Prince William used a doll to practise one vital parenting skill before Prince George was born

The parenting hack that Prince William had to practise before the birth of his first son, Prince George, has been revealed.

• The special parenting moment that Prince William had to practise with a toy doll has been shared by his wife, Kate Middleton.
• The Duchess of Cambridge made the revelation during a chat with Giovanna Fletcher on her parenting podcast.
• This royal news comes after Duchess Kate shared a photo of Princess Charlotte that holds a special place in her heart.

The future King is a loving dad to his three little ones, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

But before the arrival of his first little one, Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, felt a touch of pressure to get one thing right.

Appearing on Giovanna Fletcher’s parenting podcast Happy Mum, Happy Baby, the Duchess of Cambridge spoke out on the birth of her first son and the huge public interest surrounding the moment she left the hospital with him.

When the royal pair appeared from St Mary’s Hospital with a tiny Prince George in tow back in July 2013, Prince William was seen expertly placing the tiny tot’s car seat into the back seat.

Having received praise from author and mummy blogger Giovanna on the smooth move, Kate admitted that some practise had been had.

“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,” she explained.

Speaking of the moment she stepped out to show her son to the world, Catherine admitted it was a scary experience.

“[It was] slightly terrifying, I'm not going to lie,” she confessed.

“Everyone has been so supportive and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about and we're hugely grateful for the support the public has shown us.

“And actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important.

“Equally, it was coupled with a newborn baby and inexperienced parents and the uncertainty of what that held, so there were all sorts of mixed emotions.”