keeping up with the royals

Kate Middleton Speaks Out About the Pressures of Motherhood

Kate Middleton.
Kate Middleton. Photo: Neil Mockford/GC Images

Kate Middleton may be a duchess, but her privilege doesn’t mean she’s entirely immune to the universal struggles of motherhood. As she’s done in the past, the mum to three young children — Prince George, 5, Princess Charlotte, 3, and Prince Louis, 8 months — spoke out about how difficult being a mother can be at an event on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old duchess, clad in a chic green dress by Beulah London, stopped by the Family Action headquarters on Tuesday to help launch its new FamilyLine hotline service, which is designed to provide support to parents in need. Kate has a full-time nanny and a large (and close-knit) family, so it’d be unfair to suggest that she experiences the same level of difficulties as, say, parents facing financial issues or who have to raise children on their own. Still, she opened up about some of the motherhood difficulties she’s faced, per the Daily Mail:

“It’s so hard. 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.”

Working with her Heads Together charity — through which she, Prince William, and Prince Harry have advocated to erase the stigma of talking about mental health — Kate has already spoken out about the challenges of motherhood. In a 2017 speech, she advocated for mothers to speak out about their mental health needs after giving birth.

“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,” Kate said during her 2017 speech. She added at the time, “For many mothers, myself included, this can at times lead to a lack of confidence and feelings of ignorance.” The duchess also stated during that speech that many mothers end up suffering in silence, and they owe it to themselves and their children to get the help they need.

Kate Middleton Speaks Out About the Pressures of Motherhood