The Duchess of Cambridge: Will she become more popular than Diana?


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I sincerely hope she will not become an icon of any kind.

Kate is Kate, and that should be enough for us. She will carve out her own workload. She doesn't need image-makers, just herself.
 
I hope that Kate is popular in all of the positive ways Diana was. I hope that she gains popularity through her actions and the difference she strives to make in the world, and not simply because she is a royal. Diana was compassionate, and I think she touched lives because she truly cared about people. She was "The People's Princess," and no one should ever be compared to her.

It is unfortunate that Kate will undoubtedly be compared to Diana for many years to come. She deserves to make her own way and be acknowledged for her own choices and characteristics, irrespective of Princess Diana.

IMO :)
 
Kate/Catherine won't have to be an icon for anyone. Her fiancé will (hopefully) see to that.
She only needs to be herself.
 
I agree that there will comparisons to Diana, but her and Diana are obviously two different people. I don't know much about Kate, but I was excited to hear of them getting engaged and I am definently excited to learn more about her. She herself is a pretty girl and seems very excited to be getting her prince! :D
 
First Diana now it's Mary. Who's next MM, Maxima, Letizia and Mathilde?

Can't they let Kate be Kate?
 
First Diana now it's Mary. Who's next MM, Maxima, Letizia and Mathilde?

Can't they let Kate be Kate?

Now where would the fun be in that:ROFLMAO:

If you let Kate be Kate than you can't have those nice little magazine titles:

Kate living in Di (Mary's shadow)
Kate and Diana the two women of William's life
 
Well Diana was inevitably, Mary the comparisons I can understand. Mary would be a good role model for Catherine.
 
Well Diana was inevitably, Mary the comparisons I can understand. Mary would be a good role model for Catherine.

Well that is up to personal preference. Nothing against Mary who I think does a good job, but if Catherine is looking for someone to mirror...I would think Maxima of the Netherlands as a great example.

But really Catherine should be Catherine. As long as she does her round of engagements, has the next heir, doesn't seek publicity and promotes British designers and serves as a great partner for William she should be fine.
 
The crucial thing for Kate is to simply be herself and not change a single thing. I firmly believe that she is of a striong enough character and intelligent enough to develop her new role in her own way. People will try to compare her with Diana and other royal princesses (I myself have done it by thinking she reminds me of CP Victoria) but it's wrong to do it. We are lucky here in Britain to be having a wonderful new princess and to witness the developement of the next generation of the Royal Family so it's both historical and exciting too!
 
I agree Jacknch.

Unfortunately the Diana comparisons are inevitable. And while I certainly appreciate and love the fact that he gave her Diana's ring, I wonder if that was the wise thing to do...only because someone will always make a Diana comparison because of the ring.

But I think he did a good job and she impressed me a little with the interview. Didn't come across as silly or arrogant.

I always thought that the women who married William and Albert of Monaco would have to have strong characters to stand in the shadow of their famous deceased mothers in laws. I think one made a good choice...he picked the anti Diana in terms of looks...that saves her a lot of headache.
 
I agree Jacknch.
Unfortunately the Diana comparisons are inevitable. And while I certainly appreciate and love the fact that he gave her Diana's ring, I wonder if that was the wise thing to do...only because someone will always make a Diana comparison because of the ring..
I would say that is the problem of the one who makes the comparision. While I do understand it, some people need to learn that no two people are the same.
 
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I think that Catherine will be popular but I think that Diana's popularity also had to do with when she appered on the scene.In the early 80s the women of the british royal family were a little boring in terms of style of dress etc,as well there were very few non royal consorts in the Gotha at large so to many people Diana seemed like one of the firsts.Nowadays we have many women from all sorts of backgrounds serving as regal consort and the public at large knows these women.So in a way Catherine is luckier than Diana because she will share a spot in the media spotlight with many more of her comtemporaries and not be the one and only, as unfortunately Diana was.
 
It's inevitable she will be compared to Diana..they are big shoes to fill. But I think Kate, with time, will carve her own path and have her own brand of celebrity. This is a new age of media as well..with the rise of the internet. Kate will have more exposure..so she she will easily reach people who previously never paid attention to royalty.

I don't think it would be wise to emulate any of the continental princesses as it would be comparing apples to oranges. Whoever marries the heir to the British throne has a significantly higher profile and as a result, has different challenges and opportunities. I think much of the world (beyond royal watchers) want a new figure like Diana and I do think Kate can fill that void they have been waiting for.

IMO, she seems a very grounded and "together" young woman--and I LOVE her style. I wish them both all the luck in their new life together.
 
I hope not, just let her be happy and please press leave her alone.

A bit difficult, right? ;) Though I don't think Kate will 'sell' as much as Diana did. Times have changed, no one seems to need a Princess of the people's hearts. Sadly enough, we live in a very strange and cruel era.:cool:
 
Honestly I don't think that Kate will ever be more popular than Diana. Diana is iconic, nothing the Kate does short of curing cancer will ever make her more popular than Diana. I feel kinda bad for her in that sense because everything she does will be compared to Diana for the rest of her life.
 
The Telegraph - 19 November 2010

Royal wedding: Kate Middleton is not the new Princess Diana, nor should she be


Royal wedding: Kate Middleton is not the new Princess Diana, nor should she beThere is one phrase that even the most swooning well-wisher will be advised not to use about the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Not now and possibly not ever. It is “fairy tale”.

Fairy tales are taboo this time round, however gorgeous the bride, however princely-handsome the groom. At the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in St Paul’s Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie reflected the sentiments of a wishful nation when he said, tremblingly: “This is the stuff of which fairy tales are made.” No such hostage to fortune will be given again. Memories of the last sumptuous royal marriage nearly 30 years ago, and of its public unravelling, are still too close.

Today’s more realistic onlookers do not see the modern couple as symbols of anything. They are not going to be the focus of some specious national renewal. The genuine hope, even among cynics, is that William and Kate will be happily and serenely married, rather than that they conform to some 19th-century storybook notion of romance or its fateful 1981 variation. Kate is pretty, sparky and caring, but there is no expectation that she could, or should, become “the new Diana”. Comparisons, however odious, will inevitably be made between her and the glamorous woman who should have been her mother-in-law. But the really encouraging thing is how different the two women are – in every respect, except that they fell in love with a future king.

Kate Middleton is not some malleable teenage ingenue with a slender knowledge of what lies in wait for her. She has not led the sheltered life of Diana. She does not come from a broken home or seem to be less than perfectly grounded. She has had eight years is which to understand the peculiar demands of royalty and to demonstrate that, when the occasion demands, she is a pretty self-assured trainee member.
 
I pitty Kate, everything she does from now on will inevitable be compared with Williams mother. The worst thing for her William can do is to have her use the same outfit Diana used at the wedding and give her the same ring at the altar.

Kate looks more confident in her self than Diana did before the marriage.

Is there a way to judge popularity between a 27 year old woman about to get married and a former princess that is now dead? Kate shouldnt have to be pitted against Diana, she should be pitted against the other girls that married a crownprince, Mette-Marit etc.
 
I don't think Catherine will be the "new Diana" as I don't think she will cooperate with the media in order to enhance her image against that of her husband. Instead she probably be a sucessful Royal wife like the other young Crown princess consorts in Europe. And if she really did the pics at the homepage of Party Pieces, then she has a natural rapport to children (real cute kids in the pics). This will help her form her own image as a caring Royal but I doubt her aim is to be an international celebrity.

With Diana it was the hype that the media discovered that there is something better than a superstar: a real Royal superstar with a future as a real queen (and that of the UK to boot!). And a Royal who enjoyed this hype to the hilt because she needed this hype to boost her own view of herself and to make the points she needed in order to get from that palace and her husband what she wanted. Well, no, she did not get what she wanted, but she got what she asked for.

I simply doubt that Catherine Middleton would even think along these lines. She appears to be a bride that is so high in her future husband's affection that she only has to wish for something to make him try to get it for her. Why should she need the media's attention when she has her husband's attention?

And please: I know that Diana had to share her husband's attention witha lot of people but still in my opinion she behaved illoyal towards her souverain. Once she became a member of the Royal family she should have accepted that there are more valid things than the cry of a young woman for attention. Catherine already learned that there are things she couldn't and can't have (career, living in London, partying all night) and thus far she appears to be happy with her situation.
 
I think a lot of it will depend on how she comes off once she starts taking on duties of being a working royal. Diana gained a lot of support from the public around the world for her empathy for people through charity work - the whole not wearing gloves to touch people with AIDS was a big thing that sticks out. She connected.

Kate seems like she could be a good connecter as well and she's also got a more humble background, so time will tell.
 
The "humble" background might well be the crucial thing that will help Catherine to connect with people of all backgrounds.

The fact that she has a St. Andrew's degree will also stand her in good stead.
 
I have the feeling that Catherine will become quite an asset to the British Royal Family and to the country as a whole. She is an intelligent young woman that has known for quite a few years what her future role will be. If she felt that she could not handle, she would have backed out long ago.

Diana was not given that opportunity plus she was very immature at the time of her wedding. Royals at that time didn't even help the child with her role as a future monarch's wife! We loved Diana because of who she was and how she made her own spot in life. Catherine will make her own and we will either love her or not.

It is not a contest. We can love [or dislike] them both for different things. Diana is history. Catherine is present. I personally wish Catherine all the luck in the world in her future undertaking. She will someday be the wife of the King of England. A world known figure! Other Royal families are really not so well known. Most people, with the exception of "Royal Watchers" could not tell you who are the royals of Denmark, Holland, Norway, or Spain.

It will be in history books 100 years from now, whether or not Diana was more popular than Catherine-----and that will only be written from the bias view of the writer. Does it really matter? There have been many prior Royals that were extremely popular in their day hundreds of years ago, but today we could care less about them. They are just a page of interest in a history book as the "wife of or husband or". Diana had her day, now we have to let Catherine eventually have her's. It is life.
 
I don't think Catherine will be the "new Diana" as I don't think she will cooperate with the media in order to enhance her image against that of her husband. Instead she probably be a sucessful Royal wife like the other young Crown princess consorts in Europe. And if she really did the pics at the homepage of Party Pieces, then she has a natural rapport to children (real cute kids in the pics). This will help her form her own image as a caring Royal but I doubt her aim is to be an international celebrity.

With Diana it was the hype that the media discovered that there is something better than a superstar: a real Royal superstar with a future as a real queen (and that of the UK to boot!). And a Royal who enjoyed this hype to the hilt because she needed this hype to boost her own view of herself and to make the points she needed in order to get from that palace and her husband what she wanted. Well, no, she did not get what she wanted, but she got what she asked for.

I simply doubt that Catherine Middleton would even think along these lines. She appears to be a bride that is so high in her future husband's affection that she only has to wish for something to make him try to get it for her. Why should she need the media's attention when she has her husband's attention?

And please: I know that Diana had to share her husband's attention witha lot of people but still in my opinion she behaved illoyal towards her souverain. Once she became a member of the Royal family she should have accepted that there are more valid things than the cry of a young woman for attention. Catherine already learned that there are things she couldn't and can't have (career, living in London, partying all night) and thus far she appears to be happy with her situation.

I agree with just about everything you are saying.
 
The humble background might well be the crucial thing that will help Catherine to connect with people of all backgrounds.

The fact that she has a St. Andrew's degree will also stand her in good stead.

You do have a good point here. I think her 'humble background' could either make her or break her.;) It depends on how she'll 'use' it - could be an asset indeed. I guess it's all wait and see.
 
I have the feeling that Catherine will become quite an asset to the British Royal Family and to the country as a whole. She is an intelligent young woman that has known for quite a few years what her future role will be. If she felt that she could not handle, she would have backed out long ago.

Diana was not given that opportunity plus she was very immature at the time of her wedding. Royals at that time didn't even help the child with her role as a future monarch's wife! We loved Diana because of who she was and how she made her own spot in life. Catherine will make her own and we will either love her or not.

It is not a contest. We can love [or dislike] them both for different things. Diana is history. Catherine is present. I personally wish Catherine all the luck in the world in her future undertaking. She will someday be the wife of the King of England. A world known figure! Other Royal families are really not so well known. Most people, with the exception of "Royal Watchers" could not tell you who are the royals of Denmark, Holland, Norway, or Spain.

It will be in history books 100 years from now, whether or not Diana was more popular than Catherine-----and that will only be written from the bias view of the writer. Does it really matter? There have been many prior Royals that were extremely popular in their day hundreds of years ago, but today we could care less about them. They are just a page of interest in a history book as the "wife of or husband or". Diana had her day, now we have to let Catherine eventually have her's. It is life.

Well said you made some great points especially with the age and maturity between Catherine and Diana.
 
Kate reminds me so much of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. Probably, she will be very popular, much more than even Mary because the British monarchy is more famous (to more variety of people) than the Danish monarchy. I mean, Mary is an iconic figure to Australians who were already royalists and to Danish people and others international who were already royalists. But Kate will be extremely (is already) famous with people who don't even know that Denmark has a monarchy!

Of course, she will be as famous as Diana, because being famous to that degree is a given for her. Will she have all that pop-culture-icon status Diana has even in the grave? Probably not. Unless she too dies tragically @ a young age. Knock on wood.
 
I don't think she will be as famous as Diana just because she marries into the BRF.
 
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