Being the new Princess of Wales - a look at Kate in her new role
Kate Middleton, wife of the new heir to the throne Prince William, has grown from a commoner who captivated the future monarch to the beating heart of the British royal family, as it faces a future without the beloved queen at its helm.
Born Catherine Middleton, the eldest of three children of middle-class, self-made entrepreneurs is now the Princess of Wales, a title last held by William's late mother Diana whose celebrity power and charity work eclipsed the royals around her.
Kate, by contrast, has kept a lower profile, fulfilling an increasingly busy diary of royal engagements quietly and without controversy while also earning a reputation as a global fashion icon who regularly graces the front pages of glossy magazines.
Comparisons with Diana, whose oval sapphire and diamond engagement ring Kate now wears, will be inevitable, but commentators, aides and William himself say she will not try to emulate her famous predecessor.
"I think that now that Catherine has the same title that Diana had, Princess of Wales, there'll be all kinds of comparisons. It's a different age, a different time...I think Catherine will do her own thing," said royal biographer, Andrew Morton.
"Both, of course, were beautiful and are beautiful, glamourous women. Both were and are women that are aware of their position and how they can use their position to affect change for the causes that they espouse. You've seen that with Catherine and early learning, saw it with Diana and AIDS and landmines," he added.
Her combination of glamour and hard graft has contributed to the popularity of the 40-year-old, who, along with William, is now regarded by Britons as the modern face of the 1,000-year-old institution that thrived for decades under the late queen.
"I think Catherine is someone who has instinctively understood that becoming a member of the royal family is a long game, it doesn't happen overnight, and she spent many years adapting herself to life inside the royal family. I think that when you compare her behaviour today with her behaviour in the past, she's far more self-assured, far more articulate, and far more aware of her position than she was at the beginning when she was rather nervous, understandably, and rather shy. he's someone who has, as it were, grown into the cloak of monarchy and grown into the cloak of being a princess, and now she will grow into the position of being Princess of Wales," Morton said.
While comparisons with Diana abound, commentators say Kate does things her own way. Ironically, if she looks for a role model now, it may be Camilla, Charles's second wife and now Queen Consort who Diana blamed for the break-up of their marriage.
