When Kate Middleton married Prince William on this day in 2011, she was a very different royal bride than her late mother-in-law Princess Diana, according to a royal biographer.
Kate married William 14 years ago on April 29 at Westminster Abbey, almost exactly 30 years after Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles on July 29, 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Daily Mail reported that, “despite both marrying future kings, Kate and Diana could not have been more different as royal brides.”
Kate Middleton on her April 29, 2011 wedding day.
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Princess Diana on July 29, 1981.
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In her book Kate: The Future Queen, longtime royal commentator and author of numerous royal biographies Katie Nicholl recalled that Kate, then 29 years old, paused to wave to the crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the royal wedding as she made her way into the Abbey. Some of the well-wishers had camped out all night to catch a glimpse of the wedding—and of the bride.
“One day the British people would be her subjects,” Nicholl wrote. “It was the same thought that had struck Diana, who had paused and waved to the nation, as was expected of royal brides, before she climbed the stairs of St. Paul’s Cathedral.”
“But, while Diana had seemed full of trepidation, Kate, who was older and more experienced in her role as royal consort, exuded an amazing sense of confidence and purpose,” Nicholl continued.
Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.
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For context, Diana had just turned 20 years old earlier in July when she married Charles. Kate and William had dated for the better part of a decade when they married, even platonically living together when both were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Diana and Charles, meanwhile, barely knew one another, and had only spent a handful of dates together—and even less of those where it was just the two of them.
“They were both royal brides, but Kate and Diana, for all the comparisons, were two very different women,” Nicholl wrote.
Kate was calm as she walked down the aisle of the Abbey with her father Michael Middleton, and also gave “her husband-to-be William a reassuring smile as he struggled to get the wedding ring on her finger,” The Daily Mail reported. Kate delivered her vows in “crystal-clear tones,” Nicholl wrote, while Diana muddled hers a bit, saying “I, Diana Francis, take thee Philip Charles Arthur George, to be my wedded husband,” conflating Charles’ first name with his first middle name (his full name is Charles Philip Arthur George).
Princess Diana and Prince Charles on July 29, 1981.
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Princess Diana and Prince Charles on July 29, 1981.
Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images
Though there were definitely differences in the two women, there was one notable similarity: both Diana and Kate removed the word “obey” from their vows, choosing instead to vow to “love, comfort, honor, and keep” their respective husbands in an attempt to be more “equal.”
Both Diana and Charles and Kate and William left their ceremony to cheers from the crowd and rode through the streets of London in the 1902 State Landau, “which is the largest and most splendid horse-drawn carriage used by the sovereign,” The Daily Mail reported. In the carriage, The Daily Mail reported William said “It’s mad, it’s mad! Oh my goodness, it’s really loud here—these people are clapping.”
“You look happy,” William turned to Kate and said, to which she replied, “Yes! Are you happy?” William’s response? “Yes. Very!”
Kate Middleton and Prince William on their wedding day.
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As Kate walked out on the balcony of Buckingham Palace 14 years ago today, the newly minted Duchess of Cambridge looked at the massive crowds and said, “Wow, that’s amazing,” before she and William shared not just one kiss, but two.
Before the first kiss, a besotted William turned to his bride and said, “Go on, a little kiss, go on.” Ahead of the unprecedented second one, he said, “Let’s give them another one. I love you. One more kiss, one more kiss, okay?”
Kate Middleton and Prince William kissing on their wedding day.
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Princess Diana and Prince Charles kissing on their wedding day.
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Meanwhile, Diana told biographer Andrew Morton for his bombshell 1992 book Diana: Her True Story that she felt like a “lamb to the slaughter” on her wedding day.
“Got out [of St. Paul’s], was a wonderful feeling, everybody hurraying, everybody happy because they thought we were happy,” Diana told Morton. “There was the big question mark in my mind. I realized I had taken on an enormous role but had no idea what I was going into—but no idea.”