She wants women to know that they shouldn’t face this “huge challenge” alone. We’ve gotten so used to Kate Middleton’s flawless image (mostly driven by her hair, let’s be real) that it can be easy to forget she’s a real human, with real challenges. That’s why we love how she’s opening up in a new speech about the real AF challenges of motherhood.
This week, The Duchess gave a speech at a Best Beginnings event (a UK-based organization that focuses on child healthcare), to raise awareness of maternal mental health challenges—something not even princesses are immune to. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Watch The Duchess of Cambridge speak at the launch of the @BestBeginnings ‘Out of the Blue’ film series, with @Heads_Together pic.twitter.com/1mMupReocK — The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 23, 2017.
“Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience. However, at times it has also been a huge challenge,” she said. “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.”
She discussed how oftentimes moms are afraid to ask for help due to pressure to be perfect. “It is right to talk about motherhood as a wonderful thing,” she said, “but we also need to talk about its stresses and strains. It’s okay not to find it easy, and asking for help should not be seen as a sign of weakness.” Her speech is part of a bigger initiative from the Royal Family to de-stigmatize mental health. Along with Prince William and Prince Harry, Kate founded Heads Together, a charity which aims to solve social challenges by bringing awareness to mental illness.
“If any of us caught a fever during pregnancy, we would seek advice and support from a doctor. Getting help with our mental health is no different,” she said in her speech. “Our children need us to look after ourselves and get the support we need.”
This isn’t the first time the royal couple has opened up about the real challenges of parenting. In a candid interview with Talk Vietnam during his trip to the country in 2016, Prince William said fatherhood could sometimes be a struggle. “As the other parents in the room will testify, there’s wonderful highs and there’s wonderful lows. It’s been quite a change for me, personally,” he said. “I’ve struggled at times, the alteration from being a single, independent man to going into marriage and then having children is life-changing.”
Kate Middleton Underwent an Emergency Operation in High School
Kate Middleton might be the future Queen of England, but she’s not a drama queen. Is there an opposite of drama queen? Like, as in, someone who weirdly downplays objectively dramatic life events? Because Kate might actually be that instead.
Case in point: When Kate was in high school, she had a major health scare, followed by an emergency operation and throughout the whole ordeal was like, “Meh, NBD.” In her book Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl relays the story, which is just terrifying. Apparently, during Kate’s time at Marlborough, she discovered a lump on the left side of her head. The school called Kate’s mom, who promptly took her to the doctor. That doctor ordered an emergency operation to remove the lump.
“I can remember the incident and her having an operation,” Ann Patching, who worked at Marlborough for years, told Nicholl. “I don’t recall anything happening on the hockey pitch [field] that had anything to do with the lump. Catherine had the operation during her term time. She was back at school very soon afterwards. As usual, nothing was too much of a big deal for her. You could never accuse Catherine of being a drama queen, but Carole was very worried, as any mother would be.”
The evidence of Kate’s emergency operation is still around today, in the form of a scar on her hairline that you can still spot in pictures of the Duchess.
“Privately, she and William—who uncannily also bears a scar on his head from being struck by a golf club at age nine—are said to refer to their wounds as their ‘Harry Potter scars,'” Nicholl wrote.
Just another thing Will and Kate have in common.
