Ever since Peter Phillips began dating Harriett Sperling, many of us have noted that Harriet seems to dress like the current Princess of Wales. It’s rare thing for Princess Kate, to be the person someone else is copying rather than the person doing the copying. We’re so used to seeing Kate in her Diana cosplay or Meghan-inspired looks, it took a second to realize that Harriet is completely hijacking Kate’s whole deal, bar for bar. From polka-dots to lace to buttons, Harriet is almost trying to outdo Kate. Well, the Daily Mail is having fun with it. From the Mail’s “Coming for Kate’s crown: First it was the clothes, then came the same hobbies and holidays, and now it’s a matching charitable endeavour… just why IS Peter Phillips’ wife becoming a copy Kate.”
There is no better role model for a rookie royal than the Princess of Wales, and Harriet Sperling has clearly been taking notes. The 46-year-old former NHS specialist nurse wed Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips on June 6 at All Saints Church in Kemble, Gloucestershire, in a wedding she described as a ‘slice of heaven’.
In her first interview since the royal wedding, Harriet told Hello! magazine she shares a special bond with the future queen and frequently turns to ‘open-hearted’ Kate for ‘advice and guidance’. And there were certainly flashes of Kate when Harriet revealed her love of wild swimming and holidays in Balmoral, as well as her passion for early years development.
Harriet, who specialised in infant mental health, revealed she had chosen Home-Start Cotswolds as her first royal patronage after stepping back from the NHS, adding it felt like a ‘natural step, rather than a complete change of direction’.
But will it follow the same path Kate has forged? From her fashion choices to her charitable projects, it appears Harriet is navigating life in the royal fold with the future queen as her guiding light.
Not only are Kate and Harriet of similar backgrounds, with both hailing from upper-middle-class families in neighbouring Berkshire and Gloucestershire, respectively, but they’re also of a similar age. Both also have a keen interest in fashion, each owning an unmistakably similar wardrobe filled with brands like Beulah, ME+ EM and Self-Portrait.
Their interests, meanwhile, are similarly intertwined: Kate is an avid supporter of all things childhood development with her Early Years work, while former paediatric nurse Harriet specialised in infant mental health during her 24-year healthcare career.
Harriet is a talented freelance writer and recently contributed a candid essay to Woman Alive, detailing her experiences as a single mother and her unwavering Christian faith. Writing is a skill Kate also possesses, having penned a moving essay, The Power of Human Connection in a Distracted World, via the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
“Writing is a skill Kate also possesses” – LMAO. My question: do you think Harriet is doing this consciously and/or maliciously? From what I’ve gathered about Harriet, her interest in babies and children is very real, and arguably more authentic than Kate’s early-years busywork. In that area, I don’t think Harriet is copying Kate, it just seems like Harriet is being authentic to her own long-standing interests and profession. But the fashion stuff, I just do not know. It really looks like Harriet is using Kate as style inspo and even copy-keening some of Kate’s looks and wearing Kate’s favorite designers. I also find it fascinating the Mail describes it this way: “revealed she had chosen Home-Start Cotswolds as her first royal patronage after stepping back from the NHS…” Her first ROYAL patronage? Kate is going to be furious about that – “early years is MINE, Harriet!”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Avalon Red.
-
- Day 5 of 2026 Royal Ascot Featuring: Peter Phillips, Harriet Sperling Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 20 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling at their wedding at All Saints’ Church on June 6, 2026 in Kemble, England. Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne, Princess Royal and eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, will marry NHS Nurse and writer Harriet Sperling during a ceremony at All Saints’ Church in Kemble,Image: 1108332603, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Jules Annan/Avalon
-
- Ascot, UNITED KINGDOM Members of The Royal Family attend Day Two of Royal Ascot, at Ascot Racecourse, Ascot, Berkshire, UK. Pictured: Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton BACKGRID USA 17 JUNE 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- Ascot, UNITED KINGDOM Members of The Royal Family attend Day Two of Royal Ascot, at Ascot Racecourse, Ascot, Berkshire, UK. Pictured: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton BACKGRID USA 17 JUNE 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling during the Out-Sourcing Inc Royal Charity Polo Cup 2024 at Guards Polo Club in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Harriet Sperling, Peter Phillips Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Royals during day one of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse Featuring: Harriet Sperling and Peter Philips Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
-
- Royals during day one of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse Featuring: Harriet Sperling Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2025 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Members of the royal family on Day Three of Royal Ascot Meeting 2025 Featuring: Harriet Sperling and Peter Philips Day Three of Royal Ascot Meeting 2025 Ascot, United Kingdom 19th June 2025 Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
-
- Royals attending the Easter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Featuring: Harriet Sperling, Peter Philips Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 05 Apr 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- Royals attend day two of Royal Ascot 2026 at Ascot Racecourse Featuring: Catherine, Princess Of Wales Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- Royals attend day two of Royal Ascot 2026 at Ascot Racecourse Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
-
- Day 5 of 2026 Royal Ascot Featuring: Peter Phillips, Harriet Sperling Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 20 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
In all fairness, it wouldn’t take much for anyone to overtake Kate in any area whatsoever.
Which bland blonde will win?
Oh look, the tabs are pitting two women against each other. Who could have seen that coming?
Awww…bless their hearts. Kensington Palace has realized the press needs their drama and Kate will always look dull next to ambitious, intelligent Meghan. They’ve launched a less threatening competition. Please let this stick!!!
Yes, let’s hope the misogyny so many of us fight on a daily basis sticks.
I hope Harriet realizes what keen is really all about. All the over the top flattery of keen I doubt will do her any good. Peter and Harriet have no royal titles. Harriet should just live her own life with husband and family and stop trying to win keen over. It won’t happen
Harriet, RUN.
😂
Did Katie finally get someone in a similar position to finally kiss her ass publicly??? Because Chelsy and Meghan did not give a hoot. i would argue that Chelsy was even harder to mean girl because Kates position was not secure yet and i think Chelsy’s family was possibly richer than the Middletons.
Something a bit less like Kate’ s would have been a better idea.
Until they address the very real way Kate has copy-keened Meghan’s style since 2018, I just can’t care about this. But yeah, I’d advise Harriet to get her own style, one not like Kate’s.
Maybe having a married-in to lord over will get her and her mother to unclench and care less about M? wishful thinking.
I suspect Kate will be flattered that the new, firmly lower-ranked English Rose openly wants to copy-keen her.
She may also be jealous and territorial, who knows? If Harriet and Philip are happy, that’s going to be a sore spot.
Meanwhile, I am so sick of the puffed-shoulder frumpy dresses and bad hats they’re all addicted to, I could just scream.
I think they are trying to manufacture SEO ’drift’, to obscure and sanitize ’copy Kate’ into a term that ‘means’ people copying her rather than Kate’s long established history of aggressive mimicry and attempts at erasure of Meghan. That they do this on the back of a new married in just goes to show the Windsors and the BM will never change for the better, it’s intractable rot on both their parts/behaviour.
For heaven’s sake, the woman has a legit 24 year hands-on education and career with infants and children. Surely on ANY scale that outweighs Katie-poo’s “avid support of all things childhood”.
As for the clothes, they’re both horrible dressers. It’s a contest for the tallest midget (little person, height-challenged, …).
I agree. They’re both horrible dressers. And if you look at the photographs of the people around Harriet, you’ll realise that this is typical of that set and of those who aspire to be in that set. Very “English”. 😀
Hilarious. But did she not take his last name? The addiction to letting married ins know their place by using their maiden names gives me hives. Even on Harriet’s behalf.
This is such a whatever. Good luck to her and Kate finally has a new pet/fixation.
i don’t know if she’s copying kate on purpose. although it would be hilarious if she was, because i think she has much better style than kate. even if some of the pieces are similar, they all seem to fit more naturally on harriet, like this is her style regardless of kate. and harriet seems to have a sense of style, versus kate who just wears clothes, if that makes sense.
Harriet’s accessory game is much better than Kate’s, though the bar is low.
There’s a chain of boutiques in France for bits and pieces and children’s things that’s called “Du Pareil au Même,” and that’s the phrase that comes to mind: from the copy to the original. Kate always looks like she’s trying to manifest an ideal, that she’s projected on a screen, like she’s mimicking some kind of Platonic (as in Plato, not sexual) model. When she imitates Meghan, she’s just replaced one model with another. But her base line is imitation. Nothing she does (or wears) feels authentic. But with Harriet, it’s like Kate’s style has finally found its true champion. Like, to Harriet, this is breathing in her own skin. That’s another French expression. When you feel like you can exhale. Kate always looks like she’s holding her breath.
The way Harriet is being positioned in the press will no doubt make Kate wary of her. However Harriet has no real position in the Royal Family so she won’t be a real threat to Kate. I’m sure Harriet is giving Kate the requisite deference that she demands from those below her.
I think Harriet is dressed by the same designers as Kate. She looks good though, and she’s nicely styled in all her public appearances. If she is copying Kate, she carries off the style better than Kate. She carries off a typical English style very well. She is also very photogenic and she has/had a very real career devoted to early childhood. I think she presents real competition. Meghan and Diana are way out of Kate’s league, so Kate really can’t compete where she doesn’t compare, as the saying goes. That’s why it’s “copy-Kate” when she cosplays Diana or Meghan. It’s inauthentic. Harriet may be “copying” Kate, but perhaps that’s actually her style to begin with. If she could wear whatever she wanted to and had the means to do so, perhaps that’s what she would choose.
Harriet is not copying Kate. They are both middle-aged white English women of a certain background and this is the way MOST of them dress, with the exception that Kate takes the “twee” and “frump” up multiple notches and seldom gets things right. But the underlying dowdiness is just typical “white Englishwoman” style, also seen among the royal rota women and the wives of the royal rota men. And they all think that the way they dress is the heights of fashionable, hence the frequent use of superlatives such as “stunning” to describe women who dress like that.
It’s this. It’s how English women of a certain age and status typically dress.
Okay, so the tabloids are now starting shit for Harriet? At least they’re throwing in the white woman. Not that that’s really a win, but maybe some pressure will be off poor Meghan as she’s going through this heartbreak of her father’s horrid crimes.
Harriet is naturally a very pretty woman. She worked in a demanding job and raised a child on her own.
I agree that she dresses in a very British style but it suits her.
If there is to be a style “competition” between Harriet and Kate then I think it’s clear who the winner will be.
Harriet, you in danger, girl 😱
Harriet, like Kate, looks ridiculous in those stupid hats and fussy old lady dresses.
Is it weird that the first thing I thought when I saw her was, “She looks like the person he’s going to serially cheat on.” I wonder if that’s part of the job description: Will you agree to not put up a fuss when I go off with my six mistresses…