Cressida Bonas is getting candid about the realities of motherhood.
The 36-year-old actress and mother of two opened up in a new interview with Country & Town House shortly before welcoming her daughter, Delphina, in June.
“When it comes to motherhood, I had this image of a woman sitting under a tree with a peaceful baby wrapped in a blanket in the sun, looking all glowy. But it’s just not that, is it?” Prince Harry‘s ex-girlfriend admitted. “You have sick down your top, it’s in your hair, and your child is screaming.”
Bonas and her half-sister, Isabella Branson, share their stories of parenting, as well as reflections on their own mother, Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, on their podcast, Lessons From Our Mothers, welcoming other British celebrities to open up about parenthood.
“You hear so many different stories, and it’s just been really beautiful and really quite emotional as well,” she shared with Country & Town House. “The love I feel for my son is a love that I wouldn’t even be able to describe because at times it feels so visceral, but it’s also very challenging.”
After dating Prince Harry from 2012 to 2014, Bonas married real estate investor Harry Wentworth-Stanley in July 2020. In addition to Delphina, they share a 2-year-old son, Wilber James.
Bonas gave her daughter the middle name Pandora in honor of her half-sister Pandora Cooper-Key, who died of cancer in July 2024. In the recent interview, she opened up about parenting during the tragic time, saying, “I had no choice but to be present with my son instead of being in that place of grief.”
“And I realized that all children really want from you is not to be perfect, but to be present with them in the moment,” she added.
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Cressida Bonas and Prince Harry attend We Day UK on March 7, 2014.
Karwai Tang/WireImage
Bonas was Prince Harry’s last public relationship before he started dating Meghan Markle in 2016. The pair married in May 2018 and share two children: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.
Meghan has shared similar sentiments on motherhood. She praised Harry as a “hands-on dad” during an International Women’s Day panel at the SXSW Conference in March 2024, while also getting candid about the struggles she’s faced as a mom.
“When you’re a new mom, it’s a really vulnerable time,” the Duchess of Sussex explained. “The effect that social media can have on new mothers, even just the lack of sleep because they spend all this time scrolling, but it can also be really dizzying for them to see this portrayal of motherhood that looks so perfect when we all know it’s not perfect. We all know that it’s messy.”