What Queen Elizabeth Reportedly Saw in Kate Middleton—but Not Diana

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Kate Middleton and Princess Diana followed markedly different paths to becoming Princess of Wales. Diana married Prince Charles—now King Charles III—in July 1981 after a courtship that lasted about a year. She had turned 20 only weeks earlier. Kate, by contrast, met William, Prince of Wales, in 2001 and began dating him around 2003. She would spend roughly eight more years outside the royal family before officially joining it in April 2011. The late Queen Elizabeth II is said to have valued that contrast.

After witnessing the painful lessons of Charles and Diana’s troubled marriage, the monarch was reportedly pleased to see a very different future taking shape for the next generation, according to royal author Tina Brown. In her 2022 book, “The Palace Papers” (via Daily Mail), Brown wrote, “For the Queen, the wedding day brought a special satisfaction. This new, 29-year-old granddaughter-in-law, the future Queen Consort, was unlike the child bride Diana, road-tested in resilience as well as royal life.” Elizabeth reportedly believed Kate was well prepared for life as a senior royal—not only because she had spent years proving her commitment, but also because the queen admired her family background.

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“She had three out of her four children divorce, so I think she liked the fact that her grandson was marrying into a really close family who have stuck together through thick and thin,” Ailsa Anderson, a former press secretary to the late queen, told Hello! in 2026. Diana’s parents, on the other hand, divorced during her childhood, and her mother later lost custody of her children. Kate and Diana differed in numerous respects, but Elizabeth is said to have viewed those differences as an encouraging sign.

Princess Diana appeared to understand that her relationship with the future King Charles III was fragile even before their wedding. “We met 13 times and we got married,” she said in tapes featured in the 2017 documentary “Diana: In Her Own Words” (via ABC News). On another occasion, she recalled, “My wedding day, I think that was the worst day of my life” (via CNN). Diana was also aware by then of Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, who is now Queen Camilla.

The marriage seemed troubled even before it began. William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, experienced a very different kind of relationship, as their engagement announcements highlighted. Although the length of their courtship drew mockery from the press—with Kate Middleton famously labeled “Waity Katie”—that extended period may have helped her adjust to royal life. “I think the 10-year courtship that she and William had was really crucial to her success as a royal,” Katie Nicholl, author of “The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown,” told Fox News Digital in 2022.

Kate and William’s long relationship is also believed to have reassured Queen Elizabeth II about both her grandson’s future and the monarchy’s stability. Despite her famously stoic nature, the queen reportedly showed her emotions on the couple’s wedding day. Tina Brown wrote in “The Palace Papers” that Elizabeth turned to her husband, Prince Philip, and said, “That was really excellent, wasn’t it?” (via Daily Mail).