Before Meghan Markle, there were Kate Middleton and Princess Diana who believed they could be rebellious and bring major change to the monarchy.
While Markle tried to modernize the old institution, Middleton wanted to restore some normalcy in the parenting department. Kate Middleton grew up in a middle-class family with a mother and father and two siblings.
By all accounts, she had a loving childhood, riding bikes, getting hugs, hearing encouraging words, and enjoying family vacations. The Royal Family is known for being cold and distant.
It seems that Queen Elizabeth II was allergic to public displays of affection, especially with her children. And King Charles III was afraid of hugging and touching his sons — Prince William and Prince Harry — in private and in public.
Queen Elizabeth and King Charles are infamous for spending months away from their children. Middleton, like Princess Diana, wanted to break the mold and be a hands-on parent with her three children.
Prince William, who had an isolated childhood, no paternal love, and lots of time spent in boarding school, supported his wife’s decision to go against the harsh royal traditions of rearing children.
However, the Firm intervened, saying Prince William and Kate Middleton are not professional enough for that job. The Firm demanded that Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, be raised by nannies.
While frustrated and insulted, Kate Middleton and Prince William have caved into the Firm’s demands and now have an army of experts to raise their children.
Via Vanity Fair, it was revealed: “According to royal author Tom Quinn, when William and Kate discussed sending their children to state schools, there was pushback from “The Firm.” And the family still has a huge staff, including super nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo. “When [Kate] demurred and suggested she would like to do a little more the nitty-gritty part of the childcare,” Quinn writes in Gilded Youth, “it was made very clear to her that this was best left to the professionals, and Kate is nothing if not obedient to the rules of life in the royal family.”
The publication added: “Old school royal parents would have felt Louis’s behavior was undignified for a royal child of any age,” says Quinn, “because elements of the old obsession with royal princes behaving like adults even when they are still children still persists, but Kate and William are acutely aware of how much good publicity comes from having a charming child!”
The Prince and Princess of Wales cannot break the rules like the Montecito royals.
