The rise of Kate Middleton: Why she is desperately needed by the Royal family | 60 Minutes Australia

barely a day goes by without the royal family caught in controversy a few days ago princess william and harry made extraordinary public comments shaming the bbc for the way it deceived their mother princess diana back in 1995 reporter martin beshear not only lied but falsified documents to convince diana to agree to a tell-all interview about prince charles as the bbc now admits it was journalism at its worst more than 25 years on the damage from that interview remains but there is some positive news for buckingham palace as tom stanford reports kate middleton one time commoner and now the duchess of cambridge has emerged as the saviour of the beleaguered royal family and many including her own uncle say the future queen catherine is actually ready to wear the crown right now with its wholesome family vibes and soothing acoustic backing this video looks more like a commercial for a fashion label or a car company and it does a celebration of will and kate's 10th wedding anniversary but the royal family needs some good pr right now more than just about any business out there and they've got the perfect vehicle in the duke and duchess of cambridge and their three adorable children we've seen a different side to the royals and i think we've particularly seen that with william and kate they've been more real more relatable and i think that's been incredibly important for the royal family i have no recollection of ever meeting this lady none whatsoever amid a sea of recent scandals concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born the royals have been painted as out of touch i feel really let down so many believe the best hope of restoring the public's faith in the crown is for it to be worn by someone with that common touch [Music] much has been made of kate's heritage and where she comes from i mean she is a commoner do you think kate's ready to be queen now i think she was born ready it's a modern version of you know the royal family that we know i think she's absolutely perfect for that role obviously i'm a bit biased but wouldn't kate and wouldn't be great at it gary goldsmith's bias is understandable he is kate's uncle brother of her mum carol middleton the self-made multi-millionaire really speaks publicly but has decided to open up about the crown jewel of his family how does it play out at a family function when someone comes up to you and says hey um kate's going out with prince william well i got the phone call didn't i i was in a board meeting and carol's just phoned me just to say this might be happening um and i was sworn to to secrecy um but the conversation was you what what seriously i can't i can't believe that this is this is a real thing and the first thing you do even though you swan secrecy is tell your best mates and they will just thought you know hi bill i think i'm going to be uncle to the future queen of the country what's it like when you're meeting prince william for the first time i'll talk about surreal moments walk through the front door of of the family home there's cake cooking supper william making a cup of tea all the families just moved around and then um william says hello i'm william and it's hi i'm gary it was just like meeting just a normal bloke he was a normal part of the family which was a bit bonkers i mean that's that's prince william and he's just making a cup of tea what small talk do you make with william you can't be like what do you want to do when you're older or what's your dad do yeah what card you drive where'd you live um yeah um he you know obviously his big time into his rugby um when rugby's being watched is your dad's support in wales and you're supporting england how does that work there's loads of fun to be had [Music] it took the better part of a decade before prince william finally popped the question i'm willing to learn quickly and and work hard and i did really well with the couple tying the knot on a spectacular day in 2011. [Music] [Applause] [Music] is it a bit of a pinch yourself moment when you're at westminster abbey and all of a sudden a member of your family is marrying an heir to the throne unbelievable from the moment we jumped into the car and on the way to the ceremony that was crazy thinking this is our case and then suddenly seeing that her walking down the aisle with mike i mean that was just absolutely mind-blowing i think just i was there with my daughter just staring at each other going omg they come since then they've been a picture-perfect couple including welcoming three new young royals for the british public to celebrate [Applause] royal correspondent katie nichol charted the evolution of the duchess of cambridge in her book kate the future queen you know for someone that wasn't born royal she does royal incredibly well she is flawless you know she doesn't put a foot wrong but such has been kate's devotion to presenting a pristine and conservative family life that some believe her public persona is a bit too stepford wives a lot of the commentary around kate is that she's dignified and that she's proper is it sometimes a fine line between being that conservative and almost being boring i do think that there was a feeling in those early years some people did feel that perhaps she might be a bit boring so i think to a degree yes she has played it safe and that has earned her criticism hilary mantle the author once described her as a mannequin that she didn't have her own opinion that she was just this bit part in the sidelines i think that was to underestimate kate greatly i think actually she has simply bided her time and now with 10 years of royal service under her belt we are hearing from her more we are seeing more of her i was amazed as a first-time parent the royal family realized they have a really important key player here and they're bringing her center stage so we have seen a shift in fact kate's standing in the royal family has now come so far that many believe she is their biggest asset i think kate is the glue in the same way that the duke of edinburgh was always the one who would help resolve family issues he was the patriarch of the family i see kate stepping into that role trying to keep things together do you think there's an element of the firm that almost like to skip past charles and camilla and get straight to william and kate as king and queen a lot of people think it would make more sense to skip a generation and let the crown move straight to william and kate possibly they might prove a more popular king and queen than charles and camilla but the idea of breaking constitution and that is essentially everything the royal family is built upon is is really something that's not going to happen prince of wales had previously accompanied the queen to the state opening on we will have king charles and queen camilla before we have king william and queen catherine but i think a lot of people believe that the real future of the monarchy the longevity of the monarchy lies in william and kate the question though is whether william and kate are up to the top jobs [Applause] i get the feeling you're so proud of kate that just a little tear or roll down the cheek when she does become queen i'll be like a baby she's someone to be super super super proud of and hopefully that comes across and i genuinely will say she is nicer on the inside than she's in the outside she's a very beautiful soul k middleton's uncle gary goldsmith is himself no stranger to headlines he's often snapped by the paps and a few years ago was caught up in an embarrassing tabloid sting but his ponchon for controversy is nothing compared to that of kate's in-laws harry and megan i saw a headline that you called harry and megan muppets um yeah you know i'm embarrassed about doing it but i'll stand by it so you still think they're muppets i just no i'm just i'm just very disappointed with them and i think there's there's a whole nation that's massively disappointed we all love harry the world loves harry but you know what you just don't do what you what they did and then going oprah and and talk like that it's just it's just not the way the world works a few days before the wedding she was upset about something pertaining yes the issue was correct about flower girl dresses and it made me cry and it really hurt my feelings megan some people say she threw kate under the bus by highlighting that it was actually kate who made megan cry before the wedding what did you think of her dredging up that that old incident didn't believe word if i'm brutally honest that that is not the case i've ever known that is not behaviour that would would ever be like that kate would always be the peacemaker in any of those situations i think we saw at the funeral that she's trying to make peace and she always does um there were lots of things in that interview that i didn't believe and that was definitely one of them do you think the fact that megan has drawn so much controversy has almost in the end by comparison made kate look even better yes yes queen elizabeth's shoes or should that be crown will be immensely difficult to fill in the decades to come so there are some disadvantages to crowns but but otherwise they're quite important things but royal correspondent katie nichols says in the last 12 months the duchess of cambridge has really shown she has what it takes to be a respected senior member of the royal family has covert in some ways been the making of kate um i think some people might say that the you know the lockdown that we experienced here well three of them in many ways was the unlocking of kate because i think that the public got to see more of the true duchess than they'd ever been able to see before the first number is five and eight fifty-eight we got to see william and kate at home at anmer we got to see their children clapping for the nhs during the lockdown we got access to them in a way that we absolutely hadn't before hello david attenborough and i think a lot of that was down to william and kate recognizing that they couldn't be seen to be in their ivory tower they needed to be accessible one defining moment sticks in katie's mind when the duchess of cambridge took it upon herself to visit the london vigil for murdered woman sarah everard in march this year how much does that resonate with the public when they see kate out there at a vigil like that it it does resonate with the public in that moment i think that was a real turning point for kate it was it was a big thing for her to do and we're not used to seeing royals do that sort of thing i think she was showing and paving the way for a new way of being royal and that way will resonate with the future generation that is the future of the monarchy it's being real it's being able to connect and it's being relatable the tabloids infamously dubbed kate weighty katie when it took years for william to finally propose [Music] and it may still be decades yet before she fulfills her destiny and becomes queen my lords and members if her proud uncle gary is adamant it'll definitely be worth the wait what's something about kate's personality that perhaps a lot of people wouldn't know she's got a wicked and devilish sense of humour so she's a very funny girl and actually laughter actually fills every room that she's in she's very domestic and she's very good at cooking so she's she's almost like the girl next door with a wicked sense of humor who happens to have a really quite important role you know there are suggestions that once the queen passes that australia will then look to become a republic so kate may one day be queen of england but she might never be queen of australia i think it might be to australia's loss there's this very strong bond between our two nations um if you don't get piece of kate the way we do you know that's the real shame i think you are missing out hello i'm sarah arbo thanks for 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Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 2,704,603

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, kate middleton, oprah, harry, prince, duchess, royal family, epstein, andrew, beatrice, megxit, megzit, meghan markle, racism, the firm, britain, gary, uncle, catherine, cambridge, william, spill, tell, exclusive, interview, insider, royalty, monarchy, saved

Id: 6uP-PaXu2BY

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021