Lucky to be able to afford child care: Knightley

Actor Keira Knightley feels she is lucky to be able to work as a young mother as she is able to afford child care for her daughter Edie. 

“I’ve become unbelievably aware of that and how lucky I’ve been to be able to afford really good child care, because otherwise it would be at least four years out of my career,” Knightley told Harper’s Bazaar magazine. 

The actor added: “I wouldn’t be able to get back to where I’d been if I’d taken four years out. I think that’s the same for most women. And I think that’s really hard.”

The 31-year-old bemoaned the cost of child care in Britain, saying it stops the average woman from going back to work. She said: “One of the things that is so shocking in this country is that child care is unbelievably expensive. It should be, it’s an amazing thing if you are good at it. It’s incredibly difficult, it should be well paid.” 

The Pride & Prejudice star added: “But there is no option for a woman to go back to work unless she’s being paid really, really well and can afford full-time care before (her child can) get into nursery.”

She also criticised the British government’s recommendation that men should have two weeks paternity leave.