Over the weekend, the Mail reported that Anna Wintour has apparently offered a Vogue cover to the Princess of Wales. I was meh on the story – it sounded somewhat believable to me, and I think it sounds reasonable that Wintour has wanted Kate on an American Vogue cover for a while. I also think it’s believable that Wintour has wanted the Duchess of Sussex for an American Vogue cover too, for what it’s worth. Well, Celia Walden – aka Piers Morgan’s wife – has written about Kate’s big Vogue offer in the Telegraph: “Americans adore Kate – but she needs to play the Vogue offers right.”
The wording of a Sunday news piece – “Kate Middleton offered to appear on Vogue covers to showcase role as a ‘global fashion icon’” – amused not just me, but many of those commenting “below the line”.
The Princess of Wales might be one of the only people in the world who only has to pick up the phone if she wants to be on the cover of Vogue. And it’s pretty hard to imagine Anna Wintour – the magazine’s redoubtable editor-in-chief – saying: “Actually, we’re a bit booked up, but we’ll certainly bear you in mind if anyone falls through.”
The point, however, is that eight years after appearing on the cover of British Vogue to mark the magazine’s 100th anniversary, the Princess is said to have been contacted by Wintour personally and “invited”, let’s say, to grace the global covers of Vogue.
It’s clear how much of a draw this would be – particularly in the US. Americans have a fixation with Kate that borders on the eerie. At any one time, she will feature on the cover of half a dozen US gossip magazines, and whether it’s Uber drivers, waiters, shop assistants, manicurists or indeed casual personal acquaintances, the first thing anyone out there will now ask me is: “How’s Kate doing?” (They all seem to think the UK is the size of a suburban cul-de-sac, and when I explain that the Princess of Wales isn’t, in fact, a close friend, faces crumple).
I’m guessing the Princess will agree to the “offer” – whether now or in the not-too-distant future. Wintour is said to be incredibly persuasive, no one is immune to the allure of a Vogue cover, and if she feels the time is right it could be the perfect way to herald a return to her public duties. It could also be a straightforwardly joyful experience of the kind she should be relishing, given what she’s been through.
All I would say to her – and this is as a journalist and an interviewer who knows exactly what the line of questioning will be – is that when it comes to her health, she should feel under no obligation to share more than she already has. Nobody has “a duty” to share those intimate details with the world, we don’t all have to subscribe to the current “better out than in” thinking, and I find any narrative suggesting the Princess of Wales “owes it” to other cancer sufferers to reveal all sickeningly disingenuous. She has already done a great deal for others. She will do more. Right now, the only person she owes anything to is herself.
It’s funny that Walden’s mind went to the same place mine went when I read the original Mail story – “what about the interview?” While Wintour would probably love Kate on the cover, I definitely think the cover would be contingent on Kate agreeing to some kind of interview, however basic. Only Beyonce gets away with “agreeing to magazine covers but eschewing interviews” and even Beyonce has backed down from that at times, agreeing to email interviews for various magazines. Walden gives up the game – they’re terrified every time Kate opens her mouth because they have no idea what could come flying out. They can “manage” and massage her rare public statements in the UK, where the royalists have a stranglehold on reporting around Kate. But if Kate says the wrong thing to an American magazine, it will be a global story which they cannot control.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of British Vogue.
