Meghan Markle Should Learn From Kate Middleton How To Handle Royal Life: Expert
Meghan Markle has a lot to learn from Kate Middleton about handling royal life, according to royal experts.
Daily Mail's royal editor Rebecca English, Editor-at-Large Richard Kay and diary editor Richard Eden joined Jo Elvin in the recent episode of the "Palace Confidential" podcast. During the discussion, they talked about how the royals carried on with their duties amid the race row that resurfaced following the release of Omid Scobie's "Endgame," and several praised the Princess of Wales for keeping her cool despite being named as one of the alleged racist royals in the Dutch version.
Last week wasn't a great time for Middleton, but she didn't disappear from the public spotlight. She arrived with a beautiful smile and exuded confidence at the Royal Variety Show on Thursday. Daily Mail journalist Natalie Livingstone said it was a "masterful performance" how the Duchess of Cambridge carried on as normal and kept calm. Middleton also opened a new hospital in a solo engagement Tuesday and turned heads in her recent tiara moment at the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace.
How Middleton handled the race row prompted the royal commentators to compare her to her sister-in-law, Meghan Markle.
"Well, don't forget, Meghan, her background was sort of engaging. I mean, she was used to being on a public stage, not a massive public stage, but she was, and she is a confident public speaker, and I think she probably thought she could handle this [royal scandal], and then she found that she couldn't," Kay said. "She should have taken a lesson out of Catherine's book, and things might have been different."
English also recounted being with Middleton and Prince William in Malaysia when her topless photo from a vacation was published in a French magazine. It was one of the cases in which the royals took legal action and won. According to English, the incident didn't break the future queen's poise during the tour.
"I was with them that day after it happened, and Kate was as cool as a cucumber. You wouldn't have known that anything had gone on that day," she added.
English said she was near the royal couple, and Middleton was "as elegant and as affable." On the other hand, she sensed tension in the Prince of Wales, who reportedly later explained he was furious because he promised Middleton's family that he would protect her when they tied the knot.
So when asked about the two duchesses' contrast -- on how Middleton was "rolling with the punches" unlike Markle, who seemed too sensitive, English felt it was down to the length they spent with the royal family.
"I suppose Catherine had a kind of longer time to get used to the role. She was on the kind of fringes of William's life. I think when they were dating for so long, so I suppose for her, maybe there was a way that she could kind of very slowly dip her toes in the water," English explained. "Obviously, Meghan didn't have that. But, obviously, they're very different personalities."
Meanwhile, Kay believed the race row might have ended if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had spoken up. Many urged Prince Harry and Markle to break their silence and distance themselves from Scobie's controversial book. However, they haven't issued a public statement about it yet.
"But going back to what Richard [Eden] said, this whole scandal, because that's what it is, a scandal, could have been sorted with a word from that couple in California," Kay said. "If they had distanced themselves from the Scobbie book, said something of an olive branch to their family, they would have dissipated the [issue] massively."
