Olivia Culpo has realised just how much she has "needed" her mother since becoming pregnant herself

She told People: "I feel like I have a lot of respect for my mom and one thing that I realised through this experience of becoming a mom is actually how much I've needed my mom, which I didn't anticipate.

"She's just been so helpful to me, especially in the beginning of my pregnancy. That was really tough. It's just kind of an interesting thing, and I'm just so grateful to her.

"It's just an ironic thought that you need your mom the most when you're about to become a mom.

"That's just genuinely how I felt."

Olivia is one of five children herself and noted that her mother is "extremely selfless" while she doesn't often have a clue when it comes to doing things like rustle up a meal but she is going to learn.

She said: "I don't even know where to begin, but she always made our house feel very warm through food.

"But, she's always cooking and always feeding people, and I just feel like it makes a house.

"I feel like food is love in our family.

"And I'm definitely going to take that thought process with me when I have my own family too. Just always making sure that the community around food and meal time is there."

Olivia recently admitted that she has no intentions of finding out her baby's sex because she wants it to be a "nice surprise" for everyone when the little one makes their arrival into the world.

She told E! News: "It would be such a nice surprise.

"There's really nothing else that I could ask for.

"Being healthy, that's all you can ask for.

"That's part of why I'm not finding out the gender either.

"I feel like I have a job and that's to be as healthy and mindful as I possibly can."