Kate Middleton: control, smile and an indecipherable personality
She is a woman as exposed as she is impenetrable. Kate Middleton, wife of William of England, Duchess of Cambridge and future Queen Consort of England, has become in the last decade one of the best known faces in the United Kingdom and the planet in general. However, hardly anything is known about her. How is it? How are your tastes? Who are your friends? How do you get along with your in-laws? And her husband with hers?
Middleton is low-key, and that is one of the qualities for which she has been most valued within the Windsors. When she began her relationship with Prince William in the mid-2000s, she was nothing more than an upper-middle-class girl who, gossip says, some friends of her boyfriend made fun of indicating, like flight attendants on airplanes, where there were the doors. Her parents were flight attendants before prospering financially and socially thanks to a party supplies company. Those early years marked the Kate of today and made her discreet, simple and quiet.
British magazine Tatler, focusing on the country's aristocracy and monarchy, dedicates its July / August issue to the wife of the second in line to the British throne. "Catherine the Great" is the bombastic title headlines, and continues: "How the crisis turned Kate into a creator of kings." By this she refers, above all, to two questions. On the one hand, how, in the most literal sense, he is raising his children at home —not without help, obviously—, among them Jorge, six years old and third in line to the throne behind his father Guillermo . And on the other, and especially, how the pandemic but also the departure of Enrique and Meghan from the bosom of the royal family (in addition to the Prince Andrew scandal or the divorce of Peter Phillips) have put her in the spotlight, with a crowd of appearances (eleven in a month, and three of them in a single day, they say) and have brought her closer to the town thanks to the applause with her children or her video calls to nursing homes to play bingo. Kate has become a rock, someone stable in the middle of a hurricane for The Firm, in the eternal smile that always appears in the photo.
The most controversial issues in the report are related to her brothers-in-law, Enrique and Meghan. Her departure from court has been unexpected and has been a huge blow to Prince William, who has seen her brother, her support for years, leave on the other side of the world. It's a hot topic for her, they say. Always according to this medium, which has consulted dozens of sources close to the Dukes of Cambridge, when Enrique began dating Markle, his brother and sister-in-law told him to try to go slowly. As the distance between the two children of Diana of Wales began to become more and more evident, Kate tried to bring them closer, since she has a close relationship with Enrique. Until Guillermo said enough. And she stood by his side.
For this reason, the decision to leave the Sussexes, which became effective in the midst of the pandemic, has been described by Guillermo and Kate's close circle as "selfish. All this has put them in the spotlight and has overloaded them with responsibilities; In addition, they have to set an example in an extra way. “Every time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex release a statement, it's like a bomb. Everyone is extremely concerned about how this is affecting Elizabeth II, "they tell the magazine.
Spokesmen for the dukes have had to issue a statement about everything published. "This story contains a series of inaccuracies and false statements that were not presented to Kensington Palace prior to publication," they state without specifying what they are. Because one of the juiciest data in the report is how the tension between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle began.
As is often the case, something very minor was magnified. "There was an incident at the wedding rehearsal," says a source. “It was a hot day and there was a discussion about whether the bridesmaids should wear stockings or not. Kate, following protocol, said they should. Meghan didn't want to. There were no stockings. But revenge: Kate, with impeccable manners, looked for the opportunity to put Meghan in her place and rebuked her for speaking arrogantly and haughtily with her staff. In fact, there were leaks: "In the palace you hear many stories from the staff saying that such is a nightmare and that which behaves badly, but you never hear that from Kate," she explains. “Kate manages to keep her staff while Meghan doesn't. Doesn't that say it all?
Other details that are revealed in the report is the good harmony of Kate with the queen, but especially the close relationship that Guillermo maintains with his in-laws. The Middletons "are a close family, very close," and the prince feels comfortable with them, as a family. He gets along especially well with Michael, his wife's father, a good-natured, good-natured man, with whom she likes to chat and walk. For others, however, Carole, the mother, does not look so good. Some say that their daughter's condition has gone to their heads. If royal residences like Sandringham or Balmoral have a rustic, informal feel, typical of the true British aristocracy, Carole has tried but missed the mark. She has set up a house "full of starched cushions, lighted candles and with the official portrait of her own daughter." Something that is also attributed to Pippa, Kate's younger sister, who, they say, refers to her in public with a bombastic "Catherine", or "the duchess."
As for her friends, she maintains a small circle: people from the university, Guillermo's friends. Many aristocrats, although he was not born in that area. He is loyal to them, also because they are in turn loyal to him and have been for years. She may not be seen as Diana, having lunch together or shopping. It is not her style, but they are there. He has also established a good relationship with other parents at school, in fact he takes the children to school, attends meetings and has coffee with some.
For many, Kate is indecipherable. Friendly, smiling, but nobody really knows what he is like. "I've spent a lot of time with her and she's impenetrable," says a source close to her. "There is nothing that she likes or dislikes." They all say that she is well prepared, that after years of criticism and scrutiny she has become a rock. That he maintains absolute control, because he knows that there is always someone watching. “It has an absolute desire for survival, like the Windsor house itself. She keeps her head down because she knows the prize of being queen is immense. Her role model is the queen and now she even speaks like the queen ”.
