Disappointed Keira Knightley says Duchess Kate hides the truth about childbirth
Actor Keira Knightley’s written a piece for a new book of essays called Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies) and it contains details of her own birth – and some observations about Duchess Kate’s postpartum behaviour.
The weaker sex?
Why would Keira compare her birth to Duchess Kate’s, you might be wondering? Well, Keira’s baby girl Edie was born on 1 May 2015 and Kate gave birth to Princess Charlotte one day later. It seems that Kate was on Keira’s radar as they both navigated those early, ouchy postpartum days.
Reported on by Refinery 29, Keira’s essay gets speedily down to the messy bits of her own birth and questions the wisdom of Kate’s tidy post-baby photo ops.
“My vagina split,” Keira reportedly writes in the first line of her essay The Weaker Sex, which she dedicated to her daughter.
“You came out with your eyes open. Arms up in the air. Screaming. They put you on to me, covered in blood, vernix, your head misshapen from the birth canal. Pulsating, gasping, screaming.”
“You latched on to my breast immediately, hungrily, I remember the pain. The mouth clenched tight around my nipple, light sucking on and sucking out.”
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Don’t show, don’t tell
Writing about Kate’s birth, Keira ponders the wisdom of the Duchess’ “perfect” postpartum appearance.
“We stand and watch the TV screen. She was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on. The face the world wants to see,” Keira wrote.
“Hide. Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging. Look beautiful. Look stylish, don’t show your battleground, Kate.”