Princess Catherine enters 'new phase in her relationship with the public' during latest engagement

Princess Catherine's 'new phase' in her relationship with the public was revealed during her official royal visit to a men's prison in Surrey.

• On Tuesday, Kate Middleton paid a visit to HMP High Down in Surrey.
• While on this visit the Princess showed her confidence with her body language as one expert compared her to another member of the Royal Family.
• In other royal news, Meghan Markle’s ‘off the cuff’ speech in first major public appearance in four months contained this heartfelt apology

On Tuesday, September 12, the Princess of Wales was a vision in deep blue as she rocked a chic trouser suit and seriously gorgeous curtain bangs for an official prison visit. Catherine looked poised and confident as she attended this engagement and fans loved how she engaged enthusiastically with the people supported by the charity.

Body language expert Judi James explained that although it may have seemed that the Princess was 'shy' at the beginning of the engagement, the Princess actually exuded confidence throughout. "Kate’s shy smile and small baby wave to the photographers at the end of this visit is no indication of her presence during it. Kate’s body language throughout signalled confidence and a much more easy-going ability to choreograph and lead conversations that might have been difficult without her skills," said Judi.

"She is now a very active royal presence, walking with enthusiasm and taking the lead rather than just being more submissively hosted, and this suggests she has a genuine, passionate interest in the people she is meeting plus, like the late Queen before her, some sound knowledge of their lives and experiences," said Judi.

"Her animated hand gestures and her much wider range of facial expressions allow her to change states depending on who she is meeting, turning a royal visit into something more meaningful," said the expert. "This very confident version of Kate is invaluable on public visits like this as it is contagious confidence, meaning we can see the people around her quickly relaxing and chatting normally."

The expert then compared her humour and open attitude to Princess Diana as she said, "It is unfair and a little mean to make comparisons between two royal icons but Kate’s body language as she sits in a line waiting for the sniffer dog to do a security check on her throws up (for the first time) a trait that always made Diana so popular and accessible."

"Kate sits submissively like the others in the line but she also performs a slight smile and widens her eyes to show some self-effacing humour that she knows she is sharing with the viewer. It was small tie-signs of humour like this that Diana often aimed at herself that made people feel they were friends with her because it was a very personal form of conversation," she said.

Judi James then concluded that this engagement may be an indication of Catherine's new relationship with the public, as a new phase begins. "Kate has always seemed to fight shy of having actual non-verbal conversations with the viewer. Her smiles and gestures might be flawless but she tends to give little if anything away about her inner feelings, so this 'sharing of thoughts' gesture might herald a new phase in her relationship with the public," Judi concluded.