The Public's Expectations of Kate as William's Girlfriend

[Laviollette]

Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion. IMO she could go on a holiday once a month, as long as she isn't cheating anyone, kicking any dogs, doing drugs, acting like a fool while on holiday....who cares? In addition, the only people who should be hounding her to get a job is her parents, cause they are the one supporting her.

"Who cares?" as long as she doesn't become the next British princess. I could care less about her if she wasn't dating PW. The point is that she is!

 

[Skydragon]

Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion. IMO she could go on a holiday once a month, as long as she isn't cheating anyone, kicking any dogs, doing drugs, acting like a fool while on holiday....who cares? In addition, the only people who should be hounding her to get a job is her parents, cause they are the one supporting her.

If she does marry William and becomes a part of the "Firm" her lack of answering the phones, getting coffee, typing memos, making sales calls or whatever are not indications on whether or not she could attend official functions...where honestly...the only thing she needs to do is make a speech (not even written by her), stand quietly in the background, do her walk abouts, open a hospital, etc or produce the next heir. Basically support her husband. Not to be funny...but isn't that what Camilla does? Sophie?

Very well said Zonk!

 

[ysbel]

Imo, these ladies have raised the standards that many (not all) of us expect from someone who is going to be working for the rest of their lives and who will lead a life of extraordinary privilege.
.

You forgot one particular princess who raised the bar and that was Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

She had a fantastic career before her marriage, was well-spoken, learned Danish perfectly, was diplomatic, sincere, hard-working, in short the perfect princess.

However, she had one major problem. She and Prince Joachim could not keep their marriage together and they divorced.

Alexandra and Joachim are too classy to reveal to the rest of us what went wrong in their marriage but one wonders if she was overqualified for the role of royal princess. I think its quite possible that her purposeful and very successful career made her ambitious to gain more real world accomplishments than she was able to as the consort of a lesser prince in a royal family whose role is mainly symbolic.

Because royals are nonpolitical by nature and by nature almost anything can be turned political, any roayl venture into actually making any real accomplishments is often fraught with controversy. Look at Prince Charles who is heir of the throne and is trying to make a difference in some areas he believes in. He is getting resistance every step of the way and quite honestly, though I like Charles, he's not really doing that much to get that much resistance.

How frustrating it must be for a woman who has a long list of real career accomplishments behind her to take on what is mostly a figurehead role. But a figurehead role is precisely what William's future wife will be taking on.

Actually all these ultra-accomplished career women marrying into royal families and finding out the royal life is not all its cracked up to be is not IMO really the best solution.

Its harder to find a career wife nowadays but the answer to William's marriage problems has got to lie somewhere between high-powered career woman and comfy stay-at-home wifey.

 

[Zonk]

"Who cares?" as long as she doesn't become the next British princess. I could care less about her if she wasn't dating PW. The point is that she is!

To be honest.....none of us would care about the girl if she wasn't dating William either. Though its fair to say...some of us care don't about her and she is dating him. Oh well! You can't win them all

 

[BeatrixFan]

Well, I care because there's a chance I'll be paying a bit more for her in the future. I'm paying for her now but if that sub is going to go up, I think I've got a right to rip her to bits.

 

[Laviollette]

...If she does marry William and becomes a part of the "Firm" her lack of answering the phones, getting coffee, typing memos, making sales calls or whatever are not indications on whether or not she could attend official functions...where honestly...the only thing she needs to do is make a speech (not even written by her), stand quietly in the background, do her walk abouts, open a hospital, etc or produce the next heir. Basically support her husband. Not to be funny...but isn't that what Camilla does? Sophie?

Well it is clear that the quality and expectations of British princesses is not on the same level as, say, Danish princesses or Spanish princesses or Dutch princesses or Belgium princesses. To each their own.

 

[Skydragon]

Well it is clear that the quality and expectations of British princesses is not on the same level as, say, Danish princesses or Spanish princesses or Dutch princesses or Belgium princesses. To each their own.

No, we don't all expect our princesses to have to work, we realise that just because you have worked 9 to 5, it doesn't make you a nicer person!

 

[Laviollette]

No, we don't all expect our princesses to have to work, we realise that just because you have worked 9 to 5, it doesn't make you a nicer person!

And so continues the decline of the BRF, imho.

 

[Skydragon]

{response to deleted post removed - Elspeth}

I want Catherine, if she marries William to be happy and fulfilled in her supporting role as the wife of a Prince. I want them to lead long and happy lives. If they are happy with each other, that will, IMO, be reflected in their dealings with the public!

 

[ysbel]

I want Catherine, if she marries William to be happy and fulfilled in her supporting role as the wife of a Prince. I want them to lead long and happy lives. If they are happy with each other, that will, IMO, be reflected in their dealings with the public!

Thanks skydragon. That seems fair enough. I agree totally.

 

[TonyaR]

It seems to me that some have not considered that a happy prince is a caring and responsive prince. I read a post earlier in this thread that spoke of how the wife of royalty needs to be supportive and to figuratively ( and sometimes literally) be one step behind their prince/princess.

Obviously Catherine fulfills some need that Prince William has, or he would not choose to still be with her. She may or may not have been employed prior to her current job with Jigsaw, but she most certainly is quiet and unassuming. I get the feeling that she will make it her business not to upstage William. He does have more charisma than his father, he most definitely is more handsome. William also seems to relate well to people in general when he is out in public, so it shouldn't be too hard a job for her to stay just slightly in the background. I'm sure the press will push the issue, but it would be up to Catherine to stay firmly one step behind William.
So far Catherine has not attempted to take any personal limelight for herself; there haven't been any interviews, no posing for official photos, no statements of any kind issued to the press. That bodes well for any future public interaction between Prince William, herself and the public if they become engaged.

She seems to already grasp the most important concept: that she is not the most important person from the public's point of view, her royal partner is.

 

[sirhon11234]

I want Catherine, if she marries William to be happy and fulfilled in her supporting role as the wife of a Prince. I want them to lead long and happy lives. If they are happy with each other, that will, IMO, be reflected in their dealings with the public!

For the first time SkyDragon I actually agree with you.

 

[Avalon]

It seems to me that some have not considered that a happy prince is a caring and responsive prince. I read a post earlier in this thread that spoke of how the wife of royalty needs to be supportive and to figuratively ( and sometimes literally) be one step behind their prince/princess.

Obviously Catherine fulfills some need that Prince William has, or he would not choose to still be with her. She may or may not have been employed prior to her current job with Jigsaw, but she most certainly is quiet and unassuming. I get the feeling that she will make it her business not to upstage William. He does have more charisma than his father, he most definitely is more handsome. William also seems to relate well to people in general when he is out in public, so it shouldn't be too hard a job for her to stay just slightly in the background. I'm sure the press will push the issue, but it would be up to Catherine to stay firmly one step behind William.
So far Catherine has not attempted to take any personal limelight for herself; there haven't been any interviews, no posing for official photos, no statements of any kind issued to the press. That bodes well for any future public interaction between Prince William, herself and the public if they become engaged.

She seems to already grasp the most important concept: that she is not the most important person from the public's point of view, her royal partner is.

I quite agree with your view of Kate, Tonya. I also think, that should Prince William and Kate marry, she'll be a good Consort for him.
Though I do disagree with your opinion that Prince William is more charismatic or more handsome then his father!

 

[BeatrixFan]

Can I ask you Avalon, how can you be so sure that if she marries she'll be a good consort? What, in your opinion, qualifies such a statement?

 

[Avalon]

Can I ask you Avalon, how can you be so sure that if she marries she'll be a good consort? What, in your opinion, qualifies such a statement?

Certainly.
As I see the role of the Consort, she must support her husband but never (deliberately) take the central stage. Much like The Duchess of Cornwall does now (I am NOT comparing Kate and Camilla). Judging by Kate’s behavior (since I have no other source), I think she’ll manage it.
Kate doesn’t try to be in the spotlight, doesn’t ‘flirt’ with the press, doesn’t give any interviews, tell-it-all stories, and her friends are just as mum (which, imo, tells quite a lot about Kate herself).

I, of course, make my judgment of Kate, based mostly on my impression and her behavior.
I might not be Kate’s greatest fan (though I do like her quite a lot), but I certainly give her credit for her discreet behavior.
And naturally, since Kate is not my possible future Queen, my opinion is not that crucial.

 

[BeatrixFan]

Interesting because I get entirely the opposite impression. I think this shows how much we read into things on very limited information.

 

[sirhon11234]

BeatrixFan what are your expectations of Kate, and how do you think she would cope as being HRH The Princess William ?

 

[Avalon]

Interesting because I get entirely the opposite impression. I think this shows how much we read into things on very limited information.

Either one of us (our opinions) can be right . As you said we have really very little information about Kate.
To tell the truth, the lack of information is another thing I like about that girl. I have a huge respect for someone, who manages to have such loyal friends!

 

[BeatrixFan]

I've got very low expectations of her. I see her as a typical throwback of the celebrity age who won't be able to cope with not being one and will generally be out of place on the world stage. I don't think she'll be a good consort which is saying something considering that the man she'll be consort too has all the personality of a boiled swede. Personally, I see her a huge mistake who doesn't fit with what we need. She's rather plain, dull and boring and I believe she'll be rather a let down when amongst people like Queen Mary of Denmark, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Empress Masako of Japan.

I have a huge respect for someone, who manages to have such loyal friends!

Maybe she's so boring she doesn't have any friends to tattle on her?

 

[Elspeth]

I've deleted the off-topic digression into the advantages and disadvantages of arranged marriages in general and the discussion about sexual morality. I hope we can keep this thread on topic now.

For people interested in discussing arranged marriages among royals, there are these threads in Royal Chit Chat:

http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f12/unfaithful-royals-11087.html
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f12/would-she-have-married-him-8371.html

or feel free to start a thread on the topic of arranged marriages over there.

General discussions about morality, as long as they don't turn into fights about religion, belong in Members' Corner.

Elspeth

British Royals moderator

 

[MARG]

Well, here I am on the last day of December 2006, and, I have to admit that I don't really have an opinion of Kate/Catherine. What's to know for sure? Basically it's all a guessing game and until the engagement is announced I for one am not going to speculate too deeply.
It could be that the lady in question inspires no interest or that Prince William inspires little interest.
Worse..... it could be that as a couple they are both that dreadful word used to describe the POW when he was young. Anodyne!

 

[Duchess]

perhaps catherine would be a good consort based on beatrixfan's thoughts that she's dull and boring...maybe that's exactly what the RF want in a consort after the diana/fergie years?!

 

[MARG]

perhaps catherine would be a good consort based on beatrixfan's thoughts that she's dull and boring...maybe that's exactly what the RF want in a consort after the diana/fergie years?!

Ouch!
Anodyne indeed!

 

[Duchess]

Ouch!
Anodyne indeed!

well a devil's advocate should have be allowed at least ONE point.

 

[Laviollette]

I guess the best thing about Kate's boring personality is that, like Camilla, she won't be shoved down our throats in the U.S. press even though they will try to in the beginning, if she marries William. So, go ahead, William, marry her.

 

[Duchess]

I guess the best thing about Kate's boring personality is that, like Camilla, she won't be shoved down our throats in the U.S. press even though they will try to in the beginning, if she marries William. So, go ahead, William, marry her.

i'd say you're totally off the mark on that one. she'll be in the media for a long time to come because the media needs someone to be their next star and the people want a star. and since catherine is still so new in that we know so very little about her...well need i say more.

 

[BeatrixFan]

I think you're wrong about people being shoved down your throat in the US Press. In Britain, we have to keep up to date because it's our Royal Family but surely to people in the US, Royalty watching is a hobby and you don't have to read reports about the British Royals if you don't want to?

 

[Laviollette]

The celebrity obsessed press here was pretty taken with Diana and the BRF. Not so much since Diana died but the very Republican Fox News channel covered the Charles and Camilla wedding along with all the other cable news channels. People magazine can't wait for a photogenic new princess to put on the cover every other month. I don't think that will happen with Kate. If William were to marry American Anna Sloan then we'd never hear the end of it. Happily, she's turned him down.

 

[BeatrixFan]

You miss my point. You don't have to buy the papers that are celebrity obssessed. Buy one that isn't. I don't read "The Sun" because IMO it's elephant snot. So I don't buy it and then it doesn't make me angry when I read things like "QUEEN TO ABDICATE IN FAVOUR OF PENGUIN". I sympathise but remember - we're not forced to read magazines and newspapers.

 

[Laviollette]

Well my point is what we do get here is already too much.