In the inimitable words of The Smiths (or, indeed, Carry On Cleo, where they borrowed it from), stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. For her first official solo engagement outside London since her cancer treatment, the Princess of Wales was photographed visiting the Ty Hafan children’s hospice in South Wales. She has become a patron of the hospice, and to this end interacted with the no doubt awestruck children with the ease and grace that have become a hallmark of all her public appearances since she married into the royal family.
At a time of great difficulty for the Firm – it was revealed recently that Prince Andrew had continued to stay in contact with the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein for months after he claimed he’d ceased to be in touch with him – Catherine remains their greatest reputational asset. The King, Queen and Princess Anne offer reliable dignity, and Prince William, when on form, can be relied upon for matey gravitas. But it is Kate Middleton who is the most straightforwardly likeable and relatable royal, someone who engages with ‘ordinary people’ on an immediate, non-patronising level.
This was much in evidence yesterday. It is hard to imagine the late Queen willingly allowing a child to immerse her hand in paint, for instance, and even harder to conceive of her making a joke about her ‘huge handprint’ when she produced a bright red print that, in a different world, might have been regarded as a Warhol-esque piece of Pop Art. Yet it is the princess’s accessibility and universal appeal that have made her popular. She can do more serious and heavyweight events, as with her appearance at the Holocaust Memorial earlier in the week, and not seem remotely incongruous, and then it’s off to give ill children a day that they will never forget.
Catherine is, of course, recovering from her own illness, and in an affecting recent trip to the Royal Marsden, spoke about the difficulties and privations that she had undergone in her treatment. While she is now in remission, this is not the same thing as being fully cured, and although she has talked about her hopes for a ‘fulfilling year ahead’, it is inevitable that her public schedule will be a lighter one, with events like the Ty Hafan visit taking place on set-piece occasions rather than with any kind of regularity.
In this, and in many other regards, those around the Princess of Wales could usefully learn from the example of the previous holder of that title, the late Princess Diana. Like Catherine, Diana had a natural rapport with the public that came from her genuine interest in people, and she especially excelled at her interactions with children and the sick. This was noted, and used to the full – some would say exploited – by those courtiers who were desperate for any favourable publicity for their employers. That is, until such time as Diana, tiring of her show pony status, went solo (or rogue) and became a freelance Queen of Hearts, showing up the more protocol-based Firm for the hidebound institution that it inevitably was back then.
The temptation, then, is to rebrand Catherine as the new Diana, a glamorous and photogenic woman who is naturally empathetic and who manages to bring harmony to potential discord through her charitable initiatives and public interactions. Yet as the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches in 2027 – and as her younger son’s glowering estrangement from his family continues to remind us – it is hard to forget that the Firm’s eagerness to push the late princess into the limelight for favourable publicity ended up being catastrophic, both for her and for them. Those who are eagerly adding in future appointments to the Princess of Wales’s schedule should look back on history, and consider dialling it down accordingly.
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