Brown: Duchess Kate was ‘tormented about class’ just as Meghan was about race
As we’ve seen, Tina Brown’s The Palace Papers revealed that she has massively lost the plot. Her arguments, her royal “worldview,” none of it makes much sense. One thing is for sure, Brown is very, very pro-Cambridge. To her, Prince William was a holy terror, but now he’s the most elegant statesman, the one true hope of the monarchy. To her, Duchess Kate is perfection and always has been. In the latest excerpt, Brown addresses the British media’s treatment of Kate versus their treatment of Meghan. As Meghan said in the Oprah interview, being called “Waity Katie” is not the same as being racially abused for years. “Rude and racist are not the same thing.” But to hear Tina’s version of events, rude and racist ARE the same. Or classism is the same as racism. It is not.
Kate Middleton was mocked as a social climber by the same U.K. press who “stooped to new lows” in relation to Meghan Markle and race, according to Tina Brown. The former magazine editor’s new biography The Palace Papers, released on April 26, charts how every high profile royal wife in modern times has faced the wrath of the media. Meghan acknowledged in her Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021 how other royal women had experienced rudeness but suggested her own treatment was different because it was racist.
However, Brown highlights how some of the hostile coverage Kate and the Middleton family experienced spoke to their social background and class. She wrote: “No one knew better than Harry what the British press was capable of. He had seen it all—from the primordial trauma of his mother’s last hours to the brutal invasions of his previous girlfriends’ privacy, and the monstering of every woman in the royal family except the Queen. Kate had been tormented about class and social climbing and her mother’s Party Pieces business—’Mail Order Bride,’ one columnist sneered. The jibes didn’t end after the wedding either. She was routinely depicted as a placid nonentity.
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“It was perhaps inevitable that the same malevolent scribes who had heaped scorn on the class and looks of the other royal women would go after Meghan on race, practically throwing their backs out as they stooped to new lows.”
The book cites Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel’s lecture for the London Review of Books which described Kate as being “as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character.”
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[From Newsweek]
Yeah… it’s not the same. The media treatment of Meghan was racist, nasty and full of lies. What irritated the Middletons was that so many of the “classist” criticisms were based in truth. The Middletons ARE social climbers. Kate DID wait around for a decade, doing absolutely f–k all. Kate is NOT “accepted” in many aristocratic circles. Carole IS seen as gauche and tacky. And even with all of that, the British media turned on a f–king dime as soon as Meghan came around. Suddenly button-covered, tacky, placid Kate was the perfect future queen who had never put a foot wrong. Instead of supporting her sister-in-law, Kate used the media’s racist treatment of Meghan to embiggen herself. Of course, Kate had to be shown that even though those aristo circles loathed Meghan, they still didn’t accept Kate either. The Tatler mess proved that.
(Also, as the years go by, Hilary Mantel’s comments about Kate were absolutely dead-on, even more so now than at the time.)
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CANADA ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – British Royals attend Trooping The Colour – The Queen’s official birthday parade. The Queen’s Colour of First Battalion Grenadier Guards is trooped in the presence of The Queen to mark her official birthday. Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 8 JUNE 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: ZED JAMESON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Pippa Middleton, at the women’s Final on day twelve of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, 13th July 2019. Pictured: Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 13 JULY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Pippa Middleton, at the women’s Final on day twelve of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, 13th July 2019. Pictured: Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 13 JULY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London, England. Under the theme ‘Making a Difference Together’, the event will showcase the programmes run or initiated by The Royal Foundation.
- Britain’s Prince Harry, his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Westminster Abbey for a service to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force (RAF), in central London, Britain July 10, 2018.
- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex leave after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 11, 2019. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth – a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the world’s population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old.
- The Duchess of Cambridge sits near the Duchess of Sussex as they attend the Westminster Abbey Commonwealth day service. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, with old ties and new links enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development which is both inclusive and sustainable. The Commonwealth represents a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. Each year the Commonwealth adopts a theme upon which the Service is based. This years theme A Connected Commonwealth speaks of the practical value and global engagement made possible as a result of cooperation between the culturally diverse and widely dispersed family of nations, who work together in friendship and goodwill. The Commonwealths governments, institutions and people connect at many levels, including through parliaments and universities. They work together to protect the natural environment and the ocean which connects many Commonwealth nations, shore to shore. Cooperation on trade encourages inclusive economic empowerment for all people – particularly women, youth and marginalised communities. The Commonwealths friendly sporting rivalry encourages people to participate in sport for development and peace.
- The Duchess of Cambridge stands with the Duchess of Sussex at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth day service. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, with old ties and new links enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development which is both inclusive and sustainable. The Commonwealth represents a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. Each year the Commonwealth adopts a theme upon which the Service is based. This years theme A Connected Commonwealth speaks of the practical value and global engagement made possible as a result of cooperation between the culturally diverse and widely dispersed family of nations, who work together in friendship and goodwill. The Commonwealths governments, institutions and people connect at many levels, including through parliaments and universities. They work together to protect the natural environment and the ocean which connects many Commonwealth nations, shore to shore. Cooperation on trade encourages inclusive economic empowerment for all people – particularly women, youth and marginalised communities. The Commonwealths friendly sporting rivalry encourages people to participate in sport for development and peace.
- The Duchess of Cambridge sits near the Duchess of Sussex as they attend the Westminster Abbey Commonwealth day service. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, with old ties and new links enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development which is both inclusive and sustainable. The Commonwealth represents a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. Each year the Commonwealth adopts a theme upon which the Service is based. This years theme A Connected Commonwealth speaks of the practical value and global engagement made possible as a result of cooperation between the culturally diverse and widely dispersed family of nations, who work together in friendship and goodwill. The Commonwealths governments, institutions and people connect at many levels, including through parliaments and universities. They work together to protect the natural environment and the ocean which connects many Commonwealth nations, shore to shore. Cooperation on trade encourages inclusive economic empowerment for all people – particularly women, youth and marginalised communities. The Commonwealths friendly sporting rivalry encourages people to participate in sport for development and peace.
