Kate to hold meetings with top aides for lessons in how to be a royal

By Simon Neville


Newlyweds: But now the Duchess of Cambridge must learn how to carry out her duties as a member of the Royal Family


The Duchess of Cambridge is to hold meetings with senior members of the country’s most respected institutions to prepare for a lifetime of royal duties.

Private tutorials with experts on government, the arts and the media will teach her about the establishment she will one day represent.

The one-to-ones will take place at St James’s Palace throughout the autumn.


Her husband’s mother, Princess Diana, complained bitterly at being thrown into official duties without training or coaching.

The duchess has carried out just one official engagement since she married Prince William in April, when the pair visited riot-torn areas of Birmingham last month.

But her duties are set to increase when the palace reveals in the new year the charities she will be supporting in her role as royal patron.

Last night a palace source said: ‘The duchess is being briefed on how the state works, getting to know our national institutions better and learning more about organisations such as the arts, the media and the government. It is a process that will carry on for several months.

‘As well as meetings at St James’s Palace, the duchess is spending time carrying out private research of her own.’

Lack of support: Princess Diana felt abandoned by palace staff


Until the charities she will officially be supporting are announced, the duchess’s official engagements will be kept to around one a month, to give her time to get used to her new life.

Next week she and William will open a children's centre at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital in Sutton, Surrey, of which the duke is president.

Princess Diana told friends that when she married Prince Charles, palace staff ‘basically thought I could adapt to being Princess of Wales overnight’.


source:dailymail