When partaking in their pubic royal duties, Kate Middleton refers to her father-in-law as His Majesty King Charles III, and he calls her the Princess of Wales or Princess Catherine. But behind closed doors, they’re far less formal with each other.
According to royal author Robert Jobson, who wrote the upcoming biography Catherine, the Princess of Wales, the two, who are famously close, have sweet nicknames when they’re around friends and family.
“As for King Charles, he refers to Catherine as his ‘beloved daughter-in-law’ and has come to regard her as the daughter he never had,” Robert writes in an excerpt published in Daily Mail UK. “His eyes light up when he sees her at family functions, and they always make a bee-line for each other.”
“He inevitably greets her with a loving kiss, and they’re often seen laughing and joking together,” he continued while quoting a courtier. “Privately, she addresses the King affectionately as ‘Grandpa’.”
King Charles “Truly Appreciates” Princess Kate
Robert explains that King Charles has a soft spot for Princess Kate because he believes she is ” a good influence” on the royal family and he “truly appreciates everything she does.” Kate is a “calming” person and tends to be a peacekeeper who “smoothed the way for William and his father to have a better relationship than they had in the past.”
Kate and Charles have also grown closer as they navigate their respective cancer diagnoses. Buckingham Palace announced The King’s diagnosis in a statement on February 5, 2024, and Kate shared hers in a social media video on March 2, 2024. Neither has disclosed the type of cancer they’re battling.
“He has always had a very good bond with her,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told People in March. “I don’t think it is presumptuous to say that she is like the daughter he never had. He shares with William an impulse to protect her. They are in this together, Kate and the King.”
Catherine, the Princess of Wales drops on August 6, 2024.
This story’s featured image is by Chris Jackson/Getty Images.
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