Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told the Duchess of Cambridge bonded¹ over motherhood during their meeting at an official function in New York on Monday night, agreeing that singing is beneficial to babies.

 

Clinton greeted Kate in the lobby of the British consul² general's official residence in New York, and they discussed Kate's visit to a child developmental centre in Harlem on Monday morning. Kate, who is expecting her second child in April, also met Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, who recently gave birth to her first child, Charlotte.

 

"We're trying to encourage more people to sing … because the research suggests that it's beneficial," Clinton told Kate, according to a pool report.

 

Clinton also told Kate that she would sing to Chelsea when she was a toddler, until there came a point when she told her mother: "No sing, no sing!"

 

The Duke of Cambridge was originally supposed to attend the event by himself, as royal aides had allotted³ time in Kate's itinerary⁴ for her to relax, as she is now nearly five months pregnant.

 

But the duchess is fully⁵ recovered from the severe sickness that affected⁶ her in the first months of the pregnancy⁷, aides said, and she decided⁸ she wanted to do as much as possible during the couple's two-day visit to New York.

 

The conservation reception was co-hosted by the Duke and Duchess's Royal Foundation and the Clinton Foundation, which is committed tocombatting elephant poaching and stopping the illegal ivory trade.

 

William has dedicated⁹ several events to campaigning around the issue of the illegal trade in wildlife, a cause important to him and the Prince of Wales.

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