Kiera Knightley does not care for the standards Kate Middleton and The Royal Family set for women
“Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, look stylish. Don’t show your battleground, Kate.”
In a new essay, Kiera Knightley dissed The Royal Family and Kate Middleton for setting unrealistic standards of how women look after birth.
Knightley penned an essay titled The Weaker Sex for Scarlett Curtis’ new book, Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies). The letter is dedicated to Knightley’s daughter with James Righton, Edie.
In the essay, she compared her post-birth experience with that of Kate Middleton’s. Middleton gave birth to Princess Charlotte just a day after Knightley’s own labor.
Knightley wrote:
“She was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on. The face the world wants to see. Hide. Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging. Look beautiful, look stylish, don’t show your battleground, Kate.”
Middleton stepped out of the hospital in a red dress, with her makeup done and high heels on. Her hair was styled and the Duchess beamed at the camera during the highly publicized event.
The 33 year old actress added:
“Seven hours after your fight with life and death, seven hours after your body breaks open, and bloody, screaming life comes out. Don’t show. Don’t tell. Stand there with your girl and be shot by a pack of male photographers. This stuff is easy. It happens every day. What’s the big deal? So does death, you s**t-heads, but you don’t have to pretend that’s easy.”
She added that when visitors came to visit her in the hospital after the birth, she “wore a hospital gown with paper pants on”, still bleeding from her labor experience.
She also revealed how exposed she had been, with her attention dedicated solely to the newborn, writing:
“My breast is out in front of them all and I don’t care. Your life is my life. You need me. I’m there. F**k them all with their eyes watching, their embarrassed faces at my animalistic semi-nudity. Is this soft motherhood?”
She was not able to sleep during her stay at the hospital and only showered after she came back home from the hospital.
She wrote, “My shoes are crusted and sticky with the amniotic fluid of yesterday. They smell … I remember the s–t, the vomit, the blood, the stitches. I remember my battleground. Your battleground and life pulsating. Surviving.”
Kiera Knightley’s daughter is 3 years old.