Princess Kate’s popularity rises after video, expert says, despite upsetting conspracies
Already the most popular royal, the Princess of Wales won even more fans after her chemotherapy announcement. Experts say her regal-but-relatable style cements her place in the pecking order.
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Princess Catherine and Prince William were upset by some media reporting, in particular, a BBC sports reporter who peddled conspiracy theories, a royal expert has said.
Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter said the Prince and Princess of Wales were indeed left feeling “upset” and “angry” about a reporter’s comments.
The Queen’s former aide told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show a BBC sports reporter coming out with comments after The Sun released video of the royal couple at a farm store upset them.
Rugby reporter Sonja McLaughlan took to social media after the Princess of Wales, 42, was spotted at the Windsor Farm Shop, tweeting: “Could be a couple of lookalikes making mischief.
“Disturbing that some newspapers are reporting this as fact. It’s clearly not her.”
Arbiter said: “She said it was a body double. I mean how outrageous is that just to say that when everyone else is having a conspiracy theory.
“Has there been an apology? Of course not. Has there been an apology from the BBC? Of course not.”
Just days later Princess Catherine put an end to the wild speculation when she revealed she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy in an emotional video message.
Arbiter praised Kate for putting a spotlight on others also going through a cancer diagnosis.
He added: “The fact she swung it away from her and to people who are in the same circumstances, it was an incredible thing to do. Unfortunately it brought an element of negativity.
“We should push that to one side because people who talk negatively about that sort of thing just really need to get a life, they haven’t got a life. They need therapy.”
Arbiter’s daughter Victoria added that Princess Kate had shown “grace under fire” through the video.
She added: “The way she delivered it was impeccable.”
Arbiter said it was “personal” and there was “nothing contrived”, adding: “It was spoken deep from the heart.”
It comes as Catherine’s popularity is poised to surpass that of the late Princess Diana’s.
In two agonising minutes and 15 seconds, Kate Middleton traded her “customary silence” for a video reveal that stunned the world.
She was raw. She was resilient. She was affable. But most of all, she was human.
It was an unvarnished glimpse of the cancer-stricken Queen-in-wait, whose darkest hour may well go down as her finest.
Already the most popular British royal, the Princess of Wales is on the cusp of becoming bigger than Diana - and even the late Queen.
“Now the nation has seen the human frailty of the princess, it has won her legions of more fans,” royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said.
“People have been moved by her personal message about cancer – that video was her trading her customary silence and most personal of health ordeals to silence frenzied online rumours about her health, marriage and whereabouts.”
It was the King himself, according to Mr Fitzwilliams, who encouraged her to make the clip, as “he knew, being young, beautiful, and already highly popular with the nation, this would cement her reputation as the monarchy’s brightest star”.
“He knows for monarchy to survive it must be relevant to the younger generation,” he said.
“You can’t directly compare her to Princess Diana; their backgrounds are different and it was different times, Diana had the paparazzi, Catherine has thousands of crowds taking pictures on their phones of her.
“There is no doubt her first official public engagement will be hotly awaited and reported, reminiscent of the way Diana was photographed.”
Nearly four in 10 people (38 per cent) polled before the Mother’s Day family photoshop scandal cited Kate as their favourite royal, narrowly ahead of her husband Prince William (36 per cent).
The same IPSOS survey had King Charles at 26 per cent, up three per cent on the previous year.
“She is particularly popular with older Britons – as is William – but so are most royals. And young people relate to her,” IPSOS director of politics Keiran Pedley said.
Catherine has stamped her own mark on the role of new Princess of Wales, a mix of down to earth and regal. Just like Princess Diana was, she is drawn to children, and will kneel down to their level to talk to them. Her work with Early Learning for young children has been groundbreaking.
She looks pristine and glamorous and is never excessively confident in her position.
“Her great strength is the fact that she’s a blank screen onto which people can project their hopes and fears,” royal historian Ed Owen, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?, said.
“She hasn’t weighed into any controversial areas and retained a dignified silence when there have been problems within the family. I would compare her in that respect to Elizabeth II, more than Diana,” he continued.
“Diana was popular but she still split opinion. Catherine has the opportunity to be more popular than Diana, because she’s widely respected across the board and we will see that popularity grow over the coming weeks and months, as is often the case when Royals face adversity.”
However, with Kate and Charles out of play, and William keeping home fires burning, the royal family has been resigned to a new “fab four”: Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
And it is the latter of that combination that is bringing an unexpected, but refreshing sprinkling of stardust to public engagements.
Sophie, 59, and Edward, 60, have endeared themselves to Britons in recent years as hard working, confident and dependable.
They wear their hearts on their sleeves (Sophie openly wept at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral), passionately support causes (Edward: arts and sport, and Sophie: youth issues), and don’t mind the odd PDA (Sophie called Edward her “best friend” ahead of his 60th birthday at an engagement in Leeds).
They are not the Prince and Princess of Wales, and probably never will be, yet the King has instructed the Palace to groom them for more front line roles.
According to Mr Fitzwilliams, the monarch recently told advisers, “the nation will fall in love with them.”
But the groundwork was laid more than a year earlier, when Charles honoured his younger brother with the lifetime title of Duke of Edinburgh.
It was bestowed on the understanding he and Sophie would take on more responsibility in the sovereign’s vision for a slimmed down modern monarchy.
In the first week of March, with the King sick with cancer, Prince Edward – the “goody-goody” of the royals, the 14th in line to the throne – carried out eight engagements over three days in three regions.
“Eight engagements?” said one royal aide. “That’s probably low for him.”
It was indeed.
In a whirlwind 2023, he finished third to Charles and Princess Anne in the number of public engagements with 297.
That was nearly double the number the Duke of Edinburgh carried out the year prior (143), according to the court circular, the official record of royal engagements.
The Duchess of Edinburgh logged 151 official visits, receptions and investitures in the UK and 28 visits abroad last year. That was up from 138.
“It’s clear that with the royal family run down in numbers, the Edinburgh’s are more prominent due to circumstances,” Mr Fitzwilliams said.
“They don’t have a high profile but that’s the way they choose to be, much like Princess Anne, they want to remain relatively low key and work in a gentle way.
“It’s accepted they’re doing a good job and a lot of valuable work and will take on more depending on the king’s health and Catherine’s.”
Sophie, a former public relations specialist, has taken on more patronages involving young people.
Edward’s diary is designed around his support for the arts and sports. He is patron of more than 70 charities.
“There are only four working royals under 70 years of age, in this context the Edinburgh’s are doing an important job – they are growing in the public’s affection,” Mr Fitzwilliams said.
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