As we discussed on Wednesday, the current issue of People Magazine has “Princess Kate” on the cover, and they want us to know that she’s the “mom who will be queen.” The whole thing is so sugary and cheeseball, I can’t even really focus on anything else. But it’s quite normal for the PR coming out of Kensington Palace these days. You know what I find a little bit funny? All of this recent “embiggening” is so focused on Kate’s Back to Nature garden project. You know, the garden she co-designed and hyped for months and months and now it’s, like, her signature achievement as a duchess. She did a garden! That’s the answer to everything. She is the Future Queen and She Did A Garden. Anyway, People Magazine’s cover story has more than just “she did a garden” and “she once attended one whole meeting” and “she’s keen.” Some additional highlights:
On the Waity years: It was a period that allowed her and her family to become immersed in the unique scrutiny and protocol that come with being Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter-in-law. “She knew enough, she’d seen enough and she’d experienced enough, so she was very well aware of what the responsibilities and demands were going to be,” Sally Bedell Smith, a biographer of the Queen, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
Kate is regal now: Several sources use the word “regal” when talking about Princess Kate, while Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE, “She has the knowledge and the poise.”
She’s just a country girl: “She wants to emulate her upbringing, living in the countryside with a close-knit family,” a friend of the royal tells PEOPLE. “She desperately wants that normality for her own kids.”
The Back to Nature garden: The project reflected the Duchess of Cambridge’s own passions, as “a lot of her childhood was spent outdoors hiking and camping,” says her friend.
A mom and a duchess who gets everything right: While focused on motherhood — with her friend says the “three kids really complete her” — Kate is also keenly aware of the role she has. “Kate has completely grown into it,” says a family friend. “She has got things right—she really, really has.”
Here’s the thing: if people want to make the argument that Kate was so keen and brilliant that she purposefully waity’d for a decade because she was “studying” what her royal life would be like, I can understand that argument. But that doesn’t go along with “and then she got married and it still took her seven years to understand and cope with her role.” Like, pick an argument. What was she doing during the Waity Decade? And then what was she doing for the seven years before she got some competition?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Holy photoshop! What’s with the People mag cover? I thought it was Elizabeth Hurley.
I thought she was ‘Tammy Thompson: Midwest mom”
Forget the photoshop, why is she holding her crotch in that last picture?
Maybe she’s protected the royal womb because she’s pregnant.
She does that a lot. It’s as if she’s not sure what to do with her hands. Just put them by your side!
‘Wills can’t touch this…’
@not so gullible, LOL! I’ll take the rap this rumor and say she’s pregnant and cupping.
Horrible, horrible photoshop. It’s like they took a picture of her wax doll from the museum.
Omg! Hahaha. I live for the Celebitchy reader comments on the British royals. Thank you to: AA, Escondista, ByTheSea, Seraphina, CL, not so gullible, and Jen! I love love love these comments. Hahaha some more.
Obvious PR is obvious. At this point its both laughable like I said a few days ago but also verging on pathetic. Is KP so insecure that this kind of PR is necessary?
Also, I said this on twitter but I’m kind of annoyed at the headline of “the mom who will be queen.” 1 – it implies that’s all that Kate is, a mother. 2 – there is nothing unusual or special about that. AT ALL. Camilla is a mom who will be queen. The queen has 4 kids. Her mother was a queen who was a mom. And so on and so forth. Kate is not the first mom to raise royal kids and in all likelihood, she wont be the last, but time will tell on that score.
@becks – this! Her being a mom is nothing unusual in the royal family. The title of the story put my teeth on edge too. And if she so desperately wanted to be a posh SAHM (ie a lady who lunches) she should’ve done a Pippa (who likely would’ve done a better job at “future queen consort-ing).
Agree I think Pippa has way more initiative and moxie than Kate. And also that Kate is possibly jealous of Pippa who has a luxe life in a massively expensive London home, country home, access to the $$ resort in St Barts that her in laws own…and no duties imposed upon her.
I mean, if the royal family didn’t have moms, it would die out pretty quickly!
But I look at it as an attempt to once again excuse her lack of work. Look, she did a garden! Then when she disappears and does one appearance in a month it can once again be “She’s just such a hands-on mom and her kids were on break.” To me, the “mom” thing is both good PR and a way to make excuses for her.
I’m really sick of the excuses. First it was “she’s learning.” Then it was “The Queen wants to keep the pressure off them so they can build a strong marriage.” Then it was “She has kids.” At some point, just admit that when your whole system is built on a bloodline and birth order, you’re going to end up with a dud because being born first doesn’t make you most qualified.
Jen mentioned: “the queen wants to keep the pressure off them so they can form a strong marriage.” They dated for ten years! I can understand the need for some time off to work on creating a strong marital bond if it was like an arranged marriage or if they only dated for a really short time, or dated long-distance, or dated while one of them was in the military, or hospital, or super busy with something else that would keep them mostly focused on one member of the relationship’s health and safety, as opposed to focusing on how they relate as a couple, but why on earth would they need a couple of years to work on their marriage when they dated for a decade!? (I get that you’re not saying you believe this excuse, you were just reporting it.)
@Becks1, Fellow posters of the CB commentariat will disagree with me but I think this is push back from the episode of “Rose Who?”. There seems to be a very carefully orchestrated campaign to make sure there is no further discussion of Normal Bill cultivating a private Rose garden and as much deflection from pedo Andy as possible.
@Bay – I would almost agree with that, except that we get these kinds of stories a few times a year. It’s definitely just a typical part of the KP PR machine at this point I think.
Now, for that one that came out in the spring, about how the Queen was taking Kate under her wing and teaching her how to be queen – I think that was definitely a pushback against the Rose story, because it seemed very “remember who Kate will be.”
@Baytampabay: It’s a bit unsettling that you keep plugging in ‘Rose who’ into every Kate discussion without much relevance or context. Almost as if you relish in the rumours of her family being destroyed by infidelity. It is possible to criticise Kate on her shortcomings (lack of work ethic/dullness/subservience to William etc) without wishing her personal misery, you know?
@Evil Owl, You make a good point. I will be more considerate. Please be advised that I have no problem with Kate. My problem is with her husband and the Royal Reporters.
@bay – I got your point – you weren’t bringing it up randomly, but were mentioning your theory that these articles are pushback to those rumors.
It’s September and People needs to move some magazines. Royals sell. I expect Meghan will be on the cover next week.
People’s fan fiction is better than the DMs, but it’s still fan fiction.
@Becks1, Thank you. I re-read my post and did not see anything offensive BUT sometimes we do not interpret our post as others do. Life is too short to unintentionally cause discomfort to others…or at least that is my philosophy with fellow posters on CB.
@Baytampabay: thanks for your mature response. I didn’t mean just this post specifically, I was observing that you tend to bring it up a lot in almost all Kate threads. But I think that’s very cool of you to say what you did about showing consideration to other posters.
Good morning, Becks!
Can I please ask a genuine question?
How do we know this is KP PR vs People Mag coming up with a reason to stick Kate on the cover in a bid to sell some magazines? There are times when stories are conveniently leaked and such that I, an amateur at least in Royal gossip folds, understand that someone is deliberately leaking something for someone’s gain – such as Kate and Will’s budget flights. But for this spread, do we think this is the work of KP and if so what are the telltale signs? I am a celebrity gossip follower, and typically for an entertainer it’s easy for me to spot PR. But with royals is it much the same? Their PR folks reach out to where ever and leak info or request a spread like this? I’d say the timing of this makes it a bit suspect because Meg just launched her Smart Works capsule and this could be framed as KP wanting to steal her thunder?
Thanks for your help!
@Only – Happy Friday!
We obviously don’t know if this is KP. For me, the telltale signs are the timing and the overall narrative. Anything that pushes Kate as “just wanting a normal country life”, mentions her close-knit family, and talks about stuff like how Kate has never put a foot wrong or whatever – those to me are telltale signs of it coming from KP. And of course, considering Meghan’s collection launched this week, this feels a little suspect in that regard.
Some of the royal stories – even the positive ones – are just these random generic ones with quotes only from royal watchers or whatever – but this one hits some of the KP “high notes” so it pings my gossip-radar, so to speak.
But isn’t that the sort of thing that Buckingham Palace might very much be pushing as well, in a keep-your-eyes-of-the-paedo way?
I mean, it’s not like Kate sat for a photoshoot or interview.
@Becks okay thank you that helps!! And it makes sense.
Such a shame in regards to Kate. I actually feel as though if she worked harder, and she and Wills stopped trying to throw Meg under the bus or cover for their laziness or ambivalence toward their duties, I’d actually find her very relatable. She seems quite friendly in her interactions at her patronages. I can tell she does care about childhood development. Now what?
She and Will are throwing away such a shot to do so much good and things that would endear them to their public. I like her garden. It’s a step in the right direction, to a point. It shows me she does care about something. But it isn’t enough. Meghan is working laps around her. I’m just not sure what it’s going to take to get them to work. They could be the royals that go out and greet their public every year at numerous engagements and engage with the “everyday” citizens of Britain (like Anne) while Harry and Meghan could continue to galvanize international support and look to the common wealth and the future. These couples could be quite a team.
I say all this as an American who knows not much. And who hasn’t had coffee so who may not be articulating what she means very well.
It’s a preliminary excuse for when her initiative doesn’t happen. “She wants to be a mom giving her kids normality in the countryside!!!”
Normal has always been a codeword for Doesn’t want to work. Keen but too normal.
With or without kids, we have always gotten the same excuses.
Yeah, I feel like the official palace narrative is always ‘not to expect too much from her, but don’t worry she has decades to spin this out’. I think they’ve honestly said that (via palace sources) before, that she is supposedly playing some kind of masterful long game and has decades to unravel her keen initiatives. I think she (and her husband) keep work expectations at a low bar and they’ve started as they mean to continue—doing relatively light amounts of ‘royal work’.
Yeah, if she wanted to be so “normal” and copy her family…. well, her mom and dad both worked full-time, yes? So get to work!
How “normal” is it to live a life of leisure out in the countryside anyways? How “normal” is it to be a stay-at-home mom who also happens to have a ton of extra help and who gets to live in either a palace or a big country estate? I know the intention with these “she just wants give the kids a normal life and be a normal stay at home mom for them,” pieces are meant to make her more relatable, but they sound so out of touch to me, they have the opposite effect. MAYBE if it was still 1950 and most women stayed home (or it at least looked like most women stayed home because people were very insulated in their white, middle class, suburban world-view where poor women and single mothers were not often acknowledged). But it’s 2019. A lot of women work. A lot of women have to work. There are a lot of people (poor or middle class or even upper-middle class) who just can’t afford to have one parent stay home all the time. The parents who are able to stay at home generally recognize that they’re pretty lucky and privileged to be able to do so, or else they’re very aware of the sacrifices that their family has had to make so that one parent can be home all the time. It’s generally a decision that is taken very carefully, there are pros and cons to be considered, there are sacrifices to be made. The fact that Kate can just on a whim decide that she’s a stay-at-home mom now for whatever amount of weeks or months, without anything else in her life changing, bugs me. She’s not sacrificing income. She’s not sacrificing a career. She’s not sacrificing status. She’s not even sacrificing being able to leave the home whenever she wants to interact with other adults because she has staff that can take over whenever she needs them to. This whole, “suddenly I feel like being a stay at home and moving everyone to the countryside so we can run around in the fresh air of a huge garden,” is NOT RELATABLE.
@Amy Too, Thank you for your wonderful post.
Now I have a questions for the UK CB posters, How in the hell can Cathy and the kids move to the country id her children are enrolled in school in London?
Could it be possible that Cathy wants to be based out of the country because the London Set wants nothing to do socially with her and Bill Normal?
If Kate was serious about a country life the kids would have been put in a school close to Amner. They aren’t. Just like how she pretended to be hanging out in Wales while Will was playing at RAF pilot. The reality was she spent a great deal of her time shopping in London and at her parents. She’s not a country girl and never has been.
The normal mother narrative is only being pushed to cover her laziness and lack of interest in her duties. If she wanted normal she should have stayed away from Prince ManChild. She spent 10 years chasing him and the lifestyle she now enjoys.
Yes, this ^^ People who crave normalcy do not pursue princes, especially not for over a decade.
I don’t hate Kate, but I sure do dislike the whitewashing of her history. She may never have put a foot wrong (really???) but then that’s only because she hasn’t really moved much in the past 17 years.
Yup, you can’t wait around for years, know the Pap game and then cry normality. She knew exactly what she was signing up for. Sorry I don’t see this as some big love affair for either one, girl just wanted a ring and title, he just wanted someone willing to sign up.
Sorry Jan, even us normal people work.
Digital, I’ve never really known where to come down on her post-children laziness. More than a few places have written QE told Kate to prioritize her family during these early years, largely because she saw how some of her own children turned out and she had regrets. That would be a nicer spin on things and I like to like people so it’d be good to see it in that light. But it also just seems so out of character for the Queen to say something like that. Do you have a read on this?
@annie – Notasugarhere gives a good answer to this down below. Its really just not believable that the Queen would say “you don’t need to work.” It’s believable that the Queen may not want to say to them, “you have to work.”
I don’t think it’s Kate that wants normal, I think it is William. He clearly still has baggage about the way he was raised and he is determine to protect his children from what he thinks damaged him. People has to frame it through Kate because no one is buying a magazine with William on the cover.
@Anne – I can believe that narrative if you think of it in the context of HM’s early marriage. When she and PP lived on Malta before she was Queen, I think those were some of the happiest times of her life. They were newlyweds with young babies and I don’t think PP started stepping out on their marriage before she ascended. So I imagine she has rose-tinted glasses for those early years and wishes her grandchildren to enjoy the same. Of course this is assuming that they, like Charles, will eventually buckle down to work in their middle age when the children are grown.
@Becks1 thanks. I’d like to try and see it in a rosy light, but honestly if you gave me Kate’s position there’s so much I’d want to do with it and I have young kids too. To be gifted such an opportunity and to do so little with it is such a shame.
Other royal wives were not given two years off, HM wouldn’t give Petulant and Lazy a free ride.
The Malta Lie is called The Malta Lie for a reason. The Queen and Prince Philip didn’t live in Malta for two years as newlyweds. Philip was posted there two years after their marriage, for roughly a two year stint.
The Queen visited him four times in two years, adding up to a few months of time. The Times of Malta did a retrospective of her time there, and she worked throughout. Look for the article Queen Elizabeth’s Stays in Malta over the Years.
We were told at the time of W&K’s engagement that she was fully prepared, going to hit the ground running. A few days after the wedding, we got the press release from KP that nope, she’s going to be a housewife in Wales and not work. WTF.
The tabloids had no answer to why the hell the spouse of a future monarch wasn’t going to work. They latched onto the Malta idea, fanfictioned the idea that The Queen “gave them two years off”, and the stans ran with it.
@Nota, Who is “Mr. & Mrs. Petulant and Lazy”?
I believe Nota is referring to William as Petulant and Kate as Lazy.
Although she had four children, the Queen was nowhere near a “hands-on” mom. Kate clearly is, so I think that’s the distinction.
What’s going to happen when the kids are grown? Kate being a “hands on mom” has been quite the excuse for years now.
And that sort of goes to my point, anyway. The only thing people really know and can say about Kate is that she’s a mom. That’s why she’s “the mom who will be queen.” There’s not a whole lot else to say about her.
(and to be clear, I’m not slamming mothers. i’m a mother and I love being one. But it is noteworthy that after 8.5 years of marriage to the future king, the only thing really to say about Kate is that she’s a mother.)
With two housekeepers, several nannies, cooking and cleaning staff. She’s not a SAHM mother doing all the work. Using kids as an excuse for her life-long laziness. Implying that you cannot be a hands-on mother and also be hard-working and fulfilled in a career.
Is having three children an excuse for her not to work? Didn’t stop Mary or Mathilde with their four. Didn’t stop Maxima with her three. Two kids haven’t stopped Anne, Sophie, Letizia, Mary, Victoria, or Charlene from working.
How many more excuses are their going to be? She is a mother therefore she cannot work more than 100 hours a year? Or that other royals who show up to work are bad mothers?
I think both Kate and William are pretty pathetic. People Magazine is, too.
They aren’t very interesting at all and KP and the media are trying like crazy to make them into something they are not. If they disappeared into the country lifestyle, it would be wonderful for everyone involved.
Not only are Bill & Cathy uninteresting but almost all people in their orbit are uninteresting. The one good thing about the “affair” stories is that it gave us two interesting people (Rose & David) to discuss.
“She desperately wants that normality for her own kids.”
Lovely, wonder what the parents of the kids that had the misfortune to end up in Prince Andrews clutches wanted for their children.
Yeah, that’s definitely Kate’s fault.
Of course not, but she is part of the system that is covering for him though, she is part of the story line that pushes what he has done off the front pages. I don’t care how many buttoned coat dresses she wears, how many times she is “keen”, how many manic grin photos of her we see, in every story on any member of the Royal family it should be noted that they are A-OK with an abuser of trafficked young girls in their ranks. And these yahoos are A-OK with that as long as nothing changes for them, a blind eye will continue to be shown as long as holidays in Mustique and yacht races are available.
@zapp b
Ok if kate is part of the system to cover for PA, then is Meghan too part of the system??
@ zap +1
@Zapp Brannigan, What exactly do you want QEII and Prince Charles to do regarding Andy? This is not sarcasm. I would really like to know how anyone, not just you, thinks this matter should be handled by QEII and Prince Charles.
I suppose HM could strip Andrew of all of his titles and honors, but then she would be admitting he is guilty (which he is) and it’s clear she is in denial about Pedo Andy. Maybe one day Charles will step up and do the right thing, but I am not counting on it.
Megan – I am with you 100% on “retiring” PedoAndy from the family. But I suspect that not only is he actively lying, but the Queen is actively believing his lies. We’ve all seen this with mothers who refuse to see the truth that is right in front of their eyes.
The only way I see out of this is if the FBI publishes the additional videos and photographs of Andy that we all suspect that they now have in their possession. Scotland Yard wouldn’t like it, but the rank and file FBI agents do not want to kowtow to PedoAndy.
If additional photos / media comes out, I suspect the Queen will retire her son – not because he had sex with a coerced 17 year old (she will claim he had no way of knowing) but because he lied about it to the public, and to her.
He may take the retirement deal in exchange for full time working royal status for his two daughters. Nothing would make royal fans happier than if he and leach-Ex-Duchess sculked off to Switzerland, never to be heard from again.
Why do I get the weird vibe that Cathy Cambridge is not really happy? I hope I am wrong. I never disliked Cathy. It is her husband who reminds me of nails of a chalkboard.
I liked her better when she was hustling to get her crown. I think her issue is she’s spent her whole life working towards a goal – marry a prince, have his babies, and now she’s done it and what does she do? Where does she put her energy (surely not work)?
You’re not alone I have that impression too.Even her husband doesn’t look happy
Perhaps she’s finally figured out that the guy she pursued just isn’t much of a catch.
Ha ha. As long as he’ll be crowned king, he can be barely sentient and still be a catch. Honestly these two are so basic.
But based on all the photos of Kate since the Rose rumors, she looks more relaxed, comfortable and happy to me. And she’s not an actress that can fake this, it seems real and natural.
@Jules – I have two theories on that.
The first is that the Rose rumors are old. Like, one of the rumors was that Will cheated on her with Rose while she was pregnant with Louis. One of my theories is that he cheated on her when she was pregnant with CHARLOTTE or shortly thereafter, and that was the rough patch (maybe 2015-2016? EACH fundraiser at Houghton hall was summer 2016) and then they patched things up, she got pregnant with Louis, they moved on. In my mind that would also be one of the reasons William came out swinging against the Rose rumors, bc it was in the past for them and he didn’t want it being revived.
My second theory is that the rumors are true, and the timeline is correct, and Kate “got something” out of it. Like maybe it was agreed that she didn’t have to return to full time royal duties (since she hasn’t, even though Louis is well over a year old), or she could spend every weekend at her parents, etc. Or maybe its that William stopped seeing Rose so despite the affair being made public, it ended and that makes Kate happy.
Of course its possible that the rumors are completely false and there was no basis for them, but then we still have the weird “rural rival” rumors from the spring to account for.
Or a guarantee to try for baby number four, Becks1?
@nota – yes! That’s part of my second theory but I didn’t want to say it because last time we had a similar discussion people got mad at the idea of a “make up baby.” But I would not be surprised if that was part of it.
@Jules – I have a theory too on that.
I think all the rumors regarding Bill’s cheating are true. I think the escapade with Rose really hurt because it was a little too close to home, too close for comfort and caused much personal embarrassment with the Turnip Toffs, her chosen social set. I think she reached a point where she had had enough. For some reason she choose not to leave or agreed to play very nice in public earning a large debt and huge amount of gratitude from QEII and the Prince of Wales. This theory explains the honors received from QEII and basically not Duchessing even part-time. NO ONE is ever again going to make Kate do anything she does not want to do because she did not make any waves over the Rose escapade.
Also, having the Daily Mail and their commentariat on Meghan’s back instead of her back has lifted a very heavy load off of her state of mind. I’m sue Kate does not care about the commentariat of Daily Mail but I would bet my last dime her mother cares greatly.
@Becks I’m with you. I think I posited that same theory earlier this summer/spring, when the Rose news came out. I personally think it was before, around and after the birth of Charlotte that things in the Cambridge marriage weren’t so great. She seemed much less sure of herself, less happy. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that her skipping the Irish guards back then had at least a small something to do with whatever is going on – not that that is an acceptable excuse at all. I don’t know why, it’s just a sense I get. He seems petulant. Perhaps things were awful and he didn’t want her there, even knowing the press would come down hard on her for skipping. When she appeared at an engagement the next day close to Amner Hall she seemed…I dunno. Down. Or maybe she just made that crappy decision all on her own. And somewhere in there, his skipping the commonwealth day service and partying and dad dancing in Switzerland with a blonde happened, too. I dunno. I hope, above all things, their marriage works for the sake of their children. And I hope I’m wrong. Or that whatever happened is behind them and she’s taking care of herself. I think Louis came to be after they patched things up. Just my sense.
It really would not surprise me if she had a severe anxiety/depressive disorder that really started to spiral out of control once she got married. However, at the end of the day we’re all responsible to deal with our medical issues the best way we can.
AND – I’ll add that dual narrative annoyed me at the time of their wedding too. Well not annoyed, but I did kind of scratch my head and go, “what?” There was such talk about how she was so prepared to be married to William because of the long time they were dating, she had grown accustomed to the expectations of the royal family, and then when they got married it was like, “now Kate needs some time to settle into royal life and to get used to it.” But wasnt that the argument in defense of her 20s, where she did basically nothing?
I can get the idea of waiting … and waiting … and waiting… to make sure she knew what she was getting into. William’s mother rushed into marriage and was historically miserable.
And the previous generation (Edward excluded, barely) did a fine job of completely screwing up their marriages. I bet that no one wanted that little habit to be repeated in the next generation.
Plus Kate is … terrible in public. She’s gotten so much better once she’s had kids and now has started having appearances with kids, but it does NOT come naturally to her.
Being in her position is nearly impossible, anyways: you have to put up with the media taking pictures of you at all times, you have to be ON constantly, you have to put up with all the Royal Family BS, you have to be willing to turn a blind eye to any straying husband, you have to sublimate your entire future into that of your in-laws. She is all those things; being good in public would have been nice, but the other stuff is more important.
Right, that was the defense given for the long period of time where they were dating (or not dating) – Kate needed time to figure out royal life, etc, so she could “hit the ground running” (I think that was a quote from the time of their engagement, but could be wrong.)
Then they got married and spent two years in Wales, which was explained by saying she needed time to adjust to royal life, but its not like their life there was preparing her for FT royal work.
Either defense makes sense on its own. Its when you put them side by side then you realize there is an inconsistency there.
@Harper, I do not think Anne & Mark Phillips screwed up there marriage but that it is a very deep and complicated rabbit hole to go down which is not on topic for this thread. Hopefully we will get a thread on Anne and we can all go to town discussing Anne, Mark & Timothy.
Ooohhh! Invite me to the Ann Timothy and Mark thread! I want to head alllll the tea!
@Bay I would love to go down the Passions of Princess Anne rabbit hole too! 🙂
climbing into my waaaaayyyy back machine…. in 1992 I traveled to visit a friend studying in Salisbury, UK at the time. We visited with her aunt and uncle, a duel US/UK marriage of family banking money. They socialized in very snooty circles. The scoop in 1992 was that Anne was much prettier in person, and a massive flirt. She specialized in lonely single young officers, or lonely middle aged officers with the “right accents” stuck in broken down marriages. Timothy Laurence was just one of many, many conquests. But the Queen liked Tim as her equerry, so that’s who Anne married the second time.
I think we all know that girl – who looks like a plain jane to the ladies, but men of all ages absolutely adore her and crowd around. She makes men feel good about themselves. She’s funny, she flatters them, she makes them feel adventurous. That’s Anne.
I don’t know if she and Tim are happy now – 27 years after their wedding they must have some sort of settled feelings – but Zara and Peter seem to have turned out very well, and are very caring spouses and parents to their kids. Maybe they saw the damage caused by both of their parents’ infidelities and thought “that isn’t for me”.
They both speak very kindly of Tim, and I suspect he has been a far, far better father figure to them than their never-ending-scandals-related-to-surprise-sidekick-kids biological father (the first husband).
@JayneBirkinB, I have heard the same thing from friends of mine that have been in the same room with her: Anne is an extremely pretty in person. I have also heard that she has one killer body from being in constant athletic training for equestrian and sailing pursuits. I believe this because she can still wear her 40 year old immaculately tailored high designer duds like she was only 29 years of age.
There are some really entertaining interview clips on Princess Anne online. In particular there is one from probably the late 70s where she and Mark Phillips are interviewed about the 1974 kidnap attempt when a gunman tried to abduct her from a car. She is funny as hell!
Sally Bedell Smith has written many books on the BRF most of which I have sitting on a coffee table in the Tampa Bay Cave or She-Shed. One of the things driven home in one of these books was that QEII did not want a repeat of Diana the mess which QEII blamed on Diana being pushed too soon and too fast into Royal public life. According to the book, QEII was not going to push Kate into doing anything which was just fine with Normal Bill who never planned to do anything but the bare minimum.
Why do the RRs seem to forget that Chuck & Cammie are the next King & Queen? I love that Camilla never pretends to normal. Camilla knows she is not normal, never has been normal and that the public would never buy that she was normal.
Lastly, all still rich titled aristo and still rich landed gentry raise their kids in the country as it is the British way. Someone needs to tell People magazine that the sell by date on this recycled story has long past and it is time to toss it in the rubbish bin once and for all.
HM is never going to happily rubber stamp royals not working, the Malta Lie is just that, a lie. She let’s everyone make their own mistakes and set their own schedules, but she’s never going to be pleased with royals just not working like these two. She reads the papers every day, she sees the Throne Idle headlines. She didn’t want another emotional, manipulative person like Diana, but heck, she already has that in William.
Her fav is Sophie, mostly bland but WORKING Sophie. Sophie wasn’t given years to figure out how to be a royal, she started working right away *even though she wasn’t officially on the books*. Sophie who wasn’t supposed to be a working royal, but still worked more as an unofficial royal than Kate has ever worked as an official one. Duchess of Gloucester and Duchess of Kent, marry in and get to work. That’s the rule not the exception.
Kate has no charisma, that is obvious. Even if she was working 500 engagements a year like Anne, there is no danger of her becoming a global phenomenon like Diana. The tabloids and stans keep trying, but she doesn’t sell.
If she worked far more, her showing up to work would be no big deal, barely noted. By working so little, she makes it a big deal when she bothers to show up. That’s part of W&K’s game, which they hinted at early on. They were going to do very few engagements, focus on a few charities, and make the basic idea of them showing up to work newsworthy.
She did not waity for over a decade because she wanted to understand what she was getting into. She waited because William wasn’t keen to marry her until he lost hair and realized she’d put up with any of his horsesh*t.
This! Oh, and don’t forget the Carole affect. What mother would encourage her daughter to wait around for a decade for anyone who kept her hanging around while he repeatedly looked for a better option. This attempt to build up “princess Kate” is a pathetic and desperate move by KP, imo.
@Escondista, I think Normal Bill married Cathy because Jecca & Isabelle were not interested in a Royal life nor were they really interested in Bill Normal.
At this point it’s getting tiresome reading stories that try to rewrite Keen Kate’s history. I’m old enough to remember the Waitey Katie years and I remember how embarrassing it looked for her. She wasn’t given the moniker Waitey Katie because she was trying to decide if the royal life was her cup of tea. They called her Waitey Katie because she was desperately waiting for Will to propose.
It was a cruel nickname, but the sad thing was how truly apt it was. This woman did nothing for a decade. no work, no charity work, even the fake “working for her parents” was an obvious joke. They could have faked it so much better. She was never seen actually..working. There are socialite jobs (aka Jack Brooksbank) for rich folks who just pretend to work while really just representing a brand. Kate could have done something like that for a discreet, high-profile brand, which would have given her all the time/opportunity she needed to be at Will’s back and call. I was really shocked by her utter lack of any kind of hustle beyond bagging a prince. It was as if she thought up to the wedding and not one minute past it. I say this as someone why feels sympathy for her, because she has to put up with Will’s petty jealousy and has no room to spread her wings the way Meghan has. Harry isn’t jealous of or threatened by Meghan’s success–he knows she’s the brains of their operation. Kate, unfortunately, has followed the advice of whoever it was who said: “If you want to avoid criticism, do nothing and be nothing.”
I would really love to know the WHOLE truth about William-Katherine-Carole relationship and all things leading up to the marriage. I realize we know most of it but there still must be some unknown tidbits which if they saw the light of day would make the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly.
I think that the 10 years of waiting has been so white washed and forgotten lately. Even in how people talk about the younger generation of royals – it’s like that ten year period didn’t happen and William and Kate are nearing 30 and not 40. When you look at their lives and how little they’ve done and accomplished, it is sad. With their power, wealth, and influence, they could have done and been so much more. Instead we get Brooding Billy who feels he was robbed by life of a chance to live a normal life and resents it – instead of realizing that he was handed a life of immense privilege.
@Jen – are Katherine and William very different from other royal families, though? When I think of their contemporaries of similar age: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, etc – all have scandals and all have vanilla-as-possible-don’t-roll-their-sleeves-up attitudes towards work.
It is a shame that Kate did not make regular (daily) appearances in Wales after the wedding. It would have endeared her more to the Welsh citizens. I have to wonder if the current talk of splitting up the UK would have been less likely if Kate & Bill had made their country home in Wales or Scotland. I do think *all* the royals need to vacation domestically going forward instead of posh trips to the Caribbean, Switzerland, the French Alps or Spain. There are a lot of small towns in the UK that could really use the tourism publicity far more than the swarms of tourists flocking to Ibiza. Maybe they could buy Trump’s golf course in Turnberry?
A nice profile in a US magazine. Where are those who were saying the other day it’s only the UK audience PR efforts should be focused on?
On the Richard Curtis piece meant to say that hope this project is a success. I’ve said before that whilst I would prefer them giving the mic to the experts, I really do rate the Cambridges and Harry for their part in opening up and normalising discussions about mental health in the UK.
@ Rogue
Great question. Where are they? Hiding away in their troll caves until Meghan is the Royal in question. Then all of a sudden, her blinking becomes as grevious a sin as paedophilia.
If she wanted her kids to have a normal life shouldn’t had married a prince.
My first thought as well.
And if Diana didn’t want to die in a tunnel she wouldn’t have married a prince, right?
Yeah, no, but nice try.
I guarantee Diana wished she hadn’t married a prince. For a million reasons, including her tragic death.
smh
Diana chose to get in a car driven by a drunk. She chose to dismiss the team of RPOs Charles begged her to keep. She chose to target the Prince of Wales and lie about who she really was, because she was emotionally manipulative and wanted to marry a man who wasn’t legally allowed to divorce her. She also chose to have multiple affairs with married men, so obviously the sanctity of marriage and the evils of infidelity only applied to Charles and no one else.
SMDH indeed.
@Sarah, You may not choose to believe this but right up to the very end Diana wanted Camilla gone and Charles back. She did not give up on this hope deranged as it may seem.
By normal country life, what she really means is that she wants her kids to live like pampered aristocrats with all the money and privileges and none of the expectations of actually giving back. These two wouldn’t know normal if it jumped up and slapped them like a 40-hour workweek.
Lollll the aristo class doesn’t have enough money for their kids not to work. Not for a good hundred years or so.
This. They’re all out working, trying to make a living and keep those millstones around their necks (landed estates) from dragging them down.
@neners – exactly!
Normal according to what William thinks is normal, yes.
Yeah! How about a normal life, i.e. a cramped flat in a smoggy city rushing on the tube to drop kids at school and then rush to an office for 8 hours a day. Jaysus; I’d like to give my kids a country life too, but that just doesn’t exist anymore in the real world.
Will and Kate remind me of Marie Antoinette. Their version of normal is her little house, where she could go and play at being normal with no real responsibilities.
I really think shes unhappy. We know next to nothing about Kate except the fact that she apparently (and I say apparently because the stories that we hear are grossly sexist) chased William for a decade, has a controlling mother, like gardens, and coloring books. That is not a whole person, we dont know anything about her.
Which is why I was, and remain, so hesitant to say she is behind the smear campaign. I think she would do nothing but benefit from the spotlight being away from her. And this is my assumption, but William probably isnt fun to be married to. Harry probably isnt even fun to be married to, the royal family sucks – sorry there it is. It’s full of entitled narcissists, even the “good” ones wouldn’t give up their tax funded trips for a normal life.
I dont think she leaks the stories about herself, and I think most her “projects” involve her just listening, or handing the mic to someone else because that’s what she knows to do. I’m not going to drag Meghan or Kate, I think that gradually the limitations they have are wearing thin.
All that having been said, #abolishthemonarchy it’s a waste of money.
It’s not just what we hear, it’s also what we’ve seen.
“That is not a whole person, we dont know anything about her.”
Yes! This! The Stepford vibe is strong with Kate. To me, it’s all very 10-steps-back. I don’t admire her game.
None of them should ever usually the words normal life ever again unless they actually mean it. If they want a bloody normal life they’re free to give up their places in the royal line and their taxpayer funded lifestyles and go live ‘normally’. It’s 2019, it’s not like anyone is going to drag them back kicking and screaming to fulfill their royal duties.
Bill and Harry’s idea of a normal British life are the van Straubenzee and van Cutsem families. Lots or money with no public responsibilities.
Exactly BayTampaBay, none of them are trudging to Lidl or Aldi on a wet Wednesday on the bus because the car broke down, and they cannot afford repairs until the next payday at the end of the month. These people have no clue about “normal”, they are insulated from “normal”.
Bingo.
When Will and Kate talk about “normal lives” they mean two things – no press/media, and not having to do royal engagements.
They don’t mean giving up access to designers, diamonds, helicopters, country mansions, household staff, etc. Not by a long shot.
This is the first time I have stated this in a post but I have come to the conclusion that after Charles III the monarchy just needs to exit state left.
@btb -exactly (re the Van Cutsems & Percy’s etc)
@becks – yep-I’ve said it before -all the perks and none of the responsibilities.
And Bay that’s what I think will happen. William will never be king.
Trying to hide her wrinkle with Photoshop is an insult.Like if aging wasn’t normal.
She waited all that time because she wanted the position but she didn’t want to work to deserve it.
She wanted to be the next Diana without her charisma nor her work ethic.
Now all she does is running after Meghan trying to stay in the competition she imposed to herself because Meghan made it clear yesterday that she wasn’t in competition with the anyone.
Except For obsessively copying Diana’s wardrobe and that garden too expensive for a normal family.
I don’t what she did
Honestly, who cares!! Especially in America. Another spoiled, entitled do nothing.
Brits would be greatly served to abolish the whole archaic institution.
You want normal, give up your palaces, perks and other benefits.
That being said she does perfectly fit the mold of stepford queen-in-waiting.
Being American, I find it preposterous this family is supported and exalted.
With every article she looks more and more dumb. Dear Kate, you need to change PR strategy ASAP because it’s a huge flop.
I’m so tired of hearing about her and her desire for a normal life, if that’s what she wanted then she should have married a normal guy. Instead, she married a man that comes with a lifelong job attached to him so she should probably just get on with it and work.
This grown almost 40 woman is still trying to find her voice? Good god. By 40 those lazy habits arent going to change. This is what you get uk royal lovers. A subpar future king and queen. Meanwhile denmark, sweden and the rest of the european royals have actual working kings and queens. If that isnt karma for England I dont know what is.
“the rest of the European royals have actual working kings and queens.”
Especially Norway & Spain.
Very good point. All of the other queens and future queens–Mary, Maxima, Victoria, Matilde, Letizia–they all run CIRCLES around Kate. If you actually made a comparison chart, it would be the saddest, most pathetic thing to ever behold.
And they involve their children in their daily lives to introduce them to the roles they are growing into. They actually allow them to meet ordinary children!!
Weren’t gardens and the idealized country life Marie Antoinette’s “thing” as well???? Just saying.
She was actually actively involved in charity though, lol. Unlike our Keen Kate.
Wait though, she makes chutney too!!!
Revisionist history
She should hook up with Kanye then and move to his cabin.
Haha
A few thoughts and I’m biased because think the Cambridge’s are looking shady these days. First she gets this big spread in People, an American magazine, with quotes from friends, and no outrage or hand wringing from royal press about being scooped or bring undignified having anonymous sources speak for her. Royal double standard. Secondly she really seems like she has zero preparation for becoming a future monarchs wife and if she has , only thing we know of it is she knows protocol. I think she knows etiquette more than actual protocol, in the true sense of diplomacy and statecraft. This garden seems to be the one thing she has followed through on, but can she take it further? Things like access to and funding for parks, a nature project for inner city youth or preservation and access to green spaces, especially for low income people. Doubt it because it may get too political. Also with all going on in politics and the Queen being deceived by Boris Johnson on this parliament mess, never hear about her and William showing any interest in how the country actually works politically. The press go on about lack of access to the Sussex’s private life but we actually know less about this couple in many ways. They do seem like devoted parents and I actually think they like each other, but not totally in sync. They get a lot of leeway and free passes but do nothing g with it. That I find baffling. If they are not big ideas or projects, do the small gestures and just show up more, and follow through on what’s already started.
ITA. It seems to me that the “bread and butter” royal engagements, the bread festival in Village A, the butter festival in village B, unveil a plaque in Town C would be right up their alleys. Get out there, meet the people. No hard work, no preparation, no vision needed. Just dull duty. What’s starting to irk me is that the Cambridges seem to want the credit and exposure that big name, visionary projects could give them, but don’t want to do any work. A “Broken Britain” initiative from Kate? Really? That means talking about inequality, access to health care and child care, institutional racism, all kinds of things she seems not likely to engage in. Why not community gardens in inner cities? Other people build the gardens, she shows up, smiles, and waves. Or if that’s too much, then just show up at regularly scheduled cheese fairs and button fests et al. No brainer.
“but don’t want to do any work.”
I do not think they know HOW to do the work necessary for a “non-bread and butter” project.
Just leave! All of them!
But I wish Harry and Meghan all the happiness in the world and hope they can continue their philanthropy work privately.
Then she should have spared the tax payers the renovation on her massive apt in a palace in London. Give me a break.
Stupse.
I like Kate, I just thought she was so very bland, almost fearful. Or maybe this is just her public persona. Sometimes I wish she would do something to shock everybody, like wear feathers in her hair or jump in a pool with all her clothes on. Who knows, maybe she will one day, lol.
What’s the deal with Kate. Who is she? So many conflicting information written about Kate. What I see is a woman who never worked, spent 10 years waiting on a man, spent 7 years in that marriage spending lots of money and now we are to believe that all of that isn’t true that in fact she has been preparing to be the future Queen….none of it is logical. IMO, Kate wants the privilege without the work.
Want a normal life? Maybe don’t marry a prince. It doesn’t seem that difficult for me to figure out. *shrug*
Exactly! Not like she didn’t have plenty of time to change her mind.
I’m still not convinced that all of this isn’t Carole’s doing. I think Kate would have been perfectly happy pulling a Pippa, marrying a wealthy country man and living a private life with all the perks. The Midd Girls’ lives seem to have been mapped out since childhood by Mommy Dearest and poor James was left to flounder. That’s my take, anyway.
For absolutely no reason I’m just going to leave this here:
https://www.solosophie.com/hameau-de-la-reine/
So there is obviously lots to critique Kate for, but I really don’t get ragging on her for the length of time between her and Will meeting and them getting married. I mean, they met at uni while they were in their teens/very early twenties, then waited until they were very late twenties/early thirties to get married. Like, that seems pretty normal to me?
People would argue that the long courtship gave her plenty of time to get acclimated to the royal way of life and to understand the responsibilities, duties, etc. Her track record thus far is problematic to say the least. She had plenty of time prior to the wedding to change her mind if she was not up to the task (not to mention opportunities to meet plenty of rich aristocrats with no royal obligations).
Meghan on the other hand had a brief dating period before marriage, yet hit the ground running with her work ethic and strong desire to get to work and make a meaningful contribution.
We rag on her because William was unfaithful and publicly seeking other women to marry. Kate hung on through all of that, playing the long game no matter the cost. She was literally the last option he had when everyone else said no. And she didn’t DO anything during those years but shop and be at his beck and call. She never had a real job, didn’t do any philanthropic work, nothing. She seriously sat around on her butt and waited for a man to marry her. THAT is why we rag on her. And for the fact that she still hasn’t really done anything since becoming the DoCam.
She was touted as being so ready for the BRF because she had let William string her along for a decade, and then a complete 180 was pulled when they finally married. All of that preparedness went down the toilet and suddenly she needed time to adjust, and so on. It’s the hypocrisy and laziness that get us.
Sophie and Edward started dating in 1993, married in 1999. Nobody rags on Sophie because she worked the entire time, at a PR and Marketing Agency and later with her own firm.
Victoria and Daniel dated for eight years before marrying. Nobody rags on Daniel because he worked the entire time. He paid rent after he moved into the Palace with Victoria the year before they got engaged. And nobody rags on Daniel because the king was publicly against the heir marrying a former personal trainer who owned a string of gyms. He approved his son marrying the p 0 r n model, but the businessman wasn’t considered good enough.
I don’t think any of the above criticisms are actually Kate’s fault. Someone commented that all the future Queens can run circles around Kate. This observation rings true, but it’s true for all the other royals in the world compared to the English royal family. She married into a depressing family, as did Meghan.
Kate is not a child so if she is being criticized for not doing as many engagements as other UK royals, then she is to blame for that. Sophie works at least triple the engagements and has from day one even though she will never be future queen. She also has two young children still. Why is it ok for Sophie to be expected to do numbers in the hundreds, but poor little Kate can barely get 100 done in a year?
Um, horrible Andrew almost 400 engagements a year. Edward and Sophie together 500. Anne 500+. Charles 500+
Other people in the British Royal Family work, just not W&K.
Look, I think we can all agree that Kate has grown into her roll, but “REGAL!?”
Honey, please.
Meh. I have no doubt that’s exactly what she wanted. I also don’t doubt she actually does love William and that the public side was more difficult to acclimate to. There’s no shame in wanting that for your kids and in liking gardens. Lord, I will never understand the monarchy and how any woman decides to marry in other than true love, because Lord knows a woman can’t put a foot right UNLESS she’s being compared favorably to another woman who is now her arch-nemesis. Kate wants pretty gardens and mainly just raising kids around pretty gardens. Meghan is more comfortable in the spotlight and likes cookbooks and fashion capsules. Meghan’s thing is more my scene, but there’s completely room in the world for both. We don’t have to hate one and love the other, we can just like both, but sure, here we are. The monarchy makes no sense to me tbh
She reminds me of the character May Welland from Age of Innocence. Model wife on paper, never puts a foot wrong, but manipulating as well. It’s like she missed 2 whole centuries of women’s progress. Also I’m disappointed that someone with a degree in art history does so little to champion up and coming British artists, or promoting the cultural heritage of Britain and supporting arts in schools. What exactly does her patronage of a National Portrait Gallery and that photography one involve? You hear very little of that, and you’d think that would be a passion and strength. I really don’t get why they keep chasing the Sussex news cycle and initiatives when she could do so much more with what’s already on her plate. No wonder people seem so disappointed in her and William. This whole petty competition and undermining makes no sense and comes across as not only lazy, but undignified and wanting to steal credit where it’s not due. The press is not doing them any favors with this sexist nonsense.