Paloma Faith hates the word “co-parenting” because fathers shouldn’t be “over applauded for actually parenting”.
Paloma Faith hates the word ‘co-parenting’
The 42-year-old singer – who split from her ex Leyman Lahcine in 2022 – has two daughters with her former husband, and she has hit out at the way mother-and-fatherhood is portrayed in society.
Appearing on ITV breakfast show ‘Lorraine’ in the UK, she said: “I don’t like the word co-parent because co implies it is 50/50 and I don’t believe it is.
“There are definitely some men pulling in a lot of the work.
“But in the majority of cases it is the woman who deals with the mental load that comes with being a parent and also has them the majority of the time.”
She insisted she wasn’t attacking her ex, but argued there didn’t need to be another word used for being a dad.
She added: “I’m not saying that I don’t think my children’s dad is amazing, but I think we need to say what is actually happening and not over compliment the men.
“So I don’t use the word ‘co-parent’, I say, ‘Oh my kids go to their dads a few nights a week’ and I’m so happy that they do that and that they’ve got a lovely father
“But let’s not over compliment them because they do get that all the time… Let’s not over applaud them for actually parenting.”
Although the ‘How You Lose a Man’ hitmaker – who wrote about her split on new album ‘The Glorification of Sadness’ – is glad her daughters have their dad in their life, she admitted it makes things difficult when it comes to moving on from their breakup.
She recently told the ‘Great Company with Jamie Laing’ podcast: “Well, just because you finished the album doesn’t mean the trauma has gone away.
“But I think in the past up till, like so my first five albums, were all albums that I felt like I’d put something to bed with.
“But I think this is ongoing navigation, because we have children together. And that’s what makes this a different type of heartbreak album.
“Because the heartbreak will be forever and, and the navigation of our relationship changing shape will be forever probably till we die. You can’t really let go of somebody you’ve got kids with.”
