Photographers Used to Yell Insults at Kate Middleton to Try and Get a Negative Reaction, Royal Writer Reveals
Meghan Markle thought she had it bad with the paps. Well, according to a royal writer, Kate Middleton was harassed by photographers who yelled insults at her before she married Prince William.
Columnist Daniela Elser revealed what the photogs reportedly used to call the future Duchess of Cambridge and why they did it.
Kate was hounded by photographers and a ‘hotline’ was set up for her
Prince William and Kate began dating while they attended St. Andrew’s University in Scotland and when she returned to London, the press was all over her.
There were times when they would wait outside her home and then follow her to and from work.
“She was obviously the subject of a lot of press interest and intrusion from the paparazzi,” royal expert Katie Nicholl wrote in her book Kate: The Future Queen.
Nicholl said that a senior press aide told her the prince and other palace aides tried to help her by setting up a “hotline” Kate could call for assistance. “William said we had a duty of care to her and her family and so we advised her on how to deal with the cameras,” the aide explained. “We told her to smile at the photographers so that there would be a better picture.”
Photogs would hurl insults and curse at Kate to prompt an angry reaction
The photographers though reportedly didn’t always want the shots of her smiling.
In a column for the NZ Herald, Elser claimed that some paps would hurl insults at William’s then-girlfriend to try and get a rise out of her.
“For nearly five full years, Kate was chased, harangued, dogged, and generally harassed by certain quarters of the media,” Elser wrote. “She was photographed at the supermarket in her tracksuit pants, repeatedly at airports and train stations, with her parents in London, with her family in the Caribbean, shopping, out with her sister, at cafes, on holiday, in taxis, in cars, and in so many other locations that it would take a doctoral thesis and the patience of a saint to fully enumerate.
“Some paps used to yell things like ‘b****, w**** and s***g, look this way!’ at her to try and get a reaction. A photo of Kate making some terrible face or losing it was far more valuable than her just going about her business.”
Kate always kept her composure
Despite what she reportedly used to hear and no matter how hard they tried, Kate always kept her composure in front of the cameras.
“What is remarkable, in hindsight, is her poise and grace under fire,” Elser said. “There are not any videos of her crying, hysterically yelling at the press, or crumpling as you or I probably would.”
