For so many years Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge has abided by the royal mantra “never complain, never explain.” But in a departure from her usually discreet and private royal persona Kate has spoken for the first time about the challenges of being a mother, the joy she felt when she first held Prince George and her “terror” at facing the world with her newborn just hours after giving birth.
In an episode released this weekend, Kate sat down to talk to author Giovanna Fletcher for the podcast Happy Mum Happy Baby, and she’s since received global praise for her candor. Once so terrified of public speaking that her hands would physically shake, Kate was so relaxed, she made the interview sound like she was having chat over a coffee with an old friend. Fletcher, who describes the experience of sitting down with the Duchess as a great privilege, also told Vanity Fair that it was surreal. She thought she was only going to have ten minutes with Kate following an official engagement to a London nursery for Kate’s continuing work on improving the early years for children, but they got on so well the talk ran to over half an hour. “I didn’t expect any of it, I’ve never heard her speak so openly before,” Fletcher said about the interview.
That’s something of an understatement. This is the most revealing interview Kate has ever done, and those who know her say it’s the Kate they know: friendly, self-deprecating, and funny.
The public has of course heard Kate speak before. There have been many (sometimes stiff) public speeches and, somewhat amazingly given she has been in the spotlight as a royal for nearly a decade, only one interview (to CNN during the Cambridges’ tour of Pakistan) . For the most part Kate has deliberately remained in the background, but now she is emerging center stage.
In what has been an unusually busy start to the royal calendar Kate has taken on more engagements than ever as she focuses on her work on behalf of young children. She agreed to sit down with Giovanna for the podcast to promote her nationwide survey 5 Big Questions, which has so far drawn more than 200,000 responses, making it the biggest of its kind. Kate used the interview to talk about subjects that until now have been deeply private and in doing so she has made herself more relatable than ever.
In an admission that will resonate with every mother she admits to suffering mother’s guilt and describes how she is happiest when she is out getting “filthy dirty” in the countryside with her family. The admission about mum guilt is perhaps the most startling of all—Kate has a reputation for never putting a foot wrong in public, and many may be surprised that she still felt guilty when she had to leave her nanny to do the school run so that she could carry out a work engagement earlier this month. Asked if she ever feels guilt about not spending enough time with her children she responded, “Yes absolutely—and anyone who doesn’t as a mother is actually lying! Yep—all the time, yep. And you know even this morning, coming to the nursery visit here—George and Charlotte were like ‘Mummy how could you possibly not be dropping us off at school this morning?’ But no it’s a constant challenge—you hear it time and time again from mums, even mums who aren’t necessarily working and aren’t pulled in the directions of having to juggle work life and family life… and always sort of questioning your own decisions and your own judgements and things like that, and I think that starts from the moment you have a baby!”