I felt isolated when I had my first baby, says Duchess

Kate pays return visit to Wales to meet mothers at children’s centre

THE Duchess of Cambridge said she felt “isolated” as a first-time mother when Prince William was working night shifts.

In a rare moment of candour, the mother-of-three admitted that she found life difficult when Prince George was a “tiny baby”.

At the time the couple lived on Anglesey, where the Duke of Cambridge worked as an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter pilot.

Speaking to staff at Ely and Caerau Children’s Centre, Cardiff, the Duchess, 38, said: “It’s nice to be back in Wales. William was still working with Search and Rescue and we came here and I had a tiny, tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey – it was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have any family around and he was doing night shifts. If only I had had a centre like this.”

As the Duchess crouched down to play with 11-month old Eleanor Logue, her mother Rhi, 29, explained how she had been supported by other parents.

“You can come here and tell people, ‘I haven’t slept’,” said Ms Logue.

The Duchess interjected: “…and everyone else is like, ‘I haven’t either!’ It normalises it. No one is going to judge you for it.”

She added: “So many families now are so spread out – it’s much harder to rely on other generations for support.” Her visit came as part of a 24-hour tour to launch a survey on early childhood, raising awareness of the “Five Big Questions on the Under Fives”, a study by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Royal Foundation.

Stopping to see two resident guinea pigs in a wooden hut, she confided in the children: “I had guinea pigs when I was little.”

She was then presented with flowers and a drawing of herself by four-year-old Erin Jones, who hesitated when prompted to hand them over.

“Are you shy?” asked Naomi Asante Chambers, a senior teaching assistant. “Don’t worry, I am too,” the Duchess told the little girl. Carolyn Asante, head of the

‘ I didn’t have any family around … if only I had had a centre like this’

centre, said later: “It’s lovely to have someone who understands children and child development.”

The Duchess also visited Send Prison, Surrey, a closed category women’s prison, and met inmates who could trace their history of offending and addiction back to troubled childhoods, including domestic violence, absent parents, drug and alcohol abuse.

One prisoner, Francesca, told the Duchess that the jail’s 12-step drug treatment programme had changed her life: “Coming to jail is one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” she told her. The Duchess replied: “I hear that so often. Why does it have to get to that point before people receive help and support?”