A royal author has claimed Catherine, the Princess of Wales considered "refusing" the title she inherited from her late mother in law, Princess Diana, when it was bestowed upon her in 2022. According to Robert Jobson, the royal was concerned about comparisons being drawn between her and Diana, who was killed in a tragic car crash in 1997. READ MORE: Meghan opens up about past 'trauma', mental health struggles "She knew she'd inevitably be compared with Diana, whose untimely death had provoked such a tsunami of anger and grief.
And she was right," Jobson wrote in an excerpt from his new book Catherine, The Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen, published in the Daily Mail. He claimed that Catherine used to find talk of one day taking the title of Princess of Wales "stressful" and initially shied away from it. "Indeed, it got to the point where she felt she might follow Camilla (who opted to become Duchess of Cornwall) in refusing — when the time came — to be known as HRH Princess of Wales," Jobson wrote.
READ MORE: Kate's summer plans confirmed as cancer treatment continues Camilla was also technically entitled to the title, as she was married to Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, however she never used it. But when Queen Elizabeth II died in late 2022 and her son Charles became King of England, Catherine and her husband Prince William were made Prince and Princess of Wales. Unlike Camilla, Catherine seemingly decided to embrace the title that her late mother in law had made so famous.
Jobson claimed that the princess "accepted her promotion with good grace, out of respect for her husband and the King", whom she is said to have a close relationship with. "Enough time had passed to make the title more palatable, and Catherine had been on the world stage long enough to be appreciated for her own qualities," Jobson added. That much is certainly true.
Most members of the public celebrated Catherine's new title and she was widely praised for her work in the first 12 months that she was styled as the Princess of Wales. Her importance to the monarchy only became clearer when she disappeared from public life in 2024, then revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer. Patrick Jephson, the former private secretary to Princess Diana, recently told Vanity Fair that the British royal family hinges on Catherine these days, as it once did on Diana.
IN PICTURES: Every royal in attendance at the Olympic Games "As we know from any superficial study of the British royal family, it's the women who pull the show together, who get out there and make things happen," he said. "She is the crown's best hope by far. She combines duty and beauty with a piercing vulnerability second only to Prince William's mother.
" With that in mind, it seems only fitting that Catherine now carries the same title Diana once did. FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE : Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.
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