Kate Winslet

Now don’t get me wrong, Rocknroll is not a surname I’d particularly be grateful for. But then I am neither married to someone with, nor have a father with, the surname Rocknroll. Therefore I don’t have to ponder too long on the ramifications of this for it is absolutely none of my concern.

This doesn’t stop others weighing in on Kate Winslet’s lovely news that she is adding to her brood with new husband Ned. Quite what difference it makes that her kids have different dads is really beyond me and really stinks of the worst kind of snobbery, sexism and misogyny.

People fall in and out of love all the time, and children are often the product of those relationships. Is that not at the core of humanity’s existence? Is procreation not the reason behind physical attraction? What could be a more traditional rite of passage than falling in love and having a baby?

It’s not the life path everyone would choose. But for Conservative papers like the Telegraph in particular, who wrote a particularly damning article of Winslet today, surely Winslet’s fall in love, get married and have babies route should be right up their street?

In my family, my brother, sister and I all have different surnames. We joke that we should appear on Jeremy Kyle but the reality is my mum met and married my brother and I’s dad, their relationship broke down and they divorced.

This is not unusual. My dad didn’t hang around so when it came time to think about his own family, my brother changed his name by deed poll. A year or two after mum divorced she fell in love again with my sister’s dad. They were together for years and he’s dead now.

What would critics like the Telegraph journalist (she doesn’t get named or linked – don’t feed the trolls) say about my mum? That it was her fault my dad walked out? That my sister’s dad died? That she should have hid away in an ivory tower for the rest of her life? That now she had kids, she was never allowed another man in her life, and certainly not allowed to have another child with them?

It’s an absolute disgrace to judge someone like this. The only thing that matters is that children are loved and cared for no matter what their surnames are.

My sister’s dad was more of a father to me than my biological dad was. I’d change my surname too if I weren’t so proud of what I’d achieved in my own name despite him. And it certainly does not make me feel any less attached to my brother or sister because we have different surnames. It literally has zero bearing on our relationship, our memories and how much we love each other. Anyone who would ever suggest otherwise is an idiot plain and simple.