Princess Kate’s extremely rare PDA slip as royals deal with difficult year
If you have been operating under any sort of misconception about how truly bizarro and skewed things concerning the royal family can be, then let me remind you of the events of October 12, 2018.
Google tells me there are an estimated four million porn sites on the interweb but on that day in October, a woman (Kate, the Princess of Wales) putting her hand on her husband’s (Prince William’s) leg made global headlines.
At a time when there is truly no end of X-rated, unbelievably lascivious and shockingly athletic material out there, someone touching their spouse of seven years in such a familiar manner was reported internationally… it felt like little had changed since Queen Victoria’s reign when respectable burghers rushed around covering up piano legs.
The moral of the story — the royal family and even the younger prince and princess are not the gushy, touchy-feely sorts.
So let me present you with a truly shocking piece of news that might require those with weaker constitutions to sit down. Kate has just released her first ever official kiss.
Last Friday was William’s 42nd birthday, a day that the family marked by having their Kensington Palace office release a new photo of the prince and his three children. The image, taken by the princess herself, was in and of itself a departure from the predictable norm, by far and away the most laid back, upbeat and playful official image ever released of a member of the royal family since Victoria issued those series of postcards of her and Bertie dressed as Heidi and her trusty goat (Well, I wish.)
Where we really hit the one-for-the-books part were the words on Kate’s post: “Happy birthday Papa, we all love you so much! Cx”
Not just “C” as we have seen regularly but…”Cx”.
Generally speaking, on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram the wording on updates from Kensington Palace fall into two camps. They are either written in the third person and tend towards the informational and just-the-facts-ma’am like the one recently taken of the prince in Germany with Denmark’s King Frederik and Princess Josephine for the Euros 2024 football tournament.
Or they are personal messages from the Waleses, for example, William sending King Charles warm Father’s Day wishes last week.
His own kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, got in on the act on the same day, signing off on their debut official social media post, with “We love you, Papa. Happy Father’s Day. G, C & L.”
I know, as far as things go, none of the Waleses should be eagerly waiting by the phone for the Hallmark call up.
Which is why Kate suddenly chucking an ‘x’ on that post is unlikely to be a typo or some overeager palace factotum going off-piste when pecking out the wording, but is quite the groundbreaking declaration.
The Princess of Wales’ decision to depart from decades of precedence and to share something so remarkably personal and intimate like affection for William makes sense in the context of the turmoil that has been their 2024.
The Waleses by any material stretch of the imagination are unthinkably privileged (I don’t even have one under, under secretary willing to brush my hair for me) but emotionally and personally, this year has to have tested them like nothing ever has before.
Abdominal surgery followed by a shocking cancer diagnosis followed by the entire internet suffering a collective psychic meltdown followed by becoming the target of global conspiracy theories followed by a never ending stream of the most unbelievable twaddle about their marriage followed by having to tell the world she has cancer and all of this while being parenting three young children and also actually having to go through the wringer of chemotherapy…
Throughout this all William has bucked centuries of breeding and tradition and has actually behaved like a loving father and husband rather than giving in to the usual Windsor impulse to go into a different wing of the house lest he feel a feeling coming upon him unbidden. (Dreadful business those emotions.)
This has not been a normal year for the Waleses and so it feels all too right to now have his not normal — but very sweet — instance of Kate publicly expressing her love for William. Will wonders never cease?
The interesting thing about this shift in the princess’ willingness to express herself is that it corresponds with a shift in William too. He seems increasingly comfortable and happy to put on a far less hidebound, if not plain old carefree, performance. Look no further for some deliciously irrefutable proof than the video of him demonstrating a total dearth of rhythm and moves at a Taylor Swift concert over the weekend.
In a generation we have gone from King Charles ‘playing’ with his toddler son in the garden while wearing a double-breasted suit and looking deuced awkward to to the next King ‘shaking it off’ with wonderfully daggy enthusiasm and total inhibition.
Golly, at this rate we might see the marrieds actually lock lips and kiss – properly kiss and not just issue a chaste cheek peck – for the first time since their 2011 wedding one day now.
Shocking I know but we live in strange, and occasionally marvellous, times.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience.
