Kate Middleton is said to be taking a no-nonsense approach to becoming queen one day.
The Princess of Wales, who is recognized as Britain’s reliable royal, is said to hold a greater influence over the House of Windsor than once imagined, as she supports Prince William, heir to the throne.
“Her emphasis on a ruthless discipline in her regimented daily routine and commitment to self-improvement has helped her,” British royal expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital.
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“She divides her time meticulously between parenting, supporting the heir to the throne, and her royal duties and manages to fit in an intense workout regime,” said Fordwich. “Regarding her three children, she can combine tradition with a modern, more middle-class approach to family. This, on top of her dedication to duty, is seen as essential for the monarchy’s relevance and continuity.”
Fordwich’s statements came shortly after a source close to the royal household told People that the 43-year-old is the most popular member of the royal family.
“She’s very much seen as a player at the center of team Windsor,” added Simon Lewis, a former Buckingham Palace communications chief.
Royal author Valentine Low also told the outlet that Kate has “developed a toughness” behind palace doors as she supports her husband. One source told the outlet, “She takes things seriously – and thank goodness for that.”
“She has this public image of being nice and smiley,” Low told the outlet. “But she is strong-minded, strong-willed, and prepared to fight for what she wants and what she thinks is right.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital that Kate has good reason to develop thicker skin.
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“The onset of a life-threatening illness can make a person tough,” he explained, referring to the royal’s past battle with cancer. The princess announced she was in remission from cancer in January of this year.
“When they have a clear goal, as Kate has, the maintaining of the monarchy and bringing up her family means the experience, although traumatic, can be used to advantage in the years ahead,” he said.
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“Kate needed confidence as a public speaker, which she now has,” said Fitzwilliams. “She is a fashion icon, which she uses to enormous advantage. And she and William are so close, as their PDA clearly shows. They are the monarchy’s future. They work brilliantly as a team now, and they will continue to do so when William becomes king.”
Royal historian Amanda Foreman previously told People that the Prince and Princess of Wales have an unwavering partnership as a couple. William, she noted, has allowed Kate to shine on her own as she takes on royal duties.
William and Kate became Prince and Princess of Wales upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II. England’s longest-reigning monarch died in 2022 at age 96.
“The last five years have been a nightmare for them in every possible way – the past year even more so,” Foreman explained to the outlet.
“That either crushes a marriage or it brings them together,” she said. “And just in time, frankly – if there was ever a time when the country required stability, this is it. The international stage is so unstable, it is rather extraordinary to see how both have risen to the occasion.”
Royal experts told Fox News Digital that William has taken on more duties to support his father, King Charles III. The monarch, 76, was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024.
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Kate has prioritized having a hands-on approach to raising their three young children, giving them as normal of an upbringing as possible while bringing them to royal events.
“Without a doubt, Princess Catherine’s toughness is a brilliant combination of resilience, self-discipline and emotional maturity – qualities which have rendered her the most popular of royals and crucial for the monarchy’s future stability as well as public image,” said Fordwich.
“Prince William’s influence and enduring strength of their relationship is significant, but so is her independent strength. Together, their sum is greater than their respective parts.”
The road to being a beloved royal wasn’t always smooth for Kate.
The Middleton family has no aristocratic background, and the British press often referred to Kate as a “commoner” marrying into the royal family. In 2001, she met William when they were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Friends and housemates at first, their relationship came to be in the public eye when they were pictured together in 2004.
As a romance blossomed, the pair’s relationship came under intense public scrutiny from the start. In 2005, Kate’s lawyers asked newspaper editors to leave her alone, saying photographers were invading her private life. That didn’t stop media interest in her relationship with William, or unkind headlines calling her “Waity Katie” when the couple briefly split in 2007.
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The couple’s 2011 wedding sparked a level of royal mania unseen since the nuptials of the then-Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
After the wall-to-wall wedding coverage, the couple retreated to a relatively quiet life away from the limelight in rural Wales for two years while William completed his military service.
But the royals’ tussle with the press again came to the fore in 2012, when William and Kate sued a French magazine for publishing photos of a topless Kate, snapped while the couple was vacationing at a private villa in southern France.
Media pressure on Kate largely eased when her brother-in-law, Prince Harry, married Meghan Markle in 2018. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020, citing the unbearable intrusions of the British press and a lack of support from the palace. They now reside in California.
Kate rarely revealed her thoughts in public, though in recent years she has grown in confidence as a public speaker and a champion of early education for young children. In 2021, she demonstrated some talent as a performer, surprising the audience at a Christmas carol service with her piano playing.
Motherhood also brought about a determination to forge a new, more controlled relationship with the press. Kate and William stressed they wanted their children to lead as “normal” a life as possible.
In 2022, the family moved from Kensington Palace in central London to a cottage near Windsor Castle, further underlining their desire to raise their children in relative privacy.
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Fordwich said Kate’s battle with cancer has made the public view her differently in recent months. The princess announced she had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of the disease in March 2024.
“Her cancer diagnosis and her personal decision to record a video for the nation demonstrated her grace, composure and sense of duty,” said Fordwich. “Her poise and strength were on full display, as it has been during all of her public engagements before and since.”
“Importantly, the public admired her humanity and ability to weather storms without either drama or complaining,” Fordwich shared.
“This renders her a vital anchor for the future of the monarchy. Overall, polling shows that the British public’s faith in the monarchy is bolstered by Catherine’s visible strength and reliability, especially since she and William are representative, in an ever-changing and chaotic world, of a solid collective future.”
Fordwich is adamant that Kate’s future is looking bright. The princess will quickly be embraced by the public as queen when the time comes, she insisted.
“Her admirable stoicism and discretion, which she has consistently displayed during difficult periods, is of tremendous appeal,” she said. “… The [past] media scrutiny and classist attitudes she endured… it strengthened her, rendering her the stalwart senior royal she is today.”
