Kate Middleton’s Name Shines Bright on 2024 Person of the Year Shortlist
Kate Middleton is on the nomination shortlist for the prestigious honor of TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. The Princess of Wales was named alongside nine others who made waves in 2024.
Who is Kate Middleton’s competition for the TIME’s Person of the Year?
TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year is the person, group, or concept that had the biggest impact on the world over the previous 12 months. According to the publication, the winner’s influence on the public could be good or bad.
Kate Middleton is on a shortlist of 10 nominees for 2024; she is one of four female candidates.
Per TIME, Vice President Kamala Harris, Russian economist Yulia Navalnaya, and Mexico’s first-ever female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, are also nominated. Other nominees include Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerome Powell, Joe Rogan, Donald Trump, and Mark Zuckerberg.
The magazine wrote, “The Princess of Wales made international headlines this year and stirred a conversation about privacy and health for public figures. In January, Kate [Middleton] was hospitalized for two weeks for a ‘planned abdominal surgery’ and Kensington Palace said she would be out of the public eye until Easter.”
The publication continued: “But after conspiracy theories circulated online in March about Middleton’s whereabouts, the royal put the rumors to rest by revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer. In September, Middleton announced that she had completed her chemotherapy treatment. Middleton was previously on the TIME100 list of Most Influential People in 2013, and one of the runners-up for Person of the Year in 2011.”
Have any members of the royal family ever won Person of the Year?
In 1936, Wallis Simpson was named TIME Magazine’s Woman of the Year. She captured the heart of Edward, the Prince of Wales.
But this romance led Edward to abdicate the throne for the woman he loved. TIME thus called Wallis “the most-talked-about, written-about, headlined, and interest-compelling person in the world.”
Edward’s abdication led to George VI’s ascension in December of that same year. Subsequently, his daughter Elizabeth succeeded him upon his death in 1952, the same year she was given TIME’s highest honor.
The publication called Elizabeth a “fresh young blossom on roots that had weathered many a season of wintry doubt. The British, as weary and discouraged as the rest of the world in 1952, saw in their new young Queen a reminder of a great past and dared to hope that she might be an omen of a great future.”
Princess Diana was chosen as the magazine’s Woman of the Year in 1987. Diana was invited to open the first hospital ward in the U.K. dedicated to the treatment of HIV/AIDS that same year.
Finally, Meghan Markle was a nominee in 2018 for helping to modernize the monarchy. She made the magazine’s shortlist of nominees but did not win.
Kate Middleton deserves the honor, says a royal expert
Royal expert Angela Levin told GBNews that Kate Middleton wholeheartedly deserves the honor of TIME’s Person of the Year. She subsequently called the nomination “marvelous.”
“I can only hope that she wins, I think she’s so marvelous. She’s gone through so much,” Levin claimed.
“Seeing her at [Together at Christmas] with all the family for the first time. She was going ’round talking to everybody and she was looking sensational. I think it’s also not just that she’s done so much this year, but she’s actually behaved so brilliantly, and she’s spoken so honorably and honestly. I think she does deserve it.”
Kate Middleton was hospitalized in January 2024. In March, the Princess of Wales revealed she had cancer.
By June, Kate shared she was continuing chemotherapy. In September, the royal said she had completed treatment and was looking forward to returning to her royal duties.
TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year candidates were revealed on Dec. 9, 2024. The winners will be announced on Dec. 11.
