The Princess of Wales Once Played Strategic Peacemaker Between Father and Son King Charles and Prince William

The Princess of Wales has long been known as a peacemaker within the sometimes volatile royal family, and, says royal author and commentator Angela Levin, this skill was on full display when Kate helped mend the once fractured relationship between Prince William and his father, King Charles, reports The Daily Mail.

The key to bridging the gap between the King and William? Cultivating a relationship with the King’s wife, Camilla, Levin says. In her biography of the new Queen, Levin writes, according to The Daily Mail, “that the Princess of Wales made a real effort to spend time with both William’s father and his stepmother. And that these friendships have enabled Kate to become the family ‘peacemaker.’” 

After Charles and Camilla married in 2005—and with the history behind their relationship going back as far as the 1970s—the friction between not only Charles and William intensified, but between Camilla and William, too. By this time, Kate had known William for about four years and had dated him for about two, and “Kate took matters into her own hands,” the outlet reports.

Levin writes that Kate used shared interests—like a love of the arts—to bond with Charles and Camilla and organized private meetings with them without William present.

“Fortunately, time helped improve Camilla’s relationship with senior royals, including Prince William, largely thanks to the Princess of Wales, who is a peacemaker,” Levin writes in Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort. “Camilla is also a conciliator and doesn’t nurse grievances. They both believe that supporting their husbands is a priority. Catherine has a love of the arts, which William doesn’t particularly share, and she often goes both privately and publicly with the Queen Consort and King Charles to see exhibitions.”

“There were huge family rows in the early stages of Charles and Camilla’s marriage as everyone found their feet,” a source told The Daily Mail. “William didn’t have the best relationship with his father back then. But he sees that Camilla has made his father happy and it is something he has come to terms with. His relationship with the [then] Prince of Wales is better than it ever has been. He is not particularly close to his stepmother, but they get on perfectly well and are quite the blended family now.”

This growth was on display at public royal appearances like during King Charles’ proclamation last year, when, “in a touching moment, Prince William offered his stepmother a guiding hand as she stepped up to sign her husband’s declaration,” The Daily Mail reports. “As they walked into the hall where they were met by the Archbishop of Canterbury and several senior government officials, the Prince of Wales kindly put his arm out as he walked behind his stepmother, the Queen Consort. The heartwarming gesture showed the pair moving into a new phase of their relationship after years of difficult familial issues.”