A QUEEN IN WAITING

No longer the shy young bride, Kate is now a fully-fledged senior royal who exudes poise & confidence

- NICI DE WET

ONCE upon a time, there was a young woman so terrified of public speaking her aides had to put a plan in place in case her nerves failed her.

Don’t announce the duchess will be speaking, was their golden rule. That way, if she froze, no one would be disappointed. And if she managed to summon the courage to deliver her speech – well, everyone would be delighted.

Yet, to say that Kate was hardly a compelling speaker would be an understatement. She barely looked up from her notes, her voice was high-pitched and strained, and her body language gave the impression she’d find pushing sharp sticks in her eyes more enjoyable.

But just look at her now. If ever a person has grown in confidence, it’s the 37-year-old Duchess of Cambridge. These days, she glides through public appearances with ease, dazzling everyone with her sparkling smile, natural charm and perfectly delivered speeches.

She is, as one royal aide puts it, the ideal queen-to-be, and the year ahead will see her becoming an even more vital member of the royal family.

“What people are seeing is a self-assured, driven woman with a purpose,” a royal insider says. “She knows exactly where she’s going and she has the self-belief to get there under her own steam.

“She’s no longer the ‘commoner’ who married a prince, but the future queen and the mother of the future king [and] who’s loved by Queen Elizabeth, staff and the public.”

Ingrid Seward, royal expert and editor of Majesty magazine, says Kate has come into her own since marrying William in 2011.

“She was given quite a hard time in the beginning, but she’s won people over by working hard and not putting a foot wrong,” Seward reckons.