Now that the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth II is over, it’s time for some hot and juicy royal gossip. The latest? King Charles III was reportedly jealous that Kate Middleton’s style was so popular in the press, often overshadowing his own good deeds.
This detail comes from royal expert Katie Nicholl’s new book, The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, which came out on Tuesday, October 4. This is one of many details about the royals described in the book.
Per Entertainment Tonight, Nicholls describes how Charles always took being heir to the throne very seriously. When his wife Princess Diana become popular—particularly for her fashion sense—the then Prince Charles did not understand it.
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“Her star immediately eclipsed her husband’s, causing early fractures in their relationship,” Nicholl writes The New Royals. “The diligent, sensitive, and status-conscious Charles found it hard to understand. He could not see that in the new media age, being a royal-born prince and future king was a lesser currency than his wife’s megawatt beauty and disposition.”
The same feelings arose once again when Kate Middleton joined the family, and the media focused on her attire. Nicholl reports that King Charles felt like coverage of her style in the media overshadowed his work, which led to tension with his son Prince William.
“In the past, father and son hadn’t always seen eye to eye,” Nicholl wrote in the book, per ET. “There was a well-documented clash of opinions in 2013 over the palace’s priceless collection of ivory, for one. And Charles was sometimes irritated that Kate’s frocks got more media attention than his good works. He also had been hurt by not seeing as much of his Cambridge grandchildren as he might have liked.”
