Smiling brightly in the heatwave sunshine, the Princess of Wales held her husband close to her as they exchanged a tender kiss on each cheek at the annual Royal Charity Polo Cup, held at the Guards Polo Club, near their home in Windsor. With her hair in tumbling locks, instead of her typically more polished blow-dry, and wearing a playful gingham Temperley London picnic dress, it was a more relaxed look for the future queen.
Onlookers couldn’t help but comment at the ease and joy of their kiss, a very rare public display of affection, as Kate assisted William with the trophy presentation. For the majority of their 15-year marriage, the Waleses have followed strict royal protocols around not showing physical affection (an unwritten precedent set by Queen Elizabeth II to display the utmost professionalism) and so now, even their insistence on holding hands suggests a move away from tradition.
It’s well known by now that the couple plan for a monarchy that feels more relevant to modern Britain. Since Kate’s cancer recovery, the couple have also been experimenting with a more relatable and human approach to their duties. This is, say royal insiders, a bid to stay relevant and appeal to younger audiences who perhaps value this irreverent approach more than their predecessors.
It’s been evident also in the Waleses’ dive into ‘clip culture’, offering their followers short, snackable video snippets on social media. First came the coverage of Kate’s Three Peaks challenge to raise money for the Royal Marsden, where she received treatment. Bumping into members of the public on the gruelling 23 mile walk, she was filmed joking about the weather, saying to one family, ‘You’re not too cold? So many people are still in their T-shirts! Why are they doing that?. The Waleses also released candid pictures of George, Louis and Charlotte enveloping their mother in cuddles when she was finished.
Then there was Catherine’s participation in the ‘Overheard at Wimbledon’ social media series on 8 July, mic’d up to capture her casually joking and chatting with Tim Henman as they watched a match. Comments on the video stressed how much they loved seeing the princess ‘enjoying herself and being herself’. For his part, Prince William made a surprise appearance on New Heights, the sports podcast hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce (yep, Mr Taylor Swift) to jovially discuss the World Cup.
If there is one person who would have approved of this move away from stiff-upper-lip royal life, it would have been William’s mother, Diana. Indeed the ‘Diana method’ – of conducting a very public royal life in tandem with an intentionally normal one – became her calling card. Whether it was taking William and Harry to McDonald’s or Thorpe Park, she turned things upside down at a time when protocol was unwavering. The photographs of Diana and the boys screaming with delight on a log flume in 1993 were groundbreaking at the time, as was Diana’s decision to take part in the mums’ race at Harry’s sports day in 1991. ‘It’s vital the monarchy keeps in touch with the people. It’s what I try to do,’ Diana told The Times in 1994.
Those rulebreaking moments feel strongly aligned with how Kate and William are deciding to carve out their own royal path now. ‘[William] has easy, natural alliances [with celebrities] and it got me thinking about how similar this was to Princess Diana,’ PR expert Jacki Vause, who co-hosts podcast Where Pop Culture Meets PR, says. ‘The two of them, this is the strange magic that they have.’ Vause’s co-host Lyle Fulton adds that this more irreverent Diana method from William and Kate is not ‘for performance’s sake’, and their causes are clearly important to them.
Of course, while Diana enjoyed a close bond with her brother Charles Spencer, relations have not improved between William and Harry. Despite the Sussexes’ trip to Highgrove for an unexpected reunion with King Charles and Queen Camilla, who saw Archie and Lilibet for the first time since 2022, William is loath to get sucked into any drama. For now, a reconciliation is not on the cards. ‘A father can forgive,’ royal reporter Kinsey Schofield says, but Prince William ‘has to think about longevity’. Perhaps employing the Diana method will eventually thaw the ice between them, but certainly not just yet.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source graziadaily.co.uk ’
