Kate Middleton and Prince William's united front fell apart
Exactly a week after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey catapulted the royal family into crisis in March 2021, Prince William and Kate Middleton released a photo on Mother's Day in the UK.
The picture, posted to their joint Instagram on March 14, 2021, was of a cake they said their three children made to remember Princess Diana. It was endearing and casual, far from Kate and William's typical social-media content.
Fast-forward three years, and the royal family has found themselves surrounded by controversy yet again. But this time, Kate and William are at the center of it, igniting weeks of speculation with a match in the shape of a digitally altered photo.
The scandal has been breathtakingly swift, turning the once-golden Prince and Princess of Wales into joke fodder for American late-night hosts — not to mention all of social media. The publicity has been so bad that even the British tabloids' loyalty is starting to crack.
The royal family went on the charm offensive after Harry and Meghan's interview with Winfrey, and they knew Kate and William had to be on the starting lineup.
As the world slowly emerged from lockdown, William and Kate were suddenly everywhere. They visited Westminster Abbey to mark their 10th wedding anniversary, hung out with children on a farm, launched a joint YouTube channel, played soccer with more kids, and hosted a drive-in movie night — all before June.
The ensuing photos were a PR dream for the royal family: Kate with a goat! Kate laughing with a golf club! Kate holding a tarantula! Kate in sneakers!
There were also plenty of snaps of the couple together, and many noticed that William and Kate were suddenly more affectionate in public. That May, they visited the University of St Andrews — where they first met — and an Access Hollywood story noted that William "even affectionately put his hand on Kate's back in a tender moment we don't often see from the perfectly poised heir."
It came just a month after the couple released an anniversary portrait, accompanied by a playful Instagram video far more relaxed than their previous pictures.
William and Kate's public appearances in 2021 were a huge PR shift for the royal couple, celebrity brand management expert Eric Shiffer previously told Business Insider.
"They were manicured to the nth degree," he said, adding that they "played their public persona with a Buckingham Palace excellence, out of the playbook that's been mastered for centuries."
Kate and William's formal and polished persona was opposite to Meghan and Harry's easygoing and affectionate demeanor, which didn't go unnoticed by the public or press. By sharing their mental health struggles during the Oprah interview, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex positioned themselves as the antithesis of the royal family's tight-lipped and stone-faced "never complain, never explain" mantra.
"Harry and Meghan successfully came off as more human, more approachable, and more affectionate with their subjects," royal commentator Kristen Meinzer recently told BI. "Meghan was doing these things that came off as her own heart's desires, rather than 'I am doing this because I have to cut another ribbon.'"
Royal historian Clare McHugh previously told BI that Kate and William "really adjusted their style" after the Oprah interview.
"They realized if they don't, they'll be overshadowed by this couple living in California, so they have to show themselves," she said. "They have to reveal who they are more because that's the currency now. So they let the anniversary film out, and they have YouTube, and they make jokes. It's a new world."
Until it wasn't.
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