Stephanie Teo Reflects on Rebuilding Her Life as a Single Mother After Leaving Violent Marriage

Mother’s Day tributes flooded social media over the weekend, but one post from photographer Stephanie Teo drew attention for its quiet honesty about survival, motherhood and rebuilding a life from the ground up.

Teo, who was named third runner-up at Mrs World Singapore 2025, shared a personal video on Instagram reflecting on the years following the breakdown of her marriage.

In the clip, she spoke candidly about leaving her former husband because of family violence, saying she made the decision to walk away when her daughter was just over a month old. At the time, she said she had only S$600 left in her bank account.

“Going into single motherhood because I believed walking away was the right decision,” one caption in the video read.

Teo framed the post not as a story about hardship alone, but about what came after. “This is not a story about losing,” another caption stated. “This is a story about rebuilding.”

The video moved between recent moments and memories from 2021, when she described herself as a woman who “cried herself to sleep”. She spoke about the strain of raising a child alone while trying to stay financially afloat, saying she worked three jobs for several years and often survived on only a few hours of sleep each day.

“I worked really hard because I know I have a little girl depending on me,” she said in the video. “She became the reason I kept going.”

Over time, Teo said, her circumstances began to improve. She shared that she eventually bought her first car and later her first home. She also started her own business, opened an office and continued studying part-time to pursue a degree.

Alongside those milestones, Teo said she slowly regained confidence in herself after years of emotional strain.

“I rebuilt my confidence. I rebuilt myself,” she said.

The post ended on a quieter note, with Teo reflecting on how she now views herself years after that difficult period.

“This Mother’s Day, I’m proud of the woman I became,” she wrote.

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Her story resonated with many online not because it centred celebration or achievement alone, but because it focused on the long and often unseen work of rebuilding stability after personal upheaval.

The story was originally published in 8Days.