In the lead-up to one of the most watched weddings in history, a pointed battle was apparently playing out behind palace doors.
A new biography claims that King Charles and Queen Camilla asked Kate Middleton to change the spelling of her name before she married Prince William in April 2011 — and the request did not go down well.
Royal author Christopher Andersen makes the allegation in his new book Kate! The Courage, Grace and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, out this week.
According to Andersen, the issue came down to royal monograms.
Both Charles and Camilla had official cyphers featuring interlocking C’s beneath a crown, and with a future Princess of Wales named Catherine, a third C-emblazoned monogram was apparently considered one too many.
“Charles and Camilla each had a royal monogram that consisted of interlocking C’s beneath a crown,” Andersen wrote, explaining the couple felt another C “was overkill.”
The solution they proposed was that Kate — whose full name is Catherine — should consider switching the spelling to Katherine instead.
Camilla reportedly pointed out that most of the world already knew her simply as Kate anyway.
Kate was reportedly offended by the suggestion. And William, by all accounts, was furious.
According to Andersen, a fuming William stepped in on his then-fiancée’s behalf, calling the request “insulting… not only to Kate but to her entire family.”
The matter was promptly dropped.
William and Catherine were married at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions.
The news comes as Princess Kate has announced she is heading abroad for the first time since her cancer diagnosis.
The Princess of Wales has confirmed she will be visiting Italy for a brief two-day solo trip from May 13 until May 14.
It will be her first overseas work trip since she publicly revealed her cancer diagnosis in March 2024.
Kate will be visiting Reggio Emilia in northern Italy to learn about their approach to childhood education.
It is linked to her work with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which she launched in 2021 to drive change in the education sector.
“The Princess is very much looking forward to visiting Italy next week and seeing first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships come together to support children’s development,” her spokesperson said in a statement.
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