In our current age of oversharing, when most people snatch up the opportunity and platform to set the record straight, Catherine, the Princess of Wales—who reportedly never looks at social media or reads newspapers—seems content as a voiceless symbol of courtly resolve, a totem of stoicism in a time of emotional overdrive. This side of her most resembles Queen Elizabeth II, a woman after whom Kate has long modeled her approach to royal life—the late sovereign’s allegiance to theCrown and her commitment to the stability and continuity of the monarchy. Perhaps more than anything else, Kate has learned what is paramount for survival in the system: vanishing into your role, giving away nothing, and allowing yourself to embody what the public sees in you. And with those elocution lessons, the Princess of Wales even sounds a bit like her former boss—polished, regal, and appropriately distant.
Kate may have achieved a Queen-like detachment, but it’s still a guess as to whether she can maintain this now that natural occurrences and unanticipated conditions have pushed her further into the spotlight. Even to this day, the public knows so little about her, and we haven’t yet seen her display the gravitas and commanding power that the late Queen mustered so effortlessly. Some journalists who have been approached by publishers to author biographies about the Princess of Wales have turned down the chance. “I’d barely be able to do a chapter, let alone an entire book,” one joked to me. As the Princess of Wales, Kate has now entered amore pressurized, demanding phase of her royal life, which has put much of the fate of the monarchy’s popularity on her shoulders. William will one day be King, but the closer he gets, the more rigid he becomes. His future is a stately, silent one. Kate’s is more of a question mark, but we know it will involve more public participation and civic engagement.
She can still easily draw a crowd and land a front page like no other (working) royal, and the Firm heavily leans on that. With Charles and Camilla already aging out of the long overseas tours, William and Kate will be expected to carry some of that load—even if they have already told senior courtiers that they would prefer to keep any travels focused on their own flagship projects rather than those at the request of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Still, there are commitments with being married to the next in line to the throne that are unavoidable, including new military honors. In December 2022, King Charles named his daughter-in-law the new honorary colonel of the Irish Guards—a position previously held by Prince William that requires more than appearing with the guard’s regiment for St. Patrick’s Day. The following March, she dressed up in camo and visited the 1st Battalion Irish Guards at a very snowy Salisbury Plain Training Area to participate in training exercises. And in August 2023, she became the commodore-in-chief of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (one of Prince Andrew’s former roles), colonel-in-chief of the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, and Royal Honorary Air Commodore of Royal Air Force Coningsby.
But at home, titles are left at the door, and she relishes just being “mama” or, in Princess Charlotte’s case, “mummy.” Since moving to the smaller Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate, the family enjoy “plenty of outdoor time,” said a source, who noted that both William and Kate enjoy riding bikes with their three children. “It’s cute . . . like ducks in a row,” they joked. Without the live-in help they had at Kensington Palace’s Apartment 1A (staff now just come and go), Kate has “really gotten into cooking.” Above all, and this is where she differs from Elizabeth II, the children will always come before duty, several sources commented.
Raising an heir has also presented its own unique challenges. After Prince George’s tenth birthday in 2023, media coverage and opinion pieces about his future role increased. It was also reported that the second in line to the throne will be allowed to skip the obligatory stint with the Armed Forces “if he wishes.” Controversial, according to some in royal circles, given that he will one day become the head of the British Armed Forces when taking the throne. But William and Kate, a source told me, “want to allow George to make as many of his own decisions as he can in life.”
Mother but also the future Queen—it’s quite a balancing act. And it puts Kate in an almost impossible position: when the time comes, she will have to leave the mum role at the palace gates, shuck her natural diffidence, balance her regal rectitude with some every- woman charm, and, for the never-ending presence of the press, dazzle whenever needed. It will require every ounce of the Middleton resilience that got her this far. For a woman who is so tightly controlled and carefully assembled, this is a lot of shape-shifting and pressure to perform. Under such continual duress, facades tend to crumble. The institution will do anything to prevent this from happening. The Palace knows the fallout when it does.
From ENDGAME by Omid Scobie. Copyright © 2023 by Omid Scobie. Reprinted by permission of Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival
Omid Scobie is BAZAAR.com’s Royal Editor at Large and has covered the lives and philanthropic work of the younger members of the British Royal Family for over eight years. As well as spearheading exclusive coverage of major royal milestones (including the weddings of both the Cambridges and Sussexes), Scobie has traveled extensively with Harry, Meghan, William and Kate on their engagements in the U.K. and around the world. As ABC News’s Royal Contributor, Scobie is a regular on Good Morning America and host of the network’s forthcoming podcast, The Heir Pod.
