Kirstie Allsopp: 'Young Women Should Forget Careers And Have Babies Instead'

Kirstie Allsopp: 'Young Women Should Forget Careers And Have Babies Instead'
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Kirstie Allsopp has told young women to stop worrying about a career and have babies instead.

The 42-year-old Location, Location, Location presenter said women should shun university, find a nice man and have children before the age of 35.

In an interview with the Telegraph, the mum-of-two who had her first child when she was 35, said: "Some of the greatest pain that I have seen among friends is the struggle to have a child.

"It wasn't all people who couldn't start early enough because they hadn't met the right person.

"Women are being let down by the system. We should speak honestly and frankly about fertility and the fact it falls off a cliff when you're 35.

"We should talk openly about university and whether going when you're young, when we live so much longer, is really the way forward.

"At the moment, women have 15 years to go to university, get their career on track, try and buy a home and have a baby. That is a hell of a lot to ask someone.

"As a passionate feminist, I feel we have not been honest enough with women about this issue."

Kirstie, who has two sons aged five and seven with her partner, property developer Ben Andersen, added: "I don't have a girl, but if I did I'd be saying, 'Darling, do you know what? Don't go to university.

"'Start work straight after school, stay at home, save up your deposit – I'll help you, let's get you into a flat.

"And then we can find you a nice boyfriend and you can have a baby by the time you're 27.'"

She added: "I don't want the next generation of women to go through the heartache that my generation has.

"At the moment we are changing the natural order of things, with grandparents being much older and everyone squeezed in the middle.

"Don't think 'my youth should be longer'. Don't go to university because it's an 'experience'. No, it's where you're supposed to learn something! Do it when you're 50!

"[It] might sound wholly unrealistic. But we have all this time at the end. You can do your career afterwards.

"We have to readjust. And men can have fun after they have kids. If everyone started having children when they were 20, they'd be free as a bird by the time they were 45."

Does Kirstie have a point or if we followed her 'feminist' ideas would we all be back in a pinny in no time?