Since getting married, Duchess Kate has only made a handful of public speeches. I was looking through our archives to figure out how many, and I think she’s only really made three (not including this one I’m discussing) speeches as a married woman. And I have no idea why I’m delineating between “Unmarried Kate” and “Married Kate” because she never made any speeches before she was married either. To see our previous coverage of Kate’s speeches, go here (her first) and here (her second).
I’ve judged Kate’s speaking skills harshly in the past. To be fair to her, I think the main problem with her speechifying is that her handlers over-prep her and it makes her nervous to the point where she can barely remember what she’s supposed to say and how she’s supposed to say it. It’s believed that part of her “princess lessons” involved speech and diction lessons, elocution lessons, etc, and if that’s the case… they need to fire whoever coached her and find someone else to help her out. Her friends have noted that the Kate they knew had a normal accent and didn’t sound like a hyper-posh cat being strangled (I’m paraphrasing).
So, Kate made a speech yesterday at the primary school she visited in Manchester. Her visit was supposed to highlight her work with two charities, Place2Be and Action on Addiction, because the school has a new counseling program “providing support for children affected by parental drug or alcohol abuse.” Here’s her speech (I lol’d at the 53 second mark):
Okay. Ugh. Let’s get into it. You can either wear your hair down and memorize your speech OR you can wear your hair back and read your speech off of your notes. You have to choose. You cannot wear your hair down and in your face so that every time you look down, it covers your eyes. It’s annoying to the viewer, and I don’t see how it doesn’t annoy her too. It’s perfectly possible that she was very nervous for this speech, as she might be nervous for every speech she gives and that’s why she gives so few speeches. She’s never seemed like a gregarious personality, so maybe she’s just genuinely uncomfortable in these situations.
As for her posh accent… it sounds the same as it did in her other speeches. That’s all she focuses on, sounding posh. It just feels like she doesn’t even care what she’s saying as long as she sounds duchess-y. To show you how little Kate cares about what she’s discussing – she can’t be bothered to memorize any part of it. On any given sentence of her speech, she has to look down at least four times. You can read more about the speech here.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I know people love to hate on her, but the looking down at the page thing could also be because she was nervous. I remember having presentations memorized, or close to it, in school but I’d still be glued to the page because I paralyzed with fear.
I did the same thing. Public speaking is horrific, I couldn’t do what she does.
Same here. I can NOT for the life of me get up in front of a bunch of people and say anything let alone an entire speech.
Im sure she studied the speech but her nerves got the best of her. I know people like to hate on her too (not me, I like her) but I really think she just gets really nervous. she’s always seemed very nervous in the public to me. I totally sympathize with that b/c I would be the same way if not worse. Same thing with her constant fiddling with her hair. That is very much a nervous habit. I used to do it myself until I made a serious effort to brake the habit but I will still do it if Im too nervous to stop myself.
Exactly. And the reality, some people are just not good at public speaking. It is not something that everyone can excel at.
There is a wide range of ground between ‘excelling’ and this dismal performance.
@Mich
Uh yeah…
And how does that change anything that I wrote? All this whining about how she is a bad public speaker. She has had 3 speeches. Over time she may become more comfortable at speeches.
Some people are terrible at public speaking. I know someone with 3 graduate degrees, and that person cannot speak publicly without having an anxiety attack. When he was in school his professors would let him present projects w/o the rest of the class there.
I’m not suggesting that is Kate’s issue. However no one here actually knows, everything is speculation.
Dial it back, Merritt. I don’t think I deserve a smack down for an innocuous comment.
No one is whining. A group of adult women who have public speaking experience themselves – and many of whom hate it – are saying she sucked. I myself despise public speaking and feel like a nervous, shaking wreck desperate for an anxiety wee. But I put on my big girl panties and do it, sometimes in front of thousands of ‘very serious’ people.
If you hate it, then practice before hand so you can own what you are saying in a substantive way instead just winging it when you get there.
I don’t fault Kate for being nervous about public speaking but I also don’t think she is putting in the necessary prep time to make it easier.
If these comments are considered whining, then CB as a whole is just a huge pile of whine, because this type of critique is just what happens on almost every post.
And that crowd was relatively small, wasn’t it? I’ve given presentations to auditoriums full of people. And they were taped – although I grant you not many people will be posting You Tube videos of my speeches.
I agree she needs more practice, but a commenter below had a really good suggestion. Work on what you can fix immediately. If you are going to give a speech and you know you will be relying on your notes, pull your hair back so it doesn’t fall into your face every time you look down.
That alone would have improved her presentation.
I critique (or whine, I guess) because I love. I want the duchess to succeed. I really want to see a middle class girl kick a** in the royal family. That would be great.
Her parents are from the middle class (I guess) but not her, she grew up in very wealthy environment. Or maybe because her parents are middle class then she is too, I won’t disagree with that actually, manners don’t come with money.
@ glimpse
‘Middle class’ doesn’t mean the same thing in the UK as it does in the US. It is a caste system and, no matter how much money you have, if you don’t have a title, you aren’t ‘upper class’.
Well, firstly, she’s not in school anymore. She’s a thirty year old woman who has been a public figure for some time and before that, had years of preparing herself for that. Yes, some people will never be good at it- but with her, it seems that she hardly tries and also doesn’t really try to excel at anything else.
Well I am a 30 year old woman who is in school and no matter how many speeches or presentations I have to give every semester, I still hate it and truthfully am not very good at. I cannot imagine having to speak publicly and have the entire world critiquing every word and action. Yes, she signed up for it but doesn’t make it any easier.
@MRSB: well, if you read my full comment you will see that my main issues with her are: a) it doesn’t even seem like she’s trying and b) she doesn’t even try to excel at something else. The point you’re making, that she has only held 3 speeches so far, which you seem to think is a point in her favour, for me actually means the opposite. Have you ever heard the saying “practice makes perfect?” So, if you’re not good at something but you do want to improve, you will practise it. Based on the fact that this is only her third speech since her marriage (in the same time she had about a dozen holidays!) well, she seems not to want to get better at them. If only she had a good model, maybe another royal who had problems with public speaking but overcame them…. Wait, there was one! Well, we can’t expect her to have heard of her husbands great-granfather can we? If only there was a recent film about him and his struggles, but not something little indie, we couldn’t expect her to watch something like that, could we, but rather a big movie, with Mr. Darcy Colin Firth himself and Oscar recognition. Too bad that doesn’t exist…
But I wouldn’t mind if she was trying to excel at something else, if she was really involved with her charity work for example. If she doesn’t like public speaking- well, she could have a blog instead and blog about issues she cares about. But the only thing she really has done so far are holidays and shopping.
@linlin Actually I did read your whole comment, but obviously you didn’t read mine. I said nothing about her only giving 3 speeches. My point was that age really doesn’t matter when it comes to your comfort level in giving speeches, and that no matter how many times I have to give a public presentation or speech(I have probably done around 10 in the last year) I am still a nervous wreck, and forget everything I have practiced once I get up there. So perhaps she did work at memorizing her speech and her nerves got the best of her.
All of these are good points. And to be fair, her exalted mother-in-law was not a good public speaker in the early days.
However.
This is going to be Duchess Kate’s life. Forever. She will be giving public speeches until she is old. And since that is a fact, she needs to get better at it, much like her mother-in-law did.
You can learn how to do this. And the palace or someone needs to help her – I would say Kate needs to find someone on her own to help but I think that would be beyond her.
Signed, a formerly super-nervous horrible public speaker who got better at it.
This is going to be her life, but it’s only her 3rd or 4th speech. Maybe after the 10th or 15th speech, it could be indicative of a problem with her preparation but I think we can give her a pass for seeming nervous right now.
Or she could just really have a problem speaking in public. I worked at a cinema for 10 years and part of starting the show was to give a little talk at the beginning about the cinema, what’s coming up and events in the community. For 10 years, I dreaded it. I figure, working 4-5 days a week and doing 2-3 each night, I did around 5000 of those damn speeches and every single time I felt like an idiot and HATED it. It was no more than 30 seconds or so but having 200 people staring at you is really intimidating.
Yes, you’re right. She will probably improve with time. I don’t give her a pass, though.
I do think she needs to pick up the PACE of improvement a bit. She’s worse here than she was at her first speech. At this rate, by the time she’s sixty, she’ll be relaxed.
I don’t buy that she’s so busy she doesn’t have time to work with a speech coach. And I don’t care that she doesn’t have a lot of public engagements at this point – there are things you can do behind the scenes that will improve your performance. Many, many people do them and get better.
I don’t think Kate is stupid or disabled or untrainable – those would be her only excuses.
(I have to do presentations as part of my job. I’m very shy. I was terrible at first but I got better, and it didn’t take two years. I believe the duchess, with all her resources, can do the same.)
Ha. To compare them would be wrong, but it’s not fair to say Diana was a bad orator. Her first speech showed her nervous timidity but you could see she was genuine. Kate on the other hand, looks like she’d rather be elsewhere. Also, her fake accent annoys me.
Devon
Nobody loves to hate her. At best people critical of her are disappointed. If you want to see people that love to hate others got to a leanne or KimK thread. That is true hate.
I can’t get on her about public speaking either (yet). Maybe it’s the one thing about duchessdom that scares the crap out of her, but she put it aside because the rest seemed good.
When I first started speaking in public (not quite at auditorium level, but I was taped a couple of times), I was so nervous my voice quavered, even when I’d got past the nervousness and got rolling on my talk. So no shade from me for Kate being nervous and making her speeches short.
She’ll start getting shade when she continues to give 53 second speeches in a year or two with this level of enthusiasm. And the only way you get used to it, is to do it!
And let’s not forget “pregnant brain”. My sister is a prof and lectures for a living, she is as far along as Kate and forgets what she’s saying mid sentence. For the first time in 5 years, she is forced to lecture off notes and sometimes sit down during her class.
it pains me that she is givng a speech about such an important issue when it is blatatntly obvious she is just reading off a piece of paper and doesnt give a crap. She didnt even write that speech herself. It is such an emotive issue, say something from the heart!
The only addiction that waste of space cares about is button addiction.
Me too! I hate public speaking, but have made speeches on occasion. I think if she would really care about the issue, it would show and it would be easier to speak with passion. And if she’s nervous ( which is clear — make a joke about it), also the speeches might benefit from a personal experience or experience of a friend story to show a real connection to the problems she is speaking about.
The one thing that helped me the most when I had to speak (usually at company meetings so it could be to four people or a few hundred), was to NOT have notes. Yes, you have to know your material, but when I had notes I’d get all hinky I’d get out of order and miss something.
Same with me, bluhare.
I’ve given a lot of speeches when I was in high school and University, and what I find really helpful is to have a few “index cards” with me. I write the key words per topic, just to help me stay on track with what I am talking about and to make sure I have all the concepts covered. The key words would trigger the information I’ve stored in my head.
I find that typing out exactly what I want to say just leads me to stumble and mispronounce some words.
In Kate’s case, it’s not just the monotone voice and the fake accent, but she sounded like she was reading her speech for the very first time. She sounded like she was unsure of her own words. Did she write her speech on her own? She seemed emotionally detached.
I always thought that was so weird, Sachi, that I’d be more nervous with a canned speech than just winging it, but it’s true! Nice to know there’s someone else out there like me. 🙂
It really is weird.
For me, I can’t seem to follow what I write on paper if I type it out word for word. I always have something in my head that I want to say to expound on the topic. But if I have a typed out speech/lecture, I feel like I have to “follow the script”, so it can get jumbled and I confuse myself on what I want to say vs. what I have to read.
Better to just use guidelines. If I can’t memorize all the concepts, then I might type them out. 😀
Sachi, that is exactly it. And I’m not too proud to ask if I’ve missed anything. 🙂
I totally get this, Bluhare. Yesterday, I did a 2-hour talk/presentation, and for the first time ever, I used no notes (I always typed out everything in full in the past). It went beautifully! People told me how engaged I seemed. If Waity truly knew her subject matter, she could do this too, but clearly it’s just Waitybot lip service.
What a monotonous voice! Hardly no feelings to it at all – She’s ‘encouraged’ with the progress made? She’s ‘struck’ by the impact addiction has on children? I really can’t tell at all.
If she spends as much time perfecting her speech as shopping all over London she would be better at public speaking.
+1,000,000
+100,001
I’ll be nice and say that at least she spoke about an important issue (even if she won’t do much else for the charity), so that is a good step.
Honestly, though I cannot understand how anyone with her level of education can be so poor at public speaking. I know it’s not a natural skill for everyone, but she went to university (a good one) — didn’t she have to make presentations there? I remember doing so many, even at the undergraduate level.
And these things can be taught; I have an employee who was afraid to say two words at meetings – she joined the Toastmasters, went to classes, and a year later she’s an incredibly confident and competent public speaking. Instead of the constant shopping trips, maybe Kate should put some time into learning how to speak properly.
Oh well. At least it was a good cause!
I’ve been to damn good schools my entire life, and I have a master’s degree. I can’t for my life do well in public speaking. Kate may have the same issue I do, nerves.
If your job description involved public speaking, presumably you would learn how to do it well, or at least passably. A huge part of these royals’ jobs is to speak at functions. She should be doing better than reading off a page, mumbling while her hair is flying in her face. And this is a skill that can be learned with a lot of practice and instruction. But again, if you spend all your time holidaying and shopping instead of putting the time and effort into it, you get a speech like this one.
I agree with Faye. She has an education and had several years to work (which I guess she didn’t?) to improve her speaking ability. Jeez, didn’t most of us learn this in grade school? Yes, some people suck at it, but it can be learned with an hour of practice. Her role and number of years of being able to prepare for this role and still stinking at says that either she is a) a bimbo b) lazy c) doesn’t care d) all of the above.
Kate seems bland. I don’t think she’s genuinely interested in any of her patronages. I’m beginning to wonder what William sees in her. As for her speech, I can’t detect the difference between a posh British accent from a commoner one but either way Kate sounds mostly okay. If I didn’t know better I might think that she was twitching instead of flipping her hair out of her face with the neck movement. She should wear a head band or an up do more often.
She looks amazing pregnant! Kim K, take note!
This is annoying. Kim was never going to be thin during pregnancy or thin in her life really. Her body is built to be curvy. Also as stated before Kate’s photos are photo shopped to hell and back. You’re seeing her through a fun house mirror when you look at the press photos.
I am no Kim fan, but she’s realistic in her pregnancy. Plus, no special treatment from the press.
Re
Re the frequent surrogacy question below is a brilliant article by Sarah Whalen
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/item/423258-musing-over-kate-the-fake-middleton-baby-bump
Nancyblue
Was that response meant for me?
I have never doubted Kate was pregnante. I have worked in a maternity ward and there were women who looked maybe early 2nd trimester that were full term so it is very hard to judge from in person let alone pics.
Why should Kim K take note? She’s several inches shorter and built differently.
“A hyper-posh cat being strangled” LOL! That sums it up perfectly. That said, I’d probably be terrified if I were in her shoes because I suck at public speaking. My voice goes all monotone and I stare ahead at nothing, heh. So I can sympathize there, I guess.
O deah. Poor thing is really an awful public speakah. She looks pretty though, with the added weight, and the baby bump is cute. But I’ve gotta agree with you, Kaiser–how hard should it be to say a few meaningful things in a heartfelt manner when the subject is such a serious one? She looks phobic, as if she really is about to have a panic attack. Maybe she needs to find more one-on-one charitable visits to children’s hospitals and battered women’s shelters, because it was painful just watching her struggle to get the words out. Who is that helping?
I find her to be amateurish, ill-prepared and phony. What’s with all the over-excited hand-waving? Do other royals step out of the car and give that crazy kind of frantic hand wave? I don’t think so. She acts like a celebrity at a movie premiere. And the accent – so absurd.
I think the speech was pretty pathetic seeing as how she’s been married now for 2 years. IMO she is so bad because she doesn’t do it enough to get any practice. I also think it’s weird how she thanks the royal foundation for making this possible…isn’t she PART of the royal foundation? So…erm…?? That just makes me think she isn’t doing anything “behind the scenes.” Otherwise she would have said something like, “I’d like to thank the staff at the royal foundation with whom I worked tirelessly on this project” (or something like that to show that SHE did anything.
Again, she’s a phony, to me. I don’t think she cares about any of “her” charities and as seems pretty obvious, she would rather be waiting on Willy hand and foot, on vacation, or shopping.
Amateurish is a great way to describe her. To mix some metaphors, she strikes me as a fish out of water who has been shellacked with sophistication.
She is so clearly uncomfortable and self-conscious in these fairly impersonal settings. I can only imagine how much it is amplified during more intense one-on-one encounters with other members of the royal family. No wonder we so rarely see them together.
this is what you get when you marry your nanny. Some are great [Camilla, Queen Mum], others not so much [Kate].
She’s the right wife for William the man, She’s a disaster for William the job.
@LAK beautifully put!
Maybe she should watch Colin F in The Kings Speech a few times to get her nerve up!
I must say she looks great here, probably the best she has looked in many years. Even though she is 6 months pregnant, THIS is her normal pre-pregnancy weight and the closest to what she looked like in her early to mid 20s before she started losing a ton of weight and looking sickly thin. I hope she keeps on some of the pregnancy weight not only for the sake of her looks but also for her health.
I can’t be harsh on her about this.
I am a mess in public speech and conferences stuff (the cherry on top, usually is the powerpoint presentation going to hell in the moment I start it)I think it’s something you own it from the beginning, of course you can always improve yourself, but it takes a LOT of time, and a tons of miserable speeches.
She would do a lot better if she got her hair out of her face when she speaks. She needs more public speaking training before she makes an attempt to try this again. Pretty pitifully bad.
she´s an awful speaker… 2 years have changed nothing. I´m sure she gets training, but obviously it´s useless. She was on University and comes across as unintelligent and dependent. No substance! Sorry, but it´s true.
Pretty woman outside, silly girl inside.
One of the complaints Diana made was how she was thrown into the deep end of the pool so quickly after marriage.
This is Kate’s third or fourth speech in two years yet if you watch it one speech after the other it seems like she hasn’t made any progress at all.
The BRF are perhaps understandably trying to ease her as slowly into royal duties as they can but how far can they really go with that excuse? And does anyone else think that perhaps if the marriage goes south they have the perfect excuse AGAINST Kate: that they did all they could for her but she simply wasn’t up to it.
This is it. She’s being set to take the fall if need be. 1st impression to this is she wanted to learn from William or she was waiting for him to say he wants her to learn this. Since William seems so disconnected from her she never figured out what to do. The RF won’t take any back lash about Kate not being prepared like they did with Diana.
And Kate can learn. It doesn’t come easy, but she can do it and she has resources to learn that others will never have. That she hasn’t really improved is just all on her.
Diana may have been young, shy, naive and unprepared, but she understood what was expected of her or at least recognised her own shortcomings and received help. She had speech coaches from an actor [forget his name] who also taught her about how to project herself, asked the ladies at Vogue for advise on her clothing and general presentation.
i don’t think Kate recognises her shortcomings unless Carole or William tell her, and in this arena, i wouldn’t trust their advise because she needs to find her own voice [even with the fake accent] and not what they tell her to do.
Didn’t Diana grow up in a time when noblisse oblige was still a big thing among the aristocracy? (Well, maybe it still is….)
I seem to remember reading that Diana’s mother and grandmother were forever attending village fetes and bundling up boxes for the less fortunate. That probably was pounded into Diana’s head from a young age.
Lak, I think Diana had Richard Attenborough help her – in fact, I think he offered. She had her faults but she had charisma.
LAK
I do agree that Diana had a better understanding of what was expected. I meant more of the blame game that played out post divorce to her death. Or at least how it played out in the states. No matter what happened during the marriage reports painted Diana as a scared child thrown to the wolves and the RF playing the card of Diana biting the hand that feeds. With Kate they seem to be giving her miles of rope. All i’m waiting for is to see if William will stay married or divorce her in years to come to prove or disprove this theory.
Aristos are still brought up that way.
That said, the high school Kate attended has programmes that encourage the students to help their community either with time or fundraising efforts. Ditto the duke of Edinburgh award has some community programmes therein. Kate has a DoE award from High School.
MeerKat – Thank you. Richard Attenborough. I am sure though there was someone else in addition him.
FLORC – The later stages of the marriage played out the same everywhere. Once more impartial people started to fill in the full picture, with no bias towards Diana or Charles, we discovered a semblance of truth. Diana claimed to have received no help from the Palace, but that wasn’t entirely true. She turned down the help she was given because she felt it wasn’t right or she knew better. Simultaneously, She sort out experts in the fields to help her improve her skills, so she wasn’t entirely operating on instinct as she would later trumpet to the world.
Kate by contrast, won’t seek help, doesn’t believe she needs help despite all evidence to the contrary.
@LAK et al. Actually the actor who coached Diana on public speaking was Peter Settelen. He played Wickham in the 1979 BBC Pride and Prejudice. Yes, it’s pathetic I know this.
May I please ask a native English speaker if her accent is natural? As a non native, it sounds a bit “off” to me… Am I wrong?
I’m not British but every other British people I know say she’s only affecting a posh accent. That’s what I’ve been reading in other forums too.
I just don’t get why she would adopt a fake accent. Surely her middle-class background and everything connected to her (i.e. her accent) is what entices people to her?
If you listen to her sister, they sound TOTALLY different. And it’s not like they don’t see each other or live near each other. She’s clearly had lessons to give herself that accent. But I can’t hate too much because I’ve had to modify my southern accent somewhat because I talk on the phone a lot and when it’s too thick people can’t understand me. So I get it.
@Joy – You make a very good point about accents in general, but Pippa doesn’t have a thick accent. Her accent is sloaney. very clear diction just like Hugh Grant.
Kate seems to have changed her accent to something we haven’t heard since the Queen gave her first Speech at 21 and she doesn’t speak like that anymore.
She’s definitely forcing the enunciation of some of her words, IMO. Whilst some people are raised to have a ‘naturally posh’ accent, it generally doesn’t sound so laboured.
I wonder if that’s why some of her speeches are so painfully slow, it’s as if she’s consciously making an effort to pronounce every single syllable.
God forbid she should miss the ‘t’ off the end of a word.
Compare her accent to Prince Harry’s when he was interviewed after the London Marathon. Her accent is bizarre – way, way trying too hard to sound posh. But I think it’s another of the many layers she has wrapped so tightly around her real self that she’s become a cipher.
Same here. Does anyone here could tell me if her accent seems different in this video? Seems different to me. But I’m not sure.
I think it was made in 2010, before the wedding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVrJLoM0Ac
She sounds much more natural in the video. Wish she would speak like that and not so breathy, posh and pearl-clutchy.
Pippa’s accent isn’t that uptight, despite all the good schooling, so yeah, she must’ve really went through the Liz Hurley treatment to get it there.
That whas (hair flip) painful (hair flip) tew…listen tew.
Girlfriend needs to majorly up her public speaking game. And the accent is ridiculous. She was hardly cockneying up the joint before she got married. The powers-at-be behind this forced voice are morons who have made her sound stilted, absurd and unbelievable.
That said, she is really getting out there lately which is GREAT.
Mich! Are you the same Mich who knows someone who used to know the Middletons? Surely you have more dirt about them that you can share? 😉
I am indeed the same Mich who spent an afternoon skinnering with a tipsy woman who knew them very well. She was a die-hard royalist who hated this pairing and felt William should have married someone ‘more appropriate’.
Unfortunately, as in her cups as she was, she was still quite cautious about what she said – despite my innocent prodding 😉 It was pretty clear, however, that she finds Carol a bit crass and she most definitely guffaws with laughter every time Kate opens her mouth to let that highly affected accent come lurching out.
She liked Kate but from the stories she told, the girl is depressingly unremarkable.
Mich: Innocent prodding? Excuse me while I . . . HAHAHAHA!!
I feel for her. I suffer from anxiety and never know when it’s going to strike. I see photos of Kate and she’s always smiles but rarely looks comfortable . You can really see her unease when she speaks . Jmo
I agree. I see the same thing in photos.
It always amazes me when I”m on other sites and all the comments about her are that she looks so natural and likes she’s having a great time.
She never looks like she’s having a great time to me.
I have that same type of anxiety too, Queenfreddie, (panic attacks while driving on the freeway anyone? And the same freeway every time? Never could figure that one out.) but a study was done a few years ago and a lot of people said they’d rather die than get up and speak in front of a group of people.
Now faced with that actual choice, it would be really interesting to see who changed their minds. 🙂
I had panic attacks on the freeway (and even tiny roads) for years. It started when I had horrible drug reaction* while driving and I guess it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Had to go on antidepressants to get rid of them but they still pop up if I’m highly stressed.
Have you had your vitamin D levels tested? The effects of deficiency on anxiety can be extreme.
* Should I note that the reaction was to a legal drug (Zyban) and not PCP, LSD or anything else nefarious?
I will check on the Vitamin D, but I had some stress a bit prior to them. They started with a buzzing in my nose and progressed to where my entire body was paralyzed, my hands were like claws and it was hell getting my car stopped and everything where it should be, and then I’d sit there in a cold sweat and wait until I could call someone (the first time) or drive on (the rest). I found that xanax kicked it really well so I carried some around for a while.
Only once did I get the heavy chest feeling, it was mostly hyperventilation and locking up.
Public speaking is difficult and as one poster stated earlier, it doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people. It’s been clear in all of her speeches that she is nervous, so I will definitely give her a pass (still). Although, I will say this is the first time I noticed how “unnatural” her voice/accent sounded. As an American with little exposure to different British accents I could never actually understand what people were referring to in regards to her pronunciation. Perhaps it’s because she had to pause and look down so many times she focused on pronunciation a lot more and she over did it. And because of this, her hair got on my LAST NERVE. Nervousness goes away with time, but she should help herself where she can and pulling those bangs out of her face would have been a great start.
Public speaking is a skill that can be learned and perfected. Sincerity and empathy and genuine caring are qualities that can’t be taught. Phoney baloney.
She has the resources and time to work on her public speaking. No excuses. Also, this is apart of her role as the wife of the future king. She reminds me of a former boss of mine, who coincidentally idolized KM. My boss’s idea of prepping for a meeting was deciding which pencil skirt to wear. Yuck. No substance at all, an embarrassment to professional women everywhere.
Have you seen The King’s Speech?
Not everyone is good at public speaking.. sure, it can be learned but that doesn’t mean it can be learned easily for everyone
And yet despite his actual *affliction* Bertie did learn how to give a public address, didn’t he?
The duchess has no such affliction. She can learn how to do this.
The problem with that comparison is that Albert had a real mountain to climb with his stammering. Yet he IMPROVED.
Kate went from one speech to another like she barely rehearsed them at all. Lack of confidence? Insecurity? Both? Whatever her reason is/are, it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
Yes, I have seen The Kings Speech. It was a great movie. As both Suze and Good Capona points out, your comparison doesn’t really apply here. Kate doesn’t have a debilitating speech impediment. If she would take her role as a royal seriously and work on whatever stage fright or anxiety she has I’d respect her more. So little is asked of her and she fails on all accounts.
Aaahhh, Colin Firth . . . .
Good movie. And the difference is George VI wanted to learn, and tried very hard. Kate may want to learn, but she doesn’t seem to want to try that hard.
I so wish Prince Charles could give speeches on behalf of the less capable members of the RF, and especially Kate. His speeches are nothing short of brilliant, and he seems to have been born for such a role (no pun intended). As to Kate, she needs to practise, a lot, which simply means she needs to work more, or perhaps she could practise in front of the rest of the RF at weekends… Surely an audience much more nerve-racking than a bunch of commoners.
This might have been the first time I’ve heard her speak. I like her accent
You’re in luck! With a little bit of training from a voice coach, it can be yours 😉
Girl needs to fix her hair and eyebrows.
This reminds me of how much encouragement my students get at their first music recital. They work for months and then finally have a big concert. Of course, everyone is impressed and claps, and cheers them on, knowing how difficult it is to do this for the first time. They are 4 years old.
Kate is 31. The fact that she looks and sounds like this when she speaks publicly – I can’t even. Does she have a learning disability? These speeches are beyond unacceptable for a political figure. She needs to work harder. Period. Time to curb your shopping girl!
I give her a pass because she is learning the ropes. In time she will improve when she gets more comfortable in the spotlight. For some people it takes alot of practice. Diana was a shy person when she first married Charles and she improved as she gained self-esteem. Go Kate!
I agree…. if it’s still like this after 10 or 15 speeches, then she just doesn’t give a crap.
Her speech was embarrassing to watch.
Not a lot of brains or talent, is there?
She’s lucky she’s pretty with rich parents and found herself a rich husband.
She’s lucky she’s pretty, period.
As you can tell the sheeple who defend her always say something along the lines of “She’s so pretty/beautiful/gorgeous who cares if she doesn’t work everyone else are just jealous!!!”
People generally like looking at pretty things/people that everything else is ignored. Imagine if Kate were as ugly as Pippa with the same lack of work ethic and everything else that comes with being a Waity Katie. The criticisms would have been immense.
GoodCapon: I’m usually behind you all the way, but Pippa’s not ugly, and at least she’s natural. Did you see the photos of her engagement on the DM yesterday? She wore a suit with a knee length hem, but her eyeliner was over the top. Don’t know if she gave a speech, though.
She may have cared deeply about the issue and was just too nervous to do anything other than just get through it.
Let’s see
– everyone critiquing the speech from every angle
– everyone critiquing her dress from every angle
– everyone comparing her to Diana
– Pregnant and probably self conscious about her changing body
– She’s well educated so she SHOULD be better, some are some never are.
– Everyone worrying her accent is too Posh or too common.
Damn, I’m a good speaker and even I would hate to present under those circumstances!
JL
Maybe so. She did spend many years as the royal gf. She’s had more time than most to figure things out. Also, many of your points are within her power to change if it bothered her. I doubt it does though since she only cares about what William things and he is the shot caller in the relationship.
As far as the critiquing goes, it comes with the territory. There is no avoiding it and that’s partly why o one wanted to marry William. And William is the one invoking His mother at every moment. Kate might not be compared as often if he didn’t play the dead mother card so easily.
If I had the position she has I would be nervous too, but I would dedicate more time towards bettering my weaker points. I would also have gone insane at this point if all i did was shop and vacation while waiting for my husband to grace me with his company while living with my parents… That part makes me pity her a bit too..
That accent is appalling. By now it should be entirely natural, but she’s really, really forcing it and it’s obvious in every single sentence she speaks. No wonder she hardly ever opens her mouth.
Compare her to someone like Princess Mary of Denmark who not only had to radically change her accent, but learn a whole new language (in significantly less time than Kate). You can tell Kate half-arsed her elocution lessons. She wants to sound posh, but she can’t actually be bothered mastering the accent.
If she weren’t so utterly useless 90% of her job right now would be public speaking. She has every resource she needs to improve her skills, she’s just not interested in doing her job half-decently.
^^^^ This. If she wanted to, she could be an amazing public speaker.
Mary of Denmark still badly butchers Danish even though she’s been living in Denmark for over 10 years and has been Princess for 8 of those years. She once mixed up the Danish word “starving” with “masturbating”. So she said “masturbating” Africans on national TV while asking for donations.
Countess Alexandra, ex-Princess of Denmark, is the one who should be used as an example. She mastered Danish, which is one of the most difficult languages to learn, in three MONTHS.
Mary’s SIL Marie also speaks Danish better than Mary.
Princess Maxima of the Netherlands also learned Dutch as a Spanish-speaker. She was taught by a group of nuns who specialize in languages. Within a few months, she learned how to speak Dutch.
The three latter women put in the effort and time to learn the language. Mary put in minimal effort with some success. Kate doesn’t seem to be putting much effort at all.
I guess Kate and Mary seem far more similar to me than the other Danish princesses. Lacking in personality and spirit, not exactly Mensa material, more interested in the perks than the job…
Kate’s messing up in her native language and can’t master an accent she’s been surrounded by and been attempting to speak in for over a decade. Mary had to learn a whole new language (and unless something’s changed, Frederik speaks to her in English, so she isn’t fully immersed). If Mary’s half-arsing it (which I wouldn’t deny), Kate’s asleep at the wheel.
Also, as a fellow Australian who learnt Danish at a late age, it’s hell on earth. Something about our accent, it’s just so bloody unnatural for us. And vice versa, I know more than a few Danes who have been in Australia for decades who aren’t 100% fluent. I had a far, far easier time with Mandarin and Arabic, which is saying something. With all the help Mary’s had she should be 100% fluent by now, but I do understand how hard it would be. In comparison there’s nothing difficult about what Kate’s had to do. They are pretty similar women, so if one can learn Danish, surely the other can string a few sentences together in her native language without making listeners cringe.
Jess – I agree with you.
IMO the thing with Mary is this: she can be pretentious and a wannabe, but she’ll gladly put in the work if it meant succeeding in the image she wants to pursue. In that sense, she is more active than Kate. She works more than Frederik and has no problem putting herself out there to represent the Danish royals. She is also awkward with other people, but she does try to interact no matter how forced she comes across.
I don’t like her, but I can appreciate the effort she puts in.
I also think it’s different how they played the game. Mary chased after Frederik all on her own. She’s street-smart. She has no other family in Denmark and she was determined enough to land a Prince so she “endured”.
Kate is an infantilized adult, always being told what to do and always being taken care of by other people. It’s not a surprise that her fans flock to her defense like she’s a vulnerable, defenseless child. She must always be protected and treated like a poor, fragile creature. That’s the vibe that Kate gives: she always needs to be looked after.
Kate just seems so, so empty and vacant. Like there’s absolutely nothing to her and she needs William or her mother to tell her what to do. Maybe Carole should accompany her to events to pull the strings on the Kate puppet?
CP Mary puts in the work, that’s for sure. Kate seems so passive in comparison – so little life to her.
I think Pippa would make a better speechifier than Kate – she seems more confident. Maybe Wills married the wrong sister.
That speech was a constant cycle of “look down”, “look up”, “flip bangs”, “read one line”, REPEAT. The constant bang flipping was so distracting I stopped the video halfway though. I guess I’m fortunate in that public speaking doesn’t bother me one bit – never has.
That pregnant belly looks unusual. Quite unusual in fact.
Yes,
and my ears look like aliens’ears, Kimye is pillowing up or carrying a baby in her butt, Jessica Simpson is too big, Kate is too little…..
On and on it goes, Really? OMG I’m tired of these insinuations….
The Bump looks unusual, so what – bumps have AKC criteria like my dog? They must have a certain size and shape…Ugh this aggravates me to no end.
She looks nervous. She acts as if she’s nervous. She speaks as if she’s nervous. It’s nerves… I don’t think its lack of preparation or intention. If you’re nervous enough, the prep and intention goes out the window….
+1
I don’t think a lot of people have given speeches under such stressful circumstances.
There is a slight difference knowing you’re speaking to a local HS crowd and the world wide media.
But if she did it more often, it wouldn’t be world wide news. Harry, Charles, Philip and even the Queen do many public speeches that don’t rate a mention even on a slow news day. If she was a full-time royal, she’d be doing public speaking on an almost daily basis and it wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s only because she’s been essentially mute for over a decade that this event is being covered so heavily. People are curious to hear her speak because it’s such a rare occurrence.
We aren’t comparing folks giving a talk down at the Rotary Club to Kate. Although, frankly, I’ve heard better speeches at the Rotary.
People in public life – like the duchess – give speeches under stressful circumstance all the time.
Michelle Obama gives speeches. The Queen gives speeches. Prince Harry gives speeches. Even Camilla gives speeches. (I just listened to one of Cam’s speeches on You Tube and she was very good.)
Most of the crown princesses of Europe give speeches.
All the time. The duchess needs to up her game.
Ya-di-da, public speaking is horrifying…
but seriously, everyone’s made to practice it numerous times throughout primary, secondary, and tertiary education. So, I don’t see why at her age she’s still having difficulty with it.
And everyone talking about nerves…COME ON, SHE’S THE FUTURE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. HAVE SOME CONFIDENCE!
I totally agree. I don’t get the babying she gets from some quarters. She is hardly straight out of the convent.
She has been stalked by the paparazzi for a decade; walked down the aisle in front of 1,900 people in a wedding that was watched by about a billion people; done television interviews; hobnobbed with world leaders and Hollywood glitterati; had her bits exposed in publications around the world; mingled with crowds of thousands; sees her own face in the press on a daily basis; gets fawned over 24/7; etc.
And having seen that gif of her rolling her eyes at some fangirl woman at a high-end event when she was in the States after her wedding, I have no doubt that she feels completely superior to all of us.
I know!
The woman doesn’t have to be Tony Robbins! She has to give a competent five minute speecn – in front of audiences who adore her for just showing up.
No one is expecting Martin Luther King Jr. levels of oration from her.
question: Is that Hugh Grant sitting next to her in one of the pictures? Looks a lot like him
He is John Bishop. A comedian.
Everyone saying she is just nervous and that takes time,I say bull shit. If her being nervous is the only problem then I will also have sympathy for her because I am also terrible at public speaking but her speech would have been so much better if only she will take those hair off her face and put them in a pony tail together with leaving that awful fake accent and concentrate on the substance of her speech. This would have been so much better without the awful hair and accent posher then Queen and William themselves . She knew she have to make a speech and she is nervous then why she didn’t she pull her hair back? Because her appearance is the only thing she cares about when it comes to her job. This shows how shallow and vain this woman is to me with no regards to the fact why she was there and the things she was supposed to talk about.
Not pulling her hair back proves she is shallow?
Andy That’s a stretch to stir the pot. I think if Kate truly wanted to present herself better or just give a better presentation she would pull her hair back for a speech. I’ll just assume for a moment that we all went to college for at least a masters degree. When you give your thesis presentation you have to dress appropriately and for girls with really long hair that often means pulling it out of your face. It just makes for easier eye to eye contact and reading notes if need be. It also makes you look more professional like you’re there to talk, learn, answer, and be engaging. With hair in your face you come off more childish and not taken as seriously.
This was pretty much the advice I got from a wonderful professor I had before I achieved my masters degree. Even if you know the subject backwards and forwards you still need to look the part. I also think their is partly why there’s a dress code in place for royals… Correct me if i’m wrong please.
@Angelic20 – This!! She just doesn’t care enough about the event, it’s all about the clothes the hair and the shoes.
Are Kate and William really living in two different places?
That speech should have been more simply worded. She should watch hundreds of hours of footage of Charles’ speeches. She’d get a glimpse of how to do it right. Her speechifying inadvertently reveals she still has trouble pretending to be interested in the people she meets (as one of her family members stated not long ago). That did not sound like it was coming from the heart.
Lol She could have talked about the impact of Uncle Gary’s coke habit on she and her family member’s lives.
I am just happy she spoke. She spoke!! The palace is showing smidge of confidence. They allowed her to speak!!!! LOL. I jest…..but seriously, it was looking that way.
And now for her next speech, tune in 8mths from today.
LAK Couldn’t Kate have been eased into public speaking? Did all of her speeches have to be on camera? Did she ever get a chance to speak with just photographers present if any at all? Then she would be more comfortable with her delivery and could graduate to video cameras. With all the coddling and princess training William and the RF have extended to her I would think they would have made more progress of easing her into duties.
I refer you to the engagement interview. Specifically the part about work and the part about why William took so long to propose.
1. William says it took so long because he wanted her to see behind the scenes as to what she was taking on.
2. Kate felt she was ready.
From that perspective, i guess whatever she had gleaned was considered enough. The fact that she hasn’t made any improvements in the past 2yrs is an indication that either no one has given her an honest criticism or this is the best she can do.
ps:- She gave a speech at the NHM last November [green dress and heavy Fringe, just before pregnancy announcement], but audio wasn’t released to the media. I suppose they felt she did well enough there to let her lose on us again.
LAK
I do remember that in the interview, but I didn’t assume it meant much. Much like her schedule until it’s been done it shouldn’t you shouldn’t bet on her doing it.e
I have serious doubts that William is very good at making decisions in general and has a solid grasp on Kate’s actual skill level. I did not know about her speech in november, but I kind of want her to practice in those settings more and have someone who knows about public speaking tell her what she’s doing wrong. I’ve been thinking back to The King’s Speech a lot with Kate’s public speaking.
FLORC – That interview is more interesting in hindsight once you see how Kate is faring with the royal life.
It’s literally the gift that keeps on giving. At the time i felt that it was disingenous, but i wanted to think the best of both of them, so i tried to take it at face value.
LAK Couldn’t Kate have been eased into public speaking? Did all of her speeches have to be on camera? Did she ever get a chance to speak with just photographers present if any at all? Then she would be more comfortable with her delivery and could graduate to video cameras. With all the coddling and princess training William and the RF have extended to her I would think they would have made more progress of easing her into duties.
I’m with everyone calling BS on her nerves. She was unprepared. I hate public speaking, but I have to pull up my big girl panties and do it because I have no choice. It’s part of my livelihood.
Find the royal equivalent of Toastmasters and take some lessons.
she’s not good at public speaking, but she is making an effort, I think.
She’s standing up and reading. It’s an effort, right?
I hate public speaking with the passion of a million burning suns. What I find really helps though is caring/being engaged in my topic — when that happens I lose myself and all goes well. That is the problem here — she is not engaged. The lights are on but no one’s home.
I think she did fine – you can tell she’s super nervous. I completely sympathize with that – public speaking is terrifying!
Get this girl a hair band so she doesn’t make that twitchy hair flip every two seconds…
Last photo has a classic Bey style dress fold/crease
Fake monarch gestation!
Im joking…that said there is a definite fold 😉
I’ve said it before: the Palace won’t let her say anything they haven’t written for her. Apparently the Palace realizes she is too stupid and/or lazy (probably a combo of both) to string a coherent sentence together on her own.
I’m sure it was drilled into her head, “Do not stray from the script. Do not stray from the script! DO NOT STRAY FROM THE SCRIPT!” Until she became deathly afraid of getting even a single word wrong. That’s why she looks down at the paper every 2 words.
“Can you . . . um, . . . test the . . . um . . .smell . . . of the tea . . . by smelling it?” And that was a PLANNED visit to the tea shop. She had all the time in the world to prepare and think of something half-way intelligent to say, yet THAT was the best her mind could come up with.
I think the Palace knows she doesn’t have the work ethic or the intelligence to come up with anything better than that on her own.
But the nervousness is probably real. I get the feeling that nobody in the royal family respects her, and she’s probably harshly berated for every word she gets wrong. But, hey, this is the life she wanted.
The nervousness is probably due to the fact that the words and sentiments in this speech (and others) are not hers.
Faking sincerity and interest in people is hard work and stressful — especially in front of God knows how many cameras. Of course she looks nervous!
Whatta an idiot. That’s all I’ve got. The hair the manners the clothes all scream: under development, control issues, focus on superficial things….Blah! If she could only get her mummy to read that damn thing others wrote….if this is who Will married….that tells me a lot about him too! Blah million times. I never liked Camilla before. I do now. Ugh….
Well said. Looking back at some of William’s former girlfriends, he could have done much better. I’m not saying he’s a great catch (at least in terms of looks and personality and you could argue the royal stature is actually a minus!) but Kate doesn’t measure up somehow…
LOL at the point about Camilla. I must say she seems to have more substance than Miss Kate, that’s for sure. Along with a dry sense of humour and def. not the superficial type.
i thought i´m the only one… suddenly Camilla seems so much more likable. Beside Kate Camilla looks “genuine”.
Kate doesn’t seem to grow into her role. at all. At the beginning she was unsure of herself and afraid of how well she will do…. now…. Is like she knows her performance is poor and THAT seems to have become the problem. THAT is what keeps her from performing well…very strange. She puts up this act and she knows she sucks at it. “Now pretend you care, now read this, now turn around….Oh gosh I am so bad at this….I can’t wait to be over”
Christinne
That William married Kate tells you a lot about him part.. Right on the money. Since (sadly) Kate has conformed into what William wants has made her a mirror of some of his poorer qualities. The lazyness mostly and others branch off from there. I really wanted her to grow into herself and find a passion to use her position of influence for. Mayb that’s another reflection of William.
I don’t like Camilla, I still think she’s a total b!tch. And despite the fact that the Queen looks like my grandmother, I don’t think the Queen herself is very “likeable” either (because she grew up in an era and environment where the aristocracy was absolutely certain of their superiority over lower-born people). And don’t get me started on that racist azzh@le Philip.
I don’t know much about Camilla, but the Queen and Philip are hard workers. I might not like them, but I have to respect the Queen very much for her work ethic and her dedication to duty. (I won’t ever respect Philip).
There are three ways to win over the public: (1) hard work like the Queen and Princess Anne; and/or (2) empathy for others like Diana; and/or or (3) superficial Barbie-doll dress-up like Kate.
Kate is only capable of #3. I don’t think Camilla is capable of #2 or #3, but she could still win over people with #1. I think William wins people over with #2 (or at least appearing to be, which is good enough for public relations work).
I think Camilla proved she can do #1. Totally! Sadly the next in line for Queen consort are Camilla and Kate. Again sadly I like Camilla better. That doesn’t mean I “LIKE” her. I just like her better.
Holy Cow! forget the speech….let’s talk about her eyebrows. Anyway that’s my superficial side. There 🙂
The Duchess made another appearance AND another speech! I like the dress she’s wearing. Reported that this speech went much better, and her hair is even pulled back out of her face. Progress. 🙂
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2314264/Kate-Middleton-pregnant-Duchess-Cambridge-dresses-royal-bump-designer-baby-blue-dress-visits-National-Portrait-Gallery.html
all i can see is her poor posture! It´s a shame she “hunches” …always…
Agree, i like the dress too. Really beautiful!
Let´s wait for the speech…
I adore the way she has pulled her hair back. I wish they had a close up. It is the first thing she has ever done that I have wanted to copy.
I said earlier and I’ll say it again. I am THRILLED that she is engaging more with her role. And she genuinely looks happy doing it. Maybe the incredibly bad press encouraged William to cut the strings?
And where is William? She seems to be spending the majority of this pregnancy alone. Sad.
My first reaction to that headline was…She visited NPG AGAIN???!!! how lucky are they! Then i read the detail which is that one of her forgotten charities had a reception at NPG, which is why she is there [again].
very clever of The Art Room. Her other forgotten charities should hold all their receptions/functions/meetings at NPG and NHM and she will be attending ALL the time!!!
on a superficial note…She looks fantastic in the blue dress. Everything is good.
And this quote from the DM writers,’The Duchess made a speech in which she sounded less stilted than usual!’ ouch.
EDIT: what @Mich said.
Lovely dress, she really does look great. But why wear a dress with a flared hem if you’re going to put your hands on your thighs so everyone can see your belly?
All the other ladies who wear Emilia Wickstead designs eg Sophie, SamCam don’t have these tailoring issues and always look beautiful in her pieces.
For whatever reason, her bespoke pieces for Kate are always off in terms of tailoring.
I don’t think that hem was supposed to be flared quite that way when you look at the way it’s been constructed. It’s pulling at the back as though her back is too wide, but falls straight down, and the front has slightly more material to accomodate the bump, giving it that flared look.
First, my positive (and rare) comments about this woman: I like the way she’s done her hair here. And she looks better with the additional pregnancy weight.
I don’t find fault with her posture because she’s pregnant for goodness sake — I’m sure the extra weight is throwing off her balance on those heels (remember, she’s used to weighing only 85 pounds, or whatever the binging/starving put her at).
But the two negatives: first, still over-did it on the tacky fake tan, and too much heavy pancake make-up and eyeliner.
Second, although I’m sure that dress is very expensive and would look expensive on anyone else, Kate is one of those people who make expensive clothes look cheap. On her, this designer creation looks like the polyester cover my grandmother uses to cover her KitchenAid mixer.
^ +10! Cover for the KitchenAid Mixer. Too funny, and so accurate! My aunt has one too. I wondered why the dress looked so familiar.
That accent! You could cut glass with it. So, so fake. Reminds me of Scarlet Johansen in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’. Which is kind of appropriate, come to think of it. The Middletons have always had something of the Boleyn family about them.
Can someone answer me why some or many of us get nervous when speaking in front of people? What she does seems so easy to me, reading off of a piece of paper. It would only be difficult if she had a stutter or something (The King’s Speech). I’m nervous before going for an interview, but once I’m in there, the nervousness disappears and I’m eager to answer questions from the employer. She should be excited to know that people want to see her and hear what she has to say and that will make the nervousness go away. Maybe she lacks confidence because she knows that we know she wasn’t doing any speeches or charity appearances or work before marriage and now is forced to after the marriage. You can’t have everything (beauty, height, thin body, money) there is always something lacking in a person who seems to have it all.
I think she’s nervous because she’s of low intelligence, and the Palace probably berates her for being unable to string a coherent sentence together on her own. I don’t think she’s allowed to stray from the script, and it’s the Palace (not the public) she’s afraid of.
Not that I blame the Palace. As I posted above, when Kate had all the time in the world to prepare for a planned visit to a tea shop, the best she could come up with was “Can you . . . um . . . test the . . . um . . . smell of the . . tea . . . by smelling it?” Girl can’t be trusted to speak in public, and the Palace probably never lets her forget it. I think the Palace is the source of her stress, not the lowly public (whom she looks down on anyway, so I don’t think she cares what THEY think).
Edited to add: as far as your statement “she has it all” — I don’t think the royal family likes or respects her. I don’t think she has any friends, other than her immediate family, which is pathetic for a 30+ year old woman. She appears nervous with her own husband, which again is incredibly sad. And her eating disorder is a classic cry for attention and desire to control some part of her otherwise unhappy and regimented life. Don’t envy her.
Cali Curl
I think of The King’s Speech too with this. Maybe it’s because the speech she’s reading are not her own words. Maybe because she didn’t care to practice her speech or she did practice and it’s the best she can do.
The thing that irks me is she has all of these resources at her fingertips and it seems like she’s not engaging them. And William seems to look at charity work like a chore and not a privilege show Kate is perceiving it.
I too have panic attack in public speaking and am totally terrified until I begin. Since It doesn’t show my face I’ll share an instance I was on TV. I was throwing up from my nerves the night before and was terrified. I am Marigold the Cow. And it was for a town charity called the Durham Fair that hosts a large some actual big name bands and all profits go to the local schools or food banks.
http://www.ctnow.com/videogallery/72564614/News/Durham-Fair-One-Of-The-Largest-In-New-England-Starts-Today
Obviously you’re lucky enough to not suffer any social phobia at all Cali Curl. Because knowing that “that people want to see her and hear what she has to say” sounds terrifying, not relaxing!
It’s a fear of being judged, embarrassing yourself, and not performing to standard. So the more important the topic/situation is, the worse the fear. Knowing that people want to hear you makes it scarier.
If I had to give a speech, I’d much rather the audience be twittering, passing notes to each other or having a nap … anything but sitting there listening to me make an idiot out of myself!
Maybe she should watch The King’s Speech for some help.
She looks so good pregnant, the weight gain filled her face out so she looks like the girl she looked like before getting married.
Ummm… @ 2:32…
“…to deliver a program that will ensure that many childrens (sic) living with addictive parents will be identified, supported and guided to look towards a positive and hopefully action-free future”.
Action-free, really? Freudian slip?
I’ve never heard her speak before and have to say that she just sounds like most other public school educated people – not overly posh or as though she’s had elocution lessons like in My Fair Lady! She does sound incredibly nervous though. Perhaps her speech writers might want to use only one syllable words to make it easier for the poor chicken *please note sarcasm*.
haha im pretty sure i held speeches better than that in eight grade… sorry
All these comments that go on and on about Waity’s lack of guidance, training, experience, and preparation for her various speeches. The fact is that you cannot learn and you cannot fake sincerity, empathy, compassion, and genuine interest. Waity has shown none of these qualities; ergo, she will never improve at public speaking.
Give up expecting more from her, people.
A person may have zero experience, be nervous, be unprepared, have no training, but if the passion is there, the speech will be memorable.