Kate Middleton's wow factor makes Prince William 'purr with pride' - he doesn’t 'suffer the same jealousy' as King Charles
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond believes he's delighted his wife is a 'star' but his parents had a tougher time
The Prince and Princess of Wales are one of the most popular power couples in the Royal Family and whilst William is the future King, it's Kate who often gets the most attention when they're out together. This could easily trigger some envy, but former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond has noticed how this couldn't be further from the truth.
"William and Catherine definitely have the wow factor that Diana had - and which spawned Di-mania," she explained recently to The Mirror, adding "People today are equally mesmerised by the new Princess of Wales, so tall, so elegant and so chatty, but William just seems to purr with pride that his wife is such a star."
Jennie noted that he "is also pretty dashing and gets his fair share of crowd worship", though she's still struck by how different William's reaction is compared to King Charles. During the monarch's marriage to Princess Diana, photographs would clamour to get pictures of her and this apparently didn't go down well with him.
The late Princess commented on this in her 1995 Panorama interview with controversial journalist Martin Bashir. Diana recalled a royal visit to Australia in 1983, explaining, "We'd be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, 'Oh, she's on the other side.'"
"Now, if you're a man like my husband, a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks," she claimed. "And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it."
Princess Diana suggested it caused "a lot of jealousy" and "complicated situations arose because of that". However, Prince William has got a very different stance on things, with Jennie commenting, "Luckily, William doesn't seem to suffer the same jealousy that his father did when Diana was the darling of the crowds."
Whenever the Prince and Princess are seen out together or if Kate launches a new project or initiative, he's always the first to praise her or be pictured beaming at her. Earlier this year when he was on Heart Breakfast he dedicated time to talking about the Princess of Wales's recent solo trip to Italy and how he was "very, very proud" of her.
The public sees them as an equal partnership and woman&home Editor Hannah Fernando believes that the future King is thrilled to see his wife excelling at royal life.
"These two seem very much a team. Catherine has no wish to eclipse him. She is coming into her own because she is actually brilliant," she said on True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat in 2023.
Hannah added, "She has taken on this life, opened her arms to it, and learned along the way what she needs to do. I think he is delighted by that, and I don't think he is worried about her eclipsing him."
Part of the reason William waited before proposing all those years ago was to give Kate time to see what royal life was really like and decide if it was for her. So it's no surprise really that he's happy to see the Princess excelling at her role even if the attention is sometimes more on her.
