Kate Middleton’s Recently Revealed (and Very Unflattering) Nickname Plays On An Old Narrative About Her

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published 11 December 2023

Nicknames are often used as a sign of affection—but the Princess of Wales was apparently given one that was decidedly not so, Omid Scobie writes in his bombshell Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, which hit shelves recently.

Kate is the subject of scrutiny throughout different parts of the book, but this diss takes aim at Kate’s perceived “part-time” workload: the book claims she is called “Katie Keen” because the Palace press office hides her so-called “lower” workload by saying she is “keen to learn,” The Mirror reports.

Kate’s work ethic is a familiar trope by now—back in the aughts, after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in 2005 and before marrying Prince William in 2011, Kate was rudely called “Waity Katie” because of her lack of career and her long wait to be proposed to by William (which eventually happened in 2010). Now, this; Scobie alleges her role is one other parents could “only dream of,” and writes that she “does not plan to increase her workload for 10 to 15 years,” until Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis are grown. (They are currently 10, eight, and five, respectively.)

Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis

“Where other senior royals are out and about several times a week, meeting people across the length and breadth of the country, Kate has long maintained a smaller work schedule that helped her check off the required royal boxes while saving time for her roles as a mother and wife,” Scobie writes. (In Kate’s defense, anyone who actively follows her knows that she typically makes several appearances each week, as well.)

Elsewhere in the book, Scobie also brands Kate “cold” and, despite being an advocate for better mental health, Kate “ignored Meghan’s cries for help” and had “no interest in being friends with her sister-in-law," he writes.

Royal experts have spoken out against Scobie’s claims in Endgame, including royal historian Dr. Tessa Dunlop, who said of the book that “Unfortunately no one appears to have briefed Omid, whose muck-raking book covers old ground: William is only in it for the Crown, ‘coachable’ Kate is a mere part-timer, while tawdry rumors of marital discord between the pair make Omid look no better than the tabloids he attacks.”

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.