they positioned it as an egg quality issue.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: More than an ovulation issue or any of the other things that we get into.
Whitney Port: Yeah,
Dr. Taz: sometimes.
Whitney Port: Yeah. There wasn't anything going on there. Like I was able to get pregnant.
Whitney Port: Um, they just wasn't like healthy embryos. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were able to do two. [00:41:00] The, when they did DNCs, they were able to do like two autopsies.
Dr. Taz: Gotcha.
Whitney Port: And they just weren't chromosomally normal.
Dr. Taz: Are there questions women should ask in the exam room that you didn't think to ask the first go round?
Whitney Port: I think the big thing that I did. Learn is how important the lab is, how equally important the lab is. Um, in addition to just the doctor, because there's the, there's different labs with different [00:41:30] kinds of technology and different kinds of screening process, and they all have ratings to them too. They have success readings.
Dr. Taz: Okay.
Whitney Port: So you can find any lab success rating online. The
Dr. Taz: lab matters just as much as the doctor matters.
Whitney Port: Yeah, it does.
Dr. Taz: Wow. Okay.
Whitney Port: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Taz: That's a really great perspective. We've had reproductive endocrinologist on here, and I don't think anyone's mentioned
Whitney Port: how
Dr. Taz: the lab,
Whitney Port: the lab is and like the, the specific, even lab technician, like my doctor told me how much she loves hers and
Dr. Taz: Yeah,
Whitney Port: [00:42:00] how much, what they're looking for and how gentle you have to be with the embryo and all of that stuff.
Dr. Taz: Dang. What about, you know, just sort of prepping you mentally, physically this time versus last time? Have there been differences?
Whitney Port: I think yes, being just easier on myself, the ta the second time around, like when I did the second egg retrieval, just knowing that this is a really taxing time. It's, you know, 10 days of [00:42:30] shots and hormones and allowing yourself a little bit.
Whitney Port: Breathing room around that and letting the people around, you know, and like telling them this is gonna be a sensitive time for me. Yeah. So just like
Dr. Taz: have your, um, friends, I'm just curious, like just friends, people that, you know, are there a lot of women having the same journey you're having when it comes to fertility and
Whitney Port: so many, so many.
Whitney Port: My business partner right now is dealing with it, um, [00:43:00] it, it feels like. It's, I don't know. It's like, it's hard to say. I feel like just as many people who are having it is. Just as many people who are dealing with infertility. There's as many that are not dealing with it. So I don't really know, but it does feel like it's a rock.
Whitney Port: It's the
thing.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: So, and then is your show still running your YouTube series or,
Whitney Port: so we don't have our YouTube series anymore, but you can go on and watch it, which it's, it's like one of [00:43:30] those evergreen style shows. Yeah. If you just found out you're pregnant and you're feeling like shit, go watch my show.
Whitney Port: I feel like
Dr. Taz: you need to do like a part two around. This. I
Whitney Port: know, I know, I know. Well, we, it got like, it got really hard for me to talk about all the time. Yeah. So now I will, on my podcast, I'll talk about it. I'll come on, I'll do updates and vent a little bit about it, but it became too hard for me to like schedule sit down chats
Dr. Taz: [00:44:00] about
Whitney Port: what was going on.
Whitney Port: It was like I would, there was them putting myself in this. Kind of depressed place I want. I
Dr. Taz: like do that. I'm curious, so you and your husband are slightly public, you know? Yeah. Or have a public life. The public has expectations, you know, how do you preserve some privacy and then still share enough to connect with an audience and be authentic, you know, and not.
Dr. Taz: Have staged thing, you know what I mean? How, how do you, well, [00:44:30] how do you balance
Whitney Port: that with it right now? Like I, um, I've been talking about some struggles with my mom and being in the sandwich generation. Yeah. And us having us now, um, taking care of her. And I've really had to. Be gentle about how I talk about it.
Whitney Port: 'cause it's also my mom, it's my mom's story. Right. You know? And so I do have to set certain boundaries around what I say and what I don't say. [00:45:00] And so I think there's always like an artful way to do that where you can still be vulnerable without disrespecting like your own privacy and the people around you.
Whitney Port: And know that it's okay for people not to know every single little detail like that doesn't mean that you are. Lying to them or not telling them the full story. Like it, it's, it's, it's okay to keep certain things, sacred things private
Dr. Taz: and secret. Yeah. I almost [00:45:30] miss like, you know, uh, we had some producers on that did content back in the gold, you know, their parents content back in the golden age of Hollywood where you still felt connected to people.
Dr. Taz: Yeah, but you didn't really know anything. You know? Totally. I'd be like, how did they do that? How did they, you know, manage Like they straddle that, straddle that line. Yeah.
Whitney Port: You
Dr. Taz: know? Yeah. It's very interesting. Well, you know, in your story, one of the things that attracted me to it was, you know, this arc almost of going from a very young [00:46:00] woman, right?
Dr. Taz: That the world has had to watch and see and, and grow, and being in that pressure cooker. To then having real woman issues, right? What does pregnancy feel like? What does a fertility journey feel like? Mm-hmm. You know, what does modern motherhood feel like and look like, and how do we balance it all? And then we add on the layers of entrepreneurship and things like that.
Dr. Taz: And so, you know, what would you say as you. Kind of at your life in retrospect for just a second. Yeah, yeah. You know, and even, I mean, you're still in it. Yeah. You [00:46:30] know, what are the,
Whitney Port: I'm like, am I that old?
Dr. Taz: No. Yeah, no. You're just, you know, you're on this upward journey. Yes. So like, what would you say to women who, you know, some of the things you've probably heard yourself, like, you know, I'm doing too much, I'm juggling all the time.
Dr. Taz: Mm-hmm. I carry the majority of the load, you know? Um. You know, motherhood is tough nowadays. You know, in the car. We don't have a village necessarily, like of a lot of help and people coming in to support that journey. Mm-hmm. You know? How have you [00:47:00] sort of navigated each of these transitions in of your life and like, you know, what would you tell folks in terms of.
Dr. Taz: Balancing it all, I guess is the, is the question.
Whitney Port: I think for me it's been always about like staying in my lane and like not trying to be in a race with anybody else or trying to compare my life to anybody else's, but really like trusting my gut, trusting my intuition, and knowing that I know myself enough and trust myself enough to make the [00:47:30] right choices.
Whitney Port: I think also. Finding your purpose is so powerful and like really being in touch with what that is and listening to it. Um, a third thing I think is not believing every single thing that you think is true. I think really being able to separate the thoughts in your head, which ones are reality and which are you [00:48:00] just.
Whitney Port: Um, which ones are kind of magnifying? Like the worst part of yourself? Yeah. Or your worst fears. Like, I think really understanding what the voices in your head are trying to tell you. Um, but I really do think like if you are, are focusing on your happiness and your purpose, um, that. That's what then like [00:48:30] attracts the goodness.
Dr. Taz: I think it crowds out all the negative noise
Whitney Port: Co. Right? Completely, completely. What's your purpose? Um,
Dr. Taz: and how'd
Whitney Port: you
Dr. Taz: find it?
Whitney Port: Oh my God, my, I think my purpose is like creating pretty things, and that's in like all different arenas. Like whether that's a product or a flower arrangement or an outfit. Like I think one of my purposes is just like creating.
Whitney Port: Creating visually pretty things. Mm. And um, and I think [00:49:00] also another purpose of mine is like listening to people. Like I really love to listen to people and I love to problem solve and, um. I find so much like value in that, and I get so much confidence from that, so, yeah.
Dr. Taz: That's amazing. I, I love you were able to say it very succinctly.
Whitney Port: Oh my God. Good.
Dr. Taz: You were good. You like to play pretty things. Someone asked me once, so I was like, uh, uh, you know, I was like, like stuttering [00:49:30] for a bit. I'm like, wait, can I say it that clearly? I don't know if
Whitney Port: I can Well, that it's, and that's kind of vague too. Yeah, but that's. That's what it is. It's perfect.
Whitney Port: Like,
Dr. Taz: because that can translate into so many
Whitney Port: different lines. Yeah. Like when I wanna make a bed, like I wanna make it look pretty. Yeah. When I am setting the table, like I wanna make it look pre pretty. And that's a, that's. My, I feel like that's what I can bring, like that's a purpose and that may sound vain, but also looking pretty is different to everybody.
Whitney Port: Like my pretty may not be your pretty, but Correct. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: Well that is an, that's a form of art.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: You know, and [00:50:00] that was very much, in fact, I was talking to somebody recently who is saying is AI gets more advanced and you know, we get into this tech world, we go deeper and deeper into the tech world. The art of what is pretty and what is crafted and what is handmade is going to be something we're gonna be desperate to hold onto, you know?
Dr. Taz: So I think it's, it's such a unique purpose and I think it's translated. Tell, tell the audience a little bit about all the different businesses you're involved in. Yeah. What you're working on. I, I find it fascinating.
Whitney Port: [00:50:30] Oh my God. Thank you. Yeah. So, well, I have my podcast with wit. Um. Where I talk to like amazing women like you and then my husband and s Yeah, it's, I have that.
Whitney Port: And then part of what I do that I have found so much joy and purpose in is like helping creatively consult with various companies. Yep. Like I was telling you, I work with the high confectionary, which is a low dose. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Taz: Um,
Whitney Port: gummy brand, low dose THC, gummy brand, and we're developing new products and elevating the packaging and coming out [00:51:00] with.
Whitney Port: Chocolate and just like all sorts of fun stuff. Um, and then I'm also helping design a tennis collection that we're launching in the spring. Um, so taking parts of my life that I love. Like do
Dr. Taz: brands come to you like, Hey, help us.
Whitney Port: Yes. Or the. Or, um, I'll reach out to them and I'll be like, I love your brand.
Whitney Port: Is there any way that,
Dr. Taz: like, you
Whitney Port: need any help with anything? Yeah. Um, but yeah, mostly if a brand like likes my sense [00:51:30] of style Yeah. Or my aesthetic.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: So that's been so much fun for me. I've absolutely love doing that. Like obviously creating content and doing that stuff is part of my c my career as well.
Whitney Port: Right. But it's not what gives me like the most joy.
Dr. Taz: So you're a creative
Whitney Port: Yes.
Dr. Taz: Essentially. Yes. But you also get to exercise. This entrepreneurial muscle, which you probably got from your dad.
Whitney Port: Yes. And the entrepreneurial muscle is really about how all these different businesses like work together and how, how they operate [00:52:00] and how they feed each other.
Whitney Port: So. Yeah,
Dr. Taz: it's incredible. What would you tell women who just admire you so much?
Whitney Port: Oh
Dr. Taz: my God. What advice would you give them? You can pick a stage of your life or you can give generic advice you kind of did with find your purpose, right?
Whitney Port: Yeah, but like I would just say that like the fear do, do not let fear.
Whitney Port: Failing or fear of what other people [00:52:30] think stop you from doing something that you think is great. I just feel like so many times now we think that's been done or they're already doing it, but like no one is doing it the exact same way that you're doing it, so. Stay true to that. Like there is only one you,
Dr. Taz: and I'll tell you, having a teenage daughter and watching her and just watching kind of what they're being like [00:53:00] bombarded with Right.
Dr. Taz: Visually and from a social standpoint
Whitney Port: and how easy it is to do so many things.
Dr. Taz: Exactly. It's like. Being true to you is a skill that we as parents, you know, have to instill, have to in, in our kids,
Whitney Port: you know, have to tell them just how, call out the special things that make them them, like it's on us to call those things
Dr. Taz: out.
Dr. Taz: I a hundred percent. I even did, even for my, I mentioned my daughter 'cause I'm obviously more worried about her, but, but even my son who's right [00:53:30] behind her, you know, like he's. Competitive and ambitious and all these other things, but he's also around equally competitive and ambitious people, right? So it's very easy to be like, oh my God, I'm not good enough, I'm not doing enough, all this stuff.
Dr. Taz: So we sat down and like walked through an exercise of, okay, what's important to you? What are your values? What is the big picture for you look like? Right? Okay, now. And then literally I was like, now that you know this. Start blocking, start block. Block the [00:54:00] rest. I go. If someone's doing like, I don't know, like an engineering competition, you don't wanna be an engineer, right?
Dr. Taz: Block it. Why are you getting like competitive about that? You know? And so I think the more we can remind ourselves at every age and every stage, and definitely pass down to younger women and you especially, you have all these women that admire you so much like. Block it. Find you. Find your purpose. Yeah.
Dr. Taz: And
Whitney Port: I even, I have to remind myself of that every day. Too day too.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: Like even, even we know it logically. Like I still [00:54:30] really have to. When I, those questions creep up or those insecurities creep in, I'm, I'm on social and I'm like, oh my God. Like they, that, that looks amazing. Like, why am I, why did I not get that?
Whitney Port: Or how do I get that? Yeah. And it's like, it's just so unrealistic. It's
Dr. Taz: unrealistic.
Whitney Port: Yeah.
Dr. Taz: It's, it's. Not great.
Whitney Port: It's not healthy. It's, and then it stops us from, I think, doing the thing that we're really meant to be doing because we're just so caught up in what other [00:55:00] people are doing and that we're got not good enough that we've lost our drive and we've lost our confidence to do the thing that we're good at.
Dr. Taz: And I couldn't agree with you more. What are you looking forward to?
Whitney Port: Oh my god, I'm so one of those people that just like has to take everything day by day. Yeah. I'm like, I'm so looking forward to my tennis collection.
Dr. Taz: Yes.
Whitney Port: Um,
Dr. Taz: so have a date
Whitney Port: game or like, probably early March.
Dr. Taz: Okay, got it.
Whitney Port: Um, I'm honestly right now, I feel like I'm just looking forward to this holiday [00:55:30] break.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: Like, is that okay to. Yes, absolutely. Like I just want it to be the holidays. Absolutely. I love the holidays. I think we're gonna go to New York and be with my husband's family and like my son has never really seen New York in all its glory during Christmas. Yeah. It's gorgeous.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: So I'm excited for that and um, I'm excited for hopefully this transfer.
Whitney Port: Like, knock on wood, like I am, I wanna send all the positive energy. I don't wanna be like, I wanna be cautiously optimistic. Yeah. You know, I don't wanna be too, like this is gonna happen. Yeah. Because I don't want to be disappointed, but I also think [00:56:00] that like, there's nothing. Wrong with putting a ton of positive energy
Dr. Taz: there.
Dr. Taz: No. It would be there. Or
Whitney Port: like envisioning
Dr. Taz: that that it's gonna happen. Happen Yeah. To make it happen for
Whitney Port: you. For sure.
Dr. Taz: Yeah.
Whitney Port: Um, and then I'm also excited just to like not have any plans tonight and have my husband cook dinner. Like things like that, you know,
Dr. Taz: attitude. Yes. For all the things. Yes. Well, this has been such a treat,
Whitney Port: so
Dr. Taz: great and such a delight.
Dr. Taz: Yeah. And I can't thank you enough for joining us.
Whitney Port: Oh my God. My
Dr. Taz: profess sharing your story with everyone. I've gotta ask you one final question. Yeah. Ask, uh, [00:56:30] what makes you whole.
Whitney Port: I really think my little family. Yeah. Like I know it shouldn't be about other people, or at least that's what my, my brain is telling me.
Whitney Port: Like it shouldn't be about other people, but like I really just feel the most complete and whole when I'm like at home with my husband, my son, and our dog.
Dr. Taz: So many people. Give that answer. It's like, but it's a universal answer. And I think we all have a [00:57:00] desire for healthy homes and healthy families. It's a part of the motivation of the show, honestly, that, you know, being healthy is not just about biohacking and, you know, longevity markers and GLP ones.
Dr. Taz: It's, it's really about. Living in healthy ecosystems.
Whitney Port: Relationships.
Dr. Taz: Right. And relationships. Because we are all influenced by one another and we're only each as healthy as the person next to us, you know? So that is a meaningful and beautiful [00:57:30] way. To feel whole and that I am like cheerleading all the way.
Dr. Taz: Yeah. So is there anywhere that you want people to go if they wanna follow you or learn more about what you're doing or any of that
Whitney Port: stuff? Yeah, I mean, I'm Whitney Eve Port on Instagram, same on TikTok. Um, if you're interested in the gummies, the hi infection area.com. Okay. If you're interested in low dose THC gummies, um.
Whitney Port: But no, everything else awesome. And my, sorry, my podcast with Wit
Dr. Taz: Your podcast. We forget about that.
Whitney Port: Yeah, I [00:58:00] can't forget.
Dr. Taz: Well, thank you again for joining us. Of course. For everybody else watching and listening to this episode of Whole Plus, we'll see you next time. Make sure you rate and share it with your friends.
Dr. Taz: All right. Before you click away, don't forget to subscribe. It's free and it helps more people find Whole Plus. And if you're already here, why stop now. Watch the next video right here on the screen. It's when you don't wanna miss.
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