Several months back, the Duchess of Cambridge appeared on the cover of British Vogue. It was her first time posing for a magazine, and the result was… okay. I thought the clothes were incredibly boring and Kate brought as much life to the photos as she does to her charity work. Little surprise that Kate dictated her own terms to British Vogue, from the clothes to the location and it wouldn’t surprise me if she chose which photos too. Still, the photos weren’t flat-out embarrassing and everyone just moved on. Now the editor of British Vogue is giving her assessment of what it was like to work with Kate and what she feels is Kate’s raison d’être.
Few people get the chance to work closely with the Duchess of Cambridge but Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman was given a rare glimpse into the elusive royal’s life when she shot her for the magazine – and she’s shared the details of their encounter.
So what was it like to work with one of the world’s most famous women? ‘She’s incredibly likeable,’ Shulman told ES Magazine’s Charlotte Edwards. ‘She really is. She wants to do what she’s doing well, and she’s very professional.’
Alexandra, who has been at the helm of the fashion bible for over 20 years, also explained how she thinks Kate differs to Princess Diana.
She said: ‘Diana was more interested in that high-voltage celebrity, that was something she really embraced. The Duchess of Cambridge is prepared to do her bit, but it’s not one of the things that she most cares about. She loves her kids and the countryside. Dressing up, that’s a professional side to her. It’s a sort of uniform, all those lovely couture costumes.’
I have mixed feelings about this assessment of Kate as someone more comfortable being a “country girl” and not really being interested in the celebrity/fashion side. Like, I think Kate is truly uncomfortable in her public role, which is why she escapes to Norfolk and to her parents’ house in Bucklebury so often, because Kate has difficulty functioning as “the Duchess of Cambridge” (especially with the Queen trying to convince her to do MORE). That being said, I believe Kate does love the celebrity side and the fashion side, she’s just not good at that side of it. There’s a difference between not caring about it or prioritizing it versus not being good at it. I mean, clearly she loves to shop and she loves the “image” part of her role. She loves the image part of her role so much, it sometimes feels like that’s all she cares about: the photo-op, not the work.
As for the swipe at Diana being interested in “that high-voltage celebrity”… Diana instinctually understood the media, the imagery she was creating and how she was rewriting the story of the British royal family in the media age. She understood that she was a celebrity by default and a public servant by marriage. She understood that bringing some glamour to the staid and dour Windsors was necessary for the preservation of the monarchy too. Does Kate understand any of that?
Photos courtesy of WENN and British Vogue.
Was surprised when my sister told me she found her gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS! I find her pretty average.
P.S.: love the hat though.
Should have gone to Specsavers!
My sister, right? And to thing she’s already had lasik surgery…lol!
That is one of the dullest VOGUE Covers I’ve ever seen. Kate doesn’t look pretty at all on the cover.
I find her average, nothing special really.
Diana had charisma, she had IT, a certain something that made you want to see more of her. Kate doesn’t have IT. Kate’s so lackluster, she and William both come off as dull, even with the hype around them, they just don’t much charisma at all.
Spot on Kaiser With all you said. I think Kate (and Wills) believe the monarchy will always be around and either we like them or not — doesn’t matter to them because they believe they are here to stay. PDiana was in touch with the public sentiment and she somehow was able to master what they wanted and feed into it. Some call her manipulative and others call
It PR savvy. I was a little girl and as I grew up, I watched her grow into her role. Call it what you want, she has what very few people have and that’s exactly why she didn’t fit in with the Widsors. Archaic is the monarchy and the family in the establishment. While I admire the Queen and all she does at this age, I think the British people deserve better than W and K.
Well that will be William’s and Kate’s downfall. Honestly truly do not believe its their destiny to be King and Queen.
Yes, I really agree with Kaiser too, especially, “I believe Kate does love the celebrity side and the fashion side, she’s just not good at that side of it.” Telling that all the British Vogue editor could muster was she is incredibly ‘likeable.’ This special issue, and in general, she just comes across as like an average person with expensive clothes and their hair styled, not much else.
Diana had the ‘it’ factor, there are people in a room, in a meeting, that will draw all eyes to them, they are simply wired that way, you can’t replicate it (though the Kardashians try very hard.) Kate doesn’t have that, so its like a kid saying, ‘I didn’t want that anyway!’ But really, I could overlook that if I saw her working hard, working at public speaking, something for the role she absolutely pursued with everything she had.
Exactly. What is the head of Vogue UK going to say she is NOT likeable?? That would be the end of her twenty year tenure. Trust me, Kate loves it all. Marrying him was her goal. She’s uber thin, has a makeup team Yadda yards. Very girl next door soccer player in the US kind of boring pretty. But she got what she wanted. If she hasn’t already she will certainly do nip and tuck re jowls, lines, etc….too thin. Adorable babies tho!!!
Well said
we as British Citizens and country folk find this duo lack lustre lazy over entitled abd do not deserve this position they have in monarchy.. This little girl child going around small talking with utter rubbish nothing of intelligence to say as she is a barbie doll with little intelligence. … Way out of her depth and just looks like a coat hanger as she has got too thin and its not an elegant look
This waity is just about spending tax payers money on very expensive designer outfits abd its become a joke and really its the people who should benimportant or said charity not just about her dresses and also she has shown her knickers far to many times to gain any respect from us in any way ….how the monarchy puts up with their sheer arrogance is beyond all reason.
Sooo tired of seeing that she is not wearing her knickers! The world has seen her naked –
Duchess Kate isn’t interested in ‘high-voltage work’ like Princess Diana
Fixed it for you.
You read my mind, @Zapp!
She avoids Hi Voltage anything because she is not in the same league as Diana.
I wonder what kind of mother-in-law Diana would have made? I’m sure that she and Kate’s mum would have hated each other…..
I wonder if William and Kate would have married if Diana was still around. Isn’t one of the things that William loves about Kate the way that she comes with a surrogate set of parents for him?
I suspect too that Diana would have been quietly delighted that Kate wasn’t as good at the game as she was.
ravensdaughter, there would have been no 70 million dollar wedding, Diana would have nipped the Midd’s in the bud, in the first 6 months, Carole would not have stood a chance. Me thinks a lot would be different if Diana were still here !!
+10000! Why would one go to Africa and bring attention to suffering children when one could do The Lord’s Work of sunning oneself in Mustique?!
“The Lord’s work of sunning oneself in Mustique” 😂 Perfect!
Perfectly stated!
Diana was charismatic. Kate is average. Anyway, Diana has been dead for a long time. Let her RIP.
Ouch. I never think of Diana as “dead”. She is like the mythological Diana – forever hunted, and forever beautiful. (I’m a child of the 80s – watching her wedding was the highlight of my young life. Watching her funeral was like a crazy mixedup dream. Not real life. Not real death.)
Except the mythical Diana was the huntress, not the hunted…..
Don’t you always think of Princess Di as the hunter who tragically became the hunted? I suppose I’ve mythologized her in my own mind. Sigh.
Thank you! She was the huntress. She wanted to be Princess of Wales. She was in love with the title not the Man. She was young & naive & had a Barbara Cartland idea of marriage & love. She loved everything Charles did until they married. Then real life smacked her hard. She used the media, brilliantly, to sell her story of poor little princess. I think she had some mental issues that were exacerbated by the ridged cold world in which she lived. Once they divorced it was lovely to watch her find herself working for the eradication of land minds and all the lovely things she did for others. She was a victim of her own design & sadly it was that which aided in her sadly untimely death.
I know I am in the minority but I like The Duchess
Snappyfish, I agree completely with your assessment of Diana.
Oh for heaven’s sake Snappyfish, Diana was 19 when she got engaged. 19! She wasn’t a huntress, she was a teenager who had never had a serious boyfriend, who was swept up by a man in his 30s – a man who was quite dashing in a jug-eared sort of way. Of course the glamour of it all was appealing to her but she had been exposed to royalty all of her life so it wasn’t an unfamiliar thing. She also understood from the get-go that it was a job and a job that she could do very well.
Anyone that disagrees with Snappyfish should read The Diana Chronicles and then revert.
I have read it (it’s very good) but I don’t think it says quite what Snappyfish said.
Kate just comes off as so average. There is nothing special about her. Kate couldn’t have Diana’s wattage if she tried. Even that VOGUE cover of Kate is dull as dishwater.
If she wasn’t interested in the celebrity side, she’d dress like Anne instead of media baiting with new outfits every engagement.
Plus there is a fundamental misunderdtanding of her role if the editor AND Kate think she’s there for the celebrity and glamour. She’s in her position to work. There is no requirement to be glamourous or even famous celebrity.
Finally, this is her second official possing for a magazine. She posed for Hello magazine during the drag race she was taking part in during the infamous breakup of 2007. As part of the team and as a solo cover star.
“She loves her kids and the countryside. Dressing up, that’s a professional side to her. It’s a sort of uniform.”
As I read that, it’s the Vogue editor trying to position Katie Bucket as a member of the horsey set, a la Camilla. Because, of course, what Kate very definitely ISN’T, is a member of the horsey set. It’s just trying to rebrand her as an aristo who loves the huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’, and only puts on the designer clothes as a work uniform, as the other idiot only puts on his military gear as a work uniform. Instead of a Middle Class Middleton arriviste.
Yuck to all of it.
I hadn’t thought of that, but you are right.
It’s laughable to say she is a countrywoman when she doesn’t do anything remotely country even if she isn’t part of the horsey set.
She’s a city girl who happens to live in the country ala country dwelling weekend bankers.
Exactly. I just read it as an anti-wisteria pitch, if you will. All about rebranding Kate as aristo-by-inclination. Says more about Kate’s actual ambition than anything else – which has nothing to do with celebrity but is all about being accepted as an aristo and for the Bucket origins to be whitewashed out of history.
LAK – she is not even a city girl. She is a girl from the suburbs.
Sixer and LAK: Completely agree about the rebranding. The “country girl” image, along with the accent, are part of the whitewashing. They have also started playing up the gentility of the Middleton side. They can’t do anything about the Carole side after all.
According to a zealous poster on the Duchess Kate blog, she has been doing “research” and has found that the Middletons are descended from royalty or some such, and Peter Middleton was apparently best friends with Prince Phillip ( and many other wild wild speculations about how close they were, how Phillip attended Peter’s funeral secretly etc. etc.). And some other Middleton ancestor went to Oxford with none other than Diana’s father.. and was roommates, and best buddies with him. Out of the blue all these “facts” have been unearthed. A whole bag of beautiful tales been spun as we speak and possibly disseminated over the web for octogenarian royalists to find. They do want to believe that Kate is blue blooded, so quite easy to convince them.
Ha, Maia! I recall arguing with that poster who was telling everyone how aristocratic the Middletons are/were. I disagreed and her entire argument was based on how Olive Lupton married a Middleton a century or so ago. She also claimed that Diana’s grandfather and the Middeton he went to college with were “best friends”. When asked to prove that statement I don’t think she could.
Hi Bluhare – ha ha .. I am glad I had company in my massive eyerolls. I wonder if she is the same one that keeps saying that Charlotte (or is it George?) looks exactly like the Queen Mother.. So bizarre. She kept insisting on each and every article ! I think that she made up all of it. I kept imagining her as some tiny bird like figure in a shower cap typing out one letter at a time hunched over a huge desktop from the 1980s.
And then there is the famous poster who declared that Kate should get a Nobel. I think that she was trolling LOL. And then there is the poster that keeps discovering “Kate things”. The FBTB blog had a poster who listed 7 or 8 things that the poppy dress referenced as a “Kate thing”. It’s all mighty hilarious !
@Maia: what WAS that whole “Kate things” list about? I literally had no idea what that person was even talking about!
@Lorelai : they have this belief that Kate references something to do with the charity or engagement through her clothing. The list was actually tongue in cheek – she was trying to show how absurd it is for us to speculate on these strange connections because you can literally connect anything about her outfit to a variety of absurd things. There are some very motivated zealous Kate fans on the web.
Maia, thank you! I was genuinely confused by that comment. (And I think they give Kate waaay too much credit.)
Although I don’t think any comment will *ever* top the “Nobel Peace Prize” one. I’m still shaking my head over that one.
My goodness i remember those Philip and Peter Middleton besties/Olivia Lupton married a Middleton therefore Kate is distantly royal posts.
That person is determined. They post this on several royal forums.
Apparently their research is much more detailed than the royal college of arms researchers.
Geez – I’m 1st cousins to the Queen, nine times removed. Am I special? Just how does this “bloody-tie” make Kate a class act? I’m an American – what’s the point of having blue blood? My ancestors were leaders and commanders in the Revolutionary War, one funded a gunnery, and had a shit load of slaves and ships. When there is a family gathering, it is for the Warners, Washington’s (George) and Lewis’s. Liz is related to all of them. Why is that special? She laid a wreath at our ancestral home. Why do these people not feel shame, for their part in history?
Exactly! She wants it. She wouldn’t be spending nearly $200K this year on bespoke clothes if she wasn’t trying to be a fashion plate. She just doesn’t have any style. But she most definitely loves the attention and adoration.
+1000!
She took her hairdresser on the hike in Bhutan so she was picture perfect. Enough said.
+1
Kate absolutely enjoys the celebrity, it’s so obvious. She just doesn’t want to do anything constructive though.
+1 – Kate is so in it for the celebrity lifestyle, she always has been with the PR campaigning and tipped off pap strolling. She used the media to help her land him and now she’s (and the Mids) have turned their noses up at them now they have what they spent 10years chasing. The Middletons used the media to climb just as much as they used the families of school friends. One day the media will open their files on this lot.
I disagree with the editor’s entire premise, tbh. There aren’t two sides to this job/life. There is one side. She is a public figure and as such, her job is to do something for her country. She did the kids part. The rest is probably “limited” to charity work but that is a huge area and if she had the ambition to frickin’ google this sh*t or simply look to her brother-in-law, she’d realize that she can define that however she wants to. The only question should be “What do I do?” and not “How much do I absolutely have to do?”
Whatever comes with it, whether that’s celebrity or the relatively quiet life of a workhorse like Anne, is not something that should be a consideration first and foremost and it’s certainly not the first choice to make. You do your job and then deal with the rest in a professional manner. And of course she has to invoke Diana. Which is ridiculous because she most likely did not think, at 19, oh I think I’ll like the glamour. Nobody could’ve known the sh*t that was about to go down or the firm would NOT have chosen her.
You expressed it better than i did, and you are absolutely right.
Kate (and William) seem to think their jobs/roles are the celebrity aspect as seen in royalfan magazines. Considering they are on the inside, their approach is as uninformed as the worst royal fan who thinks it’s only about glamour and celebrity and nothing else.
This is the thing that really gets to me. As Arthur Daley would say, the world is her lobster. She could make that public service role into almost anything at all, so long as it was positive and productive. Instead, everything she does is turned into vapid and disinterested. She’s a Stepford duchess.
I do think this is partly William’s fault. I think he’s the one who – during their dating years – framed it like this and nobody ever corrected him. From everything he’s said and from most accounts, that part of his mother’s life was, in his mind, to blame for the disaster. He’s a spoiled brat and most likely, nobody ever explained to him the fundamental misunderstanding. That’s not an excuse. They’re adults and they’re surrounded by enough people who do understand this.
Agree completely, @littlemissnaughty. Wills hasn’t a clue and as a result, neither does she.
I agree with the Vogue editor on one point: Katie Bucket’s clothes do look like costumes on her. Couture or not, 9 times out of 10 they wear her… and they are very rarely “lovely”.
Couture or not, Katie Bucket’s clothes do appear as costume.
It’s so completely preposterous for her to make this claim after posing for the cover of Vogue, FFS 🙄
lol Exactly!
I hope this marriage never breaks up, because Kate’s whole self esteem is based on William, imo. It’s sad.
What BS from this Vogue editor.
Diana, just like Kate, was a celebrity, the difference is that Diana understood the perks and obligations that came with her status, while Kate only gets the perks. The fact that Kate, a celebrity herself, is not interested in the celebrity world, just speaks to her ignorance and privilege.
Kate has always lived a protected life and she still does, she would probably crumble if life handed to her what it handed to Diana.
My feeling is that just like Kate, Diana would have loved to be protected, but when she realized that she wasn’t, she cried, picked herself up and fought. Would Kate be able to fight if she had no protection?
EXACTLY!!!!!
@ALS are you sure? I felt like Diana like MJ was above being a celebrity. They had a larger than life game and Diana was royalty so she had an even higher status. It seems like people don’t really respect Kate as much as they did with Diana.
P.S. Why doesn’t Kate have the Roy Order yet? It’s been 5 years.
Diana embraced her celebrity and revelled in it.
The counter balance was that she understood why she had the celebrity and obligations attached to it and worked for that. That is why people respect Diana inspite of her enjoying the celebrity aspect.
@LAK, of course! I mean she liked the celebrity life and all but she was also a huge powerful humanitarian. I don’t get why KTw doesn’t want to influence good in the world and be a great humanitarian!
Kate doesn’t have the royal order yet because she hasn’t done a damn thing to deserve it. Merely procreating isn’t enough.
@Kitty: I don’t think Diana was above being a celebrity. Like LAK said, she embraced and revelled in her celebrity. She was also forced by circumstances to work with her popularity and to get out in the world, to understand everything because the ones close to her kinda let her down. Although, no matter the context, IMO Diana was a natural at working with people. She loved it. Kate does not. It is pretty obvious.
But Diana started from the same place as Kate. More so, Diana started worse because when entering the royal family she lacked a supportive family of her own, unlike Kate, that had the Middletons. She also married a man that already had a mistress at the time of the wedding. The odds were against Diana from the start so the fact that she managed to get out in the world and transcend her own shitty life and help others in the process, this is what makes her fabulous in the eyes of the people.
Kate had and has the odds in her favour and nothing. And to cover this nothing, Kate says she does not aspire to the high voltage celebrity world. OK then, she should keep shaking hands of world leaders, taking 1000 vacations a year and generally not be a celebrity.
Yeah, why doesn’t Kate have the royal order yet?
She doesn’t have a royal order, because she is common arriviste.
No it’s more because she is lazy and hasn’t done anything to deserve it. Unless you mean that she doesn’t have a sense of noblesse oblige then I would agree with you there. But even non aristos have a better sense of community service than she does. Pippa even does more charity work without being obligated to do so. If the woman had no nannies and staff to help her, the the kid excuse might work, but it doesn’t explain the laziness before she had kids.
Doesn’t the Queen’s daughter in law, THE Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward’s wife have the Royal Order?
She\s from a commoner background, I think it’s more to do with work and having a sense of duty that the Queen sees for herself.
Kate seems like a lightweight and doesn’t seem to really want to do work. All accolades without the work is what Kate wants imo.
It is given by the Queen for personal service to the monarch. Diana was awarded hers around 18 months after marriage, Fergie never received hers. She probably would have gotten it around the 5 year mark, but the marriage was over by then. Camilla’s came around 2 years. Sophie’s came around the 5 year mark, but she wasn’t a working royal for the first couple years.
Answer disappeared. The RFO is for personal service to the monarch. Diana got hers at 18 months, Camilla at 2 years. Duchess of Gloucester got hers less than 2 years in. Sophie got hers around 5 years, but she wasn’t a working royal for the first few years of the marriage. Fergie never got one, likely would have gotten it at the 5 year mark but the marriage was done by then.
‘She’s incredibly likeable,’ Shulman told ES Magazine’s Charlotte Edwards. ‘She really is.”
Notice the phrasing. This is what you say when you are trying to convince someone to take a chance on a blind date. Saying someone’s likable and saying that you like them, they were wonderful to work with, etc. are two different things.
Also, it sounds like Kate never got the message that she married into a position that involves work and not just celebrity status.
Hahaha, I like how she had to add, “She really is!” either because the person interviewing her looked skeptical, or she just knew it sounded implausible.
I remember someone from the Palace gossiped before the wedding how rude Kate was to the staff, compared to Chelsy Davy, who was very polite and considerate. The Palace staff seemed to have liked Chelsy. I read so many statements on how rude, impolite and ill-mannared Kate is, so I intend to believe it. Also she doesn’t have any friends. She has only used her female friends until they given her what she wants, like access to William. To my knowledge she has only had one proper female friend, who she didn’t even invite to the wedding. It was a woman with curly dark hair.
That friend was Trini, she was Kate’s best friend, before Kate met William, from the time they were kids. Kate invited her to the Royal wedding, but what Kate did was miss Trini’s wedding, this was her best friend and Kate was not engaged or married yet to William soTrini got engaged before Kate, Kate was still on a off and on situation with William. Some said Kate actually got jealous of poor Trini, because she got a proposal before her, even if the guy wasn’t a Prince, but it was reported later that what actually happened was that Kate had planned to go to Trini’s wedding, but William made a last minute phone call asking Kate to come visit him for the weekend, so she dumped Trini’s wedding and went to spend the weekend with William instead. There are photos of Trini’s wedding, No Kate in sight, but some Aristo friends showed up, to support Trini. There are photos of Kate that weekend returning on a train from William’s, she got there and he only on a few hours to see her, so she basically dumped her friends wedding for a few hours with William.
To be fair I absolutely believe that Diana enjoyed the high level celebrity side of her image. As she got older and more independent she did mix with A listers and by all accounts she loved the rich bling affair she had with billionaire Dodi and the private jets and yachts etc which was so different from country pursuits and Scotland.
I think the level of fame she had is highly unusual so I think she had to enjoy it.
The alternative was to probably get depressed like Carolyn Bessette did when she married JFK Jr.
I think Kate wants to be admired on some level, but she isn’t good at getting admiration.
@Perplexed, exactly!!! Not to this day besides The Queen no one has had Diana’s level of fame. It’s very rare. MJ had it, Elvis, The Beatles, and that’s all I can think of.
I wonder if the Vogue person was referring to Diana’s “high wattage” fashion friends like Elton John, Gianni Versace, etc. I’ve read quite a bit that Diana loved the social scene, the fashion crowd, etc., and it’s very clear that not only does Kate not socialize at events, she doesn’t seem to socialize at all with anyone other than with the Middletons. No one ever accused Diana of being hermit like, which is exactly what I’d call Kate.
She couldn’t even have a simple public conversation with Justin Trudeau’s wife, who is clearly able to relate with the public. Kate show us her grin (and lack of underwear). Billy must have a good time – what else to think of the “mattress” (her code name before marriage). On this trip, we were only privy to her slip, but the world has seen it ALL. One can’t convince me that she cares about anything, but getting Billy’s up. Good for her! I would never call her a class act, however.
Still can’t believe they put such a poorly lit photo on the cover of Vogue.
Guess her mediocrity is contagious…?
She’s so boring. I know that she get’s receipts (awards) on her clothing – but nothing that any girl could not find herself. She’s just like us!
I was a jeweler for many years…and everything she wears is boring, boring, boring. She is unable to distinguish herself.
….she’s not interested in being a celebrity? Posing for Vogue seems interested to me. It’s the “fashion bible”for heaven’s sake. Any celebrity and model would be glad to be on the cover.
She posed for us, “being friendly” – (however, she’d rather be left alone, in her palace/country homes…) The public is obviously a bother to her lifestyle, which seems the point of her pictorial in Vogue.
I don’t think Diana expected to become a high-voltage celebrity. Even she admitted that she didn’t quite understand why people were interested in her since she hadn’t done anything important. Once she became the celebrity that she did, she used it to her advantage like any celebrity with common sense would.
I think it’s hard for a lot of people today to understand what a mega-watt celebrity Diana was. For almost 20 years, was was, quite literally, the most famous and most photographed woman on the planet. She was *everywhere*.
I STILL can’t believe she’s dead!
So @Alix are you saying that Diana’s fame does not compare to the top stars in music, movies, sports, ect…?
Kitty, Diana was famous globally during an era when that was much harder to achieve. All over the world people waited for photos and stories of her, she sold magazines in the millions. Now we are in an era of instant access, lots of divided attention. It is much more difficult to be held above all of that noise and be seen as globally significant.
I don’t know Nota… Diana was surreal, in her loving.
Please, kate is very interested in being a fashion plate super star, she’s just no good at it
Just replace every “Kate” with a “Harry”. There, fixed it. He’s the one who embodies all the things Diana was.
Kate takes her cue from William. If he thought she should work more, you can be your a** she would be doing that.
I was surprised to learn she doesn’t go to fittings for her bespoke pieces. She just sends in her measurements – the least possible effort. And the results are mediocre at best. That says it all, doesn’t it?
She doesn’t do fittings? No wonder the waist on her dresses is always up, under her armpits and her hemlines are odd. I don’t see the point of having a bespoke dress unless you do at least 1-2 fittings. It’s not like she needs to look for a babysitter and take the tube to it! Sheesh.
Its ridiculous. She is in the position to have the designers come to her for measurements.
It is SO lazy!
Can you imagine being the seamstress? How you would shudder, knowing how well it should fit? And it’s not like they can just refuse to work with her.
She orders the waists to be raised deliberately, to trick the eye into thinking her legs are longer. Vogue did a bit about it a year or two ago.
What??? I can’t have my clothes unless I have at least 2 fittings. The woman I go to doesn’t take no for an answer even with me going for years at her and no big changes have happened to my body. I have to do them. And my clothes are better fitted than hers I can tell you. And I spend a little money and don’t have my picture taken for the world to see.
I believe that a lot of her work related laziness is due to William (he dictates what she does or how she does it and she has said herself that his opinion is all that matters to her) but IF that said about her fittings and lack of sparkle are true…well that’s on her and it’s to bad. I mean, and I have said this before, she can do so much and better than anyone else because she has the means but she chooses not to. I wonder what does she think of all this.
On another note: She was asked by the Queen to do more work and she has resisted in the past????? Lucky for her that the queen is old, has the character she has and the times are different because if it was me and someone I feed does “resist” doing the bare minimum of work…well she wouldn’t need fittings as she was going to buy her clothes at the dollar store not bespoke stuff and she would get paid the minimum wage and I would invite her to rent her apartment.
Thank you Kaiser. Never confuse Kate’s failure to do something with a lack of interest in whatever it is. I guess we could also argue that her disinterest is her first step towards failure… But I don’t really know how you qualify her successes either. (We also had the conversation about why Kate’s Vogue cover was a bad idea and revealed much about Kate http://www.celebitchy.com/483310/duchess_kate_posed_for_her_first-ever_british_vogue_editorial_stunning_or_meh/#comment-15027935) The celebrity bit is all The Hair likes. It’s the flaw in the “poor, shy Kate” argument, the “we can’t have another Diana” defense, and it’s cousin, the “BRF/William don’t like being overshadowed” theory. Let’s back up a bit to this summer with the celebrations for QEII’s birthday, Wimbledon, and so on. At that time, many people kept mentioning how happy Kate seemed. How she had a few fashion hits. She seemed more at ease. How her posture even looked improved a couple times. I’ve even seen some people wondering about her and William’s relationship because Kate seemed “different” to them in Canada. Do you notice something about all that? The Trooping, The Order of the Garter, etc., It’s literally a series of engagements where Kate has to do nothing but stand around, be royal, and play dress up. She loves that stuff! She loves to mingle with the utmost echelon of British artistry. She’s there, grinning from ear to ear, tossing her hair in the royal box at Wimbledon. Celebrities, or being treated like a celebrity, she’s there. Any time she can wave from a balcony and be in a photo with the Queen, she’s there and on her best behavior. What were the things that tore her away from her last maternity leave? The Trooping, Wimbledon, and Ben Ainslie. Those are her priorities. She also seems to love having William’s attention, being the center of attention, while not having to actually do a damn thing. She did nothing in Canada! Just followed William around, patting his leg a few times, and grinning. I don’t think Kate needs William or B.P. to hold her back, keeping her on the JV team. She does so gleefully. I don’t know how any of it is even an argument, or how people don’t see the gambit at this point when you can clearly contrast her performance when she’s, say, chatting with Novak Djokovic, versus looking scared sh*tless while having to just stand next to the King of the Netherlands. Or look at her behavior around the peasants 😀 She turns it on and never puts a foot wrong around QEII. But then she shows up for “work” looking a bored, mess, wearing a $4,000 ensemble. Speaking of… Her spending is out of control and her work output in no way justifies it. The last thing I’d call Kate is “professional”. And I’d love to see her try her best at things that actually matter.
I also need to add this, because I mentioned it, and I need to stop the comments before they start 😀 People are always looking to infantilize and victimize Kate. So I’d also point out that there is no evidence of The Firm itself trying to push Kate to the side and make sure she doesn’t overshadow them. Quite the opposite. From QEII’s Jubilee onward, Kate has been included, front and center, and has been given ample opportunity to plant her flag in the family. Just look at how they announced Philip passing on the RAF Air Cadets. They practically threw her a parade! They don’t make such a big deal out of William or Charles doing the same. I’d also like to mention that with all the victimization and PR machinations that William/Kate/The Middletons get up to, have you noticed that they don’t go after The Firm? Not once. In fact, didn’t they try that back when they were dating and claimed that B.P. didn’t want Kate to work? B.P. shut that down with prejudice. Blaming The Grey Men for holding Kate back seems like an obvious tactic to me. But they haven’t gone to it. Besides, if Kate was “it”, holding her back and down would only harm The Firm AND history would repeat itself, with another princess going AWOL. But nevermind, because there was never, ever, never, a snowball’s chance in hell of Kate being another Diana. Period. Exclamation point. Isn’t that the saying? “I knew […]. […] was a friend of mine. You are no […]” Many of the players involved here knew Diana and had to know that Kate wasn’t it. (I don’t think there’s any threat of self-realization or an uprising there. The woman that Diana became never would’ve been considered an option by the BRF. Kate’s the same girl she was when William met her. Emphasis on the “girl” part. And Kate has actually been tested on this and proven herself to be a loyal, silent, doormat. I also wasn’t following Kate back then. But I’ve always heard that she was major camera hound. Never taking the side exit, so to speak. If Kate didn’t like the attention, there would’ve been signs and she would’ve grown tired of it, long, long ago.) Also practically speaking, I hope the family, and the people behind the scenes, recognize exactly what Diana did for them. For their own sake. I’m not expecting any warm and fuzzies. But if Diana had been like Kate–An “inoffensive”, gormless, vapid, dull, cold, unambitious, Princess Barbie/Silent, untalented Geisha–Would we be sitting here talking about the BRF right now? But by all means, I say as a Republican, keep it up. I hope people keep defending these two. I hope the BRF keeps giving in to William. I hope The Cambridges never recognize their shortcomings, and keep squandering the tail-end of their best years, when they were guaranteed (completely without merit) to generate the most interest. It’s going to fun to watch it all blow up.
Btw, I kind of love how this woman is basically, unwittingly saying that Kate doesn’t embody her role, which is her job, which is her life. Yeah, we know, Alex. I don’t get why people think that’s supposed to be appealing. That we’re supposed to feel sorry for them and care that they’d rather be in the country. (Many people would.) And look, they love their kids! (Most people do.) I guess that’s an extension of Bucket and Bill’s middle-class, modern crap, (double crap, because it’s also a lie). And how William thinks it’s endearing when he emphasizes how super modern he is and how he’s totally apathetic about things like pomp and circumstance. Completely missing all the damn points and misunderstanding his reason for existing. But that representational failure is one of the major reasons she’s still being called “Kate Middleton” that no one wants to say. I even saw a Vanity Fair article talking about that. They try to blame the media. And say it’s because she’s known to us (PSHAW!) as Kate Middleton. They try to downplay it and the failed attempts to get people to call her Catherine or by her title, which is after all, kinda’, sorta’, her name. VF, The DM, and her sugars keep calling her Kate Middleton too! But no one dares to get to the heart of it, which is how she does not embrace her role past the most superficial and materialistic signifiers.
Oh Amber, I love your rants/mini thesis. Its as if your reading my mind 🙂
Bravo.
BRAVA!!!
Excellent points, all.
She’s ‘Kate Middleton’ because she never transformed. You remember that sparsely attended, little remarked upon, ceremony at Westminster Abbey? 😉
She entered ‘Kate Middleton’ (clown make-up and all) and exited as ‘Kate Middleton’ (cone boobs and all). The trumpets might have sounded, but there was no triumph. It was a seamless flow from Middleton towers to Bucklebury and back again.
She’s called ‘Waity’ because that was the only time she’s shown passion, heart, courage, fortitude and indomitable spirit -in waiting for that bald-headed Horse-Prince to propose.
he did.
Sooooo, its pretty much wiglets and blue coat dresses from here on out.
If only kate middleton was born a few decades earlier she would have been Prince Charles’ perfect bride. If only she could have put her passion of waiting for PW in something more productive,….
Amber, I just had to say that I always enjoy your comments so much. You make good points and are an excellent writer. I adore your Kate posts 🙂
Duchesschicana: the late Queen Mother would have eaten little Katy Middlebum for breakfast. No way would she make the cut as a bride for her favorite grandchild.
What Charles needed was a wife who was a compliment to him, and one who built him up instead of tearing him down. W&K have an adversarial relationship, constantly in competition. She also has an adversarial relationship with Charles, publicly blaming him for the breakups. I cannot see someone with her temperament being any good for Charles, and I agree, Queen Mum would have rousted the Wisteria Sisters in year one at St Andrews.
I remember seeing Charles in newspapers on the beach showing his chest hairs, when I was a teenager during his visit to CA. He (and the media) thought that he was so beautiful and desirable – he was UGLY then, and no average female teenager could understand how a beautiful woman like Diana could take him into her bed.. He needed someone, who built him up? – that seems to be his Fatal Flaw in Life – that is, his Arrogance as a “royal”, thinking that laws do not apply to him.
If KM blames Charles for the breakups…she should consider that she didn’t have the Queen Mum, Diana, or anyone, posting guard. I’m not sure that Diana would have turned her away – but certainly she would have showed her how to be sexy, without showing her bum, over, and over, and over!!! Liz let her, show her stuff for years, possibly to discredit her, in a pinch. She hasn’t been part of the royal family, ever. It’s a tight clan – and even wives and mother’s of the line, are not respected. Not Diana, not what’s her name, (Beatrice’s mother), nor Kate. Beware!!!
Wow so well said ..Agree with everything
Ugh, I can’t with this one. She isn’t half the woman Diana was and probably never will be. Diana was a humanitarian with a huge love for others, she had a vision to use her status as a means to change the world. Not BECAUSE she was a “celebrity” but DESPITE it. There was a difference in her intentions and it showed. Even at this point I have no idea what Kate’s intentions are and after years in her role that’s probably not a good thing. People don’t feel they can connect with her.
I agree. I do not get why Kate doesn’t want to use her position to be a humanitarian and change the world and influence good around the world. Whats sad is that the media and majority of the public seem to overlook that and always say well she has kids. Well Diana did as well. But I’ve always learned that the majority aren’t always right.
She connects to the arriviste in us all – good or ill.
I agree with Kaiser to an extent, but I do think we need to take into consideration how completely different the world is for celebrities now as opposed to when Diana was around.
Now, basically everyone the royals come into contact with, or even just pass on the street!, has a camera (plus video camera plus audio recorder) literally at their fingertips at all times, not to mention the ability to post a sighting to Twitter or wherever else online in real time. Diana didn’t need to contend with *such* a constant level of scrutiny. People would stare, sure, but she didn’t need to worry about her presence someplace being posted online and having fans & paps rush there to see her before she was even done eating her meal (or whatever it was she was doing). I can understand a celebrity wanting to hide away in order to avoid this madness.
(*I am absolutely not saying this is an excuse for W&K to work less!)
We also need to take into consideration the fact that – whether it is the true, sole cause or not – many people, including her own two children, believe the paparazzi were essentially responsible for Diana’s death. Obviously we will never know if she would have changed her ways at all if that had happened to someone else close to her instead of to her herself, but I distinctly remember there was a shift after she died, and paps – as well as the audience for constant photos – were viewed much more unfavorably. So there is an automatic distrust and wariness of the press on William’s part, and I can’t say I blame him. (Although he does need to do a better job managing them, a balance that Harry has seemed to master.)
Either way, I agree with the commenter above who said not to drag Diana into it; let her RIP. And Kate is full of it; she LOVES the celebrity/fashiony part of her job
Aside from a handful of outings with George, and her constant presence on the sidelines whenever William is playing polo, have we EVER seen her out doing anything besides shopping? 🙄
Diana might as well have lived in the social media age. Unlike general celebrity, she was photographed every single time she was away from the royal palaces. I remember this because i started my working life as an intern at a PR company where my job was to make cuttings from daily newspapers of our clients. Diana was in the dailies every single day, ditto the weeklies and monthlies. Officially because of an engagement and unofficially because she had been papped somewhere in her private life. I remember developing a dislike for her due to reading so much about her as part of my job because it was clear there was alot of stunt Queening involved in some of these snatched pictures. And she never took precautions to reduce it.
The situation got worse after the separation when she insisted on getting rid of her RPOs. Suddenly, the paps could get much closer and would chase her down streets, something they had not been able to do before due to the presence of her RPOs whose job description stopped much of this harrassment.
And even though the palace tried repeatedly to convince her to restore the RPOs, she repeatedly turned down the offer because she was convinced that the RPOs spied for the palace and she would rather be chased by the paps no matter how miserable they made her.
The only other celebrity who drew similar type of attention was JFK Jr. His wife was practically a hostage in their flat after they married because the paps were that present in their lives. JFK jr probably kept the National Enquirer afloat sonce they bought up every single picture.
Social media has merely expanded what Diana and JFK jr endured to other celebs, but they were hounded every single day of their lives in a very modern social media type of way.
Something Kate is trying to avoid and people call her lazy because of it.
Don’t forget MJ.
Kate is called lazy because she does so few engagements. Not because she avoids the public on her off days.
Thank you LAK and bluhare for the injection of logic. The issue of whether or not they are followed in their personal lives is completely separate from their intrinsic laziness and entitlement. The focus on Diana, in an era before social media, was unique.
It is clear how well W&K disappear, how easily they hop on private jets for a week in France with no one finding out until later. They know how to disappear when they want to.
@Joannie, I’m afraid you misread my comment. Bluhare is correct, she’s lazy because of how little she works. I was simply trying to point out that she & William might be more reclusive because smartphones and social media have completely changed the landscape – and I only even brought it up in the first place since Diana was referenced in the article, and a lot has changed since then.
It is certainly not an excuse for her to work less.
They use their RPOs to demand that photos taken legally in public places using cell phones be deleted. So even when they are in public places, W&K are not acting legally and are not subject to the level of social media intrusion that say, Harry is.
Duchess of Dolittle knows she can’t compare to Diana so she pretends she doesn’t care. But she does, oh, I’m sure she does.
Diana not only had the star quality everyone instantly saw but she genuinely cared for people, had huge empathy, warmth and interest in others. Kate has none of that and no matter what she wears and what she does, she will never be as famous and as loved as Diana.
The celebrity part of her role is the only thing that Waity seems to be interested in. She only looks animated in the presence of celebs. In the company of Joe Public she looks bored and disengaged.
She is certainly not like Diana but in fairness there are very few people who could be said to match up to Diana’s image. That said if she did a bit more work-like duties and stopped being a shopaholic people might be a bit more positive about her. She and Whiny Willie remind me of Marie Antionette and her husband.
Diana didn’t just understand the media, she also understood how to use it for her benefit and like a weapon. There should be a celebrity master class in creating an image the way Diana did.
She needs to take better care of herself. I dont care what designer she wears when her skin looks saggy and like she never washes her face. Is it smoking, drinking, no sleep, bad eating?? Idk but it ages her bad! I mean really hard to look at. Moisturize lady!!!
She was a smoker and doesn’t stay out of the sun. Plus, she was always partying and drinking before the engagement. Her sister Pippa and Kate ruined their skins.
I agree with the editor’s assessment. I think her husband and kids are her priority, and she doesn’t relish the princess gigs but does them out of obligation. That draws a lot of criticism in this particular community. I actually rarely click on a Duchess Kate story on celebitchy because the snark is so over the top. I like her and I respect her and Will’s determination to keep a lower profile and protect their kids. I think they have a solid marriage and they handle the social pressure and attention admirably.
Lower personal life profile doesn’t mean they cannot work 5 times more than they’re doing now. All of the royals raise their kids quietly in the country AND manage to work circles around W&k even when their kids were little. W&K have a job to do, a job for which they take millions in perks every year. They are the third couple in the land and they’re being outworked by 80 and 90 year olds. Pathetic.
I don’t relish commuting an hour to the office every day and putting in 9 hours. But I do it, and I do it professionally and competently. My family remains my priority.
It is not an impossible task.
I am not sure why the bar has been set so very very low for W & K.
And you don’t get 200k worth of clothes to do it in either.
If Kate and Willy did not want to be celebrities, it follows that they would minimize the amount of time they spend with them. But the opposite is true. They request meetings with A listers. Kate reportedly has a list of celebs she wants to meet. She wanted to meet Angelina Jolie and BP eventually made that happen. The Cambridges wanted to meet celebs in Hollywood and New York City so that’s what happened.
Diana liked communicating and interacting with people. And I think that helped her to navigate celebrity, since you have to deal with people coming at you. And if you’re good with people, I think that would naturally make you a bigger and better celebrity.
I don’t know if Kate really likes people, except for the ones that are related to her.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Diana never went to official events and clutched her purse desperately to her crotch like a lifeline. She also knew how to reveal things about her life in such as way to endear her to people (although she did end up going to an extreme with that i.e., the Andrew Morton book).
Kate does not want to engage or invest with people if it costs her anything. She’s been forever cossetted and loves it.
I have three working theories.
1. Kate has taken a page out of Charles’ book and is sniping at William in the press with that comment about Diana
2. Um no of course she’s not going to want to be Diana, it’s pretty obvious to everyone how far she is from that, and I’m sure William reminds her of that every time they see each other (which is not often)
3. William plans to dismantle the monarchy after Charles dies anyway. That way he can fully retire on all his land holdings and be the poor little rich boy Normal Bill he’s always aspired to be. Then Harry can be King of Hearts once and for all and we will have peace on Earth!
How do you know William would want to dismantle the monarchy?
Vinot, the land isn’t his. None of the lands, including Crown Estate and both Duchies belong to the Windsors personally. William has a net worth of 10-15 million pounds, that’s it.
He doesn’t get to decide the fate of the monarchy. That is up to the 60+ million voters in the UK plus other countries in the realm. If they want the monarchy but not W&K, they’ll throw him and his line out and move on to the next one in line.
@notasugarhere, now if that were to happen then Harry will get to be King? I really do hope that happens in the future.
Honestly, it seems that Britain is subject to social laws that determine self worth. They will not abandon this stance, in my opinion, for many, many years – so in love, are they, with tradition. “TRADITION” – making life simple.
@wolfpup, sometimes traditions needs to break for a bit. Which I see happening soon.
Oh, she’s plenty interested in the celebrity aspect. Just not the work commitments that come with it.
Didn’t James Whittaker (journalist to the Diana days), say Kate will put up with anything to become The Princess of Wales. I am not sure what he was indicating in such a loaded statement, but if a journalist who was so devoted to Princess Diana said such a thing about me, I would be devasted. However, i read that Kate does not want to be anything like her mother in law, but I get confused when she wears cabochon style earrings (which Diana wore), dresses George exactly like Diana dressed Wills and wears really high heels to over emphasise her height to Dianas natural height, if she starts wearing shoulder pads then I might start gettting worried.
Kate only cares about Willy’s opinion – and she’s a suck-up for sure. Carole is the one to look out for, because she is devious to royals – she uses Diana against them. Top Dogs squaring off in the pen!
Can someone who defends Kate explain this to me?
These engagments happende last year, more or less during the same week.
Kate didn’t attend the 07/07 terrorist attach remembrance event, due to her maternity leave. She must herself have felt the impact that day had on UK, probably knew people first hand that lost someone. Nope, she didn’t attend. The ceremony was coule of hours.
A few days later she didn’t have any problems watching Wimbledon. Reports said that she spent at Wimbledon over six hours.
A couple of day after Wimbledon, there was a World War II Fly over Brain (or somehing) remembrance event. Kate didn’t attend she was on maternity leave.
Last year she couldn’t attend the Irish Guards ceremony for a few hours. The excuse Kensington Palace first said, that she can’t be expected to do that every year. This is a event where a female from Royal Family has been present in that specific ceremony for all occassion except two. Later it was said she wanted to be with her children.
During the same time was the Vogue shoot, which we were informed later. The shoot took more or less the whole day. Not a problem for Kate. Her kids could manage.
You see a certain pattern here!
She has no sense of duty. It she thinks it’s boring, like a remembrance for a terrorist attack, she is going to use all the excuses she can get away with as long as she can. It it’s James Bond premiere, Wimbledon or anything related with Ben Ainslie, she could even skip Pippa’s wedding.
This is a great summary.
I can actually relate to Kate and Will, because I’m lazy and don’t enjoy my job. (35.5 years to go until retirement, yay!) Still, if I suddenly Freaky Fridayed into Kate’s body, I think I would take the job more seriously than her. It wouldn’t even occur to me to skip those engagements and do fun ones instead — who thinks this way? Who looks at their schedule, fully aware that people are judging them on what public events they do, and thinks, “I’m going to call in sick for this boring memorial thing — that’ll give me extra time to shop for the tennis!”? It’s so bizarre.
Is it possible that she sees herself, as royal, and can get away with anything? Hasn’t that been the real story, all along – entitlement?
@wolfpup, if she does, I’m going to feel bad for her when she and William don’t end up being King and Queen in the future.
Larissa, personally I think she and Chopper had, had a huge row !!
I honestly think a lot of it is as simple as: she (and her mother) did not think about what would happen after the wedding day. At *all*. Not even on their radar.
She planned and schemed and waited for all of those years, but I don’t think she thought beyond getting William, getting the ring, and getting the title.
She almost seemed SURPRISED at the amount of work she was expected to do after the spectacle of the Royal Wedding was over.
I really believe she thought that as long as she had an heir and a spare, her job was done. And she’s had a rude awakening!
This!!! Im really surprised that Carol was so short sighted about this aspect of royal life. She was a fan of Diana, so she knew what a work horse she was.
I think that a pact was made that the Royal life would be eased on to Kate as she doesn’t come from that stiff upper lip back ground. So there won’t be the same pressures Diana had to endure, and Diana came from that background to a degree, I forgot to add, clutch bags, Diana always or most of the time had a clutch bag
The only thing they absorbed about Diana was the clothes horse part. Nothing more. She seems very surprised that there is work behind the clothes horsing even where that means using a tailor properly which is ironic in terms of what they absorbed about Diana.
In the Queen at 90 documentary (i think?) When asked about the Queen’s ethic, the best she could come up with was the Queen’s presence. Nothing about work. Her words were something along the lines of Queen gracing the peasants with her presence and smile.
Sophie doesn’t come from the high-and-mighty background either. After trying to keep her business afloat (and doing more engagements that year than KM has ever managed even while running a business), she was caught in that silly sting. HM forgave her and now Sophie works hard for the firm, without requiring constant hand-holding and exceptions to every rule.
Why do so many Kate Middleton fans insist that she is so fragile she cannot handle 20 hours a week of charity work? She is 34 years old FFS.
It’s just beginning, baby. This is nothing compared to what will be expected out of the two of them in years to come.
I read the full interview that extract is from and Shulman also shares a story about Sophie Hunter telling her about how she and Benedict Cumberbatch first met, which is basically Celebitchy bingo right? (Or a double slam in the CB official drinking game.) Lol
Starving ages her. If somebody would tell me she is 40, I would believe it.
I wonder how long the taxpayers will tolerate the “I don’t like working” and “I will find every excuse in the book to get out of work” attitudes. It surely costs a hefty sum in taxes to support the monarchy.
Kate can’t pull off high voltage celebrity anyway. She doesn’t have IT.