Here are some additional photos of the Duchess of Cambridge yesterday at the Place2Be Headteacher conference in London. Again, she wore a Matthew Williamson repeat which I’m ambivalent about. She did add one new touch: $4400 heart-shaped Kiki McDonough diamond pave earrings! Which you can barely see because of her hair. This is going to be an ongoing discussion, I’m absolutely sure. First, her hair was discussed at length because Kate posed for photos outside of the venue and her hair – worn loose, as it is almost always – was flying all over the place. Was it legitimately windy? For sure. But… but… but… she’s not new to this.
Kate’s security-blanket hair was the theme of the day. You see, Kate made a speech. It was her first public speech in more than a year, I believe. She averages one speech a year and it’s become a “thing” that people discuss. Is Kate nervous about public speaking? Does she fake her posh accent? Is she secretly brilliant but simply too anxious to reveal her intelligence publicly? You decide. Here’s her speech, which she reportedly wrote herself (this according to her handlers).
I’ll give her some credit. If you were just listening to the speech without watching the video, it wasn’t terrible. Kate’s faux posh accent could cut glass, of course, but I do get the feeling that she had some level of comfort with the text, and that she really was trying to get something across. She has some level of interest in this subject – children’s mental health – and that comes through. So, I do give her credit for trying and for making an effort. But… but… but… watching the video is painful. Her hair is painful. Those ragged-ass bangs falling over her eyes, the hair-touching, the fidgeting. Practice more, Kate. And when you know you’re going to make a speech, wear your hair up.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I thought her voice was cracking throughout it, especially toward the end. She seemed very emotional and I hope that she is ok. She may have just been a bit intimidated- if I were talking to a room full of headteachers, I would be too!
I thought she was becoming more anxious as she went through the speech, but I thought it was because she’s distracted by her hair in her face, is trying not to fidget with it and is becoming stressed by it.
Wearing her hair like that when she has to look down to read her speech is so unprofessional and shows that she needs a lot of practice.
Agreed. Her hair was frustrating her but I couldn’t feel bad because why in the bloody hell did she wear it down? It caused problems in her other speeches so I’m not sure what the deal is. Has it just been so long she forgot? But I agree that without the video the speech is fine.
Nerves can make your voice quaver, even when you aren’t nervous any more.
It happened to me too.
Didn’t watch but did listen to her speech. She does seems genuinely engaged with the subject. She also seems very grateful for her own childhood experience. I appreciated this effort very much.
She does have room for improvement in both delivery and styling. I do find that having her heart engaged makes a big difference.
All in all, I liked this effort.
Oh my lord…that hair! The pics are bad but the video is horrific! Pin back your bangs or cut them ladybird! You are kiiiiiling me!!!! Good for her with the speech. Content and delivery both meh but I’ll take it. Not great but I sincerely applaud effort and I’m vehemently anti-Kate.
She actually looks all-round fried in that video. She looks worn out and ragged.
Agree. I thought the speech was fine. But good God, that hair in her face, and her constant head bobbing to try to bounce it back so she could see – she looked like a lunatic.
True. It made me crazy watching her tossing her head to move the bangs out of her way. She needs to grow the damn bangs out (they’re awful) and wear her hair up during public speaking engagements, especially when her topic is something so important.
I applaud her effort and the cause.
The dress is horrid. It’s amazing how cheap a pricey dress was made to look with those clunky embellishments.
We always talk about how her people confirm she uses hair extensions to have such full and flowy hair. But she steps up in the wind, she doesn’t try to hide extensions and we never see anything. That confuses me !
I’ve used tape-in extensions in the past and I’m going to make a leap and say this probably goes for clip-in extensions and a wiglet, but they’re positioned beneath layers of real hair to hide them. The real hair and the thickness of the extensions weighs them down so they’re not as prone to flying up.
We’ve seen evidence of weaving, wiglets, and poor blending. Very obvious in certain photos after she runs her fingers through. The jubilee on the boat was a good example. Green dress sport awards too.
Too often her photos are edited. Stark contrast to random twitter posts by people versus paid publications.
@Maya that was my first thought too! I really do think that story about the “childhood scar” is true because that white line is visible again in the header photo of this very post if you zoom in.
I wouldn’t rule out the idea that she uses extensions, but the size and shape and placement of that line stays exactly the same as seen in photos taken over years and years. I definitely believe that is in fact a scar.
Charlotte15, a scar and extensions/weave/wiglet aren’t mutually exclusive.
She has a scar AND wears extensions/weave/wiglet.
I’m inclined to think she wasn’t wearing them on this engagement nor the one before that, but she has definitely been wearing them since she came out of the hospital to present Charlotte to the world. And on other occasion since her engagement announcement. They are as obvious as the nose on her face.
BTW, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her wearing extensions, weaves, wiglet. Many people wear them for all sorts of reasons.
It’s become a talking point with Kate because she denies them. Ridiculous in the face of all the evidence.
She didn’t necessarily have to wear the hair up, maybe just pin the bangs back because watching her shake the bangs out of her eyes was distracting. You could make a drinking game out it, take a shot every time she tries to get the bangs out of her eyes.
Kate hair drinking game= local hosp morgue
God save THE HAIR!!!!
Claire: ha ha ha!
We have never heard her speak prior to dating William so why do people think her accent is fake when she has been around aristocrats all her life.
It has frequently been compared to William’s and her own sister’s, and KM’s is different from theirs. Her accent is affected and deliberate, which may add to the difficulty in public speaking.
So your saying Pippa’s is genuine?
Loopy
She was noted to be taking lessons on her accent for years. Every year she came home from uni her accent changed more and more. Said so by a few reliable journs, locals, and people close with the midds. And we have heard her speak also.
And if that isn’t enough her accent is completely different from Pippa’s and the rest of her family.
Oh! And it was said Kate quickly had an accent more posh than the aristo crowd she hung out with. It became a point of mocking from how deliberate her accent was.
Oh wow, you know who’s accent has completely change Victoria Beckham, she used to sound like she came of the set of East Enders and look how she sounds now.
Sorry – but what is your point Loopy ? Why is Victoria Beckham coming into the discussion? I am completely missing the point here I think.
It just doesn’t sound natural – its slow and she accentuates every vowel and consonant. She’s tried to copy how William speaks and hasn’t been able to pull it off.
She seems to be a ‘do it yourself’ kinda girl; DIY tailoring, speech writing, makeup etc.. so she’s clearly taught herself to speak like that. If she was getting professional lessons she would sound more natural and would be speaking in an RP accent.
Yes it is possible that she trained herself. She places extra emphasis on the “ed” – there is a particular way she says those words like “valued” and “loved”. Then she uses the elongated vowels – but Pippa does that as well. In fact both of them elongate their O more than Harry or William.
@Maia I read it as Loopy just pointing out that Kate is not the only person to adopt a more posh accent.
Kate spoke publicly before William was on the scene at a school play in 1995 it’s playable on You Tube. I wish she still spoke like that more herself more natural to her background
Maia
Pippa’s way of speaking is not the same as Kate’s. I’m thinking as recently as her NBC(?) interview in cycling shorts with James.
And while Kate doesn’t seem too familiar with her speeches it’s maybe made worse by her trying to keep the accent. Another goood example of Kate struggling with speaking is a very early in the marriage UNICEF visit. Like she held marbles in her mouth.
And none of this is to slam her. Just that her accent is about as authentic as her hair. In terms of some being real, but not all is original.
I don’t know whether she was taking lessons – you can very well dispute that. However if you compare her accent to Pippa’s (who has also been around aristos her own life) or James’ or her parent’s accents you can see that she speaks very differently. Why, do you think, she has a posh accent while her family doesn’t ? Accident ?
Moreover all royal brides go through a period of voice training – Sophie did (she also speaks quite affectedly, and in a manner you may not expect from a car salesman’s daughter) as does CP Mary and Maxima. I think that they all go through this accent-enhancement in order to be appear posher than their roots.
Maia the accent change (ongoing) was long before the engagement. She ended up with a fake posh accent far posher than William’s. The royals wouldn’t train or encourage her to speak this way.
Mary went to Starmakers for her “training”. Not sure with Maxima, but seeing as English is one of five language she speaks, an accent on her part is understandable.
nota: I am not sure how we can tell for sure when she started changing her accent. We have no instances of her speaking before- do we ? In fact, in that one video where she is confronting paparazzi she seems quite posh there already. So you think it started when they were in St Andrews?
I am a big Maxima fan, but I have to say that Maxima’s put on accent is quite evident when she gives speeches. Sometimes she lapses back into her normal one and you can tell the difference. Same with Sophie – she sometimes is extra affected when she speaks with reporters and can concentrate on the accent, but when she is giving speeches she will use her normal voice.
I think that all royals everywhere would encourage outsiders to try and speak posh. It is simply one way to differentiate themselves.
Maxima and I attended the same school and our accents are very different. To the horror of my Professors I developed an American eastern accent (thank you, Hollywood) while many of my peers went on to develop the RP accent (which I can imitate although it takes focus and exercises). However, some graduate with no accent at all.
Speaking in a foreign language can be difficult. English is my second language and my accent has fluctuated wildly. It got really good when I lived there (going from people thinking I was Dutch or German to sounding local). When I got home my family teased me that I spoke Danish with an English accent. Now, after several years in Denmark, my English accent is sometimes all over the place. Frankly, I think a lot of people put way too much importance on accent. it is simply a speech pattern. However, in England certain speech patterns are ascribed certain social values. Fx a Yorkshire accent is often seen as low-class and “stupid”. (Sean Bean is a good example of a distinctive Yorkshire accent).
Kate most likely wanted to sound posh but that doesn’t necessarily means she’s a fake.
The accent is truly awful. If she could just speak in her normal voice, she’d be less tense, and possibly actually talk from the heart and not have to look down at her notes constantly. She’s making it too hard on herself. Would the British people really judge her for sounding middle class, or would they like her better for it if she seemed relaxed and genuine?
@ Maia we are talking about accents aren’t we, so I thought to give another example.
I cannot distinguish British accents. I can imagine what a chimney sweeper in London might sound like thanks to Mary Poppins….Who are some people that talk in a “normal” English accent? Harry Potter?
KCARP thank you for asking this! I am also confused and no doubt some of the Brits here will be able to shed some light on it for us 🙂
Accents are differentiated by geography and class. Some accents are posher than others (Kate’s is distractingly posh). A person with a fairly normal middle to upper middle class English accent is JK Rowling. Most professional people you would encounter in London would have accents like hers. Michael Caine has made great efforts to retain his working class London accent. If you’ve ever heard Wayne Rooney speak, he has a Liverpool accent. Welsh actors are some of the most fun to hear speak in interviews, because they rarely get to use their natural accents in their work. Have a listen to an interview with Matthew Rhys or Michael Sheen, for example.
Oh and Adele! Adele has a strong London accent when she speaks (it is not posh).
And one final note, with actors, it’s important to listen to interviews with them to get their real voices, rather than the way they speak when acting. Many actors use RP (a kind of standard posh accent) in their work but have very different accents in reality.
kcarp –
I’ve spent enough time in the UK to have some sense of the accents. There’s a lot of different accents, and I’ve rarely encountered the truly posh or the obscure regional dialects. Some every day accents sound more refined than others, but just like in the U.S. when you encounter drunken pub crawlers on the train, they talk faster & use more vulgarities than a group of business people on a midday work lunch, who sound more like a proper BBC drama.
My issue with Kate’s accent is that she struggles to speak. She focuses on her inflection rather than the words she’s saying and needs the constant help of note cards. If she just spoke in whatever comes naturally to her, she’d seem warmer and more genuine, which IMO is more important than sounding posh.
Clairol Midds fake accent is just as bad.
I can’t even watch the video because the constant head jerking. Would someone please conduct a hair intervention with her.
Oh Kate. Those bangs! She had to keep shaking her head to try to get the bangs out of her eyes but all the head shaking was fruitless. Those things were not going anywhere. Not a bad speech though. A for effort.
She’s like Linus and his blanket. Fix your hair Dutchess. It:s ridiculous to not have the situation under control.
You could tell she didn’t have her clip in hair extensions in. Her hair was flat and thin even though it was blown out and had some volume on top. It looked like she had been awake all night stressing. Even her eye bags had bags. Of course laying off the eye liner would have mitigated this somewhat.
So true. Bangs, especially in her 30s, is like trying to hide behind something. I’m armchair psycho-analysing, but I’d say that smacks of a self-confidence issue.
It wasn’t terrible and it wasn’t amazing – but as i said in one of yesterdays threads God loves a tryer. She was prob more comfortable giving the speech as she wrote it but the speech itself wasn’t great and it could have been worded better. If she wants to write her own stuff – good for her but take advice from people do this for a living.
But she seriously needs to do something with that hair!!!!
Totally agree. The speech was all over the place and seemed poorly edited. Her starting sentence itself needed to be reconstructed. She needs lessons on all fronts but I will give her full points for breaking out of her shell and trying.
Maia: i’m in agreement with you that her speech needed re-organization, editing and grammar correction, BUT she tried, so like you, i’m going to applaud.
Don’t ask me to watch the video though, I was so distracted by the head tossing to move the fringe from her eyes. Urgh.
Regarding Kate’s accent, it’s very obviously fake, BUT i’ll go with what one of the royal reporter (Camilla Tominey) has said in the past, which is that she puts on an accent and persona for her public appearances and sounds quite different and normal behind the scenes.
Well, if CT is correct I have to ask why does she put on an accent and persona instead of being normal? I find that to be quite offensive. As if the public is comprised of a bunch of idiots. Honestly, if she let her normal self shine through I suspect that many of us would actually like and respect her more. Part of the PR problem is rooted in the assumption that the public is stupid and we won’t see through their gymnastics. The public (meaning people like us) totally sees through all of this.
The fake accent is obnoxious. I fail to understand why she feels as if she needs to do that.
Yes, yes and yes!
Betti, to your point, she needs to take advice from professionals because her speech came across amateurish all around from the hair in the face to the point of complete distraction to talking about herself and her own wonderful childhood.
Points for trying, but it’s obvious that she’s such a newbie at doing anything professionally focused. If she keeps at it, she’ll improve, but she has to keep doing it, and I also think she needs more help in crafting a speech with more meaning.
Kates fake accent comes from a low self esteem and loathing of her background. She thinks its not good enough. Just be yourself chick. We are stuck with you for the moment so you have nothing to lose.
Of course she’s a newbie at anything professionally focussed!!! She has never worked!!
aurelia
History certainly supports this. How Kate had to have the apartment in Chelsea. The haggling for the audi. The renting outfits to keep up with the group william hung out with. Building herself into what she needed to be to keep his interest.
It does make sense to have self worth issues. And add in how William “tested” her and overall treatment in the dating years and onward. I walk a line of pity for her circumstances, but also that she made her bed, but can do no more to maintain.
I dunno I’m not buying that she wrote it herself……too much looking down and reading from a notecard. It just looks like she was given a speech from someone and didn’t spend enough time practicing to memorize it.
Although I could be wrong. Couldn’t get more than 40seconds in with all that silly can’t shaking. Can we all pitch in to buy her some Bobby pins?
I agree – I teach and the kids who write their own speeches and do any preparation don’t look down that much!! She didn’t even seem to know her own speech and she stuttered on some very simple words.
At one point during the speech she looked quite flushed. Nerves I guess.
As for her hair, there really is no excuse. It’s a worn out subject and after five years one would expect a person mature and change their look accordingly.
I do appreciate the effort she’s made more recently. I hope she continues to work on her public speaking.
I wonder what HM privately thinks of Kate? I suppose Philip is the only one who knows.
I can imagine the TQ is a bit disappointed in her grandson and his choice of bride – both of them are the opposite for all she stands for. Her sense of duty is legendary. Its quite telling that Harry is the one she turns to and not the heir’s heir.
The photo of her with a curtain of hair over her eyes… Did she not have five seconds to smooth her hair? Even the wind blown photos don’t have her hair masking her eyes.
Her hair is horribly distracting. For someone with all these resources it’s difficult to understand why her speeches are so awkward and distracting. She can get help with everything from writing, to delivery, to hair and makeup so it should essentially be a matter of nailing a scripted performance. Instead she looks and acts like a first year uni student stumbling through her first class presentation. Given the number of years she devoted to securing this role I don’t understand why she isn’t more polished. This is literally the only job she’s been working towards for over a decade. She’s such a disappointment.
Let’s give Kate more time. She’s trying. She’s still relatively young.
She is 33 years old and has had this “job” for four+ years. How many of us would have been fired for such poor job performance at this point?
Notasugarhere
William, as a child, often listened to his mother’s complaints. One of them was the fact Diana believed she was thrown into Royal life. “I learned to be Royal in one week.”
With Kate, William et al provided Kate too much time for adjustment to Royal life. There wasn’t adequate balance with work time and formal preparation for her role. Now they’re playing catch up and it shows.
As long as Kate shows serious commitment to her work and makes public appearances on a regular basis, I’m willing to give her more time to smooth out the rough edges.
Citresse
That’s bad logic. Protect Kate from all because a 19 year old was thrusted into the spotlight and learned from sink or swim.
Kate is sheltered and continuing to shelter her isn’t going to work. She’s 33 and has had more time to prepare than anyone has. How is it not time to see results or improvement. Step up.
Protecting her I’m this way is only hurting her.
Citresse: on the one hand you make a very good point about William listening to his mother complaining about being thrown in at the deep end, BUT on the other hand, let’s not forget what a fibber Diana was. When it came to complaining about the royals, she always told a tale that wasn’t entire truth and which made her into a victim.
She was offered help from day one, but she thought she knew better and turned it all down to do her own thing. A template William is modelling for himself and for Kate.
Unfortunately for WK, Diana had pride in her work and sort help outside of palace resources to improve her work and presentation. WK seem to think they can do it themselves without recognising that they have shortcomings best addressed by professionals.
That is assuming they recognise that they have shortcomings. Or outside help is needed.
Camilla Tominey, a royal reporter, once recommended that Kate use professionals to work on her public speaking and was apparently laughed out of the palace. This means only media shaming can push these two into self improvement because otherwise they think they are doing a good job.
LAK
Yes, Diana was known to fib. For instance, it was a fact Diana innocently tripped on the stairs at Sandringham when pregnant with William. She didn’t deliberately throw herself down the stairs.
I also don’t believe she was actually cutting herself with razor blades while pregnant with William however it’s likely she threatened it.
When she said she “came down for treatment from Balmoral”, yes she had some adjustment (mental health) issues manifesting primarily as bulimia, but she had also missed her period and was seeing the Royal gyno in London. It was very early days in her pregnancy with William. Charles was aware of the bulimia by the time they arrived to Balmoral after the honeymoon cruise.
Looking back, Diana had a hell of a lot to deal with, in terms of change.
I think by the time she was working covertly with Morton, Diana embellished the stories from the early days because she was just so fed up living a lie and wanted to be set free.
Kate has time on her side. She can still make this work if she really devotes herself to putting in long hours of work and finally taking advice from various professionals.
citresse, to me it still doesn’t follow that they should coddle Kate Middleton to this extreme extent. Diana was 19 years old, broken home, possible emotional issues plus eating disorder. She became a global superstar.
KM has had 15 years. She had a decade to decide whether or not to keep chasing William. She chose to. She could have chosen to say, “No, ” when he finally popped the question but she didn’t. She chose this life. To continue to coddle a 33-year-old, whom we keep being told comes from a strong family background and has the love and support of her doting husband?
It is infantilizing. The subterranean bar set forth for her performance review isn’t helping her, it is merely making things worse. People on here are cheering because she showed up to work what, 50 hours this year?
I don’t think the workload is William coddling her to protect her a la Diana. I think he uses Diana as an excuse for both of them to be this lazy.
I agree, Citresse.
Everyone else: She has a fear of public speaking, something a lot of us can relate to. So what if her hair is all over, and so what if she needs notes to feel more comfortable, and maybe her delivery isn’t all it could be. But conquering a fear like that is HUGE and it isn’t something that happens overnight either. It comes with baby steps, and she just took one. So I’m saying absolutely nothing about it other than I’m giving her mad props for facing the fear head on and doing it.
I don’t know how we can criticize and say she should make speeches and then criticize some more when she does exactly that. If she’s still giving it a go and stammering all over in a year I’ll back you up. Until then I hope she continues to put some effort in, and feels more comfortable doing it.
She’s had 15 years if you count the staking years !
Has it ever been definitely admitted anywhere that she has a fear of public speaking? She had no trouble acting in plays when she was younger, and we’ve seen she’s not shy given her many exploits. Has any reliable source stated that they have confirmed she has a fear of public speaking, or is it like the horse allergy and HG? One more excuse.
I have a fear of public speaking too. Doesn’t stop my job from requiring me to give presentations to 100 people at a go. If I didn’t do the job regardless of the public speaking fear, I wouldn’t have the job.
Nota
Kate’s fear of public speaking is an internet rumor that people accepted as fact because it justified unjustifiable actions. Just as she’s suddenly reclusive if no on notices th rugby, premieres, shopping, vacations, and here and there evnt. Then yes sh is hardly seen in public.
This nonsense is readily accepted by anyon who hats to fact check IMO.
She’s a grown woman and mother of 2 who’s prep for this role has been about 15 years of slow progression. She’s not a child. Why are we so readily willing to treat her like a kid? The excuses and reasoning made on her part for defense belittles her at the same time. Women are not fragile!
This is maybe the most frustrating part of these threads. To defend apathy and lack of substantial progress we have to say it’s OK for someone in her position to refuse the duty, but indulge in perks. That she shouldn’t have to because she does not need to. She should. All that aside I hope she doesn’t slow down and regress.
nas, it was just reported (Camilla Tominey? and perhaps by Sykes in the Daily Beast) that she has a fear of public speaking, and it’s not particularly unusual. She has to speak on a much bigger stage than you and I do. I had to push through it too, but on the other hand if she’s trying and all people do is complain that she didn’t get it right that doesn’t seem really fair. I wasn’t great my first few times up either.
I’ll take both of those sources with pounds of salt. Was this before or after the secret showing of the secret children, resulting in loads of pro-Kate PR from the press?
She has access to the finest resources in the world to help her. She appears not to be seeking out assistance, or she’d have improve much more by now.
No offense, nas, but I have no idea whatsoever how you can’t accept that someone in her position (ie: her) would have a fear of public speaking. Just about everyone has a fear of public speaking and they aren’t being dissected like she is!
She’s is also visibly nervous when she delivers a speech.
I closed my eyes and listened to this speech, since I watched it yesterday and all I could do was shake my head and flip my fringe out of my eyes. Aside from the fact that her phony accent grates on my nerves, I think the message missed the mark on mental health issues in children. (I actually found her blabbing on about what a great childhood she had was sort of offensive. There are plenty of people who were raised in a loving family environment who developed mental health issues; likewise, there are those who were raised in difficult circumstances who went on to lead incredible lives.) If she wrote this speech, why did she have to look at the paper every 2 seconds? She gets no “A” for effort from me, sorry. That speech writer needs to be sacked. She needs to dump that phony accent too, I think that’s why she seems nervous, she’s spending most of her energy on trying to make it sound natural to her – and it isn’t. Kate is not a very good actress.
She gave the brief speech. Good. What is terrible is how the PR pushed this as something it clearly was not.
If you Google “Kate Middleton real voice 2007” you will hear her speaking at a trade show, answering a quick question. Her real voice is so much better than the fake accent.
Wow, @BDA. I’m American, so I wasn’t quite sure what you all meant about a “posh” accent vs. a middle class accent. But the two clips – the difference is unmistakable. It isn’t just how she pronounces words; it’s also the tone and sound. So bizarre!
+1000 to all this, Vava. MTE. I guess she did try, so credit for that…but really, as so many other posters have pointed out, she doesn’t have to do speeches (which she obviously does not accel at) to boost her reputation *not that she CARES, of course, what we think wink nudge wink* All she has to do is pick a few charities and give them her time for a few hours a week, consistently and without fanfare. Building a resume of work would go so much farther in the long run. Words are cheap.
I thought the actual speech was much improved. If she wrote it, she may have been more comfortable since they were her own words and her own emotions.
As far as her presentation goes, she should make sure her hair is out of her eyes when she gives a speech. People want to see her face. The bangs need to be clipped back.
I think she has been making improvements. She does seem exhausted, though. There is something almost trapped about her. I don’t know – probably projecting.
I’m sad she declared “almost always childhood” cause mental illness/addiction. And how she was, unlike others with illness, lucky to be loved. A happy home and school life is a great start for a healthy mind, but minimizing all the other causes is irresponsible.
It’s as if she’s saying that “almost all” parents with children with mental health issues didn’t support/love their child/ren enough. She mentioned nothing about genetics having a sizable hand in it, or the many other external factors involved. I hope if she keeps advocating for mental health (an important field that can never have too many people advocating for it!!!!), she learns a bit more on the topic.
This.
Schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar, depression, etc. Kate’s speech implied these can be avoided by support from family and teachers. She does need to educate herself.
I cringed when she said that as children can come from loving families and still develop addictions and mental illness – she kinda came across as being under prepared with those comments as there are soo many factors.
Exactly. Mental illness can strike the best and the worst families. That’s the point, Duchess. That’s why it’s important to develop programs to help people at any station in life.
……but she reads scientific papers.
and don’t forget the part about “my work” – like she’s worked tirelessly in the field of mental health and is an authority on the subject. puh-leeze!! what a load of bs.
maeve
Yes, it would have been better if Kate had used words such as “my time spent visiting with families etc..” instead of “my work.”
I would also like to add the following:
in this day and age of technology, it would be silly to think Kate hasn’t and won’t hear any negative feedback about the delivery of her speech at Place2be. The real test will be: how does she react to the negative feedback? Will she retreat to Amner for months in seclusion or will she work harder on the next speech and we’ll see her again soon?
The bangs are awful but now they’re annoying as all hell. That head tossing to get the hair out of the way is distracting. She should know better than that.
You are so right about the video!! I read the speech yesterday and thought it was lovely. However, in the video – the hair, voice, constantly looking down, flicking head slightly to get hair out of eyes – gah! I could barely make it half way through!!!! Someone chop off that hair! She needs to practice speaking in public. Maybe do more events where the video isn’t released publicly until she’s better than this.
I turned the sound off and just watched.
There were
35 doggy-like head tosses (I gave a pass on a couple that were iffy)
3 actual times her hands went to her hair
I’ve judged high schoolers’ speeches. The worst high schooler was way better than this presentation. 🙁 (And I like Kate! It was just…………really, really bad.)
The few lines she spoke as a supposed speech was terrible
it was like a schoolgirl who had never spoken out. Plus she should have never spoke abput her own childhood and life she was there to help foster children
plus the subtle digs at BRF unforgiveable……
@ LAK
This is the pic I was referring to in my post yesterday. It’s the pic where Kate in talking to the lil kids & a woman wearing a peach dress is in the immediate background. The back and top of her head looks weird to me:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3323451/Kate-Middleton-recycles-999-Matthew-Williamson-dress-arrives-make-rare-public-speech-Place2Be-Headteacher-Conference.html
I see what you mean.
Perhaps a bit of both? Ie no wiglet, but a strip or two on the sides? When I see her hair in the video, the sides look like they are pieces.
It was really windy yesterday here in London, I don’t understand why she didn’t put her hair in a ponytail.
Her hair flipping just kept reminding me of the goth kid on South Park that always flips his bangs out of his hair. After a minute of it, that’s all I could see. It also did seem that she became more flustered as the speech went on, probably from the hair? I know if that was me, I would have been annoyed about that bangs but it seemed like her focus was taken away from what she was saying to her hair. Which is a bummer, because I think her speech was important. As someone who works in education and rehabilitation, I appreciate her words and the message is important.
Ugh she’s so frustrating. She knew she was going to make a speech and yet she’s buried under that pile of hair. She has to keep shaking her bangs out of her face because she needs to look down at her notes. It was so distracting.
The actual delivery of the speech was marginally better than the National Portrait Gallery one, but she pauses in weird places. It’s like 5 words… pause… 5 words…. pause. I get that’s a tactic to make sure you’re not speeding through the speech to get it done, but she stopped between words that should belong together in quick succession. For crying out loud, she had to look down at her notes to say “thank you, and I look forward to the rest of the afternoon.” Like, you couldn’t memorize THAT?
I can sympathize with a fear of public speaking, but a) she chased this role for 10+ years, b) the public was fed this now-obvious BS about how she was having lessons and will be the “more prepared Royal ever” and will “hit the ground running” and c) has all the resources in the world at her disposal and this is the result, after 4+ of being a full-time, official royal. When the speeches are this far apart, you expect some development, but on the other hand, if you’re not practicing in front of actual people, how will you ever get better?
I’m tired of the excuses for her. She’s a grown woman who asked for all of this, yet she’s treated with kid gloves at every turn. No wonder she’s only viewed as a clothes horse… that’s still all she has to offer. She’s a total disappointment.
wanna see a great speech?
https://www.facebook.com/minusmensch2k15/videos/1516687831955737/
hope the link goes through.
Excellent!
As for the speech itself (hair aside, which we all agree was distracting and unfortunate), I think she did very well. Fear of public speaking can reduce people to a bundle of shredded nerves and all of the practice in the world doesn’t prepare you for actually doing it, in Kate’s case, to not only a roomful of teachers but cameras.
She knows it will be watched by millions and heavily scrutinized. That has GOT to be hard no matter who you are. There were times I had to speak in front of (much smaller!) crowds for my job, and no matter how much I practiced, I would just freeze once I actually got up there and almost always rushed through and made errors. I would practice some more but then it would happen again. I think it’s one of those things that someone needs to experience for themselves to be able to truly relate how difficult it is.
She’s trying. She’s not great but in terms of her long-term Royal “career,” she’s just at the beginning and I tend to agree with CITRESSE. It is clear that it is extremely difficult for her but she is forcing herself to do it anyway. I can’t snark on that, since I myself could never do it.
She was given the choice, and she chose this life. “At the beginning” five years in? While the rest of the people doing the majority of the work are in their 70s and 80s? They’ve had more than enough time to play house, suck up perks, and pretend they are normal. If she can spend hours at the hairdresser, she can spend hours practicing a speech. She chooses not to prepare enough, and the results are what we see here.
Absolutely. If she can spend all that time on her appearance (shopping and hair) she can work on public speaking. Duchess needs to stop being such a princess!
After reading the story and the comments, I went back and watched Kate’s speech. I watched the first half with the sound off, just to observe her non-verbal behavior. I watched the second half with the sound on to try to tie it all together.
First, this woman absolutely must have a stylist somewhere in the wings. I used to work in PR/media training with well-known corporate executives and we sprayed and powered and tucked and straightened like *crazy* before the person went out to give a presentation. Where is Kate’s “team”? Please don’t tell me she doesn’t have one, because I won’t believe you. I was absolutely appalled at her non-verbal communication.
Second, if Kate did indeed write that speech herself, at the very least someone would have (or should have) edited it before she gave it. And regardless of nerves, she should have been advised to practice the living daylights out of it so that she would spend most of her time actually looking at and connecting with her audience, using her speech notes only as a way to make sure she stayed on track. Believe me, I understand jitters and hatred/fear of public speaking, but Kate has every advantage at her disposal. Public speaking comes with the territory, and she knows it.
Third, I’ll admit I don’t know one accent from another, but all I could think about was Mrs Kensington from the first Austin Powers movie. I hope that’s not offensive to say…?
excellent points!
OrangeCrush, yes to everything you wrote! I’m in the marketing/communications world too, and also find her overall appearance appalling — content, delivery and appearance, and have the same question: where is her team. Sure, she’s ultimately responsible, but she’s never worked in her life and doesn’t seem to know or understand how to put it all together professionally. So she needs a team that does, and can help her write, edit and practice her speeches and make sure her clothes, hair and accessories are put together to maximize her appearance, not distract.
Maybe she surrounds herself with yes-people?
Her accent isn’t faux posh. She went to a posh boarding school and a really posh uni
Not according to some! Camilla Tominey would challenge that………(refer to LAK’s comment above).
Why would William and Kate be against getting advice? Don’t they have their own advisers anyway?
Voice-wise, I thought she had improved from the last time though. I mean, yeah, she still looks nervous, but voice-wise most royals sound kind of funny to me when they speak. Even the Queen kind of does to me, though I doubt she’s nervous, considering the number of years she’s in the business. Kate’s hair does seem to exacerbate some of her problems in public speaking though. What’s up with her bangs? I probably had bangs like that when I was 15, but I can’t imagine a celebrity going out with bangs like that. The hair-touching was way worse than Aniston’s.
In the past, William has bragged about doing the opposite of what he is adviced to do (in a television interview no less!)
I really don’t have much of a problem with Kate. I think she has potential but she needs to work very hard at it because she spent a decade at leisure so she has no work experience to build on. I actually kind of pity her, putting her whole life on hold for a man. I know that it was her own choice to do so but I still find it sad that such a young, privileged person stunted her own growth (and quite possibly her own self-confidence and -worth) in this manner because it is so terribly misguided.
William, on the other hand, I just can’t stand him. He gives off this vibe of an entitled, boorish prat, which is very off-putting.
ArtHistorian
It would be a shame if Kate doesn’t truly love William. But I don’t think that’s the case.
I agree – she has potential but won’t step out his shadow to reach it. And yes i can’t stand him either – whenever i see him on TV i want to throw something at him.
@Citresse – she loves him, in fact adores him. You can see it in the way she looks at him and behaves around him. He’s much more cool toward her and while i think he loves her he’s not IN love with her. To him he married his ‘friend with benefits’ as she was the only one willing to put up with him and take on the royal life.
OMG those head flips drove me crazy. I couldn’t even make it through the whole video. Props to those who did. It was very distracting how she’d hair flip every single time she looked up.
It’s not a difficult problem to fix. It’s HAIR.
I thought her whole platform was de-stigmatizing mental illness? how is it de-stigmatizing to talk about her wonderful childhood. I kinda feel that ends up blaming parents, which is not helpful. For example, Schizophrenia and eating disorders can run in families like diabetes and certain types of cancer. They are nothing to be ashamed of, no matter your family environment. I can’t believe they let her go forward with this speech.
She completely ignored the idea that there can be genetic components. Uninformed and dangerous.
I guess she didn’t do a thorough job with her “research” lol.
I felt the comment that most adults who end up addicts with mental health issues have unresolved childhood issues to be somewhat misleading – as that’s not ‘mostly’ the case. While i acknowledge that for many people that’s the reason they blame their addiction on, she seems to have forgotten about other factors that play a big part i.e. ADHD, Autism and other personality disorders that only start to show as the child grows, disorders that have nothing to do with how they have been raised/family environment. I have known addicts and they blamed others for their addictions, refusing to take responsibility for their actions – one came from a good family and had a good upbringing but started taking drugs at Uni to be like his mates. When he became addicted and turned to crime to feed his habit, he blamed his parents saying that they never loved him, he was black sheep of the family and all the usual BS. I knew his family and this was not true – he didn’t have any unresolved childhood issues nor did he suffer from any mental health issues, he took drugs because he liked getting high.
I think she missed the point and in a way fueled the stigma that its the parents who are to blame when a child start taking drugs or attacking people.
Betti, although you don’t profess to be a subject matter expert in mental health, you are far more credible than Kate and seem to have a much better, “real world” understanding.
Psychiatry has moved beyond the notion that mentall illness if the “fault” of the parents. Illnesses like depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia all have neuro-chemical components. However, when speaking of personality disorders, which are a different can of worms, environment does play a very large part – and they are treated primarily with dynamic and kognitive theraphy in order to recognize and to work to change harmful patterns of behaviour and thought.
I think it is very very important to emphazise that mentall illness is a combination of bio-chemistry as well as the environment that shapes us. it is not a simple matter and the intricacies haven’t been completely mapped.There’s a lot about the brain and the mind we don’t know yet – so any argument that rests on one simple cause is misleading.
I’d also like to add that a family can be loving yet still deeply dysfunctional. They are not mutually exclusive. People are complicated.
Doesn’t this woman have staff who provide guidance on such things such as don’t wear your hair down when it’s windy & you have to look down at your paper??? Her voice is cracking because she’s nervous, not that she’s feeling any emotion for the cause. Sorry, UK readers; you’re not getting your $$$ worth, total amateur hour.
Good to see people giving credit to Kate for at least trying to make a speech. Dont know if confident people realise how difficult it can be. I had to leave a job because I could litetslly not speak in work meetings.
Don’t know if anyone else on here had said that Diana had public speaking coaching from I think a BBC journalist.
As for how the Queen views William and Kate, I don’t know about Kate but she clearly adores William. You just have to see her looking at him. Remember too it was her he went to with the problems over their wedding guest list.
I also think from their eye contact and body language that William and Kate clearly adore one another.
As for wearing her hair up during speeches, it is her security blanket
Practice and some coaching can help with the delivery, but credibility and substance are another thing entirely and you either have it or you don’t – I don’t think either is within her reach. Mental Health is a serious matter and requires someone with depth, intelligence and genuine commitment to pass on the message, act as a credible ambassador, etc.
It’s downright offensive to those that really do strive to make a difference each and every day for someone like Kate to call what she does – going through the motions of showing up every now and then to spend a few minutes at a “meet and greet” and act interested as “Work”.
To be fair London was hit with a massive storm. Only a shellacked bun would stand up to the crazy winds we’ve had, and I can see why she wouldn’t want to go for a look so frumpy, especially as she seems to use her hair as a security blanket.
The hair flipping drove me nuts so I just listened. Although she was clearly nervous, I liked her speech. She seemed to care, and what she said was worth listening to. So, kudoz to her. I hope she’ll get more comfortable doing speeches in the future. And pins her hair up for them.
Regardless of how she might come across Kate is actually very intelligent. The university she attended, St Andrews, is very highly regarded and she would have had to have had very good exam results to have got in there. I would also have thought that her course would have been very popular with the result that only those with the very best exam results would have been admitted. I think she was also accepted for Edinburgh University which is another excellent university the year before.
She left St Andrews with a 2:1 degree which is good and because St Andrews is such a reputable university the exams there would have been harder than they would have been in a more “average” uni.
Credit to Kate where credit is due.
There was an interesting story on Jezebel by someone who attended St. Andrews and was familiar with Kate. It was referred to here on cb by posters on more than one occasion. Needless to say, Kate is not the scholar you believe her to be.
By that logic, George Bush is actually very intelligent because he went to Yale.
While most people I know from prestigious universities are, indeed, quite intelligent, they also rarely struggle to come across as such, and God knows she had tons of opportunities to shine. Therefore, I reserve the right to believe that she’s an exception to the rule until proved otherwise.
A year in college with a NY roommate killed my thick Rhode Island accent (think Lois from family Guy but not as high pitched). A few months back in RI and I finally started dropping my r’s again and saying bag instead of baeg.
My point is some people pick up accents without trying to. It’s amazing how everyone here is an expert on accents and who’s is fake or not… I love Kate’s voice, she reminds me Lady Mary from Downton.
Finally got around to listening, and what a disappointment. First, it’s hardly a “speech” as much as “opening (or whatever) remarks”. 3 minutes? Second, it was such a lackluster speech, I got bored within seconds, and I generally find conversations on mental health quite compelling because almost everyone knows someone affected, so it’s not like she chose a topic that I didn’t find interesting. Third, all these “I know how important your work is” were kind of annoying. No, you really don’t. Just because you attended a few events, does not mean you understand how it works and what it takes day-to-day. Fourth, even hair aside, her delivery was underwhelming. Awkward pauses, frequent peeks at the paper make me doubt that she wrote the speech, and she definitely didn’t practice. I’m sorry, but if I had to deliver a speech to such a huge audience (I don’t just mean people in attendance, but all of us), I’d practice my butt off. She clearly didn’t, and she has no one to blame for it but herself: it’s not like she’s a single Mom with a full time job who just couldn’t find the time to improve. Her voice was so monotonous, after a while, it was hard to pay attention to it. This usually happens when people are too busy reading unfamiliar words to truly convey the meaning. Such a short and simple speech could have been memorized, for crying out loud. She said a few platitudes about mental health and education. She didn’t cite any new break-throughs, didn’t mention any compelling data, didn’t give any numbers, in short, she didn’t say anything that would make me believe she knows about it something that I do not (and I know very little, I’m about as removed from the field as she is!).
It’s strange to watch Kate give a speech on mental illness when she looks like a skeleton herself. I could buy it if she were giving testimony about her own pschiatric issues but she is just full of it.