Di’s lead helps Kate on her journey

SHE may not be a princess, but Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, experienced similar mania when she married Prince William.

Suddenly, there was a new glamorous young royal to admire and the public could not get enough.

But while Diana struggled to fit into the claustrophobic system, Catherine, with perhaps the wisdom of age, seems more relaxed. She was 29 when she married William, nine years older than Diana on her wedding day.

Showing impeccable but modest fashion sense, she has embraced her new role in the public eye with vigour.

With the ghosts of her mother-in-law all around her – William and Catherine live in Kensington Palace, where William was so happy as a child – it’s no wonder Catherine often emulates Diana’s style and grace.

And while Catherine is similarly mobbed on her official engagements – crowds thronged around her at Sydney Opera House on the couple’s first visit to Australia in 2014 – she seems genuinely happy, laughing and joking with well-wishers, Diana’s engagement ring always in shot, a talisman guiding her along

the paths her mother-in-law trod.

Like Diana, she is the patron of many charities, particularly those for children and mental health issues, including East Anglia Children’s Hospices and Action for Children.

She is also a patron of The Royal Foundation, set up by her husband William and Prince Harry to be the trio’s primary charitable endeavour.

When earlier this year, Catherine was asked by a little girl what it was like “being a real princess”, she answered she “was very well looked after by my husband”, which, no doubt, would make Diana happy to hear.

Perhaps no image embodies this contentment more than that of the couple sitting together in front of the Taj Mahal in India on the same bench that Diana had posed on so forlornly 24 years before.

When it was first announced that the Duke and Duchess would tour India, an official statement said William “appreciates the iconic status of the images” of his mother at the monument.

“He feels incredibly lucky to visit a place where his mother’s memory is kept alive by so many who travel there.”

PHOTO: JASON REED/AP The Duchess of Cambridge meets with people on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 2014.

PHOTO: AP This two-picture combo shows a 1992 photo of Princess Diana sitting in front of the Taj Mahal, and her son Prince William sitting with his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in the same spot, in Agra, India, in 2016.