Prince William married his childhood sweetheart, Kate, in front of a mesmerised global audience at Westminster Abbey in 2011. Today, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are the proud parents of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. As the future King and Queen consort, the couple appear to be taking on an increasingly serious role within the Royal Family to prepare them for the pressures they will face in later life.
Before their wedding, though, the Queen was all too aware she had to prepare Kate for what was to come and hosted a private meeting for the occasion.
Details of the conversation surfaced on Amazon Prime’s ‘Kate Middleton: Working Class to Windsor’ documentary in 2017.
In it, the narrator says: “Kate met with Queen Elizabeth II shortly before the wedding.
“It was confirmed that her title would be Catherine: Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cambridge.”
Freelance journalist Ashley Pearson later revealed that Kate was actually given lessons on how to be a royal wife.
She said: “From the beginning, Kate Middleton had a great deal of support from the Royal Family which was really instructed by the Queen.
“This was to make sure she knew as much as she could possibly know and what to do in every situation – bearing in mind, of course, that she didn’t grow up in this world.
“There were things like learning how to get out of a carriage without exposing your modesty and learning how to bend down to get flowers from a young girl without exposing your modesty.
“Things that you would never think you’d have to learn but, of course, a woman in her position would certainly need to know.
“There were all kinds of small details and little bits of etiquette – how to sit, who to curtsy to, who not to curtsy to, what fork to use and whatever else they felt she needed to know.
“She was actually given lessons on how to be a royal wife.”