Queen Camilla didn’t always think Kate Middleton was suited to be with a future king.
The claim comes from author Christopher Andersen, whose new book “Kate!” explores the Princess of Wales’ rise from commoner to the heir’s wife and mother of the next in line. Andersen’s account is based on his reporting and sources and has not been independently confirmed by the palace.
“In the beginning, Camilla was one of Kate’s fiercest critics,” Andersen told Fox News Digital. “She did not think she was up to snuff, as it were. She was below the salt. She had no aristocratic blood.”
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“Camilla always saw herself as the mistress of a king, not a queen,” Andersen claimed. “And she picked [Princess] Diana to be [King] Charles’ bride. So, she was very cognizant of the fact that a future king of England should have, she believed, a marriage to a royal personage, or at least a British aristocrat.”
“Kate was none of those things, but she quickly became popular,” Andersen added.
He noted that Camilla’s early skepticism stemmed from concerns about royal tradition and social class.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital, “We don’t comment on such books.”
Kate grew up in a quiet village near Berkshire, England, the daughter of a commercial airline pilot and a former flight attendant who later built a successful party supplies business. She went on to study art history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William in 2001. After years of an on-and-off relationship, the couple got engaged in 2010 and married the following year.
According to Andersen’s book, Camilla “did object” to Kate’s “working-class roots” for a reason. Camilla is the granddaughter of a baron and a descendant of the Stuart bloodline, which ruled England from 1603 to 1714.
Her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was also King Edward VII’s mistress, “an intimate connection to the royal family that Camilla had always taken immense pride in,” Andersen wrote. Unlike Kate, Camilla moved in royal circles throughout her life.
“Camilla had long lobbied on behalf of the highborn beauties with hyphenated names who swarmed around the heir,” wrote Andersen.
“It was she, after all, who, along with another of Charles’ mistresses, Baroness Tryon, handpicked Lady Diana Spencer to become Charles’ bride,” Andersen wrote.
He also claimed that an aristocrat with “homegrown blue blood” would be preferable than “a descendant of coal miners whose mother had grown up in public housing and once worked as a flight attendant.”
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Camilla wasn’t the only one who questioned whether Kate could handle life behind palace doors.
“[Kate] has been with William for 25 years,” said Andersen. “People forget that. Don’t forget the ‘Waity Katie’ 10-year period there, where she put up with the slings and arrows of outrageous [comments] coming from every angle.
“The palace didn’t really want her. People like Camilla didn’t want her because they felt that she was too common to be the wife of a future king. And, of course, the press was vicious in England, portraying her family as a bunch of louts and criticizing [her mother] Carole Middleton for doing such horrible things as chewing gum while she was quitting smoking.”
According to Andersen’s book, Camilla was also wary of Carole, who was portrayed in the press as “a gauche opportunist,” a mother willing to do anything to ensure her daughter would marry a future king.
“Camilla, who felt she knew a schemer when she saw one, feared her mother,” wrote Andersen, referring to Carole.
One former mistress of Charles also told Andersen that for Camilla, “it’s really all about [keeping] your friends close and your enemies closer. It’s her way of keeping her eye on you.”
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Andersen wrote that William, who is fiercely protective of his wife, was reportedly “offended” by a request Camilla made.
“Charles and Camilla each had a royal monogram that consisted of interlocking Cs beneath a crown, and they expressed concern that a third royal cypher with a C was overkill,” Andersen wrote. “Would Kate mind if she changed the spelling of her full name from ‘Catherine’ to ‘Katherine?’ Camilla pointed out that such a change also made sense on the grounds that, to most of the world, she was known simply as ‘Kate.’
“Offended by yet another command … essentially aimed at placating Camilla, a fuming William replied on his wife’s behalf. The request was nothing less than ‘insulting,’ he told his father, not only to Kate but to her entire family. The bizarre suggestion that ‘Catherine’ become ‘Katherine’ simply to make Charles and Camilla happy was summarily dropped.”
Andersen told Fox News Digital that Camilla wasn’t prepared for how popular Kate would become as a member of the royal family.
“I think within a matter of a couple of years, it became pretty clear to Camilla that she would have to contend with [Kate],” said Andersen. “…She somehow, as the Brits like to say, never put a foot wrong. And today, as a result, she’s pretty much universally admired.”
“…It’s just astounding that she’s been able to not only survive all this, but also flourish within the royal family,” Andersen noted.
Andersen claimed that even after marrying William, Kate was quickly put to the test.
“Even after April 2011, when Kate and William married, there was a lot of sniping from the sidelines, much of it coming from Camilla’s camp,” he said.
“During the first few years of William and Kate’s marriage, Kate got a lot of criticism fed to the press for not working as hard as the rest of the royal family. And the reason for that, of course, was that she put her own family and her own children first. She made it very clear that that was the way she would proceed, and that’s what she’s done.”
Andersen said that after battling cancer in 2024, Kate has “cut way back” on royal duties “for her own health and her own wellbeing and to spend time with the family.”
“The aftermath of chemo is quite tough,” he said. “She has good days, she has bad days. She sometimes gets tired easily and unexpectedly. She has cut way back on her schedule. But again, it’s because she’s made it clear that [her children] come first. And William.”
A St. James’ Palace staffer told Andersen about Camilla, “Maybe she felt threatened by Kate, or perhaps more by William and Kate as a team.”
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“…Charles and Camilla needed to be the stars of the royal show, but that was not going to happen as long as the public was consumed with the ongoing saga of the young prince and his romance with a dazzling commoner,” Andersen wrote. Royal reporter and Diana’s friend Richard Kay also told him, “Members of the royal family simply cannot stand being upstaged.”
After Kate announced her cancer diagnosis, Camilla’s feelings softened, Andersen claimed. The mother of three revealed she was officially in remission in January 2025.
“Camilla had a change of heart [after] her husband’s [cancer] diagnosis [in 2024],” Andersen explained.
“Charles and Kate were always fond of each other, but in the wake of being told that they had cancer, they really bucked up each other’s spirits. And Camilla recognizes that and has said that Kate is really the one who can make Charles laugh, and she appreciates that. …They’re always hugging and kissing, laughing and joking. …They’re very, very close. And Camilla is grateful for all that Kate has done to lift her husband’s spirits.”
Still, Andersen claimed to Fox News Digital that the rivalry between the royal wives isn’t quite over yet.
“…There’s still competition,” he said. “…That is really what makes the whole show. That’s how the monarchy functions: this competition among all the competing camps. Their staffs are constantly feeding information to the press, constantly trying to grab the spotlight for their particular royal. And Camilla and Charles do not want to be upstaged by William and Kate. William and Kate do not want to be upstaged by [Prince] Harry and Meghan [Markle].”
“That’s the kind of creative tension that might surprise a lot of people — they’re competing,” he added.
