David’s horror when I thought about giving up work to look after the children, by Sam Cam
SAMANTHA Cameron has said her husband David looked ‘horrified’ when she said she might give up work to raise their children.
In a revealing interview, Mrs Cameron told how the former prime minister has always supported her career and they are ‘good at operating as a team’.
The 47-year-old founder of fashion label Cefinn has also opened up about the trials of living at No.10 and how it was ‘lovely’ to move out after six years.
Mrs Cameron said: ‘I think I always worked all the way through our relationship. There were moments obviously when I first had children where I would go, “Oh darling, I think I might give up work” and he looked very horrified because he thought I would become someone, not the person that he knew and was used to.
‘I’m lucky that I have a husband who is very supportive of my career, whatever form it takes, and likes the fact that I work.’
The fashion designer said juggling being a mother and having a career is made easier by Mr Cameron, 51, who does his fair share around the house.
In an interview with podcast It’s a Grown Up Life, aimed at women in midlife, Mrs Cameron said: ‘The other thing where I’m really lucky with Dave is that we’re very good at operating as a team.
‘You shouldn’t have to row about who’s getting up to look after the kids that day or who’s doing the washing up. It’s that acknowledgement that I’ve just cooked supper so you’ll do the washing up. I went to the last parents’ evening so you go to the next one.
‘I think I’m lucky that I have a husband who is quite aware of doing his fair share of everything that goes on at home whether that’s childcare or housework.
‘I mean he’s really messy, it tends to go that he does all the cooking and shopping.
‘He’s a very enthusiastic cook and I do the tidying and then we share the childcare equally between us. It’s recognising that
‘He’s a very enthusiastic cook’
we’re a team that’s quite evenly split.’ Mrs Cameron said life in Downing Street was ‘happy’ but it was ‘lovely’ to move back home after six years in the public eye.
Her husband announced he was to step down as prime minster in June 2016, the day after the UK voted to leave the EU. The politician and his family left No.10 the following month.
‘When we did move [back] home, it happened very quickly which I think is quite a good thing,’ Mrs Cameron said.
‘I was told on the Monday that we were moving out, it was just after Andrea Leadsom had stood down from the Tory leadership campaign, and we thought we wouldn’t move out until September and this was in July and Dave rang me. It was a really busy week at work and he rang me on the Monday afternoon and he said “darling, we’re moving out on Wednesday.”
‘Moving back home was lovely. I think the children, particularly the older ones, were beginning to feel the strain of having a parent who obviously everybody knows who they are and they have a huge responsibility to people’s lives and the country so for them, that eased the pressure as they were heading into being teenagers.’
Mrs Cameron, who loves running and yoga, said ‘being fit’ gives her ‘stamina’ but she revealed she is a ‘terrible cigarette addict’.
When asked about her most important piece of advice, she said: ‘Don’t start smoking cigarettes, that’s what I say to my daughter the whole time.
‘I’m afraid I’m a terrible cigarette addict.
‘I don’t smoke 90 per cent of the time and then I have little phases when I do and I think why did I start? It’s just terrible.’