Beyond candid! Princess Kate and Prince William have opened up about their parenthood journey on multiple occasions while raising Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — and the royals haven’t held back.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed in April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Kate announced in December of the following year that she was pregnant with their first child.
George arrived in July 2013, followed by Charlotte and Louis in May 2015 and April 2018, respectively. The duke and duchess have since taken a “modern approach” to bringing up their little ones.
“The royals are renowned for being ‘stiff upper lip,’ but William and Kate … are moving away from that mentality,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2021. “Open communication is key for them. … [But they] set boundaries and have rules in place.”
The couple’s goal is for the three siblings “to express their emotions and ask questions to enable them to grow up as healthy adults,” the insider added at the time.
Kate has “always” planned to welcome a fourth child, another source told Us in February 2021, noting that she and William were “trying” to conceive baby No. 4.
“She put the idea on hold when [the coronavirus pandemic] hit, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine … and she feels ready to start trying again,” the insider explained at the time. “It took a while for Kate to convince William, though. He said that three children [are] more than enough. The thought of having four made him feel overwhelmed. … But Kate’s desires to have another child have inspired him, and at the end of the day, he loves and appreciates the secure family setting he never had growing up. Why not make it bigger? After taking some time to think about it, he’s on the same page and is excited about the future.”
Queen Elizabeth II would be “overjoyed” by this, with the source telling Us, “She adores her great-grandchildren. She’s slightly concerned that the Cambridges are biting off more than they can chew, especially as Kate isn’t planning to employ another nanny (as she wants to be hands-on), but as long as they’re happy, she’s happy.”
Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton, welcomed her second child, Grace, that same year, which made the future queen consort feel “broody” and more aware that her “clock [was] ticking.”
Since Kate and Pippa have maintained a close bond, the elder sibling hoped to give her own daughter “the same enjoyable experience … grow[ing] up with a little sister to confide in and look out for.”
Scroll through to see Kate and William’s most memorable quotes about raising kids:
Beyond candid! Princess Kate and Prince William have opened up about their parenthood journey on multiple occasions while raising Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — and the royals haven’t held back.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed in April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Kate announced in December of the following year that she was pregnant with their first child.
George arrived in July 2013, followed by Charlotte and Louis in May 2015 and April 2018, respectively. The duke and duchess have since taken a “modern approach” to bringing up their little ones.
“The royals are renowned for being ‘stiff upper lip,’ but William and Kate … are moving away from that mentality,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2021. “Open communication is key for them. … [But they] set boundaries and have rules in place.”
The couple’s goal is for the three siblings “to express their emotions and ask questions to enable them to grow up as healthy adults,” the insider added at the time.
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Kate has “always” planned to welcome a fourth child, another source told Us in February 2021, noting that she and William were “trying” to conceive baby No. 4.
“She put the idea on hold when [the coronavirus pandemic] hit, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine … and she feels ready to start trying again,” the insider explained at the time. “It took a while for Kate to convince William, though. He said that three children [are] more than enough. The thought of having four made him feel overwhelmed. … But Kate’s desires to have another child have inspired him, and at the end of the day, he loves and appreciates the secure family setting he never had growing up. Why not make it bigger? After taking some time to think about it, he’s on the same page and is excited about the future.”
Queen Elizabeth II would be “overjoyed” by this, with the source telling Us, “She adores her great-grandchildren. She’s slightly concerned that the Cambridges are biting off more than they can chew, especially as Kate isn’t planning to employ another nanny (as she wants to be hands-on), but as long as they’re happy, she’s happy.”
Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton, welcomed her second child, Grace, that same year, which made the future queen consort feel “broody” and more aware that her “clock [was] ticking.”
Since Kate and Pippa have maintained a close bond, the elder sibling hoped to give her own daughter “the same enjoyable experience … grow[ing] up with a little sister to confide in and look out for.”
Scroll through to see Kate and William’s most memorable quotes about raising kids:
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Baby George
William joked about a then 9-month-old George to New Zealand’s governor’s residence hosts in April 2014: “I hope that George doesn’t keep you up. He has been known to be particularly vocal at 3 a.m. … I swear I heard him doing the haka this morning.”
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Mother Knows Best
The Duchess wrote about raising George and Charlotte to be open about their feelings for the Huffington Post UK in February 2016: “We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings, and to give them the tools and sensitivity to be supportive peers to their friends as they get older. We know there is no shame in a young child struggling with their emotions or suffering from a mental illness.”
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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
“It’s been quite a change for me personally. I’m very lucky in the support I have from Catherine, she’s an amazing mother and a fantastic wife,” William added on Talk Vietnam in November 2016. “I’ve struggled at times. The alteration from being a single, independent man to going into marriage and then having children is life-changing.”
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Little Rascal
“Having a daughter is a very different dynamic. So I’m learning … [George is] a right little rascal sometimes. He keeps me on my toes, but he’s a sweet boy,” William explained on Vietnamese talk show Talk Vietnam in November 2016.
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Learning From the Best
“My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect, and honesty, and I realize how central values like these have been to me throughout my life. That is why William and I want to teach our little children, George and Charlotte, just how important these things are as they grow up,” the mum explained during a visit to Mitchell Brook Primary School in February 2017. “In my view it is just as important as excelling at maths or sport.”
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Balancing It All
“Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience,” Kate said during her speech the Best Beginnings charity’s film launch in March 2017. “However, at times it has also been a huge challenge. Even for me, who has support at home that most mothers do not.”
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Real Talk
“It is lonely at times and you do feel quite isolated,” the Duchess revealed at the Global Academy round table discussion in April 2017. “But actually so many other mothers are going through what you are going through, but it’s being brave enough to actually reach out.”
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Got Your Back
The Duchess of Cambridge emphasized how important it is for people to support mothers during her Best Beginnings speech: “Mothers take on an overwhelming responsibility of caring for their families. Their role is vital in providing unconditional love, care, and support at home, particularly in the early years of a child’s development. We therefore should do everything we can to support and value their hard work.”
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Open and Honest
“Catherine and I are clear that we want both George and Charlotte to grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions and feelings,” William said during an interview with CALMzine in April 2017. “Over the past year we have visited a number of schools together where we have been amazed listening to children talk about some quite difficult subjects in a clear and emotionally articulate way, something most adults would struggle with.”
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Family of Three
“Our third child is due in April, I’m getting as much sleep as I can,” William told guests at the Centrepoint Awards at Kensington Palace in February 2018. “Two is fine — I don’t know how I’m going to cope with three. I’m going to be permanently tired.”
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Pizza Party
“I’ve done that with George and Charlotte – making pizza dough. They love it because they can get their hands messy,” Kate revealed, according to Hello! Magazine, in March 2018.
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George’s Tractor Obsession
William noted George’s fixation with tractors during a TV documentary in October 2019. “I should have brought George today,” he told a farmer working in the royal family’s Duchy of Cornwall. “He would be absolutely loving this. … He’s obsessed.”
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Cooking With the Kids
In a December 2019 BBC special, Kate revealed to Mary Berry that she cooks with her kids. “I really enjoy it,” she told the former Great British Bake Off judge. “Actually, one of the last things we cooked together was your pizza dough. We made pizzas with your pizza dough recipe. … They loved it. Absolutely loved it.”
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Midnight Cake Baking
Kate also told Berry about her habit of making cakes for her kids’ birthdays. “It’s become a bit of a tradition that I stay up until midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing, and I make far too much,” she said. “But I love it.”
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An ‘Utterly Extraordinary’ Experience
Kate gushed over her first childbirth on a February 2020 episode of the “Happy Mum, Happy Baby” podcast, saying it was “amazing” to hold George in her arms for the first time. “It is extraordinary, as I’ve said,” she raved. “How can the human body do that? It is utterly extraordinary, actually. … And he was very sweet. And I was also sort of relieved that he was a happy, healthy boy.”
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Car Seat Practice
The Berkshire native revealed on the podcast that she and William practiced using a car seat with a doll before George’s public debut outside St. Mary’s Hospital in London in 2013. “We were like, ‘What do we do [with the baby] in a swaddle? How’s this supposed to work?’ We’d even tried to practice with … a little doll at home, but you know, it just never works out the way you planned it, so it was quite hard to do that on the world’s stage. But no, [William] did a very good job.”
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Motherly Moments
“Someone did ask me the other day, what would you want your children to remember about their childhood?” Kate added during the podcast. “And I thought that was a really good question, because actually if you really think about that, is it that I’m sitting down trying to do their math and spelling homework over the weekend? Or is it the fact that we’ve gone out and lit a bonfire and sat around trying to cook sausages that hasn’t worked because it’s too wet? That’s what I would want them to remember, those moments with me as a mother, but also the family going to the beach, getting soaking wet, filling our boots full of water, those are what I would want them to remember. Not a stressful household where you’re trying to do everything and not really succeeding at one thing.”
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Mom Guilt
The duchess told podcast host Giovanna Fletcher that she “absolutely” struggles with feelings of guilt when she has to leave her children. “And anyone who doesn’t as a mother is actually lying!” she said. “Yep, all the time. You know, even this morning … George and Charlotte were like, ‘Mummy, how could you possibly not be dropping us off at school this morning?’”
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Quarantine Crew
“Don’t tell the children but we’ve actually kept it going through the holidays,” the Duchess of Cambridge told the BBC of homeschooling her kids during the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. “I feel very mean.”
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Tough Times
“It’s hard to explain to a 5 and nearly 5 or 7-year-old what’s going on,” the Duchess of Cambridge told ITV’s This Morning in May 2020 of helping George and Charlotte understand the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s really hard. We hadn’t done a huge amount of FaceTime and face calls and things like that, but obviously we’re doing that a lot more now.”
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So Much Singing
“The school has sent all the children a challenge, and they’re currently learning the lyrics to the song ‘We’ll Meet Again,’” Kate told Mais House Care Home residents in May 2020. “It’s been really lovely having that playing every day.”
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Dinner Debacle
“If parents put something on children love, dinnertime goes on very well,” William said while speaking to Peek Project in May 2020. “But if you put something on the table they don’t want to do, that’s another ball game.”
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Honesty Hour
“Children coming along, it’s one of the most amazing moments of life but it’s also one of the scariest,” William revealed in May 2020 in the documentary Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health.
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Sugar High
“The children have been attacking the kitchen and it’s just been an explosion of flour and chocolate everywhere,” William said during a bakery visit in June 2020.
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Homeschool Hazard
“Homeschooling is fun, isn’t it?” William joked to a group of parents over Zoom while discussing his new BBC documentary, Football, Prince William and Mental Health, amid the coronavirus pandemic. “You start to worry about how little you remember from your school days when you can’t do the maths questions at home. … The challenges of lockdown!”
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Flower Power
“The children are really enjoying growing their sunflowers,” the Duchess of Cambridge, 38, said while visiting Norfolk, England, in June 2020. “Louis is winning, so George is a little grumpy about that!”
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Happy With Hugs
“Louis doesn’t understand social distancing,” Kate said during a July 2020 BBC Breakfast appearance. “He goes out wanting to cuddle anything, particularly any babies younger than him.”
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Dancing Queen
“Charlotte can floss,” William revealed in October 2020, referencing the popular dance. “Catherine can floss, but I can’t. It’s, like, a really horrible film to watch me floss.”
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Soccer Star
“I reckon he could be [Aston Villa’s] all-time leading goal scorer,” William said of George during a July 2020 “That Peter Crouch Podcast” episode. “I can see no reason why not. It would be brilliant.”
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Evenly Matched
George and Charlotte are “about as cheeky as each other,” which is “very cheeky,” William joked in Prince William: A Planet for Us All in January 2021.
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Animal Lover
George got “so sad” watching a documentary about extinction that William had to turn it off. “He said to me, ‘You know, I don’t want to watch this anymore,'” the Duke of Cambridge explained in October 2020. “He asked, ‘Why has it come to this?’ He’s 7 years old, and he’s asking me these questions already. He really feels it, and I think every 7-year-old out there can relate to that.”
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Snip, Snip
Kate said in January 2021 that she became a hairdresser during the pandemic, “much to [her] children’s horror.”
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Sweet 16
After Charlotte turned 6 in May 2021, she began telling people she was 16, William revealed during a royal outing. “Charlotte says, ‘I’m 6 now, I’ll do what I want,’” he said. “They grow up very fast.”
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Fast and Furious
“Louis has gotten so big now — he’s very quick running around,” Kate said in a May 2021 YouTube video. “And he’s on his little scooter as well. He’s very quick. I can’t keep up with him!”
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Back Off
Kate’s kids sometimes tell her to “please stop” when she pulls her camera out, the duchess said in a June 2021 video.
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Just Jealous
William said that George would be “so upset” as he held a python at Kidz Farm in September 2021, adding, “The children are not going to believe I did this.”
Kate noted that their kids acquired “lots of chickens” during lockdown.
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Making Change Happen
While discussing the significant climate crisis, William detailed how his son George has gotten involved in helping the environment.
“George at school recently has been doing litter picking,” the royal explained during the “BBC Newscast” podcast in October 2021. “And I didn’t realize, but talking to him the other day, he was already showing that he was getting a bit confused and a bit annoyed by the fact that they went out litter picking one day and then the very next day they did the same route, same time, and pretty much all the same litter they picked up was back again.”
William explained that George struggled with the idea of his hard work going to waste, adding, “I think for him he was trying to understand how [and] where it came from. He couldn’t understand things like when we clean this, why has it not gone away?”
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Strong Belief
“I think if you talk my daughter, she’d say they were real,” William said of unicorns during an October 2021 Instagram Story Q&A session. “Obviously, it’s a trade secret, so I can’t possibly comment.”
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Lyric Lovers
“Most mornings there’s a massive fight between Charlotte and George as to what song is played in the morning,” William said on Time to Walk in December 2021. “And I have to, now, basically prioritize that one day someone does this one, and another day it’s someone else’s turn. So George gets his go, then Charlotte gets her go. Such is the, the clamor for the music. … There’s a lot of hip movements going along. There’s a lot of dressing up. Charlotte, particularly, is running around the kitchen in her dresses and ballet stuff and everything. She goes completely crazy with Louis following her around trying to do the same thing. It’s a really happy moment where the children just enjoy dancing, messing around, and, and singing.”
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Holiday Season
“Christmas is a new dynamic when you have children. Suddenly it’s a whole different ballgame of noise and excitement,” William told Radio Marsden in December 2021, admitting that he has never heard of Elf on the Shelf.
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All Done
William told staff members at a January 2022 royal outing not to give his wife “any more ideas” about having a fourth child.
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Round Four
Kate felt “very broody” during a February 2022 royal engagement, saying, “William always worries about me meeting under 1-year-olds. I come home saying, ‘Let’s have another one.’”
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