TAKES CHARGE of the Royal Family
THE DUCHESS IS PUSHING THE MONARCHY INTO THE MODERN AGE
As Kate Middleton sprawled on the grass outside her Kensington Palace home on a recent spring afternoon, she nestled next to husband Prince William and smiled broadly as she lovingly watched son George, 3, and daughter Charlotte, 2, play around her. “There is no rule book, no right or wrong,” Kate says of her role as a young mom. “You just have to make it up and do the very best you can for your family.”
Kate’s down-to-earth charms are a far cry from the stuffy royal image that endured for generations until William’s mother, Princess Diana, started shaking things up in the ’80s. But Diana was met with stiff resistance from the royal family — particularly from Queen Elizabeth II. Now, 20 years after Diana’s death, Kate, 35, is taking charge and pushing the royals into the modern age, choosing her family over tradition. It’s had a positive effect on her husband, who says he’s in the best mental place since his mother’s tragic death. “I can talk about her more openly, more honestly,” he recently revealed, and royal experts agree that’s largely due to Kate. “There’s no doubt Kate has helped to heal the royal family. She’s been the catalyst,” Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s former butler, tells Closer.
TALK THERAPY
William, 34, and brother Harry, 32, had long suppressed their feelings about Diana’s passing, keeping memories of her bottled up and hidden from the world. “We never really talked about losing a mum at such a young age,” Harry says. “I always thought, ‘What’s the point in bringing up the past? What’s the point of bringing up something that’s only going to make you sad?’ ”
Kate, however, felt it was important for the brothers to begin the healing process and deal with their emotions head-on — which they did by talking openly about their loss with Kate in a video for their Heads Together campaign, which aims to end the stigma about mental-health issues. “Kate knows that part of the process is to address the past,” Paul says. “Diana’s name had almost become taboo in royal circles, so how could the boys move on without talking about their mother?”
Kate’s taking things even further. “She intentionally embraced social issues that not only were important to Diana, but also to William and Harry,” Paul explains. “By doing this, she helped the boys move forward by focusing on completing the work Diana left unfinished. And now there’s constant reference to Diana and following in her footsteps, which all has a particular healing purpose.”
Kate’s ability to nudge William toward peace of mind is just more proof that he found the right woman to marry. “Kate is a perfect match for William and a girl whom Diana would have envisioned for him,” Paul reveals. “Since he was a boy, William’s been a strong leader. When he played army games with my two boys, Alexander and Nicholas, he was always the general giving out orders. Diana knew he needed a similarly strong figure beside him to help him into the role of kingship.” He found that strength in Kate.
“We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings.”
— Kate
STRONGER TOGETHER
“I’m very lucky in the support I have from Catherine. She is an amazing mother and a fantastic wife,” the prince gushes about his love. “It is a marriage of equal partnership,” Paul adds of the young couple. “William needs Kate, and Kate needs William. They are the royal family’s greatest assets and ambassadors for the family firm. They’re a perfect couple for the future.”
The prince has stood by his wife as she’s bent the royal rules to match their parenting needs after welcoming George and baby Charlotte. “The queen refers to a tried and tested rule book of royal protocol and is of the opinion that if it’s not broken, then why fix it,” Paul says of the 91-year-old matriarch’s set ways.
But Kate’s a modern mom who has bucked Buckingham Palace tradition, despite the queen’s private objections. “Kate is really hands-on. That’s very important to her,” Katie Nicholl, author of Kate: The Future Queen, tells Closer. That means relying less on staff, as royals traditionally have done. “She takes the kids to playdates, she cooks for them,” Nicholl reports, “and she’s always there for baths and bedtime.”
Kate and William also dream of a life beyond royal restrictions for their children, which is something Diana fought so hard for as well. “I want George to grow up in a real, living environment,” William insists. “I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls — he has to be out there. I will fight for them to have a normal life.”
Previously that would have been considered heresy by the royal family. But that’s where Kate’s nonroyal upbringing — and her determination to control her family’s destiny — comes into play. She’s teaching George and Charlotte to make their own beds, for example, and clean up after themselves. “My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect and honesty,” Kate says. “That is why William and I want to teach our children how important these things are as well. In my view, it is just as important as excelling at math or sport.”
Kate’s clear vision has resulted in the queen finally relenting and giving her a little bit more freedom than Diana had in terms of her childrearing — even if the queen doesn’t always agree with the duchess’ parenting style. “Lessons have been learned,” Paul says of Elizabeth’s growth. “She is now of the opinion that change is sometimes good and mistakes made during the Diana years will never happen again,” he adds of how she’s become more open to bending her rigid rules.
Watching Kate have such a profound impact on the royals’ evolution makes William proud, though he regrets Diana was robbed of the chance of getting to know his wife and little ones. “I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up,” he says. “It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.”
Still, Kate is honoring Diana’s legacy of modernizing the royal image while pushing it even further. The fact that she’s been able to do that with complete elegance and grace has impressed many royal experts. “Kate is rapidly becoming one of the most photographed women in the world and is a shining example and role model for younger women,” Paul tells Closer. “She’s fulfilling her role perfectly to the letter. She is a dedicated wife, mother and royal who is here for the long haul.”
— Reporting by Kara Feigeles