Kate Middleton and Prince William are on a tour of India—and did you see her fabulous Indian-inspired dresses?
Color me unimpressed.
But Kate’s making a statement! It’s a statement wardrobe! She speaks to people!
Except she really, really doesn’t do that. Unlike her famous mother in law, Diana, Princess of Wales, who campaigned on landmines, AIDS—by kissing infected victims in the hospital when that act was full of social stigma—and many other worthy causes, Kate Middleton has let her wardrobe do the talking.
She may as well walk three paces behind Prince William with her eyes cast down.
It’s not good enough. Brits like me have an unspoken bargain with our Royal Family. We defer to them, we curtsy to them, we call them “Your Royal Highness,” “Sir” and “Ma’am.” As a result, they act as non-political figureheads for the nation, doing good works and lending their name to good causes.
Those who keep to that bargain—like the Queen, Prince Harry, with his army service and work for wounded veterans, and the Princess Royal, with her Olympic activism and riding charities—are respected.
Those who do not, like Jeffrey Epstein pal the Duke of York, and his feckless, party-loving wastrel daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, are pretty much despised. The late Princess Margaret was not loved for preferring the company of Mick Jagger in Mustique to the hard slog of charity work.
And nobody works harder than 90-year-old Queen Elizabeth II.
Kate falls somewhere in the middle. She’s a mom of two —and not a party animal who poses on super-yachts or does dodgy deals with brutal Arab states. But neither is she particularly hard-working. She rarely gives speeches but pays inordinate attention to the stylishness of her clothes.
That’s a terrible example to young girls the world over: show up, shut up and smile!
Kate, you are my future Queen. Please remember that women today want heroes who are role-models—and not just fashion models.