Ayda Field opened up on the difference in questioning between her work and that of Robbie Williams’ (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Ayda Field has shared her belief working mums cop the rough end of the stick compared to working dads, and that she doubts her husband Robbie Williams feels ‘selfish’ when prioritising work commitments.
The model and actress, 43, has been married to singer Robbie, 48, since 2010 and they share children Theodora, 10, Charlton, eight, Colette, four, and Beau, three.
In speaking about the balance of being a working mum alongside Sophie Ellis-Bextor, 43, Ayda suggested mums aren’t treated the same as dads when it comes to leaving the home for work.
She said on the topic of balance: ‘It’s the same voice that goes in my head – you used the word “selfish”, that mummy has to be “selfish” to do her work.
‘It’s interesting, because I see Rob going off to do his work, and I don’t think he ever thinks of it as being “selfish”.
‘And it’s interesting as women – that we feel like, and I don’t know if that’s because of what we’ve inherited culturally from our mothers and their mothers, and society, and what’s expected of us, but how we do feel guilty when we pursue something that’s ours, or it feels like it’s at the behest of our children, or that it’s wrong to want those things because it’s selfish – that judgment we put in place.’
Robbie and Ayda share four children (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Ayda doesn’t see Robbie asked the same questions about being a working dad (Picture: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
She went on during a recent episode of her podcast Postcards From The Edge: ‘It’s that thing where you judge yourself and you do find it selfish sometimes and that voice that you have to fight. Whereas I look at Rob, and I imagine many men, and they don’t feel like it’s selfish.
‘Why do we do that? Why does it become selfish all of a sudden?’
Ayda said she’s never heard anyone ask her husband ‘do you feel guilty being away from your kids or who’s looking after the kids when you’re on the road’.
She added: ‘I don’t think anyone ever grills him about striking the balance…’
Sophie Ellis-BExtor joined Ayda on the podcast (Picture: David M. Benett/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Ayda and Robbie have both been open about family life, with the Kids singer recently revealing that his eldest daughter Teddy has dyslexia, the same as him.
The Angels chart-topper announced in 2020 that he suffered from the condition and has now confirmed that his 10-year-old girl has also been diagnosed.
Speaking in a new interview, he shared the difficulties the two of them had experienced due to prejudice against the condition, as well as how he tried to help Teddy deal with it.
Confirming that his older daughter ‘suffers from dyslexia, just like me’, he added: ‘When I was growing up in Stoke-on-Trent in the Eighties, however, dyslexia was still a completely unknown diagnosis.
‘I have to explain to her what dyslexia is, what it means for people, how to deal with it. And that if you suffer from it, you’re not automatically stupid.’
Robbie said that Teddy had been struggling after being abandoned by a friend following her diagnosis with the learning condition, after the former pal had decided ‘overnight’ that she ‘didn’t want anything to do with her anymore’.
He heartbreakingly described his daughter as ‘devastated’ and ‘completely desperate’ over the situation.
He added to Galore magazine: ‘I tried to make it clear to her that sometimes you just have to let other people go, that you should let them go – but without sacrificing your own self-esteem in the process.’
‘This girl did not serve her love and friendship. Again, as I said, I speak from experience.’
MORE : Ayda Field details her and Robbie Williams’ ‘threesome’… but it’s not what you’d expect
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She chatted with Sophie Ellis-Bextor about the questions lobbed at working mums.
