When Kate confessed a shocking surprise about William

As a rule, royal family members don’t talk much about their personal lives. If any drama is going on, you won’t catch them posting about it on social media or going to the tabloids.But every so often, someone lets something slip to a member of the public. While Kate Middleton was out and about in January 2020, she got surprisingly candid about her husband Prince William and their family.Kate and William were visiting the city of Bradford – but they were doing so in the middle of a lot of royal family turmoil. Mere days before their trip, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made the remarkable announcement that they would be stepping down as senior royals.It sent shockwaves through the royal family – and indeed, the whole country.The initial statement from Harry and Meghan was posted on Instagram, and it began,

“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.”Harry’s decision, it seemed, had been made after he became a father. The statement mentioned that he and Meghan wished “to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”William, unsurprisingly, didn’t speak directly to the media about Harry’s sudden exit. But, according to The Sunday Times, he did privately tell a friend, “I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives, and I can’t do that anymore; we’re separate entities.All we can do, and all I can do, is try and support them and hope that the time comes when we’re all singing from the same page. I want everyone to play on the team.”A statement released by the Queen seemed to indicate something similar. On January 13 she announced, “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family.Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”The statement went on, “Harry and Meghan have made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives. It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK.These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days.”As Kate and William journeyed through Bradford, royal watchers talked to People magazine about how the couple seemed to be holding up in the wake of what the media dubbed “Megxit.” Politics student Rukhsar Parveebn told the magazine, “[William] didn’t let it show that the drama had been going on. I love the royal family, and I was really impressed with him.”And another royal fan, 52-year-old Julie Astbury, told People of the older royal brother, “He has got to carry on, business as usual. His mother was always my favorite and we have gone on to William and Harry and their children.It’s sad. But we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.”.Kate looked as well-put-together as she always did on royal outings. She wore a custom-made coat from Alexander McQueen, the same designer who put together her wedding dress.Underneath that, she wore an inexpensive dress from the store Zara, and for footwear she reused a pair of Gianvito Rossi shoes.

The pair had plenty to do and see on their visit to Bradford.They arrived in the city at around lunchtime and were greeted by scores of people, including children from local schools. While Kate and William spent some time inside City Hall talking to people, a police officer kept the children entertained by singing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”After having a discussion about women in STEM subjects at City Hall, Kate and William did a walkabout outside. Kate told the young children how nice they looked in their school uniforms and received some flowers from well-wishers.William too received a flower, a single rose, which he adorably gave to Kate.After that, the royal couple went to a MyLahore restaurant to learn about the charity work that the eatery takes part in.While there, they talked to apprentices from Bradford College who were working in the kitchens and made some milkshakes themselves. They also met Amir Khan, a British boxing champion.Khan, the youngest British person to become an Olympic medalist in boxing, talked to William about his work in mental health. Along with Harry and Kate William helped form the Heads Together campaign, which is intended to get people to talk about mental health conditions and reduce the stigma around them.After that Kate and William visited a Khidmat Center, which offers workshops and supports to vulnerable people. While there they were presented with a spectacular cake creation, the work of Bradford cake maker Siama Ali.It featured photographs that could be eaten of important moments in the Duke and Duchess’s lives.And Kate was also given some presents for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – knitted hats with their names on.Kate shared a different tidbit then, telling the women at the center, “I tried knitting when I first had George. I tried to knit him a very special jumper, but I got halfway down, and it splattered.”Kate interacted with young children again later on, when she and William went to a session with members of projects helped by the local charity Better Start Bradford.The royals talked to people who were part of the “Older Yet Wiser” project, which helps grandparents who care for their grandchildren.Kate was very taken with an 18-month-old toddler called Sorayah Ahmad, and she joined in a sing-along session with her and the other children.Sorayah’s grandmother Maryiam told Hello! magazine, “I almost started crying; it was very, very emotional. Kate was joining in with the nursery rhymes and dancing with Sorayah.”The last engagement of the day was a meeting with the organization Near Neighbors. It was here that William made an interesting comment.

 Speaking to the group, he said, “It’s sometimes trying to get people to understand that it’s okay to have these challenges.We just need to deal with them, and we need to move forward rather than just be stuck in paralysis and pretend they don’t happen, which is no good.”.Many people took those words as being a comment on the situation with Harry and Meghan.According to U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail, “Aides last night said he had not intended to make a direct reference to the royal crisis, but accepted parallels could be drawn.In the past, senior royals have used public engagements to allude to major issues.”.People watching the royals for any signs of their true feelings also paid close attention to their body language.An expert on the matter, Blanca Cobb, analyzed their movements for Cosmopolitan magazine and concluded that the Duke and Duchess were definitely feeling a level of stress, even if they weren’t discussing it.Cobb told the magazine that both Kate and William had been holding their hands near their stomachs while they chatted to the public. She explained, “When you’re unsettled about something, you might cover a vulnerable part of your body as if shielding yourself.What’s interesting is that William is doing the same.”.The body language expert went on, “It’s unusual to see William and Kate with such rounded shoulders.It could be that they’re figuratively feeling the weight or pressure of the situation with Harry and Meghan, so it’s weighing them down a bit. I think the rounded shoulders are more pronounced at this event than at other past events.”All in all, it was a very interesting day for fans of the royals. But arguably the most intriguing tidbit of them all came from the mouth of Kate, and it wasn’t actually anything to do with Meghan and Harry.While speaking to a young man with special needs, Josh Macplace, she let slip something about herself and William.After Macplace told the Duchess that he had sent her cards after all of her three children were born, Kate told him, “I don’t think William wants any more.”

Although it was only said as part of a casual conversation, that was still a pretty shocking piece of information for Kate to put out there.This isn’t the first time the subject of more children has come up for Kate.In February 2019, the Duchess was charmed by a cute five-year-old while visiting Ballymena in Northern Ireland. She told the child’s father, “He’s gorgeous.It makes me feel broody.” Asked if that meant she wanted another baby, she answered, “I think William would be a little worried.”.One reason that William might be worried is because of a medical condition that Kate has.For all three of her pregnancies she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, which means very bad morning sickness. In some cases, it can weaken the body of the pregnant mother so much that they require hospital treatment.In September 2017, when Kate was expecting the couple’s third child, William met another person who had suffered through hyperemesis gravidarum while pregnant.He told her that Kate had tried ginger biscuits to stop the sickness, but “There’s not much ginger can do to stop that. We’ve done all that.”.In addition to the hyperemesis gravidarum problem, Kate has been open about the other difficulties of motherhood.Not long after her visit to Bradford, she went to Cardiff and talked to the staff of a children’s center there. She discussed the difficulties that she had had when Prince George was just a baby.Kate told the people at the center, “It was the first year, and I’d just had George – William was still working with Search and Rescue – and we came up 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 [William] was doing night shifts.”.And back in 2017 the duchess had said a similar thing while giving a speech at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.Although she found being a mother “wonderful and rewarding,” it had also “been a huge challenge.” Even with a vast amount of support available to her, she still found it difficult.Kate explained, “Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It is full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love and worry, all mixed together.Your fundamental identity changes overnight. You go from thinking of yourself as primarily an individual, to suddenly being a mother, first and foremost.”Come February 2020 Kate did an interview with a podcast called Happy Mum, Happy Baby, and she got surprisingly candid about what pregnancy and motherhood was like for her as a royal.She told host Giovanna Fletcher, “I got very bad morning sickness, so I’m not the happiest of pregnant people.”.Kate talked about how the hyperemesis gravidarum had affected her husband.She said, “Being pregnant and having a newborn baby and things like that impacts everybody in the family. You know, William didn’t feel he could do much to help, and it’s hard for everyone to see you suffering without actually being able to do anything about it.”Kate said she had learned to do something called “hypnobirthing” while in labor. She revealed, “There’s levels of it. I’m not going to say that William was standing there sort of, chanting sweet nothings at me.He definitely wasn’t!

 I didn’t even ask him about it, but it was just something I wanted to do for myself.”.Kate also revealed what it had been like to present Prince George, the heir to the throne, and his younger siblings outside the Lindo Wing on the days that they were born.Showing the baby to the press and photographers is expected of royal mothers, but Meghan had famously not taken part in this.The Duchess said that she had found it all “slightly terrifying.” She explained, “For us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important. But equally it was coupled with a newborn baby, and inexperienced parents, and the uncertainty of what that held, so there were all sorts of mixed emotions.

”The two royals tried to learn the basics of baby care before George came along. Kate said, “We’d even tried to practice with a little baby, like 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.”In the same interview, Kate also mused on what she would want her kids to remember about their childhoods. She said, “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.”.Those people hoping for a new lot of royal babies might inevitably be disappointed.Harry and Meghan, too, don’t want an overly large family – they’ve said that ideally they would have only one more child. And now of course it seems more and more unlikely that Kate will have another  But they’re all doing good jobs raising the kids that they already have.