Queen Elizabeth is reportedly learning from the “mistake” she made with her son Prince Charles and his late ex-wife Princess Diana, and spending “a lot of time” actively supporting her grandson Prince William‘s marriage to Kate Middleton.
Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton told OK! magazine that the monarch views the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge “very much as the future” of England and believes Charles will simply act as “interregnum,” like King Edward VII before him, with the real “burden of monarchy” falling on the couple’s shoulders. “The thing about Kate is the Queen was impressed she adored and loved William for himself, not for his title.” Morton explained. “She spends a lot more time supporting and nurturing the relationship between William and Catherine than she did with Charles and Diana. It’s pretty clear she wasn’t going to make that mistake again.”
The author went on to point out that “Everything that happened in [Kate and William’s] relationship was quite strategic, quite thought through, after a period of time.” He added, “In the beginning, nobody in the royal household expected for a second that the university romance with Catherine and William would continue for any time after they graduated, like most college romances which disintegrate under the intense scrutiny of jobs and geography.”
But from the beginning, Queen Elizabeth has been a huge fan of the Duchess and was “practically skipping” with joy the day she and Prince William finally tied the knot, according to Morton. In an excerpt from this forthcoming book The Queen, the author claims that the monarch saw their 2011 marriage as a real bright spot after years of her children’s marriages failing and the death of Princess Diana. “The Queen was positively playful on the day of her grandson’s nuptials, ‘practically skipping’ according to one observer, absolutely thrilled at the way the public had reacted to the royal newlyweds,” Morton writes. “She had a sense that the future of the Royal Family, her family, was now secure. The monarchy was once again held in admiration and affection by the masses.”
And it’s not just Queen Elizabeth who feels that Kate is up for the task of being Queen Consort, but also the Duchess herself. In December of last year, an insider told People that Kate is “flourishing” and “really com[ing] into her own” as she and her husband take on more official royal duties amid the monarch’s ongoing health issues and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping down from their roles as senior royals in 2020.
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