The Queen had serious doubts about Kate Middleton’s ability to be a royal spouse because of her fondness for a lavish lifestyle.
Duchess Catherine’s ascent into the public’s good graces has happened over a period of 20 years from the time she first met William in 2001 at St. Andrews University.
During the early years, the Queen needed to be convinced that William’s longtime girlfriend had a strong enough work ethic to carry out royal duties that come with being a member of “The Firm.”
As the daughter of self-made millionaires, Kate Middleton enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle long before she married into the British monarchy.
She and her family loved jetting off to sun-soaked vacation spots like the Caribbean, where they would rent a plush villa on the exclusive island of Mustique.
Katie Nicholl, a royal expert says that Her Majesty was unsure if the Duchess of Cambridge would be a feasible wife for Prince William all because she was too high maintenance.
In her 2010 memoir William and Harry, author Katie Nicholl claimed that, by 2008, Kate’s “love of exotic holidays” had caught the Queen’s attention.
The couple took romantic skiing trips to the Swiss Alps during the early years of their relationship, where they would stay in the $54,000 a week Chalet Eugenia in the gorgeous resort of Klosters.
The Queen apparently wasn’t too delighted with this excessive spending, fearing it wouldn’t be received well by the public in light of the 2008 economic downturn.
“(The Queen) is one of the hardest-working royals, despite her age, and that a future member of the family was without a full-time job was unacceptable to her,” Nicholl said.
“While the rest of the world speculated that an engagement was on the horizon for William and Kate, the Queen believed an announcement should be postponed until Kate was settled in a career,” Nicholl added.
At the time, Kate was a recent graduate of St. Andrew’s University and had only just entered the workforce. She landed her first job as an accessories buyer for Jigsaw in 2006 but was forced to resign after paparazzi began to hound her outside its London store.
She moved on to work for her family’s company, Party Pieces, where she held a part-time position designing catalogs and expanding the brand.
“The Queen wasn’t happy that Catherine had not stayed at her job for very long,” an insider said.
The Queen was less than thrilled to see that when Kate was not with William, she seemed to be caught up in an endless cycle of going to parties, polo matches, and nightclubs.
“If she was not with William at Balmoral then the couple were skiing or holidaying on Mustique,” Nicholl said. “Kate was there so often the press dubbed her “Queen of Mustique”, a title that had previously belonged to Princess Margaret.”
Nicholl interviewed a source for her 2010 book, who said, “it is Her Majesty’s opinion that if Kate is one day going to be William’s consort, then she needs a proper job.”
“Swanning from one five-star holiday resort to another is not the prerequisite for a young woman possibly destined to be Queen,” Nicholl wrote.
Nicholl claims that Kate was “stung” by the Queen’s words.
According to the biographer, they will have “traditional” stays at their Norfolk family residence Anmer Hall and around the country, instead of heading abroad in the years ahead.
This will see them avoid overseas trips with their three children, Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 6, and Prince Louis, 3. They are also expected to visit the Queen at Balmoral at some point this summer.
Kate and Prince William have also reduced their high-end lifestyle in recent years, choosing to holiday more locally in places like the Isles of Scilly and Balmoral Castle.
The Duchess of Cambridge has repeatedly been recognized as one of the hardest-working royals, completing a whopping 79 public engagements in 77 days in 2020.