Only One Royal Bride Had a 'Normal' Romance — And It Wasn't Diana or Meghan, Says Royal Expert
Kate Middleton perhaps had one of the most normal love stories among other royal brides like Princess Diana, Meghan Markle, and Queen Camilla.
Going from college sweethearts to the future monarchs of the UK, Kate Middleton and Prince William’s love story is nothing short of a fairytale, and yet it seems extremely normal at the same time. Two individuals meeting in college, becoming friends, falling in love, courting for years before getting married in the most beautiful ceremony doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. And perhaps that’s why it resonates with so many people across the globe.
Royal correspondent Simon Vigor recently claimed that Middleton was perhaps the only royal bride among Queen Camilla, Meghan Markle, and Princess Diana to have “had anything close to a normal romance”. Vigor further added via Woman and Home, “As undergraduates at St Andrews University, the friendship between Catherine and William was able to develop slowly and naturally - or at least as normally as possible given the fact that Scotland Yard's elite Royalty Protection Department were ever-present.”
On the other hand, the royal expert believes that Diana and Markle were “fast-tracked into the Royal Family” and were met with “varying degrees of failure”. While the former was only 19 years of age when she accepted King Charles’ proposal, the Duchess of Sussex married Prince Harry after a whirlwind romance. According to Vigor, Markle had herself stated that she “didn't fully understand what the job was” when she began seeing Harry, and he believes that Diana didn’t either. And as for Camilla, her journey was “slower,” and she had an unusual entry into the royal fold, first by “being The Other Woman”. She faced “an interval of more than thirty years between first fling and engagement”.
Meanwhile, despite dating since their college days, Middleton and William waited for several years before tying the knot. And the Prince of Wales had a mindful and practical reason behind the move. “Her and her family, I really want to make sure that they have the best, sort of, guidance and chance to see what life has been like - or what life is like - in the family," he said during his 2010 engagement interview with his then-fiancee, "That's kind of almost why I've been waiting this long is that I wanted to give her a chance to see and to back out if she needed to before it all got too much.”
The thought the royal couple put behind their union has been on display for the past 15 years. The Prince and Princess of Wales have not only been a picture of a steadfast marriage but have also become the faces of the monarchy’s modern era and arguably are the most popular royals on the block. And now as parents of three, they have focused on raising their children with as much normalcy as possible.
During his appearance on The Reluctant Traveler, William said, “I think it's really important that that atmosphere is created at home; you have to have that feeling of warmth, security, love that all has to be there. And that was certainly part of my childhood. My parents got divorced at 8, so that lasted a short period of time, but you take that, and you learn from it.”
