In the new book Dianaworld: An Obsession, author Edward White chronicles Princess Diana's life through the lens of celebrity and the viewpoints of people around her. When it comes to Diana's daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, the author says her royal career is marked by one major difference—and that Princess Kate has learned from Diana's mistakes.
"Kate Middleton is much more reminiscent of the older generation of royal figures in the way that she comports herself," White recently told Fox News. "She was almost 30 when she married William, and that was deliberate from both sides. The big lesson that she probably learned from Diana’s life is don’t rush into becoming a royal."
The royal author noted that unlike Kate, Lady Diana Spencer "didn't know what she was getting herself into" with her marriage to Prince Charles. "She was so young and very, very sheltered when she entered the Royal Family," he added. Diana and Charles barely knew each other after their brief courtship, but Prince William and Kate met in college and dated for nearly a decade before their 2011 royal wedding.
As for dealing with the press, Diana and Kate have used very different tactics. Controversial media personality Piers Morgan, who worked with Princess Diana in the '90s, recently told the "Him & Her Show" podcast that "Diana worked the media exactly the same way the media worked Diana."
"I used to have lunch with Diana, I used to talk to her on the phone quite regularly," Morgan said. The journalist claimed that he "used to send her stories that we were going to run and she would edit them and fax them back."
The current Princess of Wales, however, follows more in Queen Elizabeth's footsteps when it comes to dealing with the press. She's used social media to deliver her own messages rather than giving interviews, using a more tightly controlled and private method than her late mother-in-law. Like Princess Diana and Prince Charles did, William and Kate spoke to the waiting press outside the hospital when their children were born, but Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have largely grown up in privacy.
"Diana dealt with the press scrutiny in the way that she felt that she could, and in the way that she felt she had to," White said. "I don’t think anybody was advising her to behave the way that she did with them." He added that Princess Kate "handles the press scrutiny really well, but she…had to switch herself off and only focus on duty."
For the Princess of Wales, White added that "the best way of dealing with the scrutiny is by giving [the press] nothing. By stepping through the hoops of shaking hands, cutting ribbons and smiling, being dutiful and not being too big for your boots. Those are all the things that the monarchy is built on."
While Princess Kate had a firm grip on who she was and who she wanted to be before marrying Prince William, Diana didn't have that opportunity as a young woman. "Diana’s life is more reminiscent to me of a pop star’s life," White shared. "Someone once said, ‘If you don’t know who you are before you’re famous, then fame is the thing that you become. It is the thing that will define who you are.’ I think that’s what happened to Diana, at least for many years."
