Foy: Women are judged if they don’t have children
THE Crown star Claire Foy has complained that women are ‘judged’ if they do not have children – but face incredible difficulty returning to work if they do start a family.
The 33-year- old actress, who plays the Queen in the hit Netflix drama, said she had insisted on having her baby daughter on set while filming so that she could breastfeed her between takes.
‘When a woman gets to childbearing age, she has to disappear or not have children and then be judged – it’s really weird. Women find it incredibly difficult to go back to work after children,’ she said. ‘It’s not encouraged, especially in the UK. It’s just not the norm.’
Miss Foy auditioned for The Crown when she was five months pregnant. Filming started four months after she gave birth, and she brought Ivy Rose – now two – on to set to breastfeed.
The actress admitted she was ‘very fortunate [the production] supported me in doing that’. But Miss Foy – who recently separated from her husband of three years, Stephen Campbell Moore – said juggling her flourishing career with motherhood had been ‘physically quite hard’.
She told Sunday Times Culture: ‘I’ve had to take care of myself, after a baby and working those hours, then feeling bad about working, so waking up early to see my child.
‘Just being a mess in every single place I was in. But everything is hard. Everything is a challenge. You have a really amazing day, then an “armpit of the world” day, but the next [day], you know, you’re still here.’