The palace was worried Kate Middleton would go down the same route as Princess Diana

Kate Middleton
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Sure, being a royal has its advantages – the fashion, the princes, the tiaras, the castles – but it definitely also has its drawbacks, from the end of privacy and the dreaded rumour mill to being isolated from normal life.

No one knows this more than Kate, Princess of Wales, becoming a national treasure and therefore a paparazzi favourite since joining the royal fold.

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Kate is now one of the most beloved members of the royal family, credited with keeping it afloat amid the past few troubling years, but according to royal sources, there were once fears that she would go down the same route as Princess Diana.

In fact, it is reported that the palace was determined not to have a repeat of Diana’s situation, where the bride who married into the family was cut off from her family and left feeling isolated and lonely.

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"I think very much there is a feeling in the Palace that they want to learn from the mistakes of the past and didn’t want a royal bride who felt isolated and lonely and cut off from her family and miserable," royal commentator Katie Nicholl explained in the ITV documentary, Kate: The Making of a Modern Queen. "Because that has happened before and they didn’t want a repeat of Diana."

She continued: "So I definitely think courtiers were determined that Kate should marry into the family feeling as comfortable as possible. And I just don’t think William was going to take any chances ‒ I mean, he adores the Middletons. He has a very close relationship with Michael and with Carole, so he also did not want them to be sidelined as soon as Kate married into the family."

Well, that's that. 

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.