Today would have been Princess Diana’s 58th birthday. I still think about all of the stuff that would have happened had she lived. How different would her sons have been? How differently would we view Charles and Camilla? Would Diana have remarried? Would William and Harry have to deal with a stepfather? One thing I’ve always thought about is… Diana would not have liked Carole Middleton. Diana might have liked Kate, might have even supported William marrying Kate. But Diana would not have liked Carole’s attempts to mother HER son, nor would she appreciate the “social climbing.”
Anyway, the Duchess of Cambridge chose to mark the occasion in a quiet, subtle way by spending time with children. Kate hosted an event at the Royal Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, where her Chelsea Flower Show garden (the “Back to Nature” garden she co-designed) was moved over. Kate hosted children associated with some of her patronages: the Anna Freud Centre, Evelina Children’s Hospital, Action for Children and Place2Be.
For today’s activities, Kate wore this Sandro dress which currently retails for £182 (it’s on sale but it will probably sell out today). It’s a cute little summer dress in a bluish green tone that Kate favors. She also wore wedges, which… I don’t mind so much in this particular context. Would sneakers have been better? Sure. But she loves her wedges and they’re fine here. And no buttons! I feel like it’s been a while since we even had a button sighting.
WATCH: The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at @The_RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival to host a picnic for children supported by her patronages at her RHS Back to Nature Garden. The youngsters are from @AFNCCF @Place2Be @EvelinaLondon @actnforchildren #DuchessofCambridge pic.twitter.com/M5GY0hGo3F
— Emily Nash (@emynash) July 1, 2019
Her usual grandma dress.
Only six children? LOL
No. The six in red were all from one group, but there were other groups from different patronages there too.
I wish her well, but they are milking this garden for every drop of PR it can receive.
I’m not going to diss Kate for this. She is out working in a dress that didn’t come with a four figure price tag.
ITA. She looks lovely and appropriate. The wedges make sense for walking on grass. I can’t quite imagine her pairing a dress with sneakers – I mean, I do it, but Kate? Love to see it tho because people’s heads would fall off!
There are those maryjane style sneaks… but even that seems more informal than she’d choose.
I fell like she wore that dress a hundreds of time.Don’t understand why she always buy the same outfit in différents colors.
The garden is also really boring nothing exciting to look at except the 6 kids.
Sneakers would not have been better. Sneakers with dresses, with some exceptions, look absolutely terrible.
I wish that weren’t true, but it is.
Yeah, I agree. Kate’s espadrilles here look good. I like the dress too.
Actually, the low-platform sneakers look GREAT with casual midi/long dresses (IMO of course!). I love the look. I think it’s young and fresh.
Sneakers with dresses are quite in right now but Kate has always dressed like someone from her mother’s generation so ugly ole wedges it is.
Espadrilles are not ugly granny shoes lmao. Here in Europe, espadrilles are gorgeously chic during the summer months. You won’t see grannies wearing designer espadrilles, that’s for sure! Espadrilles go perfectly with lovely, flowy, well made summer dresses and skirts. I always forget European style is so much more sophisticated than North America.
That’s exactly what I thought! Also, the woman next to her is in sneakers, and yes, it looks awful. After feeling embarrassed running around Paris in sneakers, I did a lot of research to find shoes that would look good with a dress, and that supported my feet for an entire day of running around. No more sneakers in Europe again for me! 🙂
I got to visit Paris once, back in the ’90s. They were showing dresses with sneakers *on the runways* that year! You bet I hopped right on that trend!
It can be done in a way that looks good, but it does take a bit of thought.
I have some Keen maryjanes (one pair in leather and one meshy and lightweight) which are fine with dresses for all but the most fancy occasions.
You might also like Bernie Mev shoes. Super comfy and look quite nice.
Ooh which shoes? I struggle with this so much.
I disagree that Diana wouldn’t have liked the social climbing. Diana, despite her faults was very understanding of the issues surrounding poverty and social classes. I think she would have liked the shake up.
Let’s also not forget that if she would have had an issue with social climbing, it would have been bother of her daughter-in-laws who engaged in that behaviour.
I agree that she probably wouldn’t have liked Carole Middleton though, but more because she seems to monopolise on the Cambridges times more than anything.
The Middletons are not and haven’t ever been near poverty. There’s a huge difference between someone being poor and working their way up the social classes and the Middletons.
Social climbing remains the same whether you’re starting from poverty or not. It’s not a bad thing at all and I personally don’t see why everyone has such an issue with it.
I do have an issue with William & Harrys fake ‘normal’ fetish though. Is this what happens when you’re right at the top of the social ladder? You have to pretend that actually you’d rather be a few rungs down?
We’re not talking about money, we’re talking about rigid social classes in GB, and I agree, Diana would have applauded the Middleton ambition while rolling her eyes at anyone trying to be toffs, who I think she saw as tedious and close-minded. You could be the richest person in the UK and if you didn’t go to the right school and know the right people you would still be a social nobody to the aristocracy while getting invited out every night by other ‘nobodies.’
Diana would have had a problem with Kate not doing any work or charity post university. Diana has a longer work history pre marriage at age 19 than Kate had at 29 a generation later. Diana might be considered a snob, but she also understood noblesse oblige, which is something none of the Middletons picked up on once their social standing improved. The essence of nouveau riche is that they are tacky and selfish and the Middletons as a whole have done little to give back, but made sure to benefit from their royal connections.
Yeah, I agree. I don’t know why social climbing is seen as a bad thing around here. Can someone explain? I see girls climbing, or trying to climb, all the time. Even though I’m from a different background, I understand their need to social climb and make a better/comfortable life for themselves. I don’t understand why social climbing is knocked, tbh. Carole comes from a council estate! When I found out she came from there, even I was impressed. Her ambition paid off and she’s now grandmother to the future King of England, damn. And no, you don’t have to give back – charity work isn’t a requirement for social climbers lol. As far as I can see, women just want a nicer life for themselves and their families. It’s a plus if charity/humanitarian work is something one genuinely cares for, but that isn’t something all women take part in, after marriage to successful men. Meghan is also a good climber, she had goals and ambition for a higher status, and they are now fulfilled. It does say more about you as a person if you look down on people trying & succeeding in making a great life. Seems like jealousy.
I don’t know if I can explain it. But in the UK, you are respected much more if you stay within the social class you are born. (This has nothing to do with money.) People like Bernie Ecclestone or Alan Sugar, who are both very rich and very working class, are respected. They have all the trappings of wealth, beautiful houses, lovely cars etc. But they have kept their working class accents and do not pretend to be who they are not. Kate, OTOH, puts on a ridiculous faux-posh accent. Carole put on that ridiculous Boxing Day shoot, importing birds from France to be shot. There is an element of sexism, to be sure, as men can do what they please. (The only woman I can think of who is similar to Ecclestone and Sugar is Michelle Mone).
Tina, Lord Sugar and Bernie Ecclestone respected? Where do you live that there is respect for these two hounds? One is a punchline and the other is a borderline criminal. They are regarded as such, too.
Wonder who Diana would have been closer to: Cathy or Meghan?
Do not think Carole Middleton would have been a problem for Diana as William would not need support from Carole Middleton if Diana was still alive.
I think it’s a Catch-22 situation: Carole wouldn’t’ve “mothered” Will if he HAD a mother. And Will wouldn’t have that “need” *in* him to *be* mothered.
100% Diana would have been happy he had someone he could trust to ‘mother’ him a bit.
I love Diana but she could be a snob. She was threatened by Sophie dating Edward (the press was constantly remarking on her resemblance) and mentioned her being “common”.
I don’t think she was inherently like that but she could definitely be of the world she grew up in.
Even for Kais, this sort of Ouija-board communing with Diana’s ghost is bizarre.
Diana Spencer looked down on the WINDSORS because her family was older. She had no problem mingling with ‘commoners’ because she was DIANA SPENCER and everyone was there to adore her, but I don’t think she would have wanted her oldest son to marry into a family that was quite so common as the Middletons. You can smell the nouveau on Carole and Diana wouldn’t have liked that at all.
The last woman, I am loving her dress/sneaker combo.
When are the RR’s going to find a link between this garden and some terrorist organisation or some avocado cartel ?
Don’t forget that Meghan’s behind the terrorist avocados.
Lol! The Kween can do no wrong!! Well, I guess that should be Future Kween Consort.
Some flats would have been nice, or a court shoe in a neutral colour. But I guess if she’s walking around a garden, flats would work. The wedges are a tad too casual for the occasion.
The outfit is a little boring but I don’t have particularly strong feelings about it. I also don’t mind her doing lots of events around it but would like to see the same dedication to her other charities
I hesitate to say this as I know Carole isn’t popular in these parts, but it seems odd to suggest that if Diana had been alive, she wouldn’t have appreciated Carole’s attempts to mother her son. We have no idea if Carole would have behaved the same way if Diana was still around – she ‘mothered’ William because his mother had died.
@Delphi, agree with your prospective on Carole Middleton 100%.
And if my aunt had knackers…
This event is linked to her other patronages. I feel like she’s trying to expand the initiative in other ways.
Diana’s former psychic also said Diana wouldn’t have liked Meghan. There is an obvious problem when we start determining what a deceased person would have liked.
I don’t think it is a strench to say Diana probably would not have liked how lazy kate was/is.
But I can imagine Diana not liking Meghan since Meghan was/is a major character.
I think that if Diana were alive, the Carole dynamic would have been completely different. William wouldn’t have been looking for the substitute mother figure and Carole would have been smart enough not to push it. As it stands, Carole saw an opening and took it.
Weirdly surprised by what a forceful handshake Kate has. She really gets in there.
Agree, Carole wouldn’t be a “mother figure” to William, because if his mother were alive he would have a mother figure there for him.
Will also add that the dynamic between Diana and William wasn’t always a healthy one. She confided a lot in him and told him a lot, and he was basically a shoulder to cry on for her when he was way too young to deal with all of that.
My guess is that Carole provides “motherly” support to her kids and William without any of that kind of baggage.
Came here to say this. I totally agree. William was seeking that maternal figure (which he probably didn’t want from Camilla at first because she essentially ruined his mothers life) and Carole was always very eager to be there.
I think if Diana had still been alive Middleton would not be on the scene – Diana was keen that her sons attend college/university abroad, particularly in the US. I think that Diana would have loved that Harry married an American.
Diana would have loved that Harry marrying Meghan upset the people who made her life hell. After she divorced Charles, two of Diana’s relationships were with men of colour, and had considered converting to Islam to marry a Pakistani doctor. So Diana didn’t share the racist feelings of the British press and the people who think that Harry marrying Meghan was the worst thing since the execution of Charles I.
I wonder if Diana were alive, the Middletons would have been so successful at glomming on to the Royal/aristo set. I was just thinking how the Middletons went to Harry’s wedding. That’s as if all the Spencers showed up Andrew/Fergie’s wedding (they did not). The Middletons have been very successful at being aristo-adjacent (I think because William enables it) and I wonder if Diana had lived, whether that would have happened. Not necessarily because she would have blocked it, but whether her presence would have made them less brazen.
100% agree with this
Interesting point, I think Williams’ relationship with Carole has made them more brazen about pushing themselves into the centre of RF events, esp the Wales family. Carole has very much push herself into that royal grandmother roll that would have been Diana’s.
There also exists the possibility that Harry appreciates the support the Middletons have given William, or perhaps he just likes them and invited them to his wedding. It would have been perfectly acceptable for Harry and Meghan not to invite them.
They invited them because of William and Kate and also because Pippa and James invited Harry and Meghan to their wedding (reception). Meghan did not attend the church ceremony as they were not married yet but attended the reception, which is more exclusive.
If Harry liked the Middletons we would have seen some more substantial proof of it in the more than ten years he’s known them.
I don’t think Harry hates the Middleton as much – if at all – as much as people think.
Harry seemed relaxed with James here ..
https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2014/12/FFN_Prince_Harry_FFUK_122414_51613460.jpg
I can see Harry being friends with Pippa and James. Maybe not Best Friends Forever but still friends.
If Diana had lived things would be very different. She wanted William to go to school internationally and study things that would be relevant to training him for his position – St. Andrews would not have been her choice for him or his choice of program (nothing wrong with what he did choose of course). And I think the opportunists would have not had the chance to surround William.
Interestingly, Kate does not resemble Diana, she resembles Will’s type which is tall and brunette – not resembling Diana but very much resembling Tiggy Legge-Bourke (his subsequent romances are always with women who slightly resemble her, from her nannying days). I always felt Will had a quasi maternal feeling towards her and I’m sure Diana did too, which is why she hated her.
She looks lovely. I’d like that dress. Not big on the wedges though.
Kate really has taken up the causes that are relevant to her at this stage in her life.
And I wish I had her designed garden in my backyard. It seems like an awesome place for kids.
Working hard as usual.
Sarcasm?
yep
Like all of them.. I’d like to know what type of engagement is “hard work” for a royal.. Attending baseball games and playing polo?
Playing polo is actually really hard work. Do you know anything about the sport?
The Queen, Charles and Anne actually work hard. Multiple engagements per day, pretending to be interested in really boring things, in very unglamorous locations.
I consider getting best seats in the house to Wimbledon & other major sports events and attending film premieres to be a “perk” (perque?) rather than work, but that’s just me. Princess Anne and Sophie seem to do the majority of the heavy lifting from what I’ve seen and I think Meghan will be the same way…
@Marjorie I doubt we’ll see Meghan adopting Anna’s type of schedule,both for frequemcy and type of engagement. As for the rest,Kate is doing activities with the children and looks engaged. I don’t see the difference with dozens of other royals engagements.
Kate does very few engagements, has no interest in boring patronages like unglamorous diseases and very rarely ventures outside the M25. We’ll see what Meghan is like, there’s not enough evidence either way yet.
Carole gets a lot of credit/blame for “mothering” William, but all accounts have him seeking out and craving a mother-figure just as much. I think the stability and availability of the Middleton family is extremely appealing to William.
My partner’s parents were at each other’s throats for all of his childhood (and remain that way now). They would intersperse bickering with all-out-war, in front of the kids. He finds being around my boring parents very soothing because he says he never has to worry what nasty thing they might say to each other out of the blue, and I find being around his parents incredibly tense because one will corner you to complain about the other.
It doesn’t surprise me William would like being around two people who get along, especially after his mother’s gross habit of telling him nasty things about Charles.
I have been raised with bickering parents and longed for loving in-laws. Still waiting to find them with a man. Lol
Don’t worry, the dress does have buttons. 4 or 5 of them at centre bust. They’re just hard to see. Source: I have seen this dress in person and the worst part is the stupid buttons.
The dress is okay. Probably would have liked it better shorter. The wedges are the wedges.
I don’t think Diana would have liked Carole’s meddling and mothering of William. But I also wonder if William would have been at St Andrews to start with. She reportedly wanted him to go to college overseas. I doubt Diana would have approved of Kate’s laziness in the waiting years.
One would think the numerous opportunities that appearances of the Duchess of Cambridge will sake the need for Master Archie photos. Why can’t she be enough ? I am sure that the Royal Family is not happy with one of its newest members being harassed.
All these comments bringing up “what Diana would have thought or done” are so weird. Not sure about the whole snobbery thing, but I think she would have been fine with both of the women that her sons married – after all her sons chose these women and they love them – and I think that part would override any other doubts she would have had about them. I also don’t think the tabloids would have the narrative of Diana that they have now if she was alive, she only became a saint after she passed away, from what others have mentioned she was vilified in the media during the time that she was alive and this most likely would have continued if she was still here today.
Agree, the paps would have been chasing after her, especially if she never remarried, they would be all in her business. But assuming she would have remarried, they would not have left her alone, unless she married and moved to Mt. Everest to live.
Next Kate will start harvesting and selling vegetables from her garden dressed in overalls!
LOL!
It’s a nice summer dress, especially for someone who is tall and slim like Kate. That’s all from me.
This might seem off topic, but what happened to that lady who was hit by the police motorcade? Is she doing okay?
I’d like to know too. Because at that age, it is unlikely that she is doing well with a fractured pelvis. But notice how that news has been buried.
I just hope she’s doing well, an update on her condition would be great. Yeah its weird that the news has disappeared off the media radar, but I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that the lady who got into the accident, and her family might be wanting privacy (we haven’t really heard much from the elder lady’s family – so that might be the case). Whereas the lady who was hurt in the accident with Prince Philip took the opportunity to give interviews to the mail.
If Meghan had been even remotely involved in that accident, there would be a 24/7 ‘death watch’ outside the poor old lady’s home.
This dress is fine and cute though it really does look like something you could get for $25 at Target or Kohl’s. Not knocking those stores as I have shopped there in the past and still do occasionally but it’s hard for me to believe it looks over $100! It’s not super exciting but a nice neutral summery dress to meet kids and present her garden.
Usually I don’t hate wedges but I dunno why, I have not been liking the wedges Kate has been wearing lately. I think there are cuter sandals with heels she could be wearing than the wedges.
One of the things I noticed about Kate co-designing the children’s garden for the Chelsea Flower Show is that she seemed very excited and very involved. She was clearly very proud of her project, it showed in the pictures. She also did an interview on camera about the garden and linking it to mental health and not sure if I can find it, but I had never heard her so excited and so passionate about something before. She also did the entire interview without notes and sounded so natural and not stilted, like she usually does when she’s reading a speech. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoaUE-sN2Xk. We can knock her for milking it all it was worth but it is the first project I’ve seen her really care deeply about.
Not trying to be mean but this video was edited. You can tell that they pieced together different takes to make the video. If you listen to her words she’s saying g the same thing over and over again. It’s sad because she could have used notes. For those of us that work in a professional environment it’s easy to pick-up on the mistakes made. I want to feel sorry for Kate, but I don’t understand how they hire people that are terrible in their jobs!
Still doesn’t change the fact this seems to be the first project she’s been involved in where she seemed to do way more than just show up and smile. She clearly cared a lot about it.
…and it only took 10 years for her to care about something!
I am 99% certain that had Diana lived, the Middletons would not have been able to get within a mile of William, even aside from all the “would he have been looking for family/stability/mothering etc.?” question, which I agree is valid. The aristos loathe the aspiring middle classes more than they do the lower orders. Diana would have seen off Kate (and, by extension, Carole) so quickly their heads would have spun. Apart from the social climbing, Diana (who, IIRC, worked before her engagement) would have been appalled by Kate’s lack of work/charity ethic. If a born aristo can clean people’s houses (ok, it was her sisters’ aristo friends, but still) then she would have had absolutely no truck with some ghastly air-hostess’s daughter shunning work.
Nic919 at 12:40 above has it spot-on.
Well if you (someone who never met Diana or any of the people involved) are 99% certain…..
@ TP76 Problem with airhostesses?
Your comment: the aristos loathe the aspiring middle classes? Not true. It seems like you – the average working class – loathes the people who aspire to have a good life. Aristos don’t care, they are less snobby than the lower/middle class. Work ethic? Absolute pish posh! You don’t need to work hard & graft when you come from substantial generational wealth. The aristocracy doesn’t look down on people if they don’t work. They just don’t like the very obvious, tacky – in your face – nouve rich climbers. These people aren’t hard to spot lol.
My family is old money. Not aristo by any means, but shall we say upper middle class Americans. My dad LOATHES nouveau riche people over anyone else and says most will likely to be broke when they are old or one generation later. I have a cousin who inherited a 350 year old American historic home all to lose it 40 years later to debt.
If she didn’t like the ‘obvious, tacky, in your face, NOUVEAU RICHE climbers’, then she would have hated the Middletons. And I can’t imagine she’d think much of a young woman who sat around waiting for a man for TEN YEARS.
Like the dress, hate the wedges. She always looks happiest around kids, she should fully focus all charity work on them…
She looks good here I agree she seems happiest when around children outdoor type events.
I like the wedges soo much easier to walk on than heels all my shoes would be wedge heeled if I could buy them like that haha