Real Reason Why Princess Kate Has Never Tried to ‘Emulate’ Diana's Legacy

For much of her time in the public eye, Kate Middleton has been defined as much by what she doesn't do as by what she does. She gives interviews rarely, avoids public displays of grievance, and has lived by the late Queen's 'never complain, never explain' maxim so thoroughly that it has sometimes been mistaken for a lack of depth. It is that restraint that underpins Middleton's authority now, however, and at 44, her legacy is beginning to look quietly secure.

It has not always been an easy position to hold. Middleton's stoic approach has often left her vulnerable to caricature. In November 2023, royal author Omid Scobie dismissed her as a 'Stepford-like royal wife' in his work Endgame, portraying her as cold and incurious. He had "never challenged the system with public struggles or oversized aspirations," he said, instead fitting too neatly into the mould of a traditional princess. 

Layered onto that has been the near-constant comparison with Princess Diana — a parallel Middleton never invited but has never been able to escape. Diana’s emotional openness, her visible discomfort within the institution, and her instinctive connection with the public have long been treated as the gold standard for modern royal relevance. Against that backdrop, Middletons’s steadiness was often misread as dullness.

Yet as she marks her 44th birthday, that narrative is beginning to fall apart. According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, who spoke to the Daily Mail, Middleton’s growing assurance lies precisely in the fact that she has not tried to replicate her late mother-in-law’s path. “She is not likely to emulate Diana, who reached out to others brilliantly but was also brittle and deeply unhappy. They are too different to be compared,” he said. “Catherine’s legacy will be one of total loyalty to her husband and the institution of monarchy.”

And that distinction is significant. Diana's story was one of youth, isolation, and a marriage of unequal partners. Middleton's story, to date, has instead been one of time and following the rules. As Fitzwilliams points out, she is currently “happily in remission from cancer and increasing her public engagements,” and has returned to her royal role with a clear newfound sense of purpose. Even her highly publicized sense of style, clad in its own 'eternal influencer' mantle by VOGUE. And perhaps the only similarity between them is their elite sense of fashion. 

The contrast between the two women was evident from the very start. In Kate: The Future Queen, royal commentator Katie Nicholl recalls the moment Middleton, then 29, paused to wave at crowds as she entered Westminster Abbey on her wedding day. “One day the British people would be her subjects,” Nicholl wrote, noting the similarity to Diana, who had also paused to acknowledge the public before her own wedding.

But the resemblance ended there. “While Diana had seemed full of trepidation, Middleton, who was older and more experienced in her role as royal consort, exuded an amazing sense of confidence and purpose,” Nicholl noted. The circumstances couldn't be more different. Diana was only 20 when she married then-Prince Charles, entering into the marriage with a man she hardly knew. Middleton and Prince William, on the other hand, had almost a decade of life together before becoming married, including years of attending the University of St. Andrews together as students. They'd essentially lived an 'ordinary' life before entering into the monarchy.