The Making Of A Future Queen

Eighteen years after Catherine Middleton met her prince, the37-year-old mother-of-three is riding a tidal wave of popularity. Juliet Rieden investigates the cygnet to swan transformation of the woman who will be Queen consort one day.

Donning a baseball cap, summer sailing shorts and an irrepressible smile, her long hair pulled back in a ponytail, the Duchess of Cambridge took to the high seas last month competing against her husband Prince William and six celebrity charity ambassadors in an eight-yacht sailing regatta in historic royal hangout Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. The King’s Cup was first presented by King George V in 1920, and the sporty Cambridge duo revived the event to launch what they hope will become an annual fixture to help raise funds and awareness for their charities. As William and Catherine shift their royal work up a gear, there’s something rather timely about the second-in-line to the throne reinvigorating his great-great grandfather's race.

The Duchess is known for her competitive spirit, and as the more experienced sailor she was certainly playing to beat her husband. So, it was pretty funny when a gleeful William handed his wife a giant wooden spoon for her yacht’s position of last – his own crew came in third. Watching his mother hamming it up as she covered her face, comically crestfallen at the ignominious trophy, was a gap-toothed Prince George in a captain’s hat and sailor outfit, and Princess Charlotte who earlier had cheekily poked out her tongue when she spied grandpa Michael Middleton in the crowds below. Catherine immediately collapsed into giggles at her daughter’s naughty hijinks, and the throngs who had gathered to watch joined in with the laughter.

It was a delightful scene: a couple in love, their children having fun and the British public cheering the royals who will one day be their – and possibly our – King and Queen consort. Cast your mind back a decade to the indecorous “waity Katie” jibes that dogged the couple’s courtship and you can see how far Kate Middleton has come.