5 Times Princess Kate Showed Us She Makes Her Own Rules

Princess Kate is considered the monarchy’s biggest asset, but that does not mean she has always played by the royal rulebook. Over the years, she has quietly bent traditions and chosen to do things her own way; some even before marrying Prince William.

For an event as grand as a royal coronation, a tiara would have been the obvious choice. However, Kate went in a different direction. At King Charles’ 2023 coronation, she wore a dazzling silver headpiece by Jess Collett and Alexander McQueen instead of a traditional royal tiara, and Princess Charlotte also wore a matching version. In the end, it suited the more pared-back feel of Charles’ coronation as compared with Queen Elizabeth’s in 1953. Kate still looked every bit the royal, not needing a tiara to make an entrance.

When Kate revealed her cancer diagnosis in March 2024, she took a surprisingly personal route for a senior royal as she addressed the public herself. Rather than leaving it to a Palace statement, she sat on a bench at Windsor and spoke straight to the camera about her diagnosis, treatment and how it had affected her family. King Charles had announced his own cancer diagnosis just a month earlier, going the traditional route with Buckingham Palace sharing the news on February 5. Kate’s approach was much more personal and gave people a rare glimpse into what she was going through. Charles later followed a similar path and opened up about his cancer journey in the 2024 Christmas broadcast.

Kate had a clear idea of how she wanted to look when she walked down the aisle, and it was not exactly what royal aides had in mind. As reported by Marie Claire, royal commentator Ashley Pearson said in William & Kate: The Journey that palace officials “indicated very strongly to Kate that they would prefer her to wear her hair up.” Pearson added, “However, Kate had her heart set on wearing her hair down with long flowing curls, which is her favorite way to wear it, and actually William's favorite as well.” But they eventually reached a compromise, and she wore her hair half up, half down. By doing so, the Princess of Wales actually broke a 350-year-old wedding tradition and set the tone for the rest of her royal life. Since then, Kate has bent other royal fashion rules, such as wearing bright nail polish on occasions, a practice reportedly discouraged by the late Queen.

Kate reportedly was not having it when it came to an old hunting ritual involving her children. As per the Daily Mail, royal author Tom Quinn claimed in Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants that the Princess of Wales put her foot down and refused to let George, Charlotte and Louis take part in “blooding,” a tradition where a first-time hunter has the blood of their kill smeared on their face. He wrote, “Charles's daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, has put her foot down and insisted there will be no blooding for her children.” It was a tradition that even Prince William and Prince Harry took part in when they were younger.

Kate has never been one to go overboard with PDA. However, after her cancer scare, she and William seemed to have relaxed the strict protocol of senior royals being more reserved. As a generational norm, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip famously kept a stoic profile with almost zero physical contact in public. Recently, however, at the Royal Charity Polo Cup in July 2026, Kate was seen kissing William on the cheek after his team won, before the couple walked away holding hands. Even though it was a small gesture, it showed that Kate was more than comfortable letting that affectionate side of her relationship play out in public. Body language expert Judi James told The Daily Mail, “Their rituals suggest there’s been no real change in the intensity of their love for one another—what’s happened is they have finally felt safe enough to trust enough, not each other but the public and the press, to show it.”