The Big Difference Queen Elizabeth Saw Between Kate & Diana

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Kate Middleton was always doomed when it came to royalists and the press comparing her to the late Princess Diana. It was inevitable that when people looked at her, they would think of the dearly departed royal. When she married Diana's eldest son, Prince William, Kate wore her iconic ring, and she was also set to inherit the Princess of Wales title, which happened after Queen Elizabeth II's heartbreaking death. But while the world was tracking all the ways Princesses Catherine and Diana were the same, Her Majesty was quietly noting how they were different. There were plenty of major mishaps at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, but at the end of the service, the queen reportedly exclaimed to Prince Philip, "That was really excellent, wasn't it?" per Tina Brown's "The Palace Papers." 

Royal experts claim the long-reigning monarch observed a crucial difference between Diana and Catherine, and she was pleased with how William's wife differed from his mother when she got married. "For the queen, the wedding day brought a special satisfaction. This new, 29-year-old granddaughter-in-law, the future queen consort, was unlike the child bride Diana, road-tested in resilience as well as royal life," Brown wrote. Her Majesty was reportedly also positive that William and Catherine's union would be a stable, long-lasting one, unlike King Charles III's and Diana's tumultuous marriage. 

She had plenty of preparation (and opportunities to walk away) during the couple's almost decade-long romance before they finally got engaged. Catherine had to weather the onslaught of paparazzi since 2005 when she and William were first photographed together skiing in Switzerland. Then there was the rude nickname, "Waity Katie," the press christened her with in response to William's lack of a proposal for years. Impressively, she weathered it all with her head held high.

If royal biographers are to be believed, Kate Middleton won favor with Queen Elizabeth II by being the exact opposite of Princess Diana when it came to how she conducted herself as a member of The Firm. Princess Catherine is a rule-follower, whereas Princess Diana broke plenty of strict royal rules during her time with the famous family. In contrast, the new Princess of Wales has been the picture of a calm, demure royal over the years; she's never made any waves or controversial statements. Diana was the opposite — she wasn't afraid to show emotion, and was incredibly open and willing to discuss what happened behind the palace walls. Catherine has done no such thing, and probably never will. "They were both royal brides, but Kate and Diana, for all the comparisons, were two very different women," Katie Nicholl penned in her book, "Kate: The Future Queen." 

When the queen decided to waive the restriction that dictated royal girlfriends don't get to attend Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, so Kate could join William for the festivities in 2006, the future princess notably declined. "It was the first time the queen had extended such an invitation to an unregistered 'girlfriend,' but Kate had her own take on that break with tradition: she would go to Sandringham on Christmas Day only when she was engaged and had a ring to prove it," Robert Lacey noted in his book, "Battle of Brothers." As the author elaborated, "The strong-willed 'no' from Kate showed she was willing to abide by tradition and wait until the time was right." We suspect this earned her plenty of respect from the monarch, who was famously a stickler for the rules.

Perhaps the reason Queen Elizabeth II noticed the differences between Kate Middleton and Princess Diana, rather than the similarities, is simply because they aren't much alike at all. As royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained to the Daily Mail, in January 2026, Princess Catherine has no desire to follow directly in her late mother-in-law's footsteps. "She is not likely to emulate Diana who reached out to others brilliantly but was also brittle and deeply unhappy. They are too different to be compared," he surmised. "Catherine's legacy will be one of total loyalty to her husband and the institution of monarchy." 

This doesn't mean the Princess of Wales isn't aware of the comparisons that continue to make their way into the public sphere. She was reportedly so nervous about bearing the weight of Diana's title one day that she contemplated forfeiting it altogether, just like King Charles III's second wife, Queen Camilla, did. "She knew she'd inevitably be compared with Diana, whose untimely death had provoked such a tsunami of anger and grief. And she was right," Robert Jobson wrote in his book, "Catherine: The Princess of Wales." 

He added, "Kate found all such talk stressful. Indeed, it got to the point where she felt she might follow Camilla (who opted to become Duchess of Cornwall) in refusing — when the time came — to be known as HRH Princess of Wales." Of course, she ended up accepting the title following Her Majesty's death in 2022. Jobson clarified that Catherine ultimately did so "out of respect for her husband and the king." In the process, he also highlighted the differences between Catherine and Diana, noting that the current Princess of Wales is "far more stable and less concerned about making a splash as a glamorous icon."