This is Us Weekly’s cover story this week: “What Is Princess Kate Really Like?” I mean, we can absolutely judge her from her years in the public eye, her open behavior, her manipulated photos, her Hallmark-style videos and her creepy copykeening, but hey, I guess we need to be told what Kate is “really like” by royal reporters and James Middleton. Would you believe that Kate walks on water, that she’s truly the most glamorous AND the most humble person ever? No, no one believes that. It does bring up an interesting point though – where is Kate? No one will say. Some highlights from Us Weekly:
James Middleton on Kate: “Catherine is very much on a public stage and I’m in awe of a lot of the things she does. I think the thing I’m most proud of is that she’s still the same person that I grew up with.”
The perfect pupil: In high school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Kate made friends easily and did well in her classes. “Contemporaries recall her as the perfect pupil, listening to her Walkman, watching… Friends and indulging in Marmite sandwiches,” Robert Jobson writes.
Unpretentious Kate! A former boss at one of Kate’s first jobs (she was an assistant buyer at the clothing brand Jigsaw in 2006) says the future queen was “down-to-earth and unpretentious,” adding, “She sat in the kitchen at lunchtime and chatted with everyone from the van drivers to the accounts girls. She wasn’t precious.”
Ordinary Kate: “She’s so ordinary!” British pop star Cheryl Cole said after their 2012 meeting. “I mean, obviously, she isn’t because she’s a princess, but she’s easy to get along with.” Former first lady Hillary Clinton called herself a “great admirer” of Kate’s, adding, “I think she carries herself with such dignity and poise in the public spotlight.” The Duchess of Edinburgh (William’s aunt Sophie and a close confidante of Kate’s) has said the princess is “very easy to get along with” and “very much the girl next door.”
Kate has been going to the gym: Jobson tells Us: “Kate is very sporty. She goes to the gym regularly and has been doing that during her convalescence, too.”
Kate has a silly sense of humor: Royal author Christopher Andersen says Kate also has a lighter side and can be quite cheeky. “William and Kate have always shared a goofy sense of humor,” Andersen tells Us. “It’s very Monty Python — they both crack up at things that are just plain silly.”
James Middleton on William & Kate: James agrees that Kate and William are “so clearly a good fit, just right for each other.” He tells Us that he admires their strong bond. “I wanted one day to experience what they were experiencing as a couple,” James says, adding that he’s come to view William as part of the family. “Having been brought up…with strong, capable women surrounding me, I’ve enjoyed having this older brother-type figure to bounce questions [off of]. I’m just incredibly grateful that [Kate and William] have been supportive of me over these years as well.”
“I’ve enjoyed having this older brother-type figure” – poor Terrible Moderately Wealthy James Matthews. Matthews even invested in his brother-in-law’s marshmallow business when the royals were horrified by it. Anyway, it’s interesting to watch all of this unfold in real time, the saccharine rewrite on Kate’s character and history. The only thing I believe here is that Kate really IS “ordinary.” That’s one of the big secrets – William wanted ordinary. He didn’t want special or charismatic or hard-working or dynamic. He wanted someone sort of dull and uninteresting.
Cover courtesy of Us Weekly, additional photos courtesy of Will Warr/Kensington Palace and Cover Images.
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I very much doubt Hillary Clinton is a fan of Kate. James is going wild with the what kates really like talk. An us magazine tribute to keen.
Keens co workers at jigsaw rarely saw her. She was not there for long and she did not have to work when William called. Kate is also lacking in women friends.
There is a whole article from the Jigsaw boss that confirms she was barely there and had to be on call because of her famous boyfriend. That’s not even close to normal. And she lasted about 3 months anyway.
Lets not forget the setup pap strolls going into their offices – Ma was making sure her little snowflake was photographed going into ‘work’.
One of the ways that I thought KP would try to respond to stories about Meghan as ” duchess difficult”, making her employees cry or leave or whatever, would be to try to build up Kate. Remember when they tried to sell her as a “top CEO”?? You’d think that they could find someone, anyone, that worked for Keen to talk about how warm she is/was, how competent she is, how much she cares about the work…etc. it shouldn’t be hard, but unless I’m missing something, the rota haven’t ever tried this avenue? Doesn’t that suggest that they can’t find anyone to say nice things about her keen work ethic?
She was also not an assistant buyer. They had her helping in accessories in some manner. Mostly she took phone calls from Willie Boy.
Hmm, why is he talking about Kate? I thought he got the interview because of his book or something? Interesting we got this after Meghan’s issue. I guess, they are trying to go both ways: one issue for Meghan, one for Kate, so no one is unhappy. Considering the editor is former People editor, it makes sense.
She’s the only vaguely interesting thing about him.
His wife might be interesting. I wonder: what is she thinking?
Actually, the dog the book is supposed to be about is more interesting. He should stick to the dog stories.
I doubt that this US Weekly article will generate the ludicrous ‘one sided’ hysteria that the article quoting current and former Archewell employees re: Meghan did last week. Can’t imagine why.
Yep no articles about how they can’t be believed. No pushback on her brother talking about her in public, and airing laundry in public. No snarky articles saying pass me the Halo, at the descriptions of her. Just simple she was super nice, down to earth, everyone loves her, she was a fantastic student and any evidence to the contrary is to be ignored. Just like Meghan is the devil incarnate, narcissistic, jealous, and consumed with destroying the British monarchy and all evidence to the contrary is to be ignored.
Ain’t that the truth. Such nonsense makes me ashamed to be British.
How will they ever be able to trust James Middleton again? Everything they say might end up in a book! 😏🙄
Honestly, it feels like the midds saw Meghan’s positive cover at usweekly and said bet. Of course there won’t be a backlash and of course there couldn’t be a positive article about meghan without a literal follow-up the next week that says see people like the other duchess too. I get that it coincides with Jame’s book promo but still. It feels like a reaction.
The timing just feels too weird. I also think this is part of James’ attempt to get Americans to buy his book. So maybe something was already planned re: James and they wrote this as a follow up to the Meghan story. a lot of these quotes are old – its not like they got Hillary Clinton on the record last week.
After Meghan’s friends went to People to fight back against the lies, People suddenly became Kate’s Mag of choice. So no it’s US. She’s so transparently pathetic.
That cover picture both does and does not look like Kate. Who took that? And when?
They photoshopped the hell out of her but the dress seems to be from one of the Earthshot attendances. Not the one with the ugly green dress so the other one I guess.
It’s from the first Earthshot. But yeah…..holy photoshop. It reminds me of the weird People mag picture from maybe 5 years ago about Kate and she looked like Mary of Denmark. Like there’s touching up and then there’s…..this.
It seems to be the new norm to use old pictures of her and “tweak” them. I wonder if 10 years from now they are still going to use old pictures from years ago.
I was squinting at the picture thinking the same thing. Is that really her? Her eyebrows seemed to have been cropped off someone else and pasted on her. Very strange. It ends up looking fake with the super white teeth.
I saw it and my first thought was ‘holy AI photoshop man’. While she’s had some sort of work done on her face in the past several months there is no amount of make up or surgery that would make her look like that.
And if I’m gonna be petty, Meghan’s cover last week looked like Meghan. She glowed. Bc yeah, this cover looks like Kate but also doesn’t? Is it from one of her bafta appearances or maybe the earthshot from when it was in London? Just saw @nic919’s guess and yep agree. It was a dress she wore before maybe in LA and was then recycled for earthshot. Think that was also when William wore the green velvet?
It’s been photoshopped, her teeth are far too white to be real. They have smoothed out lines running down from the dimples to her chin as well. In fact, they look weird.
William followed his father’s advice and did what his grandmother told him to do: Marry an attractive-enough woman to stand next to you at the ribbon cutting, but one who won’t outshine you or become independent from you. And mission accomplished.
Kate is an attractive-enough empty chipher.
I think William married an enabler of his laziness. The queen even asked what Kate did when she was idling about before she got the ring.
Isn’t it her brother James Middleton quoted here? Not BIL Matthews?
I think Kaiser was just pointing out that JAmes Middleton wa shouting out Pegs even though it was Matthews who actually helped him out.
James gets his picture on the cover and 15 minutes of fame. James should be helping at animal shelters and promoting adoption of rescue pets. More interesting than the what Kate is really like story.
He breeds dogs himself. Do you really believe he actually gives a flying fart about rescue animals? He contributes to that problem and they cut into his profits.
The fact that she has no close girlfriends speaks volumes. The fact that she doesn’t use her massive platform to help others speaks volumes. The fact that she didn’t defend her sister and brother-in-law speaks volumes. We don’t need to have met her to see right through her. She is lazy, insecure, dull, and mean-spirited.
Is the British press going to complain that this piece is one-sided? It doesn’t seem like James Middleton knows her as a person.
Who paid for this saccharin babble? Saint Kate, too posh to poop. Never puts a foot wrong, has no enemies, barf barf. Loved by all.
The rf don’t like being eclipsed – obvious by their treatment of women who did just that.
She’s so ordinary!
During the Uni dating and waity years i remember thinking she seemed very cold and unapproachable. Even her pics with Chelsy Davy she seems uninterested.
People who knew Katty at Uni said that she was stand offish and a cold fish – Pippa was the one who was described as the friendly outgoing one.
She just seems boring. I think they lean into her competitiveness to try to make her seem more interesting but it doesn’t really work.
And we’ve had a few posters on here who have said they knew Kate at St Andrews and that she didn’t do the work in group projects and wasn’t especially nice to anyone who couldn’t help her get William.
There were also comments from years ago in a Jezebel article where many claimed kate copied off of others in class and one of them tried to set her up with fake answers.
If Kate was intelligent, we would have seen evidence of it in the last few decades. We haven’t.
What is Kate really like, besides keen?
Lazy, intellectually incurious, bit of an exhibitionist, haughty — a racist, someone who doesn’t get along with other women.
@Nanea
Even my keyboard is bored with Waity
Interesting tit bit that she’s being going to the gym during her recovery – she’s clearly well enough to hit the gyn daily, attend the tennis and ballet and ‘checks notes’ film a cheap TV ad BUT still can’t or should I say won’t do her duties and work for her supper.
Slowly slowly its coming out that she hasn’t been as ‘ill’ as they’ve been saying.
Yeah, that struck me, too — she can go to the gym, but not to a cancer clinic to highlight the work being done by the nurses, doctors and other staff there?
That stood out to me as well. I mean maybe she’s going for some aqua therapy or something else low key to help in her recovery but that’s not the vibe given off here. It makes it sound like she’s going the same as she always has because that’s what she prioritizes.
Not sure if you listened to the interview Meredith constant did with Anna Pasternak on her substack but she is behind the Tatler article and if you recall one of the issues Kate had in that article was all the extra work she was going to have to do now that Harry and Meghan left.
The interview is worth a listen for a whole bunch of other reason, but I raise this because Kate’s been lazy forever. She wasn’t even working that much before Meghan and Harry left. But now it is even less.
What’s interesting to me about that very specific detail about her still going to the gym during her convalescence is that it came from Jobsen. I think he wrote a book about Kate but he’s mainly considered a go-to for Charles and his people. So do Charles and Camilla want us to know that yes Kate is well enough to go the gym. Listen, if a person has cancer and can go to the gym, good for them. Kate can clearly go the gym, tennis games and ballets.
That’s been obvious since that first outing. Chuckles looked like death warmed over and she looked fresh as a daisy. Even with youth on her side, a person recently as sick with cancer as we were told would still have some obvious residual wornness to her. Someone yesterday said they don’t believe Chuckles ever had cancer, I disagree. Either that or his makeup artists are far more talented in faking the look of illness than hers. Because you can’t tell me for a second she did the glow-up makeup and look herself.
The picture of her hugging a girl with cancer really makes it obvious she didn’t experience the same thing at all. Plus her lower jaw looks tighter than ever.
The public has not been told the entire story here. Especially not when she’s been acting like she has leverage over William despite being done treatment.
I like the headline being a question.
Oh gosh what is she like, a few guesses
Unseasoned chicken
Room temperature vanilla pudding
Canned beans on white toast
“Room temperature vanilla pudding” 😂😂
Interesting that we have all this saccharine about St Catherine of Windsor but, no words defending her. I mean he could have told us that St. Catherine of Windsor didn’t have concerns about Archie’s colour and didn’t look to monetise pictures of him when he was a baby. He could have even told us the “truth” about the bridesmaid debacle. Instead we get a puff piece regurgitating half truths and fairy tales.
Because they’re at least smart enough to realise that the Sussexes keep copious notes and receipts. And that they’re not afraid to pull them out, if need be. Saying anything false that contradicts what receipts are already out there would be asking for lawsuits, which they also know that the Sussexes aren’t afraid to file.
“Goofy?” “Monty Python”??? Please.
These two have been together for nearly 20 years, and we’ve never seen that. The closest I have ever seen to “joking” from these two is one time, on a tour of New Zealand (?) they visited a sheep that had been shorn and Kate “jokingly” offered her husband some of the offcuts to cover his balding head. Har har. And I guess her shoving a bug in his face during an earthshot event was a “joke”, because (I guess) it’s so funny that someone would eat a bug?
As for William, the only “jokes” I can remember him making are at other people’s expense. There’s no self-awareness or silliness, it’s just mean.
Monty Python absolutely did silly sketches, but the reason they worked is the awareness of the absurdity around them, and the sense that they were punching up. If William can watch the famous sketch “Upper Class Twit of the year”and not realize it’s about him and his cronies, that should tell you a lot.
These two do jokes in an passive aggressive competition with each other but nothing witty.
OMG, just watched that! Yikes! The rabbit shooting! Mollusc ran over himself! Spot on, Monty Python!
Didn’t she say she was bullied at school?
I also read an article from a classmate who said that Kate really didn’t have friends at Malborough until Pippa joined the school.
She’s white. Apparently that’s all that’s necessary to win the favor of the rota and a large portion of the British public.
You can be a social climber, inattentive to your duties — lazy as hell even — but as long as you’re a white princess, you’re perfect.
White and thin, I think, is the magic sauce!
Hmm. A perfect pupil doesn’t show her buttocks from her dormitory window.
I was going to say that! There was talk of her copying off of classmates’ papers, too. All she did at uni was to try and be everywhere Will was, including the other side of the planet when he went to Chile. All the while with Carole behind her trying to push her into Will’s bed.
On the rare occasion she turned up at Jigsaw, why wouldn’t she sit and talk to others? Who was she then? An ordinary young woman dating a royal? Like, so? That hardly warranted “special” status.
I agree that’s what William wanted. A generic, ordinary… is doormat too harsh? Anyways, no charisma to compete with. Though none of this is new.
By then she was William’s girlfriend. And got lots of photos taken with him going to clubs and on vacations. She did nothing for a long time after she got the degree. Kate’s employer Belle Robinson set up the work (she was friends of Kate’s parent) so Kate could literally come and go as she pleased. William wanted someone lazy so she would not try to motivate him to work more. Kate thought she deserved “status” as the one dating William.
No one, woman or man, could ever make themselves small enough as to not threaten Wills. He chose an ordinary girl with no other ambition but to marry him, and he still can’t stand her breathing now that she’s provided the kids. She’s boring, mean, and petty, and he’s awful.
Wow this fluff piece gives KP knows Kate’s reputation in the US is trash. She’s been on the royal scene for 13 years so people should know her by now. Oprah, Spare and Piers Morgan’s outing of her “concern” of Archie’s skin color really did damage. The FrankenPhoto made things worse. I think James Middleton’s US press blitz is part of the deal between the the Windsors and the Middletons: clean up Kate’s image while you hawk your book.
Sounds about right.
Piers outed her as the Royal Racist? Must have missed that. How delightful. 🤣
this is an underhanded companion hit-piece about Meghan — and the trope “she’s a mean boss and bullies people”. Here they are trying to suggest that a woman who barely works and never works hard, is a “down to earth” and “SPORTY” manager. She’s a couple pixels shy of a cartoon there.
Like the road runner…mep mep
when she visits her charities she is away again very, very fast
Kate gets the ultimate white woman edit. Meaning she’s thin, conventionally pretty, fertile, and silent. No one expects anything else from her, or demands anything else from her. If she makes five appearances a year, she’ll be okay for the rest of her life.
The “Kate model” is being increasingly rejected as outdated and dysfunctional. No one cares if she has any kind of interior life, any sense of personhood. She’s just a symbol. It doesn’t even look like an aspirational way to live anymore, and it’s not the lived experience of other European married-in queens and queens to be. Kate’s a relic, and she’ll be brought out, dusted off, displayed, then put back on the shelf.
Three words to describe Kate : boring, mean girl.
James kind of sounds like he’s pathetically sad that the British media has chosen him to be replacing Harry as William’s TRUE brother.
Well well, looks like KP’s comm’s team is reading these boards again as a photo has just been released of Keen and Peggy meeting a young cancer patient at Windsor (apparently it was part of her bucket list wish).
I wonder is she’s going to be made to work more given the backlash.
The real question is why couldn’t they just have worked the bread and butter from the beginning? Why are WanK so content to toss out photos that may or may not be doctored as examples of ‘work’ when they could have been consistently seen by the public, built a reputation. Kate nearly did do, became ‘the face’ of the family, before it all went weird in January. They have the worst of all possible worlds now; the public are indifferent and resentful over the amount of money the royals get and while they don’t like the optics that WanK can’t attract crowds, they also seem phobic about allowing any independent scrutiny or opportunities for candid photos of WanK they can’t control.
It’s sinister and I wait impatiently for the day the truth about these two comes out.
I had to change channels. Abc news conferred saint hood on Kate with this story. Then clips of her romp in the field are shown.
So.. whose choice to splash this on US Weekly after the Sussex story?
Kikiki she’s absolutely mean behind the scenes and we’re never gonna be gaslit to believe different
I wonder what prompted him to refer to her as “Catherine”. Her family doesn’t call her Kate anymore?
This whole new (ish) Catherine thing these last weeks has got me wondering. Why, and why now?
Is she perhaps to be known in the near future as HRH Catherine ………
Just saying.
Having her brother calling her Catherine is the only thing I need to know about the veracity of his statements in the book..
She’s already HRH. She’ll be HM once egg ascends.
Snobbish as little Ms. Bucket is, wouldn’t surprise me if this is just her toffee nosed way of “preparing” her image for being “queen.” She’s chomping at the bit for the role and no one calls a queen by her nickname, after all. So ruddy common. Funny, that.
My meaning above alludes to some possible, significant, change of title for her connected with her marriage……. not any succession issues.
Charles is, hopefully, going to be around for some time so neither W nor K will be troubled with HM titles in the foreseeable future.
holy photoshop batman! That is all
Where are these “friends”?
One more thing – not a great pic – she looks smug and gloating – no warmth at all coming out of those eyes. And the grimace of a smile.
And… Queen of Hearts is it – after Prince of Hearts was a headline for a minute. These people are reaaaaly something. What miserable lives.
Smug and gloating has been her permanent expression since after the wedding. She can just taste her “coronation” now. And so can Ma Bucket. That’s what all this “Catherine” palaver is all about- preparing to be “legitimised” when Chuckles snuffs it. Not long now!
I am being picky or is it a coincidence that Wills and Kate are photographed with a sick child just after Harry appeared at the well child awards. It seems when Harry does good works it puts a fire under wills and Kate. They just seem to copy Harry and Meghan all the time . No warmth in their meeting though very formal and cold.
🤔🤔🤔
Not at all picky, that’s something to consider…
《A former boss at one of Kate’s first jobs》…JOBS? AS IN PLURAL? I don’t remember her working anywhere but at jigsaw for a couple of months and her parents company….are they trying to rewrite her history?
Is this saccharine article in response Meghan’s staff’s defense of her?
HOLY PHOTOSHOP.
I can’t focus on anything else. It’s just too egregious.
That’s what I’m saying! People were derisive of that Tatler painting of her but it was really pithy and accurate. Kate’s face ‘looks like Kate’ in all these different pictures but her face has not looked the same at all! Do any of us know what Princess Catherine actually looks like?!