Royal fans, prepare yourselves, because author Tom Quinn is ready to spill a huge amount of goss in his new book Gilded Youth. Not only does the “marvelous romp of a book”—Quinn’s words, not mine, lol—feature exclusive testimony from numerous Palace staff members and royal insiders, but it also “aims to examine the traditional upbringing of the British royal family and how it has impacted them over the years.”
Enter: his analysis of Prince William and Kate Middleton specifically and what he recently dished to Fox News Digital. 👀 Let’s get right on into it, shall we?
Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family
Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family
Will and Kate have very cute nicknames for each other.
Apparently, Kate refers to Wills as “babe” and “baldy” because the prince constantly points out her “endless mane of hair,” while he calls her “Duchess of Doolittle” (or “DoD” for short) and “babykins.” But word on the street—at least, according to Quinn’s book—is that “Duchess of Doolittle” is actually a “gentle dig” after the Princess of Wales was criticized by the late Queen Elizabeth II for not having a full-time career before she married Prince William back in 2011.
Another source also claims in the book that when William “is cross” with Kate, he’ll refer to her as “darling” with evident “signs of annoyance” in his tone. 👀 Another revelation? Apparently, a big stressor for the couple is that they’re constantly “surrounded by [Palace aides]. It’s like a Jane Austen novel,” which is very fair.
They have totally different approaches when they argue.
“Kate is very much the calm one,” Quinn dished to Fox News Digital. “William is the one who’s a bit hotheaded…but Kate is very levelheaded. She’s the one who will pour oil on troubled waters and go, ‘Let’s not stir things up.’”
In his book, Quinn claims the princess maintains a “Buddhist calm” energy about her. He also muses, “Of course, privately, William and Kate, like all couples, fall out, row, shout at each other, and say unkind things to each other, but Kate is an appeaser by instinct and William always gives way as he had more than enough emotional turmoil, divorce, and disruption as a child…he hates confrontation.” TL;DR: “It’s not all sweetness,” according to the royal author.
Kate’s ability to be unfazed by critics is part of her success integrating into the British royal family.
Quinn told Fox News Digital that he recalls “when the press was so horrible to Kate.” “They said because her mother was a stewardess, as it used to be called in those days, no one would invite the family to any events where there was anyone of significance present. The press would remark how she was descended from working-class people, which is an absolutely cruel thing to say,” he continued. “But Kate never responded. She didn’t complain. She didn’t write letters to the press or ring in the editors. She said nothing. And that was a good move. She illustrated how calm she was about those things and didn’t make a fuss. And then, it vanished.” Honestly? Mood:
The Prince and Princess of Wales want to be seen as “ordinary.”
Moreover, they don’t want to give the illusion that they are “the perfect couple that everyone else should try and emulate.” According to Quinn, Kate has even said, “Like every other couple, we have days when we are really, really cross with each other or days when we don’t talk to each other.”
In his interview, the author stressed the point, adding, “[Will and Kate] want to be seen as an ordinary couple with the same stresses of having children, work, and everything else that life brings.” And speaking of the duo’s kids…
They insist on being involved in George, Charlotte, and Louis’s lives—a stark difference between them and royal generations prior.
“I think they are the first generation that you could almost say they’ve broken the mold of this very traditional royal upbringing where you basically pay other people to do all the work and you only see your children for half an hour a day,” Quinn mused to Fox News Digital. “They’ve broken the mold but not entirely.…On one hand, they want to represent this traditional continuity, this glorious world that the rest of us can look up to. But on the other hand, they want to be seen as ordinary people just like the rest of us.”
This desire to be dedicated and attentive parents may have even been a part of the reason the couple moved to Windsor because as Quinn says, “They moved to Windsor because there’s far more space for the children to play.” Additionally, Eton—the school where the boys are likely to go *and* Prince William’s alma mater—is only a 10-minute drive away from the couple’s new home, “and that means their parents can see them more often,” said Quinn. Meanwhile, “poor [King] Charles was sent to school in Scotland; he didn’t see his parents for months at a time.”
Kay, feeling sorry for the King because of his childhood was def not on my 2023 bingo card, but alas! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, leaving you with one of my fave pics of Prince Louis:
