ROYAL MUMS
BIRTHDAYS, ZOOM CALLS AND BACKLASH: HOW MEGHAN AND KATE HANDLE HOME LIFE IN THE HOT SEAT
Highnesses at home
It’s been a huge year already for the royals, and now, as the Sussexes and Cambridges navigate life in lockdown, the families are under more scrutiny than ever before. Unsurprisingly, this has meant a ramping up of the comparisons between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton – and with both mums sharing their parenting experiences during the global pandemic, it seems the differences between them are becoming more obvious by the day.
Most recently for the Duchess of Sussex and her husband, Prince Harry, a low-key celebration of their son Archie’s 1st birthday on May 6 was on the cards. Holed up inside their rented Los Angeles mansion amid the ongoing social isolation guidelines, the trio enjoyed a smash cake and connected with family and friends with Zoom calls, a source tells WHO’s sister publication, People. But it wasn’t long before the couple were courting controversy yet again, after sharing a new video of Meghan reading Archie one of his favourite books, Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.
The duchess reads animatedly as a squirmy Archie smiles, gurgles and helps flip the pages. But critics slammed the footage, which was posted on Save the Children’s #SaveWithStories account to support a charity initiative created by actresses Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams in March.
Author Emily Giffin, in particular, had harsh words for the former Suits actress, sharing text message screenshots in which she called Meghan “unmaternal”, saying the video was “uncomfortable to watch” and adding, “she’s such a phony”. The author also posted a screenshot of a comment she made on her Instagram Story. “Adorable child and book. But ... Holy ‘me first.’ This is the Megan show,” she wrote, misspelling the duchess’ name. “Why didn’t she film and let Harry read?... also, you want privacy for your child, so you put out a video of him … wearing no pants?! Ooookay.”
After copping backlash herself, the author wrote: “I post dozens of IG stories a day in a very honest, unfiltered way … I can see how some of my posts may have felt mean-spirited … And I am truly sorry for that negative impact.”
Actress Garner, however, thanked the couple for raising awareness of the initiative, which aims to feed and educate children impacted by the global pandemic. “Watching you lovingly talk through the pictures while your clever Archie turns the pages lifts all of us up and reminds us that what may seem like a duck just might turn out to be a rabbit,” she wrote. “Thank you for this joyful and meaningful shift in perspective.”
Meanwhile, across the pond, William and Kate have also taken to sharing snippets of their lives at home, including posting a birthday shout-out to their nephew. “Wishing Archie a very happy first birthday today!” they captioned a family photo from Archie’s christening in July 2019 to celebrate, hinting that any hard feelings among the rest of the family over Harry and Meghan’s departure may have softened. Keeping connected has become a priority for the Cambridges, who are self-isolating with George, 6, Charlotte, 5, and Louis, 2 at
“We try and check in with family”
– KATE
their country home in Norfolk. “We hadn’t done a huge amount of FaceTime and face calls and things like that, but obviously we’re doing that a lot more now and actually it’s been really great,” Kate shared in an interview with UK TV’s This Morning on May 7. “We try and check in daily with family members and speak to them about news and things like that. In some ways, I suppose we’ve got a lot more contact and a lot more face time than perhaps we would’ve done before.”
Kate and William also seem to be allowing a less-filtered glimpse into their family life behind closed doors. “We’re stuck into home-schooling again,” said the mum of three. “George gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlotte’s projects. Spider sandwiches are far cooler than literacy work!”
Launching a new community photography project, a down-to-earth Kate also revealed some behind-the-scenes realness of what it took to capture the second birthday portrait of Prince Louis last month making rainbowcoloured paintings in support of National Health Service (NHS) workers. “I should’ve taken a photograph of what I looked like after as well!” she laughed. “Luckily, that wasn’t documented, but I was pretty much … I looked like Louis at the end of those.”