William practised using car seat with a doll, Kate reveals

The Duke of Cambridge won praise for the seamless way he put his newborn son Prince George into a car seat after his birth – but his wife has revealed they practised with a doll.

Kate shed light on how they made sure the global moment went without a hitch when she was interviewed on a popular podcast about motherhood, to highlight her early years survey.

When podcast host Giovanna Fletcher said the duke had done a very good job putting his son safely on the car backseat, outside the private maternity unit of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, Kate replied: “But he probably didn’t think so at the time.

“We were like ‘What do we do – in a swaddle? How’s this supposed to work?’ We’d even tried to practise with a little baby, like a little doll, at home, but you know it just never works out the way you planned it so it was quite hard to do that on the world’s stage, but no, he did a very good job.”

Mrs Fletcher, who interviewed Kate for her Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast in January, but broadcast on Saturday, questioned the duchess about the birth of six-year-old George on July 22 2013.

Kate described the moment William became a father: “Seeing the pure joy of his face, it was really special.”

And the first time she held George: “Amazing, amazing. It is extraordinary as I’ve said. How can the human body do that? It is utterly extraordinary actually.”

The duchess confessed to feeling “slightly terrified” about the hundreds of people waiting outside the Lindo Wing maternity unit, but said they felt it was “really important” to share the public’s “joy and appreciation” with them.

The duke drove his new family away from the central London hospital, but when they arrived home at Kensington Palace soon afterwards there was a little apprehension.

Kate said: “William was like ‘Oh my gosh is this what parenting is going to be like?'”

“It took us a bit of time to get ourselves settled and going again, but that’s the beauty, I suppose of having a newborn baby.

“You are pulled to your toughest and most unknown places that you hadn’t necessarily even thought about before.”

Mrs Fletcher, who has also written about being a mother to three children with husband Tom Fletcher, a member of the band McFly, chatted to Kate about childhood and her hopes for her three children, George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

The duchess said: “Someone did ask me the other day, what would you want your children to remember about their childhood?

“And I thought that was a really good question because actually if you really think about that, is it that I’m sitting down trying to do their maths and spelling homework over the weekend?

“Or is it the fact that we’ve gone out and lit a bonfire and sat around trying to cook sausages that hasn’t worked because it’s too wet?

“That’s what I would want them to remember, those moments with me as a mother, but also the family going to the beach, getting soaking wet, filling our boots full of water, those are what I would want them to remember.”