As I was looking through years of archived photos of the Duchess of Cambridge for this story, I was reminded once again of how few appearances Queen Elizabeth has made with Kate. For the past three years especially, whenever Kate and the Queen are at the same event, they’re usually buffered by other royals, handlers or dignitaries. There’s some doubt in my mind as to how much time the Queen has actually spent speaking to Kate in any capacity. I bring this up because ITV is releasing more quotes from Kate’s interview for The Queen at Ninety documentary which will air soon enough in the UK. On Sunday, we covered the first excerpts and clips, in which Kate’s uber-posh accent confused many. Now we have a new excerpt: Kate used a family recipe to make chutney for the Queen!
Working out what to buy your in-laws for Christmas can be testing enough but it is surely near impossible when they happen to be the Queen. However, in a rare and exclusive interview the Duchess of Cambridge reveals that she was in that exact predicament during her first Christmas with her royal highness.
She says: ‘I can remember being at Sandringham, for the first time, at Christmas. And I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, “Gosh, what should I give her?”‘
In her interview as part of a documentary celebrating the Queen’s 90th birthday, Kate reveals that she turned to her own grandmother’s recipe to handcraft her gift.
She continued: ‘I thought, “I’ll make her something.” Which could have gone horribly wrong. But I decided to make my granny’s recipe of chutney. I was slightly worried about it, but I noticed the next day that it was on the table. I think such a simple gesture went such a long way for me and I’ve noticed since she’s done that on lots of occasions and I think it just shows her thoughtfulness, really, and her care in looking after everybody.’
The touching anecdotes from the Duchess are part of Our Queen At Ninety, a historic two-hour ITV documentary which will be broadcast for the first time on Easter Sunday.
Should I have strong feelings about a Middleton-family chutney recipe since I’m half-Indian? I don’t really care, mostly because I don’t care about chutney (flame on!!). I’ve heard this kind of thing before, from Kate’s hagiographer Katie Nicholl. Nicholl claimed that Kate is actually sort of decent in the kitchen, that she can cook and that she makes homemade stuff like this for Christmas presents. It’s also sort of well-known that the royal family doesn’t do big, extravagant Christmas presents, and that the Queen prefers either simple, inexpensive gifts or homemade stuff. All that being said… Kate doesn’t say that the Queen ate the chutney, just that the Queen put it on the table. Ha.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I cannot understand most of what she is saying! Native Britons, can you understand her? Is it just my being from the US?
English is not my first language and I have no problem understanding her, I think she’s speaking pretty clearly. But her accent sounds a bit snobbish to me.
Same.
I can understand her just fine (Australian here).
It’s her fake, faux-posh accent.
She has a case of the Madonna’s.
I watched an interview with Pippa yesterday, just in order to compare/contrast the sisters’ accents. And while Pippa’s accent is far from rough, it is certainly miles away from Kate’s weird, affected accent, and is much more charming and natural. Perhaps Kate shies away from talking and engaging with people because she is deeply insecure about her accents (the real one and now – since everyone has noticed – the fake posher-than-posh one).
I don’t understand the difference in English accents. Is it like a Jersey accent compared to a Southern accent?
I am from Texas and my speech is full of yall’s and fixin to’s.
This is posh accent 2.0. This sounds very different from her previous posh accent because she’s speaking much faster than before. And the Middleton arriviste thing with the pinky signet rings and Kate with this evolving posh accent is so effin cringeworthy and just plain bizarre!
I’ve never heard her speak before (now I’ll be looking up interviews etc) but I think she’s really easy to understand, much easier than Charles. My friend married a guy from Manchester and she said that at first he was very difficult to understand and that the farther away you get from London, the more the accent changes. He’s been living in the States for over 10 years, still has the accent but nothing like before.
Watch Green Street Hooligans and you’ll see the difference…
Yeah, you can really hear the difference when Pippa speaks — you’d think she’d also put on the ritz with all the stories about her being a social climber, but it’s quite the opposite.
@JustJen I love when accents start to blend with ours! You never know how they’re going to pronounce a word lol
@kcarp It’s the difference between George W. Bush and Jeb Bush. GW spent his formative years in Midland and Jeb spent his in Houston.
Its incredibly strange, she seems to slur some of her words, clip others and mispronounce others. The very last word in the interview made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but like me she could have problems with getting words out properly. I think William speaks with a rather “posh” voice and maybe she is trying to mimic him … i dont know what the hell she’s up to but it sounds ridiculous.
She seems to weave various sounds into her speech. I had a tough time understanding her last video.
The first time I watched The Office (original from UK) I had to watch it with captions. I think it depends on how frequently you are hearing that kind of accent because after a few episodes I understood it fine. Her accent is difficult for me to understand the first time through because it’s just so inconsistent. And I didn’t know what a walkabout was.
Kate’s fake posh accents sounds like she stepped out of a WW2 British Pathe news reel. Google them and after you listen to an announcer you will hear what i mean.
I think it was an appropriate gift and the Queen was thoughtful to put it on the table. No problem with this, except that Kate pretends she’s telling a story about the Queen when it’s really about her.
This + 1,000! All her comments on the Queen are all about Kate.
Yes, which is telling about her personality. Also, these little anecdotes reveal just how much she hasn’t been with the Queen. They reveal nothing about Her Majesty except that she’s polite. And who doesn’t know that?
Two things from this — It’s more about Kate than HM, and (at age 90) the Queen takes care of everybody.
Adding a third observation, it sounds as if she has hardly been around the Queen.
Kate is always about her – she has zero interest in others. She has always come across as very self absorbed and the interviews just prove it.
Plus the homemade Chutney is such a Party Pieces/PippaTips shtick but she made the effort.
Does anyone remember when she was going to throw Harry a 30th birthday party and make Beef Wellington’s for everybody? Everything homemade! By herself! Then a few days before the party she cancelled it, on account of nearly dying from HG. Poor Harry spent his birthday at a pub with a few mates. Remember when she was going to start an organic baby food company? Remember when she was going to start a clothing line for children? Remember when she was going to intern for Mario Testino? Remember when she was going to be the Children’s Princess with her Hospice work, so close to her heart? Remember when 2014 was going to be the Year of Kate, when she finally stepped out of William’s shadow? Remember when she told her aides to fill up her diary? And that other time when she told her aides to fill up her diary? I’ll stop now. I’m hungry for chutney.
@ Red Snapper
I remember that. She was also going to make fish pies and Eton mess too. And wasn’t it going to be for large group of guests? Not just a a few or several.
Red Snapper, you have just made me laugh out loud. Katie Laze Quitter – strikes often and with total laze quitting commitment.
@ Red Snapper…………thanks for the laugh this morning!
I love you, Red Snapper.
Haha Red Snapper!
Oh, boy!! I remember that party she cancelled. I think that was the beginning of the end for her “friendship” with Harry. He barely even looks at her not when they are together, when he used to be quite friendly and joking to her.
Maybe she suffers from social anxiety? If she does, she certainly set her cap for the wrong fellow!
Red Snapper, I want to give you all the prizes for making me laugh! Perfect!
Agreed. All of her comments are about her, and her kids. And what struck me is that the only anecdote she really had of being with the Queen personally was four years ago, in 2012. Has she done any other events with Kate and the Queen being close and interacting? I haven’t seen any pics. I bet the Queen can’t stand her.
And a commenter on the Daily Mail called Kate, “the human form of beige.” Perfect!!!
LOL! “The human form of beige.” Fits Kate to a tee.
HA @ Kaiser. Chutney is a legacy of empire so ingrained that it’s a genuine part of the British psyche now. Like tea! More a synonym of pickle than an embarrassing failed appropriation like tikka massala or chow mein. For example, if you rejected my wondrous rhubarb chutney, I would have your guts for garters. It’s bloody lovely, even if I say so myself. And I’m sure it’s much nicer than Katie Laze Quitter’s.
Dare I ask that you share said recipe with us who appreciate a good chutney? I’ve made peach chutney but rhubarb….my mouth is watering!
Yes, rhubarb chutney does sound really good. Share, Sixer?
Remind me, Sixer, to never tell you that I can’t stand chutney, and a good life can be lived without ever eating it! 😆
I’d feed it to the corgis.
Heresy!
I looove rhubarb, Sixer. Can you post the recipe??
Mmmmm…. rhubarb!
I make something called rhubarb fool, which is essentially a rhubarb compote mixed with whipped cream. It tastes great with a liquorice sauce.
I love you for the Katie Laze Quitter.
Also I am skeptical of rhubarb chutney. Isn’t rhubarb super bitter?
Recipe based on http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/quick-rhubarb-chutney/. I double the ginger and cut the sugar by a bit.
INeedANap – I’d say tart rather than bitter, which makes it perfect for chutney. I love rhubarb. Rhubarb crumble rocks.
DH’s absolute favorite thing is rhubarb and he doesn’t like it too sweet so this sounds perfect!
Wonderful – thanks Sixer!
I accept that challenge and will make some this weekend. Thanks!
@Sixer,
I see what you mean about the influence of the empire. I have read about Coronation Chicken for years and then finally saw the recipe and was pleasantly surprised that the main ingredient after the chicken itself is curry.
India in particular as part of empire, as much as subsequent immigration, has had a huge effect on British culture and everyday language. Much, much, much more than most Britons realise. We have reasons to be grateful for it and to be considerably more cognisant than we are about, well, the less said about the evils of empire, the better. Just in case someone comes along to tell us that it wasn’t all bad. They usually do.
And the influence on English language is enormous – just some of the Indian words that have become commonplace in English are bungalow, pajamas, shampoo, thug, bandanna, juggernaut, mantra, mugger, loot guru and avatar.
@Jaded,
Thanks for sharing that!
Yes to Jaded! It went like this: a large proportion of the upper classes went off to India to be civil service administrators. And, what with being toffs an’ all, didn’t dream of bringing up their own children. So many, many upper class Brits of the era spent their first twelve years on the planet submerged with their “ayahs” in Indian culture. And brought it all back with them when eventually packed off to Eton and Harrow. As did the retirees once their East India Company duty was done and they returned home. Indian culture has been an integral part of British life long before the postwar immigration period.
Sixer, I’ve been partial to calling K The Parvenu but I may take Laze Quitter out for a few trial runs.
How carry she is? She speaks horribly.
she is reminding me of English literature at the end of each novel questions are asked what particular scenes in novel says what about the character in question and then you go blah blah shows blah about the character.
Genius! Genius!
#poorjason did Royal Cliff Notes for Katie Laze Quitter to use in interviews! This mental picture makes me happy!
O M Goodness Yes!!!!
Wow, she did something nice 5 years ago…………….why is it news now?
ha I was just about to say that….she has to think back FIVE years to come up with something to say for this documentary. They haven’t let her near the Queen since!
If she’s a good cook, she can consider making that her charity focus ie. plan menus and help to serve food to the poor on a regular basis or get involved in school lunches and school nutrition alongside Jamie Oliver, for example. Oy why am I suggesting this. Jason, you there?
Jason is probably getting his parachute ready, because it is time to bail out of this ‘crisis PR’ assignment.
I wouldn’t take nutritious advice from her – she’s always emaciated.
This!
You mean be active and involved and outspoken and dig community gardens and go out to schools to dance with kids and promote good nutrition like Michelle Obama? : )
Wow, has she ever been primed! I don’t believe for a second that she made the chutney. It’s also possible that it is an absolute lie, courtesy of her PR. She isn’t remotely that thoughtful or creative. If she had even one brain cell, it would die of loneliness. In fact, I don’t believe her at all.
There she goes, talking about the queen’s “care in looking after everybody”. That’s all that Dolittle cares about, being looked after. This faux tale is all about Dolittle.
I’m also remembering Waity’s groceries while living in Wales- a lot of wine and frozen pizza.
Ditto – I have a hard time picturing her preparing anything remotely complex by herself.
When the organic baby food idea was floated, I was skeptical. Would have to see a video, and even then wouldn’t believe she does it beyond that. Watches someone else do it, sure.
She’s reportedly attended at least one fairly prestigious cookery course in London in the past few years, and Pippa has also been seen on cooking courses in the past. It’s the classic thing to do if you’re rich in time and money with little idea of what to do.
I don’t think she’s an exceptional cook by any standards, but surely she got in a very decent amount of practice when she was waiting for the ring and now between her sparse engagements? I went to an independent girls’ school and we had cookery lessons as standard for several years – I would think Kate’s would have been similar, and surely Carole would have made sure she had some grasp of cooking to ensure she hooked William as the picture of domestic bliss?
From what I can remember, it was a one-on-one tutorship, not in a class with other students, and she skipped out on some tutoring appointments.
She may be a culinary whiz by her own ability and initiative, but I just cannot picture it being remotely commonplace. Nor can I believe Wills plants and harvests a garden, or even oversees it, following his ‘bespoke’ agricultural course. They both seem far too unmotivated.
Iirc, they were with Rachel Khoo and cost +£1k. She didn’t complete the course, of course.
Pippa spent her gap year in gourmet school. The article stated the 1 year course was 30,000 pounds. (my laptop doesn’t have the British pound symbol)
They had a cook and housekeeper in Wales. The staged shopping photos were just that, staged. She took a basic cooking course a year or two in to the marriage, all while she was saying she was too busy or too sick to work. Maybe her mother made it.
Just because you have a cook does not mean you never cook or can’t cook. In fact it becomes more like a fun hobby when it is not a obligation.
And surely anyone can cook one thing and homemade gifts are common for the royal family so it did not take her much though either. This is such a tiny thing it is kind of silly to think it is a lie even if you otherwise loathe her.
Gag gifts are usual for the BRF, homemade ones aren’t.
I think it is funny that their PR was pushing the image of Kate Middleton, full-time military housewife who cannot work BUT had a cook and housekeeper. Turns out she was in London 3 days a week and blew off the RAF wives at the same time. It is another set of facts that pokes holes in their “we’re normal” routine.
Considering how the Middleton family dynamic is, Carole would have known that Kate was thinking of giving chutney made from her grandmother’s recipe to the Queen for the first Xmas Kate was spending with her. And because I think it might be the maternal grandmother, Carole would have been more knowledgeable about how to make it correctly.
So do I think Kate made this chutney all by her lonesome without helicopter mom Carole being involved at each and every step? I doubt it.
And I think that they decided that whoever was able to make the better chutney would present it to the Queen as Kate’s. And if the grandmother was alive at the time and she made it the best out of all three of them, then that would have been presented as made by Kate’s own hand, imo.
Either which way, I think it had to be at least a collaboration by Kate and somebody else, because Mama Rose Carole is not the type of overly intrusive mother who’d let Kate do anything by herself when it comes to hobnobbing with the highest of the high in British royalty.
@anne – Agree with your assessment.
Anyone who goes on about being cared for as much as Kate does likely did not go it alone. I highly doubt it was her original thought or production.
Now I’m starting to question whether it was Kate’s own idea to make chutney or anything at all. I think most if not all of the thought process behind this was done by others, especially her mother.
I think if it was completely left to Kate, she would have brought flowers or wine or a framed photo of herself and William or something from Party Pieces.
I wonder if she did bring something from Party Pieces in addition to the chutney.
This isn’t some amazing new fangled awesome idea though – it’s a very normal Christmas present in England – standard Christmas presents for grandparents in my family include – chutney, jam, fudge, biscuits and fruitcake. All homemade. It’s apparently the height of bad manners to buy presents for grandparents (according to my mum in law!)
@Chinoiserie,
Given how she’s pathologically lazy and surrounded by cooks and servants, I doubt that she wants to wreck a nail. I do believe that the extra kitchens were built for Carole’s sake.
I think she cooks. She has the luxury of only doing it when she wants to, I do think that, but I do think she cooks. Some people actually like it.
I agree, there were stories about Kate cooking when she and William were “roommates” at St. Andrews.
They’re quite the domestic lot. Pippa apparently used to do the laundry for the Roxburghe and Northhumberland heirs.
@COSquared
That’s just weird.
Pippa proving herself to be 1950s wife material like her big sister?
She really loves blusher, doesn’t she? Along with the ridiculous eyeliner situation, she looks like a clown. Wow.
At this point, 5 years later – Kate has become a real joke.
Sad one, but a joke none the less.
The takeaway from this:
The only acknowledgement she got for her gift was that she spied it on the table- meaning the Queen never mentioned it to her, or anyone else.
Kate, darling, we can read between the lines.
TQ: “The fridge is crowded – we don’t have room for this homemade crap. Just put that jar out on the table, let’s get rid of tonight. Nah, you don’t need to put it in a serving dish, just stick a spoon in it.”
This made me laugh hysterically!
I do love chutney. Only discovered my love for it in the UK. Before that, I didn’t even pay much attention to it in Indian restaurants.
Let me just say, it’s nice that the BRF don’t do crazy gifts because, well, they don’t have to, right? What’s there to give? Jewelry? Uh … I don’t think anyone needs jewelry. But to say that the Queen is so thoughtful is a bit too much. Yes, I’m sure she has a great memory. But let’s be real, she gave that chutney to someone on her staff and said “Make sure to put it out when she’s around.” She has people who do that sort of thing. As if she suddenly goes into the kitchen to put out Kate’s chutney. Please. She probably has someone who’s sole responsibility is gift handling.
I think by homemade Kate meant: her nanny bought the ingredients, her chef cooked the chutney, her mum supervised the whole thing and Kate stuck on a label when it was done
Amen!
Pah! I can see her in the kitchen at Kensington palace, doling out a value tub of sharwoods into a faux rustic jam jar from party pieces and slapping a handwritten label on it:
‘Here lupo- roll this about on the grass a bit to make it look all home-made and heartfelt! There’s a good doggy!’
Bwahahaha!
LOL! I can see it too.
Side note: I love this look here, the blue tweed coat and navy hat. I had such high hopes for her fashion at first, so disappointing lately.
I just want to say that I love your posting name.
This is the same coat and dress she recently wore to the opening of the charity hat. She didn’t wear the hat. I don’t know if she wore the same shoes. She wore her hair down at the latest event.
The coat costs $995 and she spent £10 as the first customer of the charity shop.
She wore new $650 Prada shoes to the charity shop.
@ notasugarhere
Sigh.
When she shows up to work, she HAS TO HAVE something new and not only new but overly expensive too. Even when she ‘recycles’ some piece of clothing and there’s PR out about her ‘thrifty’ ways of re-wearing clothes, it’s a good bet that she’s got with her some new costly something or other.
And I forgot to mention that I don’t know how much the clutch and jewelry were that she had with her on her latest work visit.
Last year she wore a cheap Asos(?) dress, resulting in heaps of praise and sugar articles. What they forgot to mention was her pairing this with +£1k worth of accessories.
She’s got about as much depth as a rain puddle in the desert.
Can someone please explain this posh voice?! I know several families from across the pond, who moved here for work, and they sound 100% different from this?! It’s throwing me. Why?!
Nothing to explain really. Even people from the same country, who speak the same language can sound different. In the states, there’s a southern twang, a Bostonian accent, New York accent etc…
I’m not sure why people keep harping on how she sounds and saying it’s a fake accent when they more than likely have no idea how she sounds initially anyway. Most of the public has only really heard her speak at any length during her engagement interview with William, her I do during their wedding and a few times when she tried to make public speeches.
A friend from Marlborough went to the press saying that Kate initially sounded very middle-class but gradually began to poshen up her accent during her schooling there. There are scant clips of her speaking at all, but one on Youtube from a 2007 marketing conference features Kate talking about the lectures. Her accent is posh, but it’s nowhere near the level of artificiality in the above clips and her speeches. Firstly, in recent years her pronunciation is far more precise; secondly, she sounds less confident and relaxed in what she’s saying, suggesting that the accent is to some extent artificial.
It is easy to hear how fake her accent is when you listen to other members of her family.
@wow, what you are describing are REGIONAL accents. No one is accusing Kate of having a regional accent. What we are accusing her of is a fake posh accent. There is a very distinct way of sounding posh especially when it’s put on.
There are many people who have attended private school just like her who don’t sound like she does. Heck her own very posh in-laws don’t sound like she does. And that is because she has a fake posh accent courtesy of trying to sound like Diana.
Ps: there are several youtube videos where you can hear her accent and Pippa’s accents. Completely different. And Pippa hangs out with trophy posh, just like Kate.
She sounds completely different from the rest of her family. People are not stupid from making the deduction that she’s faking it.
Here is her real voice . It’s much nicer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVrJLoM0Ac
Her vowels sound much flatter in her real voice, and they sound “rounder” now. I’m not sure how else to describe it.
After 5 years, her schtick of nerves and apprehension and needing guidance is really wearing thin.
I agree. Get it together, Kate!!!
I hadn’t actually taken much notice of the video apart from the obvious that her accent had become more posh compared to her part in that school play she did in her early teens. As the video seems to be a talking point I watched it, goodness me, she comes across as if she needs constant mothering. A bit poor me, no William what am I to do. Surely after all these years she doesn’t feel afraid of being in the Queens company. The last speaking sentence just doesn’t make sense at all grammatically. Surely if your going to talk about the sovereign you wou would know what you were going to say before the interview. It comes across as lazy or she plays the I need sympathy this isn’t easy.
I know it makes for a far more;interesting story to go with the idea that The Queen doesn’t like Kate but I just don’t feel it’s so. I think they get along better than most in-laws. Of course that is considered boring.
The Queen is too concious of the ensuing public debate to ever let any negative feelings show in public.
However, she is Queen, literally and figuratively, of the public gesture to indicate her feelings.
And what we see is that at best, she has no relationship with Kate.
The middletons are forever sending out their media accolytes to spin a tale of bosom buddies between Kate and the Queen, but it’s quite clearly not true.
If a picture paints a thousand words, this picture says there is no relationship.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that they dislike each other.
@wow,
I don’t think that they are BFFs but I have no reason to believe that they do not get along either, and I think that the Queen letting Kate wear her engagement bracelet to the Chinese state dinner and the Diplomatic Reception is a sign of a positive relationship.
I agree with @aaa. I doubt the Queen is openly hostile but at the same time, it’s nowhere near as close as HM’s relationship with Sophie.
I find it strange that she’d get to use such a sentimental piece while having no RFO. Although she doesn’t deserve it, I’m surprised she hasn’t received it yet.
Or Billy stamped his feet for both the Cambridge tiara (which his mother hated wearing) and the bracelet. HM held firm and didn’t give the RFO.
Where is the reasoning/evidence on that? Like usual, stuff is thrown out there but there is no backup. Kinda like a tr*ll.
If they are such good buddies, why is the only personal story Kate has of being with the Queen from four years ago? It just doesn’t make any sense that she’s close to the Queen, or the Queen likes her. What would the Queen like? Her searing intellect?? Her sense of humor? Her work ethic??
As someone in a Daily Mail comment said, “Kate – the human form of beige.”
But, who says this is her only story about her? She just gave it as an anecdote of how she was treated her first Christmas. I am sure she was very nervous to spend Christmas with the Queen, so this was her story of how she was accepted, etc. even if they are reasonably close, it would be hard to come up with anecdotes for public consumption.
I’m putting this out there, at least I know Kitten and Sixer will appreciate this possibility. What if, what if, Harry falls in love with a fabulous woman who is intelligent, funny, gracious, loves the public and they become the darlings? Lord help Jason if she is elegant and either could care less about fashion or is cray cray fashionable? Can you imagine the teeth nashing, wailing? Fingers crossed 🙂
Harry always puts William ahead of himself, so I think he’ll tell his wife to be W&K’s support and know her place when it comes to them.
I hope he finds someone who will not allow this attitude. Then he’ll finally find some self-preservation and put his wife and kids ahead of his lazy brother et. al.
LOL – wouldn’t that be something to watch?
The petty part of me wants Harry to pick someone truly posh, with a pedigree as glamorous as his own. Can you imagine if Harry married someone who is a princess in her own right? It’d really be a royal wedding, and she’d be a princess still while Kate is only a Duchess. It’d drive the Midds mad.
I would buy tickets to watch! At least watching the wedding in slow motion while analyzing Kate and Carols facial expressions…yes please! We would have to have a live thread, each of us with beverage in hand, scones, chutney and snarky comments galore 🙂 sign me up!
Actually, a Duchess ranks higher than a princess.
The five titles of the peerage, in descending order of precedence, or rank, are: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron. The highest rank of the peerage, duke, is the most exclusive. – See more at: http://www.debretts.com/people/essential-guide-peerage/ranks-and-privileges-peerage#sthash.A3XMtU4L.dpuf
^A royal duchess outranks a princess. I think this doesn’t apply to non-royal dukes.
If she was a princess in her own right, like Mary Laura of Belgium or Alexandra of Luxembourg, the letters patent might state that she outranks KM at certain times just like Anne, Beatrice, Eugenie.
Kate is a Princess at the moment as well as a Duchess but both only courtesy of William. As well as being Duchess of Cambridge she is also Princess William of Wales. If she was a blood royal Princess she would be Princess Catherine.
IMQRIOUS52 – That’s peerages you are talking about – not royalty.
I briefly heard Kate talking about the Queen and think she is trying to imitate Diana. That’s who her voice reminds me of.
I think the most fabulous stick-it-to-the-Cambridges girlf for Harry would be a popular and high-achieving American. Because THAT would poop all over the #poorjason press strategy, wouldn’t it? They’d have to go back to making nice with the Daily Mail while the entire American press didn’t shut up about Harry. And not someone boringly blonde and pretty like JLaw.
SERENA WILLIAMS! Goddess of tennis! Highest achieving woman in her field! Not posh! Work ethic! No botox! Adored by millions for ACTUAL DEEDS!
Oh my lord. Harry and Serena. That would be the best thing EVER.
How about proposing to the blonde woman who he walked with and welcomed home at BP last year? The one who put off getting her lower leg amputated so she could do the walk across Britain?
She’s American, pretty, former military, was wounded, has a lot of chutzpah and will be at the Invictus Games. If she and her boyfriend have broken up I want Harry to propose to her at the games!!
Since we are fantasizing here. 😀
She would be an equally excellent choice! Oh, this is marvellous. Instead of yawnsome conversations about the boring posh blondes trying to capture Harry’s heart or vice versa, we can have fantasy conversations about simultaneously awesome and Cambridge-shafting women he’s going to marry.
I see your awesome vet and I raise you… um… who else do I like? Ooh! Tulsi Gabbard. (Is she married already? If so, let’s pretend she isn’t.)
Elizabeth Holmes, self-made 4 billion dollar founder of Theranos.
@Smd – “A fabulous woman who is intelligent, funny, gracious, loves the public…” would, by virtue of being intelligent, never marry into that dysfunctional family.
Although she is exhausting, I’m not seeing much to criticise here re Waity’s chutney tale. It sounds plausible and it fits with queeny gift-giving.
I doubt they have much of a relationship but then, why would they? The queen can hardly be regarded as easy company.
Sophie is funny, intelligent, loves the public, etc. and she and Edward have been going strong for two decades. No real info about Tim, but he and Anne are still together and seemingly happy.
HM is said to love singing songs from musicals, a great mimic, and lots of fun. Of course, if you’re lazy and refuse to step up and do your duty, she might not give you the time of day.
She’s not fabulous though, is she? And her path has hardly been smooth, has it? And Edward is hardly a prize, is he?
And, no disprespect necessarily to Sophie, but where is the evidence that she’s funny and engaging? I think, more realistically, she just learned, courtesy of a hard public exposure lesson, to knuckle down and do her best to put her earlier mistakes behind her and I’m sure the queen likes and appreciates her for that.
That still doesn’t make the queen easy or relaxing company. Nothing to do with Waity, BTW, who would test the patience and tolerance of 5000 saints, just saying that actively getting on with the queen could be an exhaustingly difficult thing for those who marry into that family.
In some ways Sophie is fabulous. She was the focus of a deliberate sting operation and fell for it. HM listened to the full tapes and stayed on Sophie’s side and supported her. Sophie knows it is a PR job and she does the job well.
In interviews and on video, I have found her to be funny and engaging. Edward is the only one who hasn’t gotten divorced, so the two of them must see each other as prizes. They ended up with a huge home, HM visiting frequently and riding out with the kids, and Sophie in the prime spot as HM’s personal favorite. This also gets them things like trips to the Caribbean every few years for official duties. Not bad.
Getting along with people can be as difficult as you make it. Recognize that HM is all about duty, find common interests, and work hard for the family. She isn’t an ogre and she appears to be incredibly lenient, even when people keep making stupid mistakes. I’d see Anne as much more difficult to deal with than HM.
I see Anne as the difficult one. Philip once said that Anne was only interested in horses, so i guess a quick comment about them will break the ice.
Charles is very curious about people and things, conversation is pretty easy. Andrew is irredeemably stupid. Just let him rabbit on and get away asap.
There are some gifs online of hm dancing or bopping away which are so cute. Definitely go against her staid persona. And no matter whatvpeople say, i enjoy Philip’s humour. Reminds me of my grandpa.
@notasugarhere – I’m not a royalist but not in a frothing at the mouth sense, I’m just mostly indifferent to them and while I can appreciate the queen in terms of her work ethic etc, I do also think she’s a bit of a cold fish.
I’ve met a lot of them through work and Anne and Camilla were the two I most warmed to. The one I ‘least appreciated’ was Fergie.
Sadly I believe he will find someone biddable. I doubt he has the guts to defend his wife and stand up for her given his conditioned loyalty to his brother, the future king. Even the strongest woman will be destroyed by those around her (Masako was lucky to have her husband stand up for her). I doubt that the BRF wants anyone remotely outstanding. As long as she toes the line, she’ll be okay.
Like a Carolyn Bessette Kennedy?? Quiet, not an attention seeker, hard working, charitable, glamorous and, God forbid, from a higher class than kate!!
Uh oh, that girl is going to be done in by Kate, Pippa and Momma Carole!!
So far, it seems that her interviews are based on how the Queen shows appreciation towards her by: having gotten her chutney put onto the breakfast table; getting presents (aka Kate’s interpretation of love) for her having given birth to the kids; making sure she was coddled for her agreeing to go on her first solo event with the Queen, not being told what to do with her lackadaisical life.
We’ve yet to hear Kate describe something that deals solely with the Queen without it being attributed back to herself and what she did to get rewarded in each instance.
this ^^ is what I noticed too. And how the Queen leaves little gifts for the children now when they stay with her….gimmee get gifted got.
I can just imagine the hand-written label for “Special Snowflake Chutney”
LOL
It’s funny to me that when she married him, there was all this talk of how she was going to “modernize” the family, the traditions, etc., what with her middle class roots. Ironically she’s representative of the LEAST modern ideals both as a royal but as a wife, independent female, mother, etc. I think the queen is more modern than she.
….for those wondering about the relationship…a couple of years ago HMQ publically put out an edict…married into should always curtsey or bow to blood royal…so that told everyone about who was squabbling with who & how deep it went…so happy to be a proud pleb…
IIRC, it depends on the presence of a royal spouse. The York girls have to curtsey to Kate IF Bill is present. This also affects how the wives vs blood royals are seated at banquets. Correct if I’m wrong, ladies. Apparently(emphasis on that) the 2005 Letters Patent was created because Anne couldn’t stand Camilla and she didn’t want to curtsey to her.
It has been rewritten multiple times and before Camilla. It was rewritten at one point to have Diana and Fergie curtsey to Anne iirc.
Is it bad that the only thing I can compare Katie’s new accent to is when my (British, plum in mouth) husband has had too many lagers?
Seriously, she sounds like a posh person whose had too many tequila shots and is struggling to get the words out.
Insipid to the nth degree and always about her.
The Daily Mash (our equivalent of the onion) nails it:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/chutney-went-straight-in-bin-queen-confirms-20160322107393
Firstly love to Belgium tonight.
I will hazard a guess that the chutney recipe came from Michaels mother but just guessing. I am sure the Queen isn’t a snob but having a chutney recipe from Uncle Gary’s mum would possibly make the duchess of Cornwall smile. besides the Queen probably gets chutney from Charles as he makes D* Os. I won’t mention the company – they make natural food recipes from Highgrove. Jams, marmalade, food stuff naturally sourced excellent Quality. But the chutney may have been exquisite and special to Kate. Although very brave of Kate to give chutney.
Kate obviously learning the lesson of poor Diana who bought expensive gifts for the royals one Christmas to find they all give – well chutney sort of presents.
Sophie, Edwards wife spends a lot of time with the queen riding and as Kate seems to be less inclined to ride then I suppose she doesn’t get much of a look in.
HERE IS THE CHUTNEY RECIPE FROM PIPPA’S UNBESTSELLING BOOK.
http://whatwouldkatedo.com/2013/10/cooking-with-catherine-squash-chutney/
Quote from blog above: “Kate’s grandmother had a favorite Squash Chutney recipe that Pippa shared in her book Celebrate. Pippa explains it’s a great way to use up a big batch of zucchini or yellow squash when your garden is overflowing with it in the summer. “
She doesn’t even realize she is telling the world how distant her relationship is with the Queen. No personal examples at all. She may as well be a staffer and not a senior one either.
It’s brief, yet revealing. And it supports the image of a less than independent, self-centered person.
The first excerpt reminded me of what someone half her age might say (me, I, elderly grandma-in-law takes care of me/us, etc.).
That is so true. HM is 90 and nothing about her but only about her in relation to K. She emotionally 15.
I had a boss who would get all sorts of food gifts for Christmas. The stuff he liked he hoarded, the stuff he didn’t was put in the lunch room for everyone. I think putting the chutney on the table was equivalent of the lunch room.
And Kate is trying awfully hard to convince us the Queen likes her.
I bet the Queen spends her time shaking her head, sighing and rolling her eyes whenever she has to spend time in Kate’s underwhelming presence.
You really need to get together with Dick Move. 😉
I am self aware enough to know, that in Kate’s position I would probably be lazy too. Being at home in my country mansion watching tele and eating would be tempting. However, I think I would actually get genuinely moved/excited by being patron to charities etc. it would be so interesting and I think addictive I would really get into it, and public speaking I am an educational tour guide so am in love with my own voice LOL.
I would love it. I have done charity work and volunteering and loved it so much. It is great to feel like you are touching someone’s life and making some difference in the world. She has all that opportunity and Laze Quitter does nothing.
We watch a lot of British tv in our house so I find her easy to understand but her accent is bizarre. Is she desperately trying to be a Sloan ranger?