Those of us who have been following the saga of Kate Middleton from the beginning are very familiar with all of the pre-marriage lore. The British media has done a pretty good job cleaning up Kate’s image after she married Prince William in 2011, but a lot of us remember all of the good gossip from back in the day. The “Waity” gossip, the gossip about Kate running to Carole constantly so that Carole could stage-manage the courtship, the gossip about all of the times William dumped Kate to pursue other women. One of my favorite pieces of Vintage Kate gossip was the story about Queen Elizabeth telling Kate to get a job. Every so often, that story gets brought up, and interestingly enough, the Mail decided to do a #whoremembers piece this weekend. LOL.
As a fresh-faced member of the Royal Family, the Princess of Wales turned to Prince William’s grandmother for guidance on navigating the Firm. The Daily Mail’s Richard Kay described the two as sharing a ‘grandmotherly’ bond – with Kate describing the Queen as ‘a gentle guide’. And like any grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II was not afraid to point out areas in her granddaughter-in-law’s life that needed attention – even before Kate and William were engaged.
Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl wrote that the Queen was concerned about Kate’s lack of a stable job and the number of holidays she was taking in her book, William and Harry. She wrote: ‘If Kate was not with William at Balmoral then the couple were skiing or holidaying on Mustique. Kate was there so often the press dubbed her Queen of Mustique, a title that had previously belonged to Princess Margaret.’
The royal author noted that while Kate and William were enjoying island life, people back home were struggling through the recession. Nicholl wrote: ‘Such frivolous displays of wealth were unpalatable to the Queen. While the rest of the world speculated that an engagement was on the horizon for William and Kate, the Queen believed an announcement should be postponed until Kate was settled in a career.’
One insider told Nicholl at the time that ‘it is Her Majesty’s opinion that if Kate is one day going to be William’s consort, then she needs a proper job.’ MailOnline reported at the time that sources close to the Queen said she was acutely aware that William’s public image could suffer if his girlfriend were not recognised as a working professional in her own right.
‘The Queen has had conversations with a few trusted friends about how to tackle what is being called the Kate problem,’ a senior aide told The Mail on Sunday. ‘On the few occasions the Queen has met Kate, she has thought she is a nice enough girl. But the Queen has admitted she has no idea what Kate actually does. Privately she is very concerned about what the repercussions could be if Kate is not in a stable job as and when William is ready to propose. Although they are not yet engaged, it seems more likely than not that Kate will be a Royal bride one day, and the Queen is of the opinion that Kate should be working. She believes in a modern Monarchy and feels very strongly that the Royals should be leading by example.
[Kate eventually] started working at Jigsaw, which is owned by her parents’ close friends John and Belle Robinson, who let William and Kate take a holiday in Mustique. But Kate quit the job after less than a year. According to Nicholl, the Queen’s words ‘stung’ Kate.
In my opinion, there’s a reason why the Mail is bringing this up again and talking about how Kate has truly never held a real job. Even the Jigsaw job was basically part-time, because Kate had to be available to go on vacations with William at the drop of a hat. This is all just reinforcing a certain Kate narrative, one which has always lingered despite the palace’s half-assed clean-up job. That narrative: Kate doesn’t know HOW to work, Kate loves to take vacations, Kate is a delicate flower who cannot be expected to do much of anything, Kate was not built for any kind of work, and even QEII saw that it would be a big problem for the Firm longterm. Well, here we are.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
