...AND HER OTHER REVELATIONS THAT HAVE RAISED EYEBROWS
ON THE BIRTH OF HER DAUGHTER MIA
WHEN her firstborn Mia arrived in October 2000, Kate released a statement which noted that she was ‘born naturally and without complications’.
Four years later she told a magazine: ‘I’ve never talked about this — I’ve gone to great pains to cover it up. But Mia was an emergency C-section.
‘I just said that I had a natural birth because I was so completely traumatised by the fact that I hadn’t given birth. ‘I felt like a complete failure.’ She only came out with the truth after having second child Joe naturally. ‘Fourteen hours with no drugs at all, but then I had to have an epidural because I was so tired. It was an incredible birth. Really triumphant.’
ON BEING CALLED ‘FAT’ WHILE AT SCHOOL
KATE has repeatedly said she was fat — and, crucially, teased for it — in her school years. Nicknamed Blubber, she says she was 13st at 15 years old, proclaiming in 2009: ‘I was bullied for being chubby. Where are they now!
‘I suffered from “No one will ever fancy me!” syndrome, well into my teens. Even now I do not consider myself to be some kind of great, sexy beauty. Absolutely not.’
Though Kate has not named the school where the name-calling went on, June Rose, the principal of Kate’s drama school Redroofs, who is now retired, said: ‘I’ve read a lot about her being overweight as a child.
‘But ask any teenager and they’ll tell you they’re fat — they always see themselves differently to everyone else. Kate was a perfectly normal, healthy schoolgirl. She may have had a bit of puppy fat, but nothing abnormal.
‘Children sometimes call each other things, but Kate was never fat.’ Yet it’s not just pupils who Kate accuses of commenting on her weight — which was clearly something she felt self-conscious about, regardless of how she appeared to others.
In 2016, after winning a Bafta for The Reader, she said: ‘When I was 14, I was told by a drama teacher that I might do OK if I was happy to settle for the fat girl parts.’
Teachers at Redroofs instantly said they never made any such remarks, and her publicist later said: ‘I can now clarify that this did not happen at Redroofs Theatre School. It occurred during an independent drama workshop over a summer in London.’
ON HER PICTURES BEING AIRBRUSHED
SHE spoke out about airbrushing in 2009, saying: ‘I have wrinkles which are very evident. I will particularly say when I look at movie posters, “You guys have airbrushed my forehead. Please can you change it back?”’ She complained when GQ digitally tampered with a cover image of her to make her more slender and leggy in 2003. ‘I do not look like that, and more importantly, I don’t desire to look like that,’ she said.
Yet in a set of adverts for Lancome, shot by Mario Testino in 2011, she looked as wrinkle-free as a teenager — despite being 35 at the time.
ON BEING BULLIED AND LOCKED IN A CUPBOARD
KATE has said repeatedly she was ‘ostracised’ and ‘bullied’ at school — even being locked in a cupboard once.
She has often recalled bumping into one of the ‘mean girls’ from school who worked on a make-up counter, and thanking her for being such a b***h — because it made her stronger. It is not clear to which school she is referring to in these anecdotes.
June Rose, of Redroofs, said: ‘I read that she was bullied and the other children locked her in a cupboard, but if that did happen, it certainly wasn’t here.
‘The fact she was head girl says all you need to know about her character and how highly she was regarded.’
Another Redroofs teacher, Carolyn Keston, said: ‘We’ve never witnessed or heard of any bullying. Certainly nothing was ever relayed to us.’ Kate, however, insists it did happen. ‘I chose not to bring it to the attention of the whole school at the time; as is often the case in these circumstances, people being bullied can be apprehensive about speaking out.
‘Instead I sought the counsel of one trusted teacher who guided me through this situation in the most kind, discreet and supportive way.’