Duchess said:
i was just wondering why with diana the public loved her but with kate, it seems that there's much more negativity?
What's the difference? The last 26 years and everything that's happened in that time.
Those of us who are old enough to have been adults then can try and take ourselves back to 1979/1980 and remember what the world was like then.
There was more respect for the RF. The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother were in charge and set the tone. Charles was not as prominent and Andrew and Edward were still young. The RF was more remote, and we craved information, but, in general, we only got to see what the RF wanted us to see.
There were no zoom lenses and no digital cameras or ultra-high-tech phone tapping and and no internet. We hadn't had Camillagate or Squidgygate or the stories about Hewitt or toe-sucking and other such incidents.
We didn't expect as much from the RF in those days. We respected them because of who they were. That seemed enough. It isn't today.
We were interested in the girls Charles was seeing, and when we got stories about them - and in the '70s we in Australia got a lot more about the Royals than we do now - they tended to be respectful. No-one challenged the girls on the basis of whether or not they dressed in a certain way, or smiled, etc. We only saw photos and didn't have video footage of them leaving clubs in the early hours.
The public was ready and waiting for a Royal Wedding, and assumed the marriage would be happy and a good thing for everyone. The event was looked forward to in Charles' case and and people were prepared to accept his choice without question as long as she satisfied a few basic criteria.
It was taken for granted that if Charles and his parents and grandmother approved, the choice was not to be questioned. After all, nothing in particular - apart from producing children - was expected of her. She was to be Charles' wife and eventually queen consort, but there was no recent job description for the role of Princess of Wales. It seemed enough if the candidate was attractive and sufficiently well bred. I think it was taken for granted that whoever he married would be someone with whom he shared a mutual love and common interests and that the marriage would be happy.
There was no precedent for a Princess of Wales in the modern world. Diana wrote the job description, and people are assessing Kate by reference to it.
But not only that, they are assessing her according to expectations of young women today. A young woman with a university education is expected to get a job and use the knowledge the public (I assume it is the case in England) has at least partly paid for. She is expected to do something constructive in modern day terms. Further, I doubt that someone who didn't finish high school and had a part-time job as an assistant in a kindergarten would be regarded as favourably as a candidate today as in 1980. In those days breeding was more important, and as breeding in another sense was such an important part of the job, the fact Diana was obviously good with children was no doubt seen as a big plus, and endeared her to a lot of people.
And of course we also now know that William's marriage can be dissolved and is not necessarily forever. That is another big difference.
I can only speak from my own point of view and as an Australian, and my recollections may be filtered through a rose-coloured lens, and I may be wrong of course, but they are my thoughts.
) 
I can only hope that everyone who questions Prince William's choice of girlfriend will see this as serious food for thought.
