Kate Middleton thing to make “steady progress” while adjusting to life as a senior member of the Royal Family, according to royal expert and author Simon Vigar.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Vigar said the Princess of Wales has strong opinions and plays an important role in supporting Prince William.
“Catherine is no wallflower,” he said, quoting someone familiar with the princess. “She’s got definite views about things.”
Vigar added that William trusts his wife completely and compared their partnership with those of other senior royals.
“The queen needed Philip. Charles needs Camilla. And William needs Catherine,” he said. “She’s very clever. I reckon she’s probably the cleverest of a lot of them.”
In his book, The Four Wives of Windsor, Vigar recalled speaking with one of William’s senior aides about Kate’s approach to royal duties. The aide said she believed in moving forward carefully instead of trying to achieve everything at once.
“We’re not going to rush our fences,” the aide reportedly explained.
Vigar also credited Kate with identifying mental health as a common theme connecting several of the couple’s charitable interests, including support for wounded military personnel, early childhood development and homelessness.
“The person who linked all of those together under the mental wellbeing banner was Catherine,” he said. “It wasn’t Harry or William.”
According to Vigar, Kate recognized that mental health and emotional wellbeing were central to each of those causes.
He also noted that Kate’s journey into royal life was different from those of Princess Diana and Queen Camilla, who both came from privileged backgrounds.
“Lady Diana Spencer was a member of the aristocracy,” Vigar said. “Camilla’s pretty posh, as we say in this country, not quite as posh as Diana, but posh.”
Kate, by comparison, came from a middle-class family. Vigar described her rise to becoming the Princess of Wales as a major social leap.
