Kate Middleton's Royal Training Included Watching Footage of Princess Diana

When Kate Middleton was still dating Prince William, she underwent media training to navigate life as a royal. The training included watching footage of Princess Diana.

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Becoming a member of the royal family takes a lot of work, in the form of intensive training. Before she married Prince Harry, Meghan Markle was reportedly kidnapped as part of her royal training. For Kate Middleton, royal training apparently included watching footage of Princess Diana.

In her book Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl describes how the Palace trained Kate to deal with the media back when she was still dating Prince William:

The first test of Kate's media training came when she attended the Horse Trials at Gatcombe Park. Even though Will wasn't with her, the press still tried to get her pose for pictures. Kate replied, "If I do it now, then I'll have to keep doing it."

And that diplomatic response was our earliest proof that Kate was going to absolutely crush it as a royal.

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Kayleigh Roberts
Weekend Editor

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.