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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what Kate Middleton is really like?

323 replies

Cocopops2010 · 09/03/2019 17:45

Just that really. I know some of you will think ‘who cares?’ but I find her kind of intriguing. Always so well turned out/groomed, very poised, polite...I wonder what her real personality is? How does she manage so much scrutiny?

OP posts:
SheStoopsToConker · 13/03/2019 17:32

The Royal site doesn't usually list the Cambridge or Sussex engagements, Kensington Palace tweets them out instead. Kate has had a fair few engagements this month and has 3 next week. Her engagements aren't as many as Anne or Sophie's but they're the daughter and daughter-in-law of the monarch. Kate is the granddaughter-in-law and I assume she'll pick up more duties once Charles ascends the throne.

Also, a more accurate comparison would be to see how many engagements Princess Anne carried out when her children were the age Kate's currently are. But then again she's the monarch's daughter so it would be natural for her to take on more.

TalkinPaece · 13/03/2019 17:43

When Princess Anne was young she spent her whole time showjumping.
She took her kids out of the line of succession so that she and they could have private lives.
Katherine and William do not have that option.

StarJumpsandaHalf · 13/03/2019 17:54

The measure of what someone is likely to do in the future is what they've done in the past.

What an odd way of thinking.

So people can't ever take time out to focus on something different, can't retrain and change track, can't be rehabilitated or conversely go rogue? At a young age everyone has to be pigeonholed, prove their 'worth' or fall short? No room for late bloomers, no opportunity for growth? Obviously I'm applying this to society at large as per the remark and not just the Cambridges.

I'm not a particular supporter of the royal family, I just think I'm relatively realistic about the situation as is and the alternatives. It strikes me that they're damned if they do and damned if they don't at this stage in their young family's life.

MissEliza · 13/03/2019 17:56

Harry's speech was really cringeworthy and smug. Perhaps his wife wrote it but he chose to deliver it. 'The most engaged generation ever'?! My arse.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 13/03/2019 19:15

Late bloomers? The woman's pushing 40 and since graduation has done precisely doodly-squat apart from marry and have children.

Society at large can do its own thing: bloom late, re-train and change career at will. Most members of that society are not public citizens who are living a life of grandiose opulence at the threefold expense of meritocracy, democracy and the taxpayers' purse. Neither, it should be added, are they exempt from the Freedom of Information Act or 'above' the laws governing every other citizen of these islands.

shuttersaregreen · 13/03/2019 19:24

The RF is not like anything else. It isn't possible for the wives to do much in terms of having a normal life or career. Partly because they are expected to carry out royal duties which conflict with a full time job. Also because they can't be like normal people, have work colleagues, go to work and attend meetings, come home etc. The press are following them all the time and the worry about work colleagues talking to the press or their interests being compromised is huge. They have to watch every word they say and everything they do. It is just not like normal life and they aren't normal people because of their role. This is why Chelsey Davy and Cressida Bonas didn't want to marry Harry. It's a gilded cage.

shuttersaregreen · 13/03/2019 19:25

I do think Harry is morphing into a pale imitation of meghan. It's not good. He's lost all of his spark in my opinion.

TalkinPaece · 13/03/2019 19:25

Oh FFS
How many wives of the super rich with kids at posh south west London schools "have their own careers"
Get a life folks
she's a Marlborough gel who married a prince
same as the oligarchs wives and hedge fund managers wives
how many WAGs have jobs?

she used to work for her parents' company (which is a partnership so no public records)
why should she have done a silly job for sod all being hassled by the meejah once she was shagging William ?

IvanaPee · 13/03/2019 19:33

I would suggest that people who think Kate has little to know engagements week in week out check out the Kensington twitter or instagram account.

The woman never bloody stops by the looks of things!

PineapplePower · 13/03/2019 19:58

The woman never bloody stops by the looks of things!

3-4 events tops that last a few hours at most.

Like I said, not even part-time hours. Sometimes they’ll go for weeks without any events.

Sure, maybe no different than wags, but hardly anyone respects them.

This is why Chelsey Davy and Cressida Bonas didn't want to marry Harry. It's a gilded cage

Speaking of Chelsey, she held down a job at a law firm iirc. So I still think it was William’s fault that KM never held down a proper job, she had to be at his beck and call. Imagine being treated like this: “She's going to be dictated to when she's needed and not needed”

Makes her sound a bit disposable to him, really, although it’s different now that they are married and have kids.

shuttersaregreen · 13/03/2019 20:22

So Pineapple you would have Kate working full time in a career as well as fulfilling all her Royal duties , going on overseas tours occasionally and being a mother to three young children? I wonder, what do YOU do?

PineapplePower · 13/03/2019 21:05

working full time in a career as well as fulfilling all her Royal duties

We were talking her pre-marriage life. If you recall, even the Queen was flabbergasted at her lack of work ethic.

fulfilling all her Royal duties , going on overseas tours occasionally and being a mother to three young children?

This would be a nice start

shuttersaregreen · 13/03/2019 21:13

How do you know the queen was flabbergasted? Did you ask her? Or did you read the gutter press and actually believe what you were reading?

LaurenOrdering · 13/03/2019 21:50

Well if we're picking faults then, what sort of job did the Queen do before she became Queen then? Not much really.

The measure of what someone is likely to do in the future is what they've done in the past
This relates usually in the art of warfare or crisis.
Otherwise it's poppycock.

SheStoopsToConker · 13/03/2019 21:55

The Queen was born royal in the 1920s though. Expectations for women were slightly different then!

MarkleSparkle · 13/03/2019 21:58

Also she was already royal and was definitely going to become queen. What would Kate have done if William had dumped her at 28? I suppose fortunately she’s from a wealthy family so would have been fine, but for other people that would be a major setback in their career to only be starting out then.

Leighhalfpennysthigh · 13/03/2019 21:59

she’s literally working all the time

Ha ha. That's so funny. Change all for none of and you'll be nearer the truth

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 13/03/2019 22:14

The Queen trained as, and then worked full time as, a car mechanic and military truck driver during WW2, albeit for a short time.

To ask what Kate Middleton is really like?
DelilahfromDenmark · 13/03/2019 22:19

I have heard via a non-tabloid journalist friend of mine that she is not popular among other parents at Thomas’ Battersea

I can categorically tell you that that just isn’t true.

shuttersaregreen · 14/03/2019 06:01

I know someone who has worked in the school in question and can also say it isn’t true.

shuttersaregreen · 14/03/2019 06:03

Princess Margaret never did a days work in her life.

Obloodyhell · 14/03/2019 07:15

I’m appalled that she’s put Louis in a babywalker.

thedisorganisedmum · 14/03/2019 07:39

what's wrong with babywalker now?

DaphneduM · 14/03/2019 07:56

I obviously have no knowledge of her personally - but from what I have seen while she is in the public area I would say that she has finally got into her stride, is more confident and performs her engagements well. I think that not having a career or even a proper job impacted very negatively on her as it was evident from the early engagements she had difficulty relating to people and seemed extremely nervous and under-confident. All the things that if you're working, you have experience of and take in your stride. They seem in a really good place at the moment, very happy - which can only be a good thing for them and their children. It's also good to see that while having a supportive family in the background, she's establishing herself as a wife, parent and Duchess in a more autonomous way.

ColeHawlins · 14/03/2019 08:01

Well if we're picking faults then, what sort of job did the Queen do before she became Queen then? Not much really.

You do understand the difference between an heir presumptive and a random graduate commoner in their twenties? And between the norms for a woman born in the 1920s v a woman born in the 1980s? The Queen wasn't even allowed to go to school in the normal way.