Kate’s ‘broody’ confession during solo Denmark trip

The Duchess of Cambridge has said Prince William worries about her working with babies as she always returns home pleading to ‘have another one’.

The Duchess of Cambridge tries out a slide at the Lego Foundation Play Lab in Copenhagen. Picture: Getty Images.

The Duchess of Cambridge has said that Prince William worries about her working with babies as she always returns home pleading to “have another one”.

On a solo visit to Copenhagen, Denmark, to bolster her work in early childhood, Kate, 40, joked that she was “broody”.

During a visit to the Children’s Museum in Frederiksberg, she met new parents and health visitors to discuss the importance of children’s social development. After meeting two eight-month-old boys and their parents, she joked: “It makes me very broody.

“William always worries about me meeting under one-year-olds. I come home saying: ‘Let’s have another one.’”

Having heard how the Danish system trains health visitors to speak to new parents in a non-intimidating way about improving their children’s wellbeing, she asked the fathers present if it had helped provide them “with a common language” to discuss emotions with their friends.

“As fathers, do you feel part of this conversation?” she asked. “Particularly the age your kiddies are, often people’s focus is on the mother. Do you feel the health visitors bring you into the role as well?”

Denmark has become a world leader in its approach to early-childhood development, which includes a focus on play, relationships and time spent outside.

Kate demonstrated her enthusiasm for childhood play by taking a slide between floors during a later visit to the Lego Foundation Play Lab. The duchess had been meeting a team leading a national program training students to help children use play to develop skills for life. When her hosts disclosed that some staff used the slide instead of the stairs, Kate gave her handbag to an aide and declared that she should do the same.

She emerged laughing, still wearing her high heels, and said: “In the spirit of where I am, I had to do it.”

Kate said that her own children, Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 6, and Prince Louis, 3, were “very jealous” about her visit to the Play Lab.

“They were like: ‘Hang on, there’s Lego and we’re not coming?’” she said.

Raising awareness around the importance of the early years has been a focus for Kate over the last decade. Her trip to Denmark with her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood is expected to help build on her work in Britain.

THE TIMES