Duchess of Cambridge under pressure to loose ''mummy tummy''

A senior minister has attacked the ‘disgraceful focus’ on the Duchess of Cambridge’s figure following the birth of Prince George.

Jo Swinson, minister for women and equalities, said yesterday that observers were expecting Kate to meet ‘impossible standards’ to reduce her weight.

She was reacting after OK! Magazine’s front cover promoted the Duchess’s supposed post-natal weight-loss regime soon after she left hospital. Other publications have followed suit.

Kate was much lauded by organisations such as Mumsnet for showing off her ‘mummy tummy’ on Tuesday in a designer dress as she posed with day-old baby George for the first time.

Miss Swinson, who is also expecting her first child, said discussion of Kate’s weight ‘shows just how extreme society’s obsession with women’s bodies looking “perfect” has become’.

The Liberal Democrat minister said it was wrong to believe that Kate and other women who have just given birth were ‘failing’ if they did not work instantly to regain their pre-pregnancy figure.

‘Publications like OK! Magazine need to get some perspective,’ she said. ‘Fitting back into pre-pregnancy jeans is not the priority after childbirth.’

Miss Swinson, who has led a campaign in Parliament to help women and girls improve their body image, warned that most women who have just given birth feel under huge pressure to regain their figures.

‘We need to move away from the idea that women have to shed their baby weight quickly and that they’re failing somehow if they don’t. Surveys show this is a concern for two-thirds of new mothers,’ she said.

Kensington Palace declined to comment on the furore but a family friend described it as ‘distasteful’. 
‘She was very fit and healthy before falling pregnant and I am sure she will snap back naturally but that just isn’t her priority at the moment,’ said the friend.

Kate, they said, was enjoying ‘nesting’ at her parents’ home in Berkshire with William and George.

‘They just want some quiet time getting to know each other as a family and learning how this parents thing works,’ the source said.