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Britain's Royal Family

The Reliable Princess

By Thomas Hüetlin in London

Kate Middleton is the perfect addition to the House of Windsor. She's polite, well educated and self-controlled -- and she isn't trying to be the new Princess Diana.

The scene was as typical for the new, modern London as fog and tea with cucumber sandwiches were for the old: Parking regulations had been changed overnight yet again and Kate Middleton found a €150 ($195) parking ticket on the windscreen of her blue Volkswagen as she was getting ready to drive to work.

Conveniently, the policeman who had signed the ticket was standing nearby. But when Middleton tried to explain the misunderstanding, all she got from the man was a rebuff, as he swung his ballpoint pen through the air like a sceptre.

Some people would react to such a humiliating situation by losing their temper. But Middleton remained unemotional. She merely stiffened her upper lip – the characteristic gesture of the British aristocracy in trying times. Then she turned on her heel and disappeared in her Volkswagen.

When the pictures appeared in the major newspapers the next morning, Middleton's countrymen were more than pleased. This was proof that no one in the United Kingdom is safe from the detested parking inspectors. It's not just Her Majesty's subjects who have to put up with them, so does a young lady who has already had tea with the Queen and will probably become engaged to her favorite grandson and heir to the throne.

An engagement seems to be just a question of time. Britain's many professional royal watchers are so certain on that score that a trip to the betting office hardly seems worthwhile. William Hill, the UK's largest betting group, has noted a strong decline in odds in recent weeks. Odds for an engagement this year are 4:5, and a wedding stands at 1:2. "Kate is the new Diana," says William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams, adding that punters are flocking to the betting office despite the meagre odds.

"The new Diana"

The decline in odds was triggered by events that Windsor watchers interpreted as sure-fire signs. In mid-December, for example, Kate Middleton caused a stir by being allowed to sit close to the Queen during Prince William's graduation at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. She was even bold enough to wear a red coat and a black hat – both traditional colors of the Queen.

Public interest in this troop procession – an unexciting event in itself – was considerable. A cable TV station even arranged for a lip reader to be there. When the Prince marched past, the man read these words off Kate Middleton's lips: "I love the uniform. It's so, so sexy."

When Christmas drew near, the Queen surprised her grandson's girlfriend with an invitation to one of her private estates, Sandringham. England's professional royalists began gossiping again. Neither Diana nor Fergie had enjoyed this privilege, they pointed out. The royal watchers had all the evidence they needed when 10 policemen were called by William's bodyguards to escort the aspiring princess home from a night club called "Boujis." If the Windsors are forming that strong a bond with the young lady, she must have a great future ahead of her.

Sixty-two percent of Britons now take this view, including the purchasing agents of the Woolworth department store who have already commissioned plates and kitchen towels celebrating the "Royal Marriage of William and Kate." They have already stamped on the year 2007, all that's missing is the exact wedding date.

So it's no surprise hordes of paparazzi are already hot on the high heels of the aspiring princess. When Kate Middleton wanted to leave her house on her twenty-fifth birthday, 23 yelling photo journalists and four camera teams blocked her path. She moved through them with glorious self-control and style.

Since then a coalition of the outraged has formed in Britain. Its members range from John Major, the former Conservative prime minister, to Ken Livingstone, the left-wing London mayor. Major spoke for many Britons when he called Middleton's harassment by photographers "grotesque" and "eerily reminiscent of those who haunted the life of Diana."

Even Britain's wildest tabloid daily, The Sun, joined the ranks of the morally outraged and vowed to publish no more photographs taken by paparazzis. That doesn't seem to do have lowered the prices charged for such photographs – they're climbing rapidly. A photo of Ms Middleton – like the one of her parking violation – is now worth €30,000, according to Trevor Adams from the Matrix agency.

"Never explain, never complain"

Middleton continues to refuse to make any public statement. If what her acquaintances say is true, she wants to avoid one thing at all costs – becoming the second Diana. Her manner is more reminiscent of the artistocratic resoluteness of Jackie Kennedy, whose maxim was: "Never explain, never complain."

Middleton doesn't seem prone to the romantic insecurity displayed by Diana. She hasn't been seen blushing or timidly batting her eyelids.

She knows the game. Her strong sense of self-confidence is the product of single-minded "breeding" – those educational programs the British upper class uses to refine their horses and their heirs.

Middleton's parents are an ex-stewardess and an airline employee. Both made millions with a party supplies service for children. As a student at the exclusive Marlborough College, Kate is said to have considered a picture of Prince William one of her most precious possessions.

Four years ago, she met the prince in person at Scotland's St. Andrews University. William had been studying art history for a year and considering quitting. She talked him into staying and studying geography instead. The result was that he achieved a grade of 2.0 – the highest ever achieved by anyone in the royal family.

Kate didn't exactly turn out to be a model of academic excellence. But she was very good at hockey and tennis. And she was known as a source of good advice. "You might as well stuff your shirt in your trousers," she's said to advised friends. When awards and certificates were handed out at the end of the year, it often seemed like she wasn't going to come down from the stage at all. She was flooded with awards for outstanding performance in her favorite discipline, "excellent human conduct."

Hers is a showcase lifestyle. Middleton is made all the more attractive by the rumor that she suffers from a kind of allergy to alcohol and is perfectly content spending long evenings drinking no more than a glass of Whisky Cola.

The directors of the UK's private educational institutions can almost be heard breathing a sigh of relief at the popularity of a role model like Middleton, who cherishes values such as discretion, reliability and straightforward cheerfulness. She's a regular angel, far removed from the vulgarity of the soccer girl clique of Victoria Beckham or the other Kate (Moss), who last week celebrated her thirty-third birthday at the Dorchester Hotel without wearing underwear – if what the tabloids claim is true.

So everything is going according to plan for Princess Reliable – even if her prince in waiting once told a reporter he wouldn't dream of marrying so soon, and that he would never consider matrimony before the age of 28 at the earliest. He too will have to bow to the iron law that Diana's sister formulated when Diana was beset by doubts shortly before her marriage: "Bad luck Duch, your face is already on the tea towels."