Tabla de contenidos para PEOPLE Princess Kate en People

As Princess Kate confidently led her husband, Prince William, and their children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, into Westminster Abbey for her third annual Christmas carol concert, it was her time to shine. Already seated in the Abbey were her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, sister Pippa and extended members of the royal family, who all showed their support for the Princess of Wales on her big night. The absence of King Charles and Queen Camilla signaled that this was Kate’s crowning moment, as she and William were the most senior royals in attendance. “She is carving out a special place for herself, which is celebratory,” says royal family biographer Sally Bedell Smith. After just over a year as Princess of Wales, Kate has emerged…

WHEN PRINCE GEORGE HELPED carry his grandfather’s heavy robe during King Charles’s coronation procession on May 6, 2023, the then-9-year-old made history: He became the youngest future King to play a role in a coronation service. The privilege was not one that his parents took lightly. Aware of the pressure their son might have felt in the spotlight, they decided he was up to the task. Displaying a few understandable nerves, the determined George, along with three other young Pages of Honour, pulled it off. “He was terrific,” a close family friend told People. Added another guest: “The service was emotional and family-oriented and very inclusive—and George played his part.” While Kate and William didn’t share how they prepared their son for that historic day, the family friend says the…

DEAFENING CHEERS SURROUNDED the Buckingham Palace balcony as Queen Elizabeth marked the end of her Jubilee weekend in June 2022 alongside the generations that would carry the monarchy forward. Nearby was her oldest son, Charles, who would ascend the throne later that year, making his wife, Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, a Queen. But a few paces to the monarch’s left that day was the woman on whom most eyes were fixed: Princess Kate, with her three children gathered in front of her. Alongside her husband, next-in-line Prince William, Kate is poised to enjoy a long reign in which she and William will carve their own path while honoring the traditions of the past. As she prepared for that future moment of history, she had the best role model available:…

ONLY 10 WOMEN BEFORE HER HAVE BEEN called Princess of Wales, a title given to the spouse of a male heir apparent. That list includes Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon—though not Queen Camilla, who, though wed to the longest-serving Prince of Wales, respectfully avoided the honorific. A day after he became King, Charles made Kate the first Princess of Wales since Diana, who, by example, defined the job as global philanthropic force meets celebrated style icon. Big shoes to fill, but the former Kate Middleton has exuded a confidence in the face of inevitable comparisons with the mother-in-law she never met. Like Diana, she takes unbridled joy in her children and aims to keep their upbringing as low-key as possible. She exhibits a similar elegance and fondness for…

AT LAMBROOK SCHOOL IN Berkshire she is called Charlotte Wales. But the third grader who arrived on her first day clutching her father’s hand is officially Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, the first female royal whose spot in line to the British throne won’t be bumped by the arrival of a younger brother. Thanks to 2013’s Succession to the Crown Act, birth order now determines who will become the next King or Queen of the U.K., regardless of gender. (Prior to that update, she would have followed her younger brother Louis.) But if the world welcomed her as the late Princess Diana’s first granddaughter, today she is, thanks in large part to her parents’ efforts, an 8-year-old, living as normal a life as is possible growing up in a “cottage” on…

THE LAST QUEEN CONSORT WHO was also the mother of a monarch was Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. But as society photographer Cecil Beaton noted, she was so much more than that in the hearts of her subjects: “She is the great mother figure and nanny of us all.” “For me she meant everything,” a teary King Charles said in a televised tribute to his “darling grandmother” two days following her death at 101 in 2002. “Somehow I never thought it would come. She seemed gloriously unstoppable, and since I was a child, I adored her.” As consort to King George VI, Elizabeth was indispensable in helping the nation ride out some of the most troubled chapters in modern British history. Her husband was a reluctant ruler whose reign began in…