Queen Victoria was ‘awful’ as a mother, according to new Channel 5 documentary

QUEEN VICTORIA was an awful mother who hated pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding according to a new documentary.

The widowed mother at 42, who was left to raise nine children after her husband Albert died in 1861, took out her pain on her children.

The documentary, Queen Victoria’s Tragic Family, will offer a glimpse of Victoria and the love-hate relationship with her children.

Producer Richard Sanders said: “She was an awful mother, an absolute control freak. She was occasionally loving but extraordinarily selfish. She was their parent but also their queen.”

“It didn’t occur to her that her children had lost their father and needed their mother.

“Being a queen, she took it for granted that she was the most important person in the world.”

Victoria and Albert had strong ideas on how to raise children and imposed hours of strict schooling.

This worked for their first child Victoria, who married the Prince of Prussia, but it fell apart with son Bertie whose indiscretion with a prostitute destroyed his relationship with his mum.

“There’s so much melodrama that these stories feel like a posh EastEnders,” Richard added.

The Channel 5 documentary will air later this month.