She’s recently released an album, a book and it set to perform at Glastonbury next weekend.
But Paloma Faith doesn’t believe that women can ‘have it all’ due to men’s failure to use their ‘initiative’ when it comes to parenting.
The British pop star, 42, split from husband Leyman Lahcine after 10 years in 2022 and has been struggling to balance co-parenting their two daughters, aged seven and three, with her music career.
She said the biggest challenge facing working mothers is society’s ‘expectation of women’ and fathers’ inability to take on the ‘what are assumed to be some feminine qualities in the household.’
Paloma said that having to ‘delegate’ to the father of her children is a ‘full-time’ job in itself, which she has to manage alongside parenting and working.
Paloma Faith has revealed she doesn’t believe that women can ‘have it all’ as men fail to use their ‘initiative’ when it comes to parenting
Speaking to the Radio Times, the singer, 42, said the biggest challenge facing working mothers is society’s ‘expectation of women’ and fathers’ inability to take on the ‘what are assumed to be some feminine qualities in the household’
‘I don’t believe we can have it all,’ she told the Radio Times.
‘I feel a bit disgruntled about society’s expectation on women, because we were given this idea that you could work and have your own money and independence while raising children.
‘What we’ve ended up with is far too much responsibility, and I think a lot of women are burning out.’
She said: ‘Parenting is a full-time job. If you’re also CEO of your own business, like I am, then I’m meant to delegate to my partner, but that’s a full-time job because they’ve not got any initiative.
‘It’s exhausting and you sacrifice something, always.’
Paloma, who is currently on a whirlwind tour of the UK and Europe, said she now only gets four hours sleep a night after coming off stage as she has to be up for the school run.
‘I’ve got more energy than most but, frankly, I’m so tired,’ she said.
‘Touring as a single parent is something else. Back in the day, I’d get in at two in the morning and then I’d sleep in because my ex would look after the kids.
Paloma said that having to ‘delegate’ to the father of her children is a ‘full-time’ job in itself, which she has to manage alongside parenting and working (Paloma and Leyman Lahcine pictured in 2018)
The star split from her ex Leyman Lahcine, 36, in 2022 after nine years together and they share two daughters
‘But now I get in, get four hours sleep, then I’m up getting them ready for school.’
Paloma said she uses her tour to express her views about women’s workload and how men need to ‘step up to the bar.’
She said: ‘I keep saying on this tour, in between songs: men need to do more, they need to step up to the bar.
‘And it’s not just about saying, ‘Oh, you’re a great person, I’ll cook you dinner once a week.’ It’s about having initiative and adopting what are assumed to be some feminine qualities in the household.’
She added: ‘If you see your partner do the same thing every single day for six years, why don’t you just do it and take it off her hands?
‘I’ve had a lot of men walk out of my shows with their wives in tow. And I say, ‘Goodbye – you’re obviously one of the ones I’m talking about.’
Paloma, whose new book MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F******, is about the issues faces women today, said she had to be careful in how she portrayed French artist Lahcine.
‘I did have to carefully edit the book and the album, because I still have to maintain a relationship with my children’s dad and there’s a fragility to that,’ she said.
‘I had the pull between that, but also feeling that the culture needed an injection of the truth.
‘We skirt around it: people know that it’s hard to be middle-aged, or a single mum, or go through a break-up – but there’s nothing that really talks about the real harsh truth of it and I think it’s important.’
She added: ‘Touring as a single parent is something else. Back in the day, I’d get in at two in the morning and then I’d sleep in because my ex would look after the kids’ (pictured in 2018)
Paloma Faith has shared a candid snap pumping her breast milk to mark the release of her memoir MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*****y earlier this month
She said she is now dating again, some of whom are younger men, but that she only has time to herself when her children are in bed.
‘You try and compress all of your own personal needs and wishes into the children’s sleeping time, which is roughly 11 hours a night,’ she said.
‘And that means if you want to do some work, write a book, have sex with someone, you’ve got to squish it all into those sleeping hours. I rarely get more than six hours now.’
Despite being excited to perform at next weekend’s Glastonbury, Paloma said she finds it hard to believe that it has fully embraced equality after years of picking ‘white men’ to headline.
‘What tends to happen is they’ll diversify and include non-white races and women again, and everyone says, ‘Isn’t it great? We’re progressing,’ she said.
‘And then it goes back to white men again for years. I’ll believe it when I see it.’
