Royal experts have made it clear that Catherine will always value family over royal duty – or, one might surmise, that she sees caring for her family as a royal duty. As former royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the Express, William and the children ‘must take precedence’ over any engagement or event. ‘I’m sure if you asked Catherine what her most important role in life is at the moment, it would be “being a mum,”’ Bond told the outlet. ‘She adores her husband, but her children are the centre of her world, and she has thrown herself into bringing them up in what must be a rather confusing environment for a young mind, as normally and lovingly and securely as possible.’
This is not to say that the Princess will not be a dedicated public servant. It is perhaps no difficult task to predict where Kate’s passions will lie when she takes to the throne. Her commitment to Early Years education – said to be her ‘life’s work’ – has remained steadfast, with Catherine continuing to work on her Foundation’s landmark report on the matter during her chemotherapy treatment. Upon her return to public duties this year, the Princess has foregrounded her work in the sector, in which she is widely considered a genuine expert. In February alone, she joined a bus full of kindergarten pupils on a school trip to the National Portrait Gallery and met with prisoners on a mother and baby unit at HMP Styal.
The public was told to expect a shift in priorities when the Princess returned from her chemotherapy treatment: ‘she’s a different person now,’ insiders told PEOPLE magazine, and Sally Bedell Smith wrote that Catherine ‘is very much in control of her return to public life’. According to some experts, Kate’s choice of engagements this year are evidence of a Princess defining her own role in a truly unprecedented fashion. ‘She’s making her outings more meaningful in a way that had never been done before,’ as royal historian Amanda Foreman told PEOPLE, stressing that ‘she’s ahead of the curve – creating the meaningful moment rather than the Instagrammable moment.’