Actress Keira Knightley has opened up about Britain’s ‘archaic’ maternity laws and how expensive childcare is.
The Love Actually star gave birth to her first daughter, Edie, in May of last year and has admitted that she feels unbelievably ‘lucky’ to be able to afford childcare while most woman cannot.
Lovingly, the 31-year-old gushed about her husband of three years, former Klaxons keyboardist James Righton, who she said was ‘incredibly supportive’.
The English rose told Harpers Bazaar: “One of the things that is so shocking in this country is that childcare is unbelievably expensive.
“It should be, it’s an amazing thing if you’re good at it. It’s incredibly difficult.
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“But there is no option for a woman to go back to work unless she’s being paid really, really well.”
“I think I’ve become unbelievably aware of that and how lucky I’ve been to be able to afford really good childcare, because otherwise it would be at least four years out of my career.”
Keira has also called for paternity leave to equal the same about of time women get for maternity and warned employers would discriminate against women if it was not.
She added: “When you’re thinking about an employer looking at a man and a woman thinking, ‘Well, at some point you could take nine months or however long off, and the guy doesn’t have to. Don’t tell me that that doesn’t come into it.
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“You need to be a family unit, not just have the guy there for two weeks and then go back to work and the mother is left desperately trying to figure it out.
“I think it’s archaic that there aren’t better options.”
The lady has a point…
A topic that is always aired in the media, is body-shaming new mothers. Keira said she rejected the idea of Hollywood celebs being expected to spring back into shape straight after giving birth.
She adamantly said: “I’m not putting that pressure on myself.”
Hear, hear!
What do you think?