As the Princess of Wales recovers from abdominal surgery – once she is discharged from hospital, she will continue her convalescence at home in Windsor – the spotlight has swung onto Prince William and how he will ‘cope’ balancing his royal commitments and increased childcare duties for the couple’s three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis.
According to a source in The Times, since Kate was admitted to hospital, William’s priorities have shifted from ‘unwavering commitment’ to his royal duties to ‘100 per cent family first, day job second.’ The royal source said ‘They want to make sure they have as much normality as possible going forwards.’ Earlier this week, Talk TV royal editor Sarah Hewson said Prince William is cancelling his royal engagements while Princess Kate recovers from surgery: ‘He wants to be by his wife's bedside.’
Inevitably, headlines have already started referring to a ‘devoted’ William going ‘full dad’ and ‘doing all the school runs himself.’ (William will do the school drop-off in Lambrook, Berkshire, twice a day – a task which is usually shared by the couple). One headline reads: ‘Full “father mode” activated, as Prince William prioritises daddy duties’, with the story detailing how he will ‘continue to provide steady support at home’.
This will, of course, be a worrying time for the royal family, and it sounds like William is doing what any other working parent would try to do in this situation – keep life as normal as possible for the children, provide emotional support to his spouse and manage work demands around that.
But the ‘hero’ narrative in much of the media coverage of William, who, after all, is simply carrying out his family duties, plays into the wider discourse that fathers should be celebrated for juggling the tasks that many mums silently get on with every day. It was a similar story when William revealed he styles Charlotte’s hair – ‘Never try to do a ponytail! Nightmare’ – and it made headlines round the world.
Even though, statistically, women (particularly mothers) are carrying much of the ‘mental load’ in the domestic sphere – with the ONS finding that women do around 40% more of the household chores and childcare than men – the media treatment of fathers (especially fathers in the public eye) can be very much biased in their favour.
This is something Louise Redknapp pointed out, when she spoke to The Guardian in 2019 about the way the press dealt with her marriage break-up. ‘Jamie would then take the kids on holiday and the papers would say: “Oh, what an amazing dad.” And he is an amazing dad... But no one patted me on the back when I’d taken the kids on Easter holiday on my own for the past 10 years. Jamie had to work doing the football, it was school holidays, so I’d take them on holiday and never once did anyone say, “What a great mum.” It was really tough sitting back and not speaking up,’ she said.
Of course, the royal family is very different from most families in that they have many public-facing duties to attend to – which must bring their own type of mental load. But they also have the privilege of a team of professional staff on hand to help them with their daily lives. While Kate recovers, William will be assisted at home by the couple’s nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, a graduate of the prestigious Norland College who started working with the royal family in 2014. Kate’s mum, dad and siblings have also reportedly cleared their diaries to rally around George, Charlotte, and Louis during Kate’s recovery.
In the past it has been reported that William is a very hands-on dad who always makes an effort to be present and spend quality time with his children. In an interview with last year, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said of William, ‘I very much admire the fact that he’s not a workaholic like his father, he knows how important family life is... He seems to be a full on, hands-on, caring dad.’ So, the fact that he’s doing a few more school runs shouldn’t really be headline news.
Despite this, the coverage of William’s parenting all amounts to the same old trope – it’s fathers who get applauded for providing care that mothers do day in, day out. So, while the world can’t get enough of William going ‘full dad’, let’s also take a moment to appreciate the women who have been silently getting on with all these things for years. They deserve to be applauded too.