The Duchess of Cambridge shares how "isolated" motherhood left her
The Duchess of Cambridge has candidly revealed how "isolated" she felt following the birth of her first child, Prince George. When now-six-year-old George was first born, William and Kate were living in Anglesey, where William was working as an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter pilot.
Yesterday, during a visit to a children's centre in Cardiff, the mum-of-three spoke for the first time about how hard she found new motherhood at first.
Speaking to staff at the Ely and Caerau Children's Centre, the duchess recalled conversations she'd had with some of the other mothers that day. "I was chatting to some of the mums earlier," said Kate. "It was the first year and I'd just had George – William was still working with Search and Rescue - and we came up here and I had a tiny tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey."
She continued: "It was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have any family around and [William] was doing night shifts. So many families now are so spread out. It's much harder to rely on other generations for support."
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge lived in Anglesey, an island off the northwest coast of Wales, from 2010 to 2013. Prince George was born in July 2013, and some months later the family relocated to Anmer Hall in Norfolk after William transferred to the East Anglia Air Ambulance.
They remained in Norfolk to have Princess Charlotte in 2015, and Prince George later attended a nursery in the local area. In 2017, however, the family moved to Kensington Palace in London so that Prince George could attend school in the capital, and to facilitate William and Kate's increased royal workload.
While the duchess didn't experience postnatal depression, she's aware of how feelings of isolation can fuel this for new mums. One woman Kate spoke to on her visit described how the children's centre served as a real support when she was going through a very low point.
Recalling her conversation with the royal, 29-year-old mother Rhi told reporters: "We talked about post-natal depression and how hard it is to have a kid and how important centres like this are.
"I would have been in such a dark place without it. It’s lovely to see her in a place like Ely. It’s such a deprived area and there have been so many funding cuts. Sometimes you are scared to walk the streets, but coming here you feel safe."
Like this article? Sign up to our new newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.
You Might Also Like
