12 Lovely Parenting Quotes From Keira Knightley

The actress gave birth to her daughter, Edie, in 2015.
Keira Knightley and her husband, James Righton, have a daughter named Edie.
Kristy Sparow via Getty Images
Keira Knightley and her husband, James Righton, have a daughter named Edie.

Keira Knightley knows the pure chaos and bliss that come with parenthood.

The actress has a daughter, Edie, with her husband, musician James Righton. Since Edie’s birth in 2015, Knightley has been open about the highs and lows of motherhood in many interviews.

In honor of her birthday, here are 12 of her funny, earnest and relatable parenting quotes.

On “Paw Patrol”

“We’re really deep, deep, deep into ‘Paw Patrol.’ It’s like toddler crack, isn’t it? Which is kind of a good thing because you go, OK it’s been Saturday night, maybe you had a couple more glasses of wine than you should have and then Sunday morning, ‘Paw Patrol’… absolutely amazing. We have to act it out as well. We have bath toys, ‘Paw Patrol’ is in the bath, and she’ll only let me be Rubble ... but Rubble is rubbish. I want to be Skye, but she has to be Skye. She will only let me be Rubble, and then she tells me off about it. ‘No, don’t do that! No he doesn’t talk like that!’”

On Her Daughter’s Career Goals

“She did want to be a dentist, which I was super happy about because I thought, ‘You know that’s a stable career’ ... It was ‘Peppa Pig.’ There was a dentist episode, she wanted to be a dentist. Now she wants to a be a lion, which I think is slightly more problematic. But she roars very well! ... I am going to support her in anything that she wants to do.”

On The Challenge Of Motherhood

“I don’t think we give women enough credit for the physical and emotional marathon they go through when becoming a mother. I come from a place of amazing privilege. I have an incredible support system; I’ve been unbelievably lucky in my career; I can afford good childcare, and yet I still find it really fucking difficult. It’s OK to say that. It doesn’t mean I don’t love my kid, it’s just me admitting that the sleep deprivation, the hormonal changes, the shift in relationship with my partner, are all things that make me feel as if I’m failing on a daily basis. I have to remind myself that I haven’t failed, I’m just doing what I can do, but it’s not easy.”

On Certain Princess Movies

“‘Cinderella,’ banned. Because, you know, she waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don’t! Rescue yourself, obviously. And this is the one that I’m quite annoyed about because I really like the film, but ‘The Little Mermaid.’ I mean, the songs are great but do not give your voice up for a man. Hello?! I love ‘The Little Mermaid,’ so that one’s a little bit tricky, but I’m keeping to it.”

On Papparazzi

There’s nothing sexy about trying to control a 3-year-old. So I’m pretty much left alone now.”

On Parenthood’s Effect On Her Work

“I think I play everything differently now that I’m a parent. Obviously, it just has an impact on everything, your point of view about everything. Certainly, a woman who doesn’t have a child could play this part, and do a perfectly good job, but I think there are certainly nuances that the experience brings to you that I might not have thought about before I had a kid.”

On Childbirth

“To my girl: My vagina split. You came out with your eyes open. Arms up in the air. Screaming. They put you on to me, covered in blood, vernix, your head misshapen from the birth canal. Pulsating, gasping, screaming. You were pushing yourself up with your arms, furious at your frailty. Wanting to see. Wanting to know … I remember the shit, the vomit, the blood, the stitches. I remember my battleground. Your battleground and life pulsating. Surviving. And I am the weaker sex? You are?”

On Portrayals Of Motherhood

“I think it’s that people shouldn’t feel as alone as they do at the moment. We’re failing new mothers. I think we’re failing them because the only story that we have is this one of floating away on a bubble of love. We don’t talk about the hormones and we don’t talk about how difficult it is and we don’t talk about the realities of sleep deprivation.”

On Curse Words

“It was one of those country roads where it’s a blind corner, and suddenly there’s another car coming. The brakes got put on and there wasn’t a crash, but there was a silence just afterwards and this little voice went, ‘Daddy, is that when you say ‘fuck’?’ It was very polite. Other than that, she has never said any — there’s not been any swear words.”

On Disney Movies

“I love ‘Frozen,’ I am 100 percent Team ‘Frozen’ and Team ‘Moana.’ ‘Moana’ is big in our house, ‘Inside Out’ is big in our house, I just wonder what Elsa would say to Ariel and Cinderella because Elsa has some serious opinions about Anna going off with a guy that she’s only just met and saying she would marry him. She is like, ‘Absolutely that is not OK,’ and in fact everyone in ‘Frozen’ is not OK with that. What would Elsa say to Ariel, who gives up her voice for a man? A man, by the way, she has only seen dance round a ship and then drown! And it’s 100 percent amazing of Ariel to save the guy, I’m totally up for that, but what would Elsa make of that? I think Elsa would be like: ‘Babe, you’ve got to get to know him better, don’t give up your voice yet.’”

On Becoming A Mother

“The love thing is astonishing. It’s a very primal, primal love. That’s quite extraordinary. And the ability to have no sleep and continue going. It’s not pleasant ― I never thought that I could actually do it for the amount of time that I’ve done it. Also, I have to say, as a woman, you hate certain parts of your body. You go through those periods where you look in the mirror and you think, Oh, if only I had different legs or arms or whatever. You go through pregnancy and labor and then feeding the kid and you go, Wow, my body is totally amazing, and I’m never going to not like it again, because it did this, and this is fucking extraordinary.”

On Her Daughter

“She’s great in every way. She’s obviously a genius, and obviously the best child in the entire world. And very well made. But yeah, I’m very lucky. She’s great. She’s totally great.”

Before You Go

LOADINGERROR LOADING

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE