People Magazine has a second cover and cover story this week, all about the Princess of Wales: “Kate’s Turning Point: Reclaiming Her Confidence After ‘Staring Down the Abyss’.” Judging solely from the cover line, you know this is going to be the keenest, most overwrought nonsense ever. Kate is just three weeks away from her 44th birthday, but instead of making her sound like a mature woman with a lot on her plate, it’s more infantilizing bullsh-t about how no one has ever gone through this kind of ordeal before. It’s also a variation on an old royalist standard – in the olden days, around Kate’s birthday, the press would run “the state of Kate” pieces in which she looked to the year ahead and made promises to be keen (eventually). Fifteen years of broken keen promises later, they’re just leaning into lying about who Kate is and what she’s all about. Some highlights from the cover story:
Kate wore Queen Victoria’s 172-year-old Oriental Circlet tiara to the German state banquet: “It’s magnificent, historic and significant,” says Sally Bedell Smith. As Princess Kate reaches the end of the year marked by recovery and a gradual reclaiming of her role and confidence, the symbolism was unmistakable. “She looks like our idea of a future Queen,” royal biographer Catherine Mayer says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.
The keen diplomats: “They are becoming the face of state visits. They are taking on a leadership role,” says royal historian Amanda Foreman. Adds Mayer: “William and Kate are showcased as being not just the future of the monarchy but its absolute heart.”
A year in review: This defining year began with Kate’s Jan. 14 announcement of her remission from an undisclosed form of cancer and continued with a measured return to public life. She resumed elements of her early-childhood advocacy work while taking restorative breaks with her children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7 — including a long summer to rebuild her strength and an autumn move to an eight-bedroom home, Forest Lodge in Windsor, where the family now intend to remain even after William becomes King.
The abyss of obfuscation: Kate’s gradual reemergence [this year] follows not only the intrusive scrutiny of her own diagnosis but the grueling treatment itself — and the fortitude it took to come through it. “This is someone who stared down the abyss,” Foreman says. By the time she shared the news of her cancer diagnosis publicly in March 2024 — after preparing her children — she had weathered weeks of speculation and online conspiracy theories about her whereabouts and well-being. “She didn’t just face a life- threatening illness — the global Internet went after her,” Foreman adds. “It was a character assassination.”
The stoic princess: Through it all, Kate has revealed just enough of herself to reassure the public while deliberately keeping her most private emotions protected — a boundary she maintains with care. “She has that steeliness and that tremendous charm and that smile,” Foreman tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “It’s the combination of a willingness to show vulnerability but at the same time not being vulnerable.”
The unglamorous Early Years: “Early-childhood development is not glamorous. It’s quiet and privately done, and the lack of resources doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Harvard University’s Professor Robert Waldinger, who cowrote an essay with Kate, tells PEOPLE. “What she’s doing by lending her voice to this is huge. Bringing in business leaders who can make a difference is an incredible way to use the platform she has.”
The Wales marriage: Those close to the couple say Kate and William have emerged more connected than ever. After more than 20 years together, they’ve shown unmistakable shifts in their dynamic — gentle touches, shared smiles, hands resting at each other’s backs. “What they have been through over the last few years has been so terrible,” Foreman says. “That either drives couples apart, or, in their case, it brings them together. It irons out the kinks and enables them to see each other clearly.”
Christmas plans: As they prepare for Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham, notable absences loom. Despite Prince Harry reuniting with his father Charles in September, the estrangement between the brothers remains. And William’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — renamed after Charles moved to strip his royal titles over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein) — remains on the periphery. “[That move] was as much from William, and William and Kate are not seen as separate in terms of their decision-making,” says Mayer.
What 2026 will bring: There is also hope that 2026 will see William and Kate return to the global stage for their first overseas joint visit since before Kate’s illness, with an invitation to Australia already extended and speculation about a potential U.S. trip on the horizon. “Now that she has begun to turn a corner, they will be deploying her as much as they can,” says Bedell Smith. “It’s important for them to be at the center of the action.”
Kate’s steadier rhythm. “She is in this confident phase where she is able to define who she is, what she does and how much she does,” says Mayer. “In that sense, she’s approaching her prime.”
“The global Internet went after her. It was a character assassination.” F–king spare me. The majority of the 2024 speculation was out of concern for Kate’s welfare. Even the manipulated Mother’s Day photo wasn’t character assassination – the palace genuinely released a questionable photo, refused to clarify and received kill orders from every photo agency. It’s also not character assassination to say “wow, Kensington Palace is staffed with clowns who couldn’t crisis-manage their way out of a wet paper bag.”
What else? Kate’s not taking a leadership role to any degree, nor does she share her husband’s obsession with being called a global statesman. Try as they might to pressure Kate into agreeing to travel internationally for work in 2026, I feel pretty confident that Kate will find some reason why she’s not well enough to go to Australia or anywhere other than the US. She can preen in front of Trump again, that will give her something to look forward to.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace. Cover courtesy of People.
