Kate (37 page)
Authors: Katie Nicholl
Compared to Diana's first public engagement, when she trembled with nerves as she switched on the Christmas lights on Regent Street, Kate was poised and composed. She had followed William's advice to be herself, though she was apparently teased by her family for her new “plummy” voice when she gave her first public speech at a hospice in Ipswich. Her frequent pauses and emphasis on certain words suggested she was still receiving voice coaching, but her passion for her causes was not something that had to be learned. “She had about 150 people standing watching her in the room, and several millions a camera lens away. It was a huge test for her,” said Graham Butland, the chief executive of East Anglia's Children's Hospice who worked with Kate on her speech. “I think she was nervous, but she did really well. When she stepped off the platform, there was a genuine sigh of relief. I think she has grown a lot in confidence, and what she has achieved is amazing. She has raised the profile of children's palliative care around the world.” When she visited a children's hospital in Liverpool on Valentine's Day on February 14, Kate was visibly moved when a sick four-year-old hugged
her, and when later in the day she visited a rehabilitation center, she made a point of chatting to some of the people who had waited hours to see her. Some of them had brought red roses and handmade Valentines. She told one young fan that William had remembered to send her a card and flowers. She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty, and when she visited The Art Room's headquarters in Oxford, she donned an apron so that she could join an art class. It was impossible not to draw comparisons with Diana, who had loved helping children.
Kate had little time to miss William while he was away. In March, she joined the Queen and Camilla for the opening of the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum & Mason in London's Piccadilly. The invitation from the Queen was quite deliberate and sent a clear message: here were three generations and potentially two future Queens, and this was history in the making. As they admired a crown-shaped cake and sipped tea, the three women appeared to get along well.
That same month, the Queen invited Kate to Leicester for the start of her Diamond Jubilee tour of the United Kingdom. It had been decided that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, whose health was still a concern, would travel around the country while the immediate family would tour the Commonwealth realms. The Jubilee celebrations, to commemorate the Queen's sixty years on the throne, were deemed hugely important, and trips to the Commonwealth countries and realms had all been planned as part of the celebrations. Prince Harry was to visit Brazil, Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, while Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex headed to the Caribbean. Prince Andrew would visit India, while Princess Anne toured Mozambique and Zambia. Charles and Camilla were to carry out the lion's share of the tour and in the coming
months would visit Scandinavia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Kate and William had been asked to travel to Asia and the South Pacific in September.
With another overseas tour to carry out, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June, and the London 2012 Olympics that summer, in which Kate, William, and Harry would be representing Team Great Britain as ambassadors, Kate had a lot on her plate and confided to one courtier that she knew she had “a lot to learn.” The Queen had made it clear she was there to help, and taking Kate to Leicester was her way of showing her the ropes. She could have invited any one of her grandchildren to join her for the first day of her historic tour, but she had asked Kate. William had benefited from years of mentoring from his grandmother; Kate's tutelage was to be a crash course. As they walked through the city in the sunshine, the crowds cheered and waved Union Jacks. Kate was careful to follow the Queen's lead, falling in line behind her and watching and learning from her every move. The Queen and her advisers were shrewd enough to see that Kate had “star” quality. In her daringly above-the-knee skirt and towering stilettos, which she had selected herself for the day, she added a sprinkling of glamour, while the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh brought majesty, history, and familiarity.
The start of June marked a weekend of celebrations for the Diamond Jubileeâand Britain was ready to celebrate. Street parties had been planned around the country as the nation celebrated a double national holiday. On Sunday, June 3, there was a spectacular river pageant down the River Thames. A concert outside Buckingham Palace had been organized with some of the biggest performers in the world taking to the stage on that Monday, and finally, on Tuesday, which marked
the close of the celebrations, there was to be a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral.
There had been some resistance about the cost of the celebrations, given that Britain was already footing an $18-billion bill for the summer Olympics. But the $15-million river pageant was being funded through private sponsorship, and the greatest boat trip the country had ever seen was a resounding success, despite the driving rain. Millions of spectators packed the banks of the river and the bridges above to watch the flotilla of 1,000 boats sail from Wandsworth to Tower Bridge.
The Queen and the royal family sailed downriver aboard the
Spirit of Chartwell
, a specially commissioned barge, and for five hours they stood in the freezing wind and rain, waving to the spectators.
In true British spirit, no one was going to let the rain put a dampener on the occasion, but the horrendous weather did take its toll on the Duke of Edinburgh, who was admitted to a central London hospital on Monday with a bladder infection. His absence was felt at the pop concert at Buckingham Palace, where 500,000 people cheered loudly at Charles's request in order that his father might be able to hear from his room at the King Edward VII private hospital. A spectacular fireworks display brought the evening to a climax, and William and Kate, who had been dancing in the Royal Box with the rest of the family, continued the party at a VIP reception for the artists and performers at the Palace afterward. It had been a wonderful night.
Tuesday marked the final day of celebrations, with a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's, followed by a lunch at Westminster Hall and then a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace, all of it culminating in a royal aircraft display. The
Duke of Edinburgh was still hospitalized, so during the service Charles sat next to his mother, who cut a lonely figure and looked lost without her husband. Later that afternoon, as the carriage procession made its way to the Palace, the crowds, easily as many as had watched William and Kate marry in the spring, filled every patch of red on the Mall from Admiralty Arch to the Queen Victoria Memorial. The sky was pregnant with rain, but it held off while the eighty-six-year-old monarch arrived home in the State Landau carriage. It was quite a moment; sitting next to her was Camilla. Once an outsider who was blamed for the breakup of the Wales's marriage, the Duchess of Cornwall was now given pride of place next to the Queen. There was an excited buzz among the flag-bearing crowds, cheering for their monarch from the street. When she emerged on the famous balcony, there was a thunderous roar, after which the crowd burst into the national anthem before the heavens opened. It was a pared-down House of Windsor standing on the balcony as the RAF jets soared overhead and a rifle salute marked the end of the four-day-long celebrations. At the center, the Queen was flanked by her “substitutes,” the Prince of Wales and Prince William. Then there was Harry, “the spare,” and Camilla and Kate. At the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, all of her children and grandchildren had joined her on the balcony, but now the Queen wanted to send out a new message and a vision for the future. The monarchy was now a smaller, tighter entity. This royal lineup was deeply symbolicâit was about dynasty, a unified royal family, and succession. This was the future. The only hope now was that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would announce a royal pregnancy before the year was out to complete a most triumphant Diamond Jubilee.
Right now the royals were riding the crest of a wave. The family had seen its popularity soar around the world since William and Kate's wedding, which had seemed impossible after the tragedy of the death of Diana, the acrimonious divorces, and scandals that were better forgotten. At the core of this different perception were William and Kate, who symbolized a new hope. In just over a year of being in the public eye, Kate had proved to be a sparkling asset, and it was impossible to imagine the royal family without her. With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the forefront, the future of the British monarchy looked brighter than it had in decades.
S
TILL RIDING HIGH
following the success of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, Kate was excited to be closely involved with the 2012 Olympic Games at the end of the summer. Both she and William believed it was a way of uniting the nation, and with the eyes of the world once again on the capital, they were eager to do their part to promote Great Britain. Kate was fortunate enough to join the British women's hockey team for a practice match, proving she was still deft at the game by scoring a goal. She and William traveled to Dorset to watch the British sailing team and were in the stands cheering on his cousin Zara Phillips as she secured the silver medal in the Equestrian Eventing final. Hugging each other as they watched Chris Hoy pedal to victory, William and Kate reflected the overriding excitement of the nation as another member of Team Great Britain added a medal to the tally.
It had been an idyllic summer for Kate, with plenty to celebrate. William had turned thirty at the end of June, marking the milestone birthday with a small party with their friends. The prince's coming of age was seen by the media as a pivotal moment, and there was much speculation about what he planned to do with his future. His tour of duty with the RAF was due to end in the spring of 2013, fueling questions about whether he would quit the RAF in order to take on more royal engagements. There was talk among senior courtiers that William would have to start taking on more public engagements to relieve the pressure on the Queen and the increasingly frail Duke of Edinburgh. One source commented, “William has been told he has to decide whether he wants to be a pilot or a prince.” There was also the question at the back of everybody's mind as to when Kate and William might start a family. In consideration of all this, William was given an extended deadline until after Christmas to make up his mind about his RAF career.
Kate, meanwhile, was settling into her new role as a working royal. By the end of the jubilant summer of 2012, she had carried out a handful of engagements. Wanting to bring a personal touch to her charities, she had invited a number of children from The Art Room to Kensington Palace to watch an exclusive screening of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
. She also hosted a barbecue for The Scout Association on a beach close to her home in Anglesey, during which she helped the children gut fish and catch crabs. Her very first garden party at Buckingham Palace was, unsurprisingly, one of the most popular of the season. In fact, the only thing that overshadowed an otherwise fulfilling summer was the publication in
Woman's Day
of photographs of her and William on their honeymoon
in the Seychelles. Although it was fifteen months after their holiday, the pictures of the couple swimming in the sea and walking on the beach were still deemed newsworthy by the Australian magazine. The British newspapers had made a deal with the Palace to leave the couple alone during their honeymoon and consequently refused to publish the images, but William and Kate were disappointed that not everyone had respected their wishes.
When they flew to the South of France at the end of August, they both fervently hoped they would be left alone by the world's press. It felt entirely possibleâthe Queen's nephew Lord Linley, the son of William's aunt, the late Princess Margaret, had lent William and Kate his beautiful hunting lodge, the Château d'Autet, in the Luberon region in Provence, where they were promised total peace and privacy. Set on 640 acres of countryside and surrounded by fields of lavender, the terra cottaâtiled house was exquisite. They spent their days reading, relaxing on the sun terrace, and swimming in the pool. Secure in the knowledge that the area had been swept by their security team, Kate felt confident enough to slip off her bikini top as she sunbathed by the pool one afternoon. Toned from vigorous sessions in the gym, she was confident in her body and wanted to look her very best. Sunbathing topless was not something she usually did. When Pippa had once sunbathed topless in Ibiza, she was photographed by a paparazzo and Kate learned a valuable lesson. But here, at a family member's holiday home on private land, she believed she was safe.
Kate had recently stopped drinking alcohol and, taking advice from her friends who had had babies, was eating plenty of lean protein and dark-green vegetables, rich in folic acid.
At thirty, the age at which she had always hoped to have a child, it seemed that Kate was preparing herself. It was reported in the press that she had consulted a fertility expert in order to ensure that she would have no problems getting pregnant, but the Palace refused to comment on the story.
Once their holiday was over, William and Kate began to concentrate on their royal tour of Asia and the South Pacific. On September 10, 2012, the couple boarded a Singapore Airlines flight to Shanghai International Airport, where they were greeted by ecstatic crowds. The British High Commissioner to the Republic of Singapore, Antony Phillipson, was in charge of accompanying William and Kate on their engagements, and he described them as “global superstars.” When they visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens to name an orchid in their honor, hundreds of people waited for hours to see them, and throughout their stay in the city, wellwishers camped outside the Raffles Hotel in the city center where William and Kate were staying.