Anne Hathaway has taken parenting advice from Kate Middleton

Anne Hathaway
(Image credit: Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock)

Being a first time mum is no easy task, and so it always helps to get advice from other parents. Anne Hathaway found herself in just that situation, and she borrowed a very useful parenting tip... from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The actor shares a two-year-old son, Jonathan, with husband Adam Shulman, and revealed she had adopted a 'very cool' technique after seeing them do it.

Speaking to The Sunday Times Style magazine, she said: 'They get down on the child's level and speak to them eye to eye to make their child feel empowered. I thought that was really cool. I started doing that with Jonathan.'

The technique is apparently called 'active listening', which involves parents crouching down to make eye contact with their children to make them feel important and respected, and William and Kate do it a lot withe Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

In the interview, Anne also opened up about being a mother to her son, saying, 'He's so beautiful. I'm not perfect, but if I'm frustrated or distracted, I'm good at making sure he's sage and walking away, calming down and then coming back to him. I fall short every day, but i'm not going to beat myself up about it, I'm going to learn from it.'

Amen.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.