Kate Ritchie was nine years old when she got her 20-year role as Sally Fletcher on Home and Away, approximately the same age as her lovely daughter Mae Katherine Webb.
Kate and her estranged husband, retired NRL star Sturt Webb, brought Mae back into their lives in August 2014, and Kate raved about how much she adored parenthood immediately after giving birth.
“Because I enjoy being with her, my only concern is that I will become a complete hermit and never leave the home. I want to talk to her and spend every minute with her “At the time, she told the Australian Woman’s Weekly.
Kate’s feelings for Mae became stronger over time, and in a candid interview with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies on The Morning Show in 2015, the former Home and Away star stated, “I think she’s lovely, she’s the best success I’ve ever had and she’s amazing.”
Kate, who currently co-hosts Nova’s Kate, Tim, and Joel drive programme, revealed her love for Mae and spoke up about how much her life changed when her daughter entered the scene in a moving open letter written in 2018.
Kate stated, “I thought my life’s love was Home and Away… Then I met this beautiful person.”
“It’s been a long path, but I’m so pleased and grateful that I allowed myself the opportunity to realise that my greatest life accomplishments didn’t have to be owing to Sally Fletcher.”
In fact, Kate’s seven-year-old has taught her things she didn’t expect, such as how her connection with her body is affecting her child.
“[Children] are extremely perceptive and pick up on everything you do. It’s been a great lesson experience to realise that we need to be kinder to ourselves “In 2018, she told Good Health.
“I find myself limiting what I would typically say about what I’m wearing or how I feel about my body on a daily basis, and I believe that this is teaching me to love myself a little more.”
Last year, on Mae’s sixth birthday, Kate paid tribute to the young child who had altered her life on Instagram.
“Happy 6th Birthday to the cutest, smartest, funniest, and most curious little kid I’ve ever met. I am the luckiest Mumma in the world to have been given this beautiful soul “wrote the 43-year-old.
“Thank you, Mae, for picking me. You offer so much joy to so many people, and all I can hope is that you keep that joy in your heart at all times. I am really proud of the person you are becoming. Please don’t grow too quickly, okay?” The radio personality from Nova signed off.
Mae’s resemblance to her famous mother is palpable in the photo, with the same cheeky smile and loving eyes as Kate.
Kate made a determined attempt to keep Mae out of the spotlight when she was born, but in recent years she has began posting thousands of adorable photos to her social media channels.
In 2018, she informed Studio 10 about her choice to share clips of Mae with the world, saying, “I guess like any parent, you realise you’re simply incredibly proud.”
“I guess my greatest concern is that what I shared – because I’m the parent and I’m allowed to share – then became fodder for other people to write their interpretation of events, and that’s what pulled me back [from uploading Mae photographs].”
Parenthood has taught Kate a lot about “coping with stuff,” she told Offspring Magazine.
“I believe we are the parents and are responsible for teaching and guiding her, but Mae has been an equal, if not greater, teacher to me,” she added.
“She’s helped me become the most authentic version of myself I’ve ever been.”
Despite a two-decade run on Home and Away and a popular radio programme, Kate says Mae is “really the finest thing she’s ever accomplished.”
“What I realised about Mae is that she’s the only person I’ve ever met who doesn’t have any preconceived notions about who I am. I’m simply her mother “According to news.com.au, she stated.
“That’s the thing I admire the most about her.” She adores me for who I am. She truly is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
“One of the pleasures of my life was when she started making friends at school and her friends would shout through the gates, ‘That’s Mae’s mommy,’ because I was so accustomed to people saying, ‘That’s the girl on the television,’” says the author.
Kate has already spoken out on the difficulties that moms, particularly single mothers, experience in combining work and parenthood.
“Work might feel like the thing that stops you from being the mother you want to be at times, but it’s essential to gently remind yourself that in some ways, work also helps you to be the mother you want to be,” she added.
“It sometimes feels like I’m on the outside looking in, rather than being swept along by the world.
“It has taught me that I can no longer control everything, especially when it comes to my schedule,” she says.
Kate claimed her mini-me Mae is “full of wonder in so many ways” and encourages her to “just be herself” in a touching Instagram post two years ago.
“She also encourages me to be myself, to pat myself on the back, to be patient, to care for other families, to value equality, to make plans, to want to be the best version of myself, to realise I can try anything, to accept myself, to count to ten and reassess, to stand up for myself and for girls, to love, to be loved,” she wrote.
