Motherhood has been everything Katy Perry hoped it would be.
The pop superstar spoke with the fashion magazine L'Officiel about how much life has changed for her since giving birth to her daughter, Daisy, who turns a year old in August.
"When you have a child, you have someone who looks at you and doesn’t know anything on your resume, doesn’t know anything about your bank account, doesn’t know anything, doesn’t care, and just loves you," Perry said. "Unconditional love. It’s just ... everything I think I was looking for."
Becoming a mom has made Perry, 36, slow down her jet-setting career to enjoy moments at home with Daisy and fiancé Orlando Bloom.
"I had 35 years of calling the shots and doing what I wanted to do, zipping all over the world and taking care of my career," she said. "Now I have this huge responsibility to look after such an incredible gift. It makes you quite vulnerable and reminds you of your own childhood that you want to probably do differently. I want to do it differently."
She admittedly was nervous about becoming a mother, but has now embraced it completely.
"Now I get it. Now I realize this is it. This is the living part," she said. "Every day I’m like, ‘When can we go for a walk? When can we go for a swim?’ There was a good 12 years where none of that smallness existed. It was amazing to live big and wild, but sometimes it’s nice just to throw the ball on the grass and watch your daughter laugh from the simple joys of the dog coming and bringing it back."
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Her domestic life is a strong contrast to her larger-than-life persona onstage and in her music. The two also blended together in Perry's song "Daisies" on her most recent album, which was released shortly after Daisy's birth.
"As a performer I’ve always relied on the love and acceptance and validation of the outside world and that ultimately can waver at times," she said.
"I have gone through a real journey in the past few years of having fun with costumes and lights and props and theatrics, but I have another life at home and it’s very small and normal," she said. "I don’t feel like I have to be ‘on’ anymore, and I think that’s because I’ve figured out both my professional and personal lives. I’ve weaved them together to be a full-fledged functioning human ... of sorts.”
Perry has also become less self-conscious about others' expectations when she's out in public.
"I used to be really upset about going out into the world with no makeup on," she said. "Even for something like this, I’d be like, ‘Let’s do some hair and makeup,’ and now I’m like, ‘You know, I’m good. I know who I am. And what you think of me is none of my business.’”
With plenty of family time at home during the pandemic, Perry believes she's found a balance between a simple life with her daughter and the life of a touring pop star.
"I know that when I go back on the stage, I’m going to do my best and give it my all as I always do with my projects," she said. "I’ve been professionally busy since I was 13, and now I’ve really stopped to smell the roses."