Star Keira lays bare reality of giving birth
Keira Knightley has revealed her experience of giving birth in searing detail. The actress contrasted her experience of childbirth with the apparently more camera-friendly experience of other celebrity mums. She described in graphic detail the difficult birth of her daughter Edie in May 2015 and the impact it had on her. She compared her experience with Kate Middleton’s, who gave birth to Princess Charlotte, the next day. In an essay for Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies), Knightley, 33, wrote: “[Kate Middleton] was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on. The face the world wants to see.” The Pirates of the Caribbean star criticised the burden on mums in the spotlight to look cameraready after labour and said: “Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging. Look beautiful. Look stylish. “Seven hours after your fight with life and death. Don’t show. Don’t tell. Stand there with your girl and be shot by a pack of male photographers.” Knightley wrote about the double standards she has seen applied to male and female actors who are parents, and the dismissive attitude towards her by male colleagues. She said: “I turn up on time, word perfect, with ideas and an opinion. I am up with Edie all night if needed. Sometimes I cry I’m so tired. My male colleagues can be late, cannot know their lines. They can shout and scream and throw things. They can turn up drunk or not turn up at all. They don’t see their children. They’re working. They need to concentrate. “I work with men. They worry I don’t like them. It drives them mad. They belittle me, they try not to listen to me, they don’t want to hear my opinion.”