Kate Middleton Admits She Was ‘Slightly Terrified’ to Make Her Debut After Prince George’s Birth

Becoming a new parent elicits many feelings—joy, fear and exhilaration to name a few. But when Kate Middleton prepared to welcome her first child, Prince George, she felt mostly terrified.

During a recent interview on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, the 38-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, who’s now a mother of three, recalled how she felt preparing to step outside the Lindo Wing with her newborn son.

“Yeah, slightly terrifying, slightly terrifying, I’m not going to lie,” she admitted.

The duchess went on to tell host Giovanna Fletcher, “Everyone had been so supportive and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about and, you know, we’re hugely grateful for the support that the public had shown us, and actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important.”

But when it came down to it, Middleton said that excitement was “coupled with a newborn baby, and inexperienced parents, and the uncertainty of what that held, so there were all sorts of mixed emotions.”

Despite everything, Middleton says she felt a huge sense of relief that her little boy was “very sweet, and I was sort of relieved that he was a happy, healthy boy.”

Now that she’s welcomed two more children, Princess Charlotte (4) and Prince Louis (1), Middleton is basically a parenting expert. Most recently, she’s devoted her passion for bettering the lives of children to her new 5 Big Questions on the Under Fives initiative. The U.K.-wide project is aimed toward sparking a conversation about early childhood so parents can raise the next generation thoughtfully.

We like where your head’s at, Kate.