Kate Middleton Letting Slip How Tough Parenting Is Caught on Camera

Princess Kate's hilarious reaction to being asked about home schooling during the coronavirus pandemic has gone viral on TikTok.

BBC journalist Tina Daheley interviewed Kate and Prince William in April 2020, just weeks into the first COVID-19 lockdown. At the time, children were facing months of being educated at home with their parents as schools closed, though it had also just been the Easter holidays.

Princess Kate and Her Children
Princess Kate (center) with her children (left to right) Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Prince George in a composite image. She described home-schooling them during the coronavirus pandemic in a 2020 interview. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Max Mumby/Indigo/Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Daheley asked the royal couple how home schooling had been going. It prompted a moment of laughter and a wry response from William, suggesting with a chuckle that it was "fun."

The couple's responses have gone viral on TikTok after one fan (@hrh_princess.catherine) posted the footage four days ago, together with what they imagined William and Kate were thinking at the time. The post has over 49,000 likes and more than 1.1 million views.

In the full interview, Kate said: "Don't tell the children. We've actually kept it going through the holidays. I feel very mean."

"The children have got such stamina," Kate added. "I don't know how. Honestly, you get to the end of the day and you write down the list of all the things that you've done in that day.

"So you pitch a tent, take the tent down again, cook, bake. You get to the end of the day—they have had a lovely time—but it is amazing how much you can cram into one day, that's for sure."

During the pandemic, the royals found themselves cut off from much of society just like normal people as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip isolated together at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, with a skeleton staff.

That left the family keeping in touch with each other through Zoom calls, and during the same interview, William shed light on the experience.

The Prince of Wales said: "We've been talking to all the family online, and it's been really good way of keeping in touch and see each other. As you can imagine, the younger generation or a little bit more tech-savvy but only just. I think we're getting there now. The family is getting a little bit more used to being able to contact each other and pressing the right buttons and not dropping the computer."

In May 2020, Kate told British talk show This Morning: "George gets very upset because he wants to do Charlotte's projects. Because making things like spider sandwiches is far cooler than doing literacy work."

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.

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About the writer


Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more

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