Britain's Queen Camilla Catherine, Princess of Wales at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in central London, on November 12, 2023.
If you’ve been under the impression that Kate Middleton has an easy ride within the court of public perception of royals, take a gander at the comments under almost any social media post featuring a photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales at Sunday’s National Service of Remembrance in London.
“With all due respect, she has aged ten years in the last two,” wrote one person on an X post by veteran royal photographer Tim Rooke, who posted his pictures of Kate standing on the balcony overlooking the ceremony. “Kate is definitely showing her age…sad,” read another comment.
And those are on the kinder end of the spectrum. “What happened to her? She looks like an old lady!” wrote someone on a post by the Instagram account Royal Style Watch. “The bloom has left the rose,” surmised someone under U.S. Vogue’s post, which generated more than 900 comments, many folding a critique of Kate’s looks into a broader criticism of the monarchy. To wit: “Kate is getting older than her age each time I see her photos. The pressure must be real. Meghan saw that, and she left!”
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Over on Harper’s Bazaar U.K.: “She looks 60,” and “She’s clearly just absolutely knackered. Stressed.”
Catherine, Princess of Wales attends at the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 12, 2023 in London, England.
WPA Pool / GETTY IMAGES
There were, as well, plenty of comments to the tune of “Perfection!” and “Regal elegance personified,” and quite a few backhanded defences of Kate’s face. “She looks like a pretty woman in her 40s without a ton of Botox and fillers. This is normal aging,” wrote someone under British Vogue’s post—although that comment string quickly descended into 134 replies along the predictable lines of “Meghan looks better” and then “Meghan doesn’t even have her original nose anymore…”
It's a reminder of how sexism, appearance obsession and ageism is very much alive and well, and that often the worst perpetrators are other women—shout out to internalized misogyny!—but none of this is new. In fact, observing the annual urge to take to the keyboard and criticize royal women's faces is practically a Remembrance Day tradition.
There’s something about the day’s unique combination of factors that reliably generates this sort of commentary: the mourning-coded black attire, the solemnity of the occasion reflected in sombre facial expressions, the formality of the requisite hat and hairstyle, the unforgiving light of an invariably grey November sky, the “old-fashioned” antique jewellery loaned from the royal vault for the day, even the drying effect of cold air on skin.
Britain's Queen Camilla Catherine, Princess of Wales at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in central London, on November 12, 2023.
KIN CHEUNG / POOL/AFP via GETTY IMAGES
Of course, if Kate undertook obvious anti-aging intervention, like fillers or a facelift, there’d be an equally vicious uproar. See: The “baby Botox” drama of 2019, when an Instagram plastic surgeon said Kate had clearly been getting the tweakment, causing a furor so intense that the palace was moved to deny the claim.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
It’s not the first time that Kate has found herself in the midst of a comments section pile on. Early in her public life, she was called “Waity Katie” in public by the tabloids and “Doors To Manual” in private by William’s snobbier pals, a demeaning reference to her mother’s time as a flight attendant. In the slimier corners of the Internet, there are people who exclusively call her “Bones,” a reference to her much-discussed weight. Some call her KKKate, a reference to their opinion that the Princess of Wales is a jealous, petty racist who pulled mean girl maneuvers to drive her mixed-race sister-in-law from public royal life.
This Remembrance Day, however, the “Yikes, she’s looking old!” brigade is louder than ever. It reflects the perpetual reality that Kate’s value and success in her role is often judged by how “good” she looks doing it. But it's also a new development for the younger generation of royals, namely: How are they going to navigate the transition to middle age?
At the risk of sounding like one of those backhanded compliments, Kate is a 42-year-old woman who, per the standards of our youth-obsessed age, is gradually aging out of the particular type of privilege afforded to the young and beautiful.
The fact that she (and Prince William, to a lesser extent) are aging should be irrelevant to their star power. If anything, they should become more interesting us as they hopefully accumulate experience and wisdom. If we hold them to a harder, harsher standard, it should be one that demands more from them in their roles as royals in a changing world, rather than the one that zeroes in on, say, William's bald patch or Kate's under-eye bags.
Alas! In our current reality, it does make a difference to their popularity that they’re no longer the collagen-blessed, conventionally attractive youthful lovebirds the world fell for circa 2010. Inevitably, they’ve spent much of the currency of their youth and have arrived at the place we all do, if we’re lucky enough: Middle age, wrinkles, looking tired when we’ve had a full eight hours, grey hairs and all. It's just evidence that she exists within the same universe as the rest of us.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Sarah Laing
is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for The Kit, writing about
celebrity and culture. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahjanelaing.
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free).
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free).
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation