Kate and Prince William have taken an increasingly central role in the Royal Family in the past 18 months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose to quit the Firm, and the coronavirus pandemic sidelined older royals.
Kate is one of the most popular members of the Royal Family, while the Cambridges are considered vital in maintaining the Firm’s popularity amongst the younger generations. This year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary on April 29.
However, a decade earlier, a disagreement over a tiara between Kate and stepmother-in-law Camilla sparked family tension between the generations. According to royal commentator Catherine Ostler, Camilla was “desperate” to persuade Kate to wear a tiara for her wedding.
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The Duchess of Cambridge had deliberated wearing flowers in her hair, but the Duchess of Cornwall allegedly had her friends intervene on her behalf.
Ms. Ostler wrote in the Mail Online in 2011: “While Charles and Camilla have no wish to be seen as extravagant or out of touch, they believe there is a level of formality and grandeur beneath which a royal wedding must not sink.
“In their sixties, their tendencies are traditional and patrician. “However, William and Kate are decades younger and have been guests at a plethora of weddings in their peer group, so are keen by natural instinct and public relations savvy not to be old-fashioned or stuffy.
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“They want to have a royal wedding, be like their friends and be ‘of the people – something that Camilla would regard as trying to have their royal wedding cake and eating it.” The tiara debate was one of many alleged disagreements between the older and younger generations of royals in the build-up to the wedding.
The Cambridges broke tradition by choosing Westminster Abbey as the wedding venue rather than St Paul’s Cathedral while Prince Harry, at his own insistence, wanted to be called ‘best man’ rather than the traditional royal term ‘supporter’.
Ms. Ostler added: “The Buckingham Palace lunch – unbelievably, according to the old guard – is a very middle-class buffet. “Charles is hosting the evening dinner for 300, which is expected to be a more lavish sit-down affair.
“Then there is the guest list – several of Prince Charles’s Sloanier country shooting friends are said to be put out that they have been sidelined in favor of worthier sorts who toil away for charities connected with the Prince’s Trust and William and Harry’s good causes.
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“This week, it also emerged that William and Kate have decided that in this more egalitarian age, guests should be shuffled around town on the day in mini-buses. “Again, note that Charles and Camilla have chosen not to join them, preferring to take his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce instead.”
A royal aide at the time noted that there was “no way” that Charles would arrive at Westminster Abbey in a bus. As expected the Prince of Wales arrived by car instead. Ms. Ostlere said: “You might say William and Kate want to keep it real, while Charles and Camilla want to keep it royal.
“At heart, Charles and Camilla have upper-class leanings, and William and Kate, to a certain extent, share middle-class tastes.” Of course, on the day itself, Kate wore the Cartier Halo tiara which was lent to her by the Queen.
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The tiara is made up of 739-brilliant cut diamonds and 149 baguette diamonds. Royal tradition dictates that one must only be worn by brides on their wedding day or by married women, as in ancient antiquity the tiara is an emblem of the loss of innocence.