Kate Middleton Gets Emotional While Listening to Struggling Mom's Story

Photo by Eddie Mulholland - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Kate Middleton was brought to tears by listening to one struggling mom’s story in an emotional roundtable discussion.

Michelle Griffiths, 33, talked of how her 13-year-old daughter’s childhood had been “stolen” by her illness, People.com reports.

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Griffiths has a rare hereditary condition called Brugada Syndrome that highly increases her chance of having a heart attack. Her heart has stopped several times; she tells People that she’s “died” in the past and has had to be revived. Her teen daughter, Chloe, helps cares for her, and her 4-year-old son, Alfie, has learned to call the U.K. equivalent of 911, 999, in an emergency.

After undergoing open heart surgery to place a defibrillator to spark her heart back to life, Griffiths says her son nicknamed her “superhero.”

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"I was telling her the things that my children have to do sometimes and that I feel like I have stolen my daughter’s childhood, but [my daughter] doesn’t see it like that," Griffiths told People after meeting with the 7-months-pregnant princess at the Cape Hill Children’s Center in Smethwick, Birmingham, which is managed by Action for Children, a charity that tackles issues of child neglect and abuse.

"She got choked up and I had to give her a tissue," Griffiths said.

Middleton listened to a small group of moms’ “heart-wrenching” stories, which ranged from disease to depression, according to a witness at the U.K. event on Thursday.

"You could see how each story touched her in a different way," Griffiths said. "Kate said, ‘I can’t imagine what you went through but I can see how happy you are now.’ "

Photo by Eddie Mulholland - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The visit wasn’t all serious.

Middleton, who donned a floral dress by Seraphine (which you can still buy online — for now — for about $154), also played with kids between the ages of four months and 9-years-old. She joined the group to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star,” and “Wind the Bobbin Up.”

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"I should have brought George. He would have loved this," she said. She also joked that her 18-month-old son wouldn’t have behaved as well as the kids at the center: "I can’t imagine George would have been so good."

The Duchess released a video earlier this week shining the spotlight on treating children’s mental health in conjunction with a charity she supports, Place2Be, which is marking “Children’s Mental Health Week.”

"A child’s mental health is just as important as their physical health and deserves the same quality of support," she said.  "No one would feel embarrassed about seeking help for a child if they broke their arm; and we really should be equally ready to support a child coping with emotional difficulties."

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