LONDON — Sitting by Prince William in her only televised interview to date, bride-to-be Kate Middleton appeared to sidestep one question more than any other. Is it hard, she was asked, following in the footsteps of Diana, Princess of Wales, “the most famous figure of our age?”
As she prepares to walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey for the royal wedding next week — an event set to draw one of the largest audiences in global television history — Middleton is already beginning to find out. Though profoundly different women in profoundly different times, she has found herself sharing one major challenge with her would-have-been mother-in-law: instant fame.
Despite an effort by Buckingham Palace to limit her public exposure, Middleton appears on the road to becoming the new “most photographed woman in the world,” filling a void in the tabloid press left by Diana. As Prince William’s longtime girlfriend, she was relatively well-known for years in Britain and among a small pool of royal watchers beyond these shores. But like Diana, her engagement has suddenly propelled her into the global spotlight.
In an echo of Diana in her day, celebrity-centered Splash News said last week that in the five-short months since the royal engagement was announced, the price for a candid shot of Middleton has soared “well into six figures,” higher than for Lady Gaga or Angelina Jolie. This week, a Texas-based research firm published a report saying citations of Middleton on Internet media and social networking sites have already eclipsed all members of the royal family, including her soon-to-be husband and Diana’s son, Prince William.
It raises an eerily familiar question for Buckingham Palace, an institution that is not amused at being upstaged: how to manage Middleton’s skyrocketing popularity and avoid the pitfalls that befell Diana’s shot to fame.
“In terms of their popularity, the similarities are amazing, and this is going to be a delicate balance for the palace,” said Ken Wharfe, Diana’s former bodyguard and longtime confidant.
“The royal family does want the public popularity that Diana brought the royal family and that Kate is now getting,” he continued. “But they don’t want someone who will co-opt their image the way Diana did, either. I get no sense that Kate has any interest in doing that. But my only fear is that whether she likes it or not, all the eyes — and the cameras — will be on her.”
To Middleton’s benefit, the rules of engagement for the British tabloid press have changed since Diana died in a 1997 car crash in Paris with her lover Dodi Fayed, after their intoxicated chauffeur sped away from a band of paparazzi. New government guidelines in Britain have made photographers less aggressive, and editors less willing to run ill-gotten shots.
But the allure of Middleton is testing the willpower of the paparazzi. Already, Britain’s media watchdog was forced to issue a warning this month after photographers chased down Middleton’s mother and sister during a London shopping trip. And like Diana, Middleton is finding herself under a microscope, as illustrated by a run of tabloid stories about her recent weight loss — she is reportedly on a crash diet ahead of her wedding day.
Read more at The Washington Post.