Royalist commentator Petronella Wyatt has been writing some particularly unhinged columns over the past six months. Then, three weeks ago, Wyatt wrote about being checked into a mental health unit because her depression meds weren’t working. I have sympathy for anyone going through all of that. But it continues to be strange that in her darkest hour, she’s still so focused on… shrieking about the Duchess of Sussex, especially in comparison to the Princess of Wales. Meghan also felt suicidal because of the torment and abuse she suffered from the British media and people like Wyatt. But Wyatt has no sympathy for Meg. Not when Meghan can be used to prop up Kate. From Wyatt’s latest Telegraph column:
I am not concerned about the state of the Crown. It is only numbskulls who claim it is in crisis. Unlike democracy, the British monarchy, because it values tradition, avoids becoming a self-limiting disease. But as the Princess of Wales recovers from being forced into disclosing her cancer diagnosis, the nation should ponder the incalculable debt this woman is owed and pause in wonder.
Looking back at the troubles that have beset the Royal family – the death of the late Queen, the King’s own illness, the ugly web in which Prince Andrew has entangled himself, and the one-trick ponies in Montecito – we can comfort ourselves with one solid bond in the bank of our collective future. The woman who was once called plain Kate Middleton has proved to be the jewel in the crown. There have been doubters and naysayers, notably in the verdant hills of California, with its 50 shades of envy.
This is a tale of two women, and for the Duchess of Sussex the popularity of Catherine is a bitter pill. Did Harry and Meghan not say that the words duty and fulfilment are an oxymoron? If so, constraint has never suited anyone so well. Royal wives are not usually presentable. Caroline of Brunswick was so lumpen that her husband, George IV, had her banned from her own coronation. Princess Diana was an exception, but I would argue that Catherine surpasses her, only growing in poise by virtue of no inner lack.
There are only two kinds of royals in this world: the sanguine and the chronically unhappy. The latter, including Meghan, kick and squall against their fate, seeing the golden chalice as one filled with poison, and hoping, like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, that it will pass from their lips. They exist in a state of Byronic unhappiness, thinking their wisdom has seen through all their supposed advantages, and in doing so has become aware there is nothing left to live for aside from selling tomato leaf soap and candles scented with woe to Feminae neanderthalensis.
Then there are those like Catherine. This sort of royal sees not what they can’t do but what they can, perceiving that public service is not a prison but a means of liberation from futility. In the 13 years since her marriage, the Princess has reached a state of equanimity possessed by the late Queen, of whom she is increasingly reminiscent.
We would do well to consider the difference Catherine has made to her husband, the future king. Two boys walked behind the coffin of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. At the time, and in the years after, we often made the mistake of thinking it would be William who developed an eeyorish attitude to life. On occasion he seemed palpably uneasy in the presence of the media, or performing royal engagements. For a while, Harry seemed the happy prince, with all his mother’s charm and people-pleasing ways.
But while the country blinked, something changed. Shored and ballasted by meeting a girl called Kate Middleton, William looked duty squarely in the eye and decided not to flinch. As Harry began to drown, his older brother, with Catherine’s assistance, reached the shores of home. Of all the moments in the history of our monarchy, this may prove to be one of the most significant. For in saving William, Kate might be said to have saved the Crown. It is also advantageous that she is the Swan of all time.
As we have seen recently, she is human, and friends say she lives with a mischievous child inside her which will stand her health in good stead. “Catherine is William’s strength and stay because she is so normal,” a royal insider told me. “Despite vile rumours, some emanating from America, their marriage could not be stronger.”
We saw it happen in real time, as Meghan’s entrance into the royal fold changed the narrative around Kate – racists and royalists who had previously been ambivalent about Kate suddenly rushed to prop her up, claiming that she was the perfect white duchess (compared to Meghan) and that her marriage and happiness was so much better and more profound (compared to Meghan) and that Kate never put a foot wrong (unlike Meghan). Meghan escaped the prison they built for her more than four years ago and people like Wyatt still don’t know how to process it. Anyway, Kate didn’t save the crown nor did she save William. When all is said and done, the Middletonification of the monarchy will be a huge factor in its undoing.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.