The Duchess of Cambridge is seen as the monarchy’s safe pair of hands.
As Kate turns 40 this weekend, more than a decade on from marrying into the royal family, she outwardly navigates her life with ease – despite the challenges facing the Windsors.
With a keep calm and carry on approach, the duchess has been heralded as channelling the same characteristics of charm, politeness and toughness as the Queen Mother, who was once described as “a marshmallow made on a welding machine”.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who was private secretary to the Cambridges and the Duke of Sussex, and used to work for the Queen Mother, told The Times: “She takes time to talk to people. She is tough. She has got that Queen Mother feel in her, so that when things need doing, she is there to do them.”
Kate is a future Princess of Wales and, one day, just like the Queen Mother, is set to become a Queen consort.
In what appears to be a monarchy in transition, seeing the Queen conducting video audiences from the confines of Windsor Castle has become the norm.
The Duke of Cambridge’s former university flatmate has carefully carved out her charity work since marrying William in 2011 and becoming an HRH.
In December, she took centre stage when she hosted a carol concert at Westminster Abbey to reflect on the “countless and previously unimaginable challenges” of the Covid crisis.
During the televised show, she put in a surprise performance to play the piano to accompany singer Tom Walker.
The duchess was publicly singled out by the Duchess of Sussex in the primetime television show for allegedly making former Suits actress Meghan cry in the run-up to her wedding.
It was a disagreement over flower girl dresses and Meghan said the Palace failed to correct reports which said she left Kate in tears.
Family life is sacrosanct to Kate, who is mother to eight-year-old Prince George, Princess Charlotte, six, and three-year-old Prince Louis.
Delighted to share a new image of the family, which features on this year’s Christmas card ? pic.twitter.com/aHFIhSfVXx
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) December 10, 2021
She remains close to her parents Carole and Michael Middleton and siblings Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, and had a happy home life growing up.
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born to the Middletons at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9 1982.
She was christened at the parish church of St Andrew’s Bradfield in Berkshire on June 20 the same year.
At 13, she went to the exclusive private Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where she part-boarded.
She graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 in history of art from St Andrews University, where she met and began dating William, whom she married at Westminster Abbey in 2011.
A keen photographer, the duchess usually takes the publicly released photos of her children to mark their birthdays – though the youngsters are not always so keen.
She joked: “Everyone’s like, ‘Mummy, please stop taking photographs’.”
