For pity’s sake, leave Kate alone
AMANDA PLATELL’S plea to the cruel web critics pillorying her weight loss
could spend time with Kate’s mum, Carole — something that’s provoked cruel comments by the whisperers.
But then who doesn’t need their mum for advice and support with two young children to care for?
No matter how much help you have access to, being a mother of two young children is remorseless — and, according to his dad, George is a ‘handful’, a boisterous child who needs lots of nurturing. Add the stress of having a five-month-old daughter and you can see why Kate almost instantly lost her baby weight.
Surely no one really thinks that she went on a Victoria Beckham baby diet to be stick thin just weeks after her child was born.
But, then again, just imagine what the whisperers would be saying if she’d developed a baby paunch. The trolls would be out in force.
So, if she was intent on shedding the baby weight as quickly as humanly possible, could we really blame her?
Surely only those blessed with unshakeable self-confidence can say they would be happy to be photographed in broad daylight from every conceivable angle days, weeks, months after giving birth without trying to appear a little slimmer.
What new mum, when not juggling sleeplessness and the constant demands of feeding, doesn’t feel the pangs of longing for her pre - pregnancy body?
And remember, Kate doesn’t have the advantages of being trained for royal duties from an early age. She’s had to learn it all from scratch and, quite frankly, she hasn’t put a foot wrong since she became engaged to William five years ago.
Ah, William ... Unlike his younger brother, who seems to take his royal role in his stride and actually enjoys the good he can do for his various causes, William appears begrudging and uncomfortable in his role.
It is said he never got over the death of his mother when he was just 15.
Unlike his father, he is said not to be jealous of his wife’s celebrity status. But, like his father, he appears conflicted and uneasy over his royal role.
And it can’t have helped, noticing over the breakfast table in Anmer Hall yesterday, that his wife was on the front cover of most newspapers and leading TV bulletins while he was hardly pictured or mentioned at all.
But even then Kate can’t win. For the whisperers attack her for attending just 25 public engagements in 2015 and only nine since Charlotte’s birth, including two appearances at the World Cup rugby.
While Kate did 34 official engagements in her first year married to William, Diana was out 170 times as the new wife of Prince Charles.
In 1991 she performed 397 royal duties, not including her tireless behind- the- scenes work for the homeless and HIV sufferers.
But, then again, look where that got Princess Diana. Burnt out, bulimic, emotionally unstable, chasing unsuitable suitors and craving the limelight. It was a recipe for tragedy.
William is right to protect Kate and his children, to give them time to grow up as much like a normal family as they possibly can. If I were Carole Middleton, I’d be round at Anmer Hall every night with a delicious homecooked shepherd’s pie — and I’d stand over her to make sure she ate every last mouthful of it.
But I would also fire a volley at my daughter’s whispering detractors and ask them if they could really do better than the young woman who has the most difficult job in the world.
Kate hasn’t put a foot wrong but she just can’t win