Princess Kate Divulges Whether She is the “Strict” Parent, Compared to Husband Prince William

Kate Middleton smiling, running a hand through her hair

(Image credit: Getty)

published 5 August 2023

At a recent Buckingham Palace garden party, the Princess of Wales mingled with specially-invited guests, including Aldith Grandison and her daughter, Jay Cee La Bouche, where Kate told the women “I’m terrible. I’m terrible at jokes,” a video shared by Sky News captured. She added that, in contract, her husband Prince William was “very good” at jokes, leading Grandison to comment “You’re the strict one,” referring to who was the stricter parent between the two.

Kate’s response? She replied with a laugh “I’m definitely not strict! How can you tell that? Surely not!”

(There’s no way you didn’t know this, but just in case) William and Kate are parents to Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, and, per People, Kate is to thank for bringing a sense of normalcy to the very not-so-normal lives of their three children. “Those children look pretty happy with life,” a Palace insider recently told the publication. “A lot of it is the stabilizing normality Kate brings—and that’s how she grew up. William absolutely loves it.”

A source added of Kate “Coming from a different background, she appreciates the importance of having family time. She wasn’t brought up in that aristocratic setting where you see the children for a short time each day.”

Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis together

William and Kate regularly drive their kids to school, make sure at least one of them is home upon their return, and make pizza and play outside with their brood. It’s a far cry from royal parenting patterns of yesteryear, when royal parents often relied on nannies as they carried out their work. People reports that, when the then Prince Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, were young, they were only able to see Queen Elizabeth at two appointed “meetings” each day. After younger siblings Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were born in the 1960s (for context, Charles was born in 1948 and Anne in 1950), it was a “nanny-dominated world,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward said.

Conversely, William and Kate were given permission by Her late Majesty and then Prince Charles to focus on their young family above any royal duty. “Royal families over the generations haven’t had the chance to get those foundations right,” a friend of the family said. “But they have.”

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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.