と言ってました and は confusion


I am confused by a very specific sentence in the lesson I'm currently on and
haven't found any examples online or anywhere in my textbook.

I'm trying to figure out how to correctly say "Robert said his mother is a
good cook." The only way I can figure is to use the は particle twice... but I
don't know if this is okay?

ロバ―トさん **は** お母さん **は** 料理が上手と言ってました。

Would I omit one of the は’s in this case?




> ロバ―トさんはお母さんは料理が上手と言ってました。

Your usage of は is perfectly fine. The quoted part is an embedded "sentence",
so you don't have to worry about two は's. For the same reason, it's usually
better to place だ between 上手 and と. お母さんは料理が上手 without だ is a little clumsy as
a sentence (see
[だ抜き](https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/kotoba/term/140.html)).

> ロバ―トさんはお母さんは料理が上手 **だ** と言ってました。  
>  Robert said his mother is a good cook.




> ロバ―トさんはお母さんは料理が上手と言ってました。

Your usage of は is perfectly fine. The quoted part is an embedded "sentence",
so you don't have to worry about two は's. For the same reason, it's usually
better to place だ between 上手 and と. お母さんは料理が上手 without だ is a little clumsy as
a sentence (see
[だ抜き](https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/kotoba/term/140.html)).

> ロバ―トさんはお母さんは料理が上手 **だ** と言ってました。  
>  Robert said his mother is a good cook.

