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By PAUL HARRIS
Beaming: Kate Middleton and Prince William pose after announcing their engagementShe was wearing Diana’s ring, holding the arm of the late princess’s son.
Every word she said was being reported around the world, every nuance and gesture broadcast live to hundreds of millions of TV viewers.
There could hardly have been a more testing debut for Kate Middleton than her first formal appearance before the cameras as she stood side by side with Prince William.
But with a beaming smile – and a clear determination to overcome her nervousness – the young woman in line to become a princess, maybe a Queen, confidently began the first day of the rest of her life.
In a state room at St James’s Palace, plain Miss Middleton prepared to embark on a lifestyle under scrutiny as the newest recruit to the royal family.
The happy couple: Prince William and Kate Middleton in relaxed formAnd although she was deemed to have emerged triumphant from this difficult baptism, you couldn’t help feeling we had been here before.
Some of the phrases she chose to describe her engagement bore an uncanny similarity to those used by Lady Diana Spencer when she and Prince Charles went through the same process in 1981.
Some of the looks they gave each other echoed those which Charles and Diana shared between the laughter and rather cautious enthusiasm.
The difference yesterday was that Kate and William were unmistakeably in love, clearly a couple who actually knew, to borrow Prince Charles’s phrase, whatever love meant.
But, blimey, they took long enough to get around to it.
Her nine-year transition from Home Counties girl and university chum of a future king of England took longer than some royal marriages last. (They don’t get to celebrate too many silver weddings in this family).
Fortunately, perhaps, the recruitment of a commoner to ‘The Firm’ was a slow and carefully researched process.
Continuing this gradual theme, six hours passed yesterday between the official announcement and our first sighting of the gleaming new royal couple.
For a privileged few journalists, that came not in the blaze of flashguns and TV lights that practically seared them into the St James’s Palace carpet, but over tea and bone china at a far less formal private chat with William and Kate.
What they told us here was all off the record, simply a courtesy. But the impression they gave was of a couple completely at ease with each other, sometimes teasing one another, holding hands, touching gently.
Perhaps significantly, the prince allowed his new fiancee to be encircled by a posse of journalists for a time, leaving her to fend for herself, except for an occasional glance in her direction and an ear to the questions.
Not surprisingly for a chap who told his father and the Queen about the engagement only hours before it was made public, Prince William didn’t betray any real secrets.
Elsewhere though it emerged yesterday he had carried the ring around rather precariously in a rucksack before proposing to Kate at the ‘romantic’ location he had chosen to do the deed.
He already had her father’s permission, and although his brother Prince Harry wasn’t formally told until yesterday, one suspects he would have had a good idea.
Taking the plunge: Kate Middleton and Prince William attend the wedding of friend Chiara Hunt in 2006Many of their friends, after all, had already taken the plunge; not being first among them must have made much easier for Prince William.
Kate, too, would have been bursting to break the news – she was repeatedly asked about the prospect of engagement when she and William attended a friend’s West Country wedding recently.
‘Maybe he’ll get round to it some day,’ she diplomatically replied, even though she had already said yes to William’s proposal.
Apparently she has also been making it clear she prefers to be known as Catherine. A clue to a forthcoming title of Princess Catherine or Queen Catherine? Or just revenge against headline writers who prefer the brevity of Kate?
Whatever, back at St James’s yesterday, it was patently a relief for each of them to talk about their engagement at last.
So that’s what she sounds like! The voice was a surprise at first, slightly more upmarket than many of us imagined.
Her responses were pretty quick too, including a couple of clever quips and suitably deferential compliments to her newly betrothed beau. ‘She’s very good at flattery,’ the Prince told us.
What about joining the royal family? ‘It’s quite a daunting prospect but hopefully I’ll take it in my stride,’ she said. ‘And William’s a great teacher so hopefully he’ll be able to help me along the way.
‘He’s treated me very well, as the loving boyfriend he is. He is very supportive of me through the good times and also through the bad times.’
The proposal? ‘It was very romantic,’ she said, adding intriguingly: ‘And it was very personal.’
Uh-oh. Dangerous territory here. One of the watching Palace press officers put a hand to his chin. He must have known the down-on-one-knee question was about to follow.
William intervened with a laugh. ‘That’s going to stay a state secret,’ he said. Just as Kate had predicted, her ‘great teacher’ was helping her along the way.
Calm and collected: Kate Middleton and Prince William remain poised after announcing their engagement
Nervous proposal: Prince William admitted he planned popping the question meticulouslyHis responses to how he felt about the engagement, however, were somewhat blokeish. Maybe he knew he would be ribbed by his RAF mates when he got back to base. ‘The time is right now,’ he said.
It was when he was asked about the engagement ring that the tone changed. This time he spoke with great poignancy.
‘As you may have recognised, it’s my mother’s engagement ring, so of course it’s very special to me. And Kate’s very special to me now as well, and it’s only right the two are put together.
‘It was my way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today, the excitement, and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.’
Kate gave him that look again. The TV lights made her peacock blue dress shimmer and she bowed her head slightly. From time to time as she spoke, she crossed her legs to give the impression she was relaxed.
But study the strength of the grip she kept on William’s right arm and you might get a pointer to the kind of strain the scrutiny put her under. It surfaced even before they had finished speaking.
A couple of female journalists concluded she looked ‘too skinny’. (I was berated for suggesting she looked comfortably slim). Someone else said the shoes were a little plain.
Oh well. Here we go again. There will be much more of this in the months running up to their wedding, and undoubtedly beyond.
source: dailymail [endtext]