Model of majesty
With the Duchess of Cambridge more visible than ever, Camilla Tominey reveals the crack team encouraging her to step up
With the monarchy confronting its most testing moment in two decades, the Duchess of Cambridge has been keeping calm and carrying on with royal business. Inside today’s Daily Telegraph, Camilla Tominey examines the team drafted in to help shape her future in the Royal family and prepare her for becoming queen
It has been exactly a month since Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced that they were stepping back as senior members of the Royal family. For the past four weeks, column inches have racked up about the “Megxit” bombshell and its impact on the institution of monarchy.
Yet amid all the hysteria and hullabaloo, one of its most important members has been serenely going about the business of keeping calm and carrying on.
Until now, this kind of understated behaviour may have been most closely associated with the Queen, but it is her modern-day equivalent, the Duchess of Cambridge, who has been quietly putting duty first with increasing visibility.
A recent UK tour to launch her landmark survey on early childhood, combined with well-received visits to Bradford and Mumbles, South Wales, may at first look like Kate making a conscious effort to fill the void left by her brother- and sister-in-law.
Yet, as has ever been the case with the middle-class girl from Bucklebury who married into the Firm almost a decade ago, that would be to underestimate a woman who has never made a show of her royal role – until now.
Having discreetly spent the past eight years beavering away on the causes closest to her heart, Kate has finally found her voice and is determined to use it. No longer willing to be seen but not heard, sources say she is now ready to commit the rest of her working life to raising awareness of the importance of childhood – and its impact on adult life.
Although she never took the credit for being the inspiration behind the Heads Together mental health campaign spearheaded by William and Harry, having witnessed its extraordinary impact, there is a sense that the Duchess has finally realised just how much she is capable of.
“The Duchess has worked quietly away in the background for years,” said one well-placed royal insider, “and now she knows that people want to hear from her.” No longer as fearful of public speaking, and fast carving her own path out of the shadows, Kate’s new landmark online survey, “5 Big Questions on the Under Fives”, will mark the start of decades more work on the subject, according to aides.
“It’s much easier to speak out when you know what you’re talking about and passionate about your subject,” added the insider. “She has become an expert in early years learning, she understands the science and is respected in the sector because she has spent the past eight years working it out. But she also wants to find answers. This is about evidencebased research.” The first results of the childhood survey are due next month.
Kate’s gentle yet inquisitive manner was never more on display than when she met wheelchair-bound Harvey Bentley, 90, in Mumbles on Tuesday. The warm exchange was filmed by Mr Bentley’s son-in-law, Mike Suttonsmith, who wrote on Twitter: “William and Kate, each of you paused to look my father-in-law in the eye today, to listen to him and be his friend for a few timeless, beautiful minutes. You are the real deal and he and our family will never ever forget. Thank you.”
This kind of reaction is certainly welcome after arguably the most testing period for the monarchy since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. With two of the so-called “Fab Four” poised to set up their own projects in North America, the focus for the Cambridges will not only be on putting duty first, but in a nonpartisan, extremely effective way.
As one observer noted: “It is a bit of a paradox, having such a naturally introverted person in such a highprofile position. I think that’s what people find endearing about the Duchess. She’s not a showy person. It’s a deeply British trait.” And one that she shares with the Queen, who also has a quiet confidence and sense of reserve when interacting with the public.
Of course, accession may still be decades away, but preparations for the royal couple to become the next Prince and Princess of Wales were already well under way before Harry and Meghan’s move to Canada.
And while efforts had previously been ploughed into elevating the status of the man who would be king, there is a new, and arguably even more compelling, project now fully in progress at the Palace: the advent of Queen Catherine.
So much so, in fact, that a team of academics have been drafted in to help the mother-of-three shape her royal future – with input from the highest echelons of government and even the security services.
Likened to a modern-day version of the Way Ahead Group, set up to rebuild the monarchy in the aftermath of the Queen’s “annus horribilis” of 1992, the Duchess’s steering group of experts has informed her focus on early years learning and helped her to grow in confidence in her royal role.
As the couple prepare to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in 2021, this year is set to be momentous one. Projecting themselves as a family unit – and a relatable one, too – has become a priority and was behind the couple agreeing to the primetime Christmas television special with Mary Berry, which saw them cooking souffles while discussing the work of their Royal Foundation, their philanthropic vehicle.
With talk of trips to Ireland, Chile and Columbia in the offing, and both having recently launched major charitable initiatives – including William’s Earthshot Prize, a multimillion pound project to “repair the planet” – the next 12 months will witness the couple trying to bring what one palace insider describes as the “calm after the storm”.
The source added: “What you are going to see with the Cambridges is a couple carved very much out of the Queen’s mould: duty first.”
Having had three children in swift
‘People find her endearing. She’s not a showy person – a deeply British trait’
succession – and with Prince George, six, and Princess Charlotte, four, in school, and Prince Louis turning two in April, Kate’s priorities have shifted.
According to one well-placed source: “Over the last 12 months, they have realised the potential power of their platform. They understand that by launching these long-term projects, they can genuinely make a big difference. They’ve been told clearly the impact that they can have if they pick the right spaces – things they care passionately about.”
Just this week, we have seen William discuss diversity at the Baftas, and Heads Up, his mental health initiative that tackles the issue through football, has been well received. As with Earthshot, described by one aide as “the biggest thing the Duke has ever undertaken”, it is about saying “we can do this”, rather than “this is too daunting”, a source said.
“The Royal Foundation has been going for 10 years now. What they want to do is a smaller number of things on a bigger scale. For the Duchess, the early years work is something she will lead for the rest of her life.”
While both projects and their recent visits to Yorkshire and South Wales had been in the diary for months, there is no doubt that the “Sussex situation” has escalated matters. “A hell of a lot of responsibility rests on their shoulders and they’ve just got to get on with it,” says royal author Phil Dampier. “I think they are both resigned to spending the next 30, 40, 50 years as heavyweight royals.”
Government hopes are also being pinned on William and Kate flying the flag for post-brexit Britain. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was “delighted” with their highly successful visit to Pakistan last year, which helped to demonstrate the Cambridges’ worth to UK Plc. The emphasis will be on “youthful yet dependable royalty” – demonstrating the power of the Royal family both home and abroad as a formidable ambassadorial asset.
This was certainly on show last month as William hosted his first major state occasion – a reception for the Uk-africa Investment Summit – at Buckingham Palace.
Standing alongside his wife, many royal watchers noted how much more publicly demonstrative William had become towards Kate. During the reception he was uncharacteristically nostalgic, saying: “The African continent holds a very special place in my heart. It is the place my father took my brother and me shortly after our mother died. And when deciding where best to propose to Catherine, I could think of no more fitting place than Kenya to get down on one knee.”
It is this kind of gentle encouragement and support that is intended to propel his wife to the next level, where her dependability turns into the kind of “soft power” that can affect real change.
Or as one insider put it: “They are going to be doing what politicians can’t do, with such a comparatively shorter shelf life. Only royals can think about this scale of change on a generational basis.”
A crucial appointment for Kate will be her next private secretary, following the departure of Catherine Quinn, the Oxford-educated righthand woman who has helped to chart the past two years. The Daily Telegraph understands a replacement is yet to be found and the Duchess is continuing to be supported by her assistant private secretary and Simon Case, the former civil servant who has been William’s closest adviser since July 2018. Case previously worked for David Cameron and Theresa May – that someone of his calibre is being sought to work with Kate is telling.
The couple arguably have another, equally pressing legacy project: the future survival of the monarchy. William has been working in “lock step” with his father and grandmother to find a solution to the issue of his brother and sister-in-law’s desire to leave the Firm. The Telegraph can reveal that the second-in-line was also much more involved in the decision for the Duke of York to step back from public life than has previously been reported.
When Prince Andrew travelled to Sandringham to hold talks with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales, he also held a meeting with his nephew, believed to have been at Anmer Hall, the Cambridge’s house on the Queen’s estate in Norfolk. According to a source: “William spoke to Andrew for about an hour.
They met separately. The Queen and Prince of Wales both agreed he should be fully involved in the discussions – he is very much a part of what has become a triumvirate of decision-making these days.”
As Joe Little, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, points out, there needs to be a shift in focus now that Harry and Meghan have handed in their notice. “The House of Windsor was riding high for such a long time with weddings, babies and jubilees; William and Kate have got to restore some of that magic.”
Agreeing that the Duchess’s role will be key to ensuring the monarchy is fit for purpose, he added: “There’s a mystique about Kate, like there has always been about the Queen.”
While Harry and Meghan appear intent on politicising their future role, for William and Kate it is going to be all about the three S’s: stature, strength and stability.
‘There’s a mystique about Kate, like there has always been about the Queen’