Jillian Michaels is all smiles on the cover of Ladies Home Journal, gushing over her newly adopted daughter Lukensia and newborn son Phoenix — even if some don’t like it.

Speaking of her toddler the fitness guru shared of Lukensia:

“Actually, she’s incredibly shy. This was a very good orphanage, but my daughter had a hard time in that environment. It was overwhelming for her. But when she started to visit with me she would come alive and laugh and play. She’s clever and adventurous, but it’s kind of heartbreaking, because you have to understand she had been there since she was 9 or 10 months old.

She’s now 2 and the only time she had left the orphanage [prior to the adoption] was when I would take her to the Haitian guesthouse where I stayed nearby. So this was a kid who had never seen the ocean, a swimming pool or a dog. She had never been to a park or a zoo or on a swing set. So she was just running around the yard of this guesthouse, picking up pebbles from gravel on the road. She had never seen gravel before. Pebbles were like gems to her.”

Yet, through the two-year-long adoption process not everyone was supportive of Jillian Michaels. When asked if anyone was negative about the her decision to adopt as a single mom (before publicly acknowledging she was in a relationship with Heidi Rhoades) the 38-year-old replied bluntly:

“Ann Coulter. I met [the conservative commentator] during the first segment I ever did on The Doctors. She said I was a selfish narcissist for wanting to adopt as a single parent — that a child who grows up without a father is greatly disadvantaged. I’m a brawler, so when she said that I was like…come here, I’ll knock you out. I completely appreciate the importance of fathers but millions of children are without loving homes. I think a child is lucky with one parent who truly loves her.”

photo: Jillian Michaels covers Ladies Home Journal