Royal Expert Says the Princess of Wales is “Rising Above the Drama”

(Image credit: Getty)

published 22 January 2023

Why does drama always happen around the Princess of Wales’ birthday? Kate was born on January 9, and it’s becoming a running pattern that something always happens around her big day: In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as working members of the royal family just the day prior, on January 8. In 2022, on January 12, Prince Andrew’s attempts to throw out a sexual assault lawsuit were dismissed by a judge. (The matter was later settled out of court in February.) And this year, just one day after Kate’s forty-first birthday, Harry released his bombshell memoir Spare on January 10—and, within its pages, multiple sideswipes at the sister-in-law he was once so close to.

Yet Kate, according to The Daily Mail, is “rising above the drama”: Back at work with both shared and solo engagements to a hospital in Liverpool and a nursery in Luton, it’s onward and upward for the Princess of Wales.

“She’s doing a job that not only puts a smile on her face, but brings smiles to the faces of others,” royal expert Katie Nicoll told OK. “She doesn’t do drama and she never has.”

Much like Her late Majesty before them, Kate—as well as father-in-law King Charles—are “back to business” and moving on with the work that needs to be done, Nicholl said.

“She’s leading by example and putting duty before herself,” Nicholl said.

And the public seems to be responding in kind. The Daily Mail reports that, “despite scathing attacks from Prince Harry in his memoir Spare, including claims [Prince] William pushed him over during an argument about Meghan, the Waleses were greeted with a huge cheer from the crowd as they arrived in the city [Liverpool, where the couple toured the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital].”

Here's to Kate’s forty-second birthday on January 9, 2024—may it be the most drama-free one she’s ever had.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.