“Very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate.” That’s what Prince Harry has said about the rivalry between his wife and Kate Middleton that contributed to the breakdown of his relationship with brother Prince William. Sure enough, we know the Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales never got on as well as hoped simply due to being very different people with clashing personalities.
That’s why it’s so ironic that Princess Catherine is now being criticized from some quarters for acting too much like Meghan. On Sep. 9, the princess broke her silence on how her cancer treatment was going by announcing that she had officially completed her chemotherapy treatment. In some ways, this echoed her original video message back in March in which Kate announced she had been diagnosed in the first place. In other ways, however, this second video was a marked departure.
In contrast to the first video’s simple set-up — it saw Kate sitting on a bench addressing the camera — the second was a much more ambitious production. Featuring an emotional speech by Catherine played over the top, it comprised honey-hued, slow-mo footage of the Waleses and their children frolicking through fields and walking through the woods, all set to a heart-tugging score.
The whole thing definitely seemed to have a touch of Hollywood about it, and apparently that’s something that’s ruffled some Royal feathers.
“They’re not soppy teenagers”: Royal courtiers left unimpressed by Kate’s “distinctly unregal” video
Uunnamed Royal insiders claim that Kate’s unusually emotive and sentimental video message didn’t sit right with many in the Windsors’ social circle. In particular, the sight of the Prince and Princess of Wales rolling around in the sand, locking lips and affectionately embracing each other, is being viewed as a step too far by friends of the Royal family.
“There’s no coincidence that the Middletons appear in it and not the King and Queen,” one source noted, referencing how King Charles and Queen Camilla do not appear in the video — filmed during a family trip to Norfolk — while William’s in-laws do. “I can assure you that Charles and Camilla will not be filmed kissing each other on a beach [as William and Catherine were] until hell freezes over. It’s distinctly unregal.”
Another source went even further in their criticism, blasting William and Kate for acting far too much like Harry and Meghan for their liking. “All that lying round, hugging and kissing – they’re not soppy teenagers,” responded the scathing insider. “It felt manipulative. It’s the sort of thing that Meghan would make.”
The fact that the Waleses’ video looks so much like something “Meghan would make” is likely the whole point of it. Earlier in the year, the family’s attempts to keep Kate’s illness under wraps — particularly with a Mother’s Day photo that was found to be poorly photoshopped — were widely panned. This time around, they clearly went all out in producing something of a much higher, more professional quality. And maybe they took a bit of inspiration from Harry and Meghan’s Californian flair in the process. Wills and Kate wanting to be more like the Sussexes? That’s another thing that wasn’t on our 2024 bingo cards.