Duchess Kate opens up about motherhood – “It’s so hard”
Duchess Kate is mum to five-year-old Prince George, three-year-old Princess Charlotte and nine-month-old Prince Louis and her royal status doesn’t make her immune from the struggles of parenting.
“The same struggle”
Kate was visiting the South London-based charity Family Action yesterday when she began chatting to parents about the isolation that motherhood can bring. People covered the visit and shared some details of the conversations Kate had with other mums.
“It’s so hard,” Kate observed as she talked to fellow parents.
“You get a lot of support with the baby as a mother particularly in the early days, but after the age of one, it falls away. After that, there isn’t a huge amount … Lots of books to read.”
“Everybody experiences the same struggle,” Kate noted.
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“She’s a mum and it wasn’t easy for her”
Kate’s keen to align with initiatives which fill these gaps and was visiting Family Action to launch a new service which enlists a network of volunteers to support parents and carers through phone calls, email and texts.
“When she came in it felt like just another friend,” event attendee Dawn Daley told People. “She was really nice, she was easy to talk to and interacted with us all. And she listened.”
“She was saying we were brave to be able to speak about our stories and come out and speak about what’s happening with us. She was very compassionate,” Dawn said.
“From the time she walked in there was this presence and everyone just felt at ease. She’s a mum and it wasn’t easy for her, as well, so it was really good. That royal thing went out the window once she sat down.”
“Nothing can really prepare you”
It’s not the first time she’s talked about the – very numerous – tricky parts of motherhood.
“Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience,” Kate said in 2017 at an event to raise awareness of mental health.
“However, at times it has also been a huge challenge. Even for me, who has support at home that most mothers do not. Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer, overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It’s full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love, and worry, all mixed together.”
It’s fair to say that the royal mum-of-three has hit the nail on the head completely and while she has plenty of privilege, the pressure of constantly being in the public eye brings a whole other set of challenges. It’s hard to imagine what that must feel like …