From left: outside St Mary’s Hospital in London with newborns George, Charlotte and Louis

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After one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the British royal family, the Windsors find themselves at the start of 2026 with one less prince — thanks to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s fall from grace — and a middle-class girl having risen to become their most valuable asset. Her cancer battle appears to have inspired her to talk about love, spirituality and how to live a better life. Now, as the Princess of Wales prepares to turn 44 on January 9, it’s time to start asking what sort of Queen she plans to become. To understand that, we need to find out about that missing phone, hear from a Zen priest close to the princess, and learn how chemotherapy affected one of the world’s most famous women.

‘She always loses her phone’

First, we must go back to January 2020. It’s a cold and bright day in south London and Kate, then the Duchess of Cambridge, is about to sit down with Giovanna Fletcher, the celebrity podcaster and author, to deliver what will be a pivotal moment for them both. Fletcher went for it. Does Kate get mum guilt? Of course. Any regrets? Well, there are definitely things she would do differently. And any tips on enduring labour? Hypnobirthing all the way.

Off air, they chat about “feral” children and how Kate struggles to keep track of her stuff. Fletcher says, “She told me that she was notoriously bad at keeping an eye on her phone. She always loses her phone. All of her Christmas presents that year were related to her keeping track of her phone… It was all about her not losing her phone.”

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Kate had just visited a nursery in Stockwell to launch her 5 Big Questions on the Under Fives survey and spark a “national discussion” about a child’s early years development. It involved chatting to toddlers and pouring them Rice Krispies for breakfast out of Tupperware boxes. Afterwards, she agreed to speak to Fletcher for her Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast.

At the National Portrait Gallery in February

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“What I think surprised me was how nervous we both were at the top of the chat,” Fletcher recalls. “I think there’s no denying, when you talk to Catherine, you know what she means to the country, what influence she will have on life going forward — and can have with her early years campaigning. So I think I was nervous because of that. She was nervous because she knew that she was about to speak in a way that she’d never spoken before.”

It helped that William was behind the scenes to lend a hand. “Thankfully, Prince William came into the room and he said, ‘Just talk.’ ” It wasn’t live and he reasoned that they could always cut bits later on. His wife took his advice and the tea grew cold in front of them as a 45-minute chat became a 90-minute, no-holds-barred interview.

Soon after, Kate set up the Centre for Early Childhood at the Royal Foundation she shares with Prince William. Described by aides as “her life’s work”, it’s designed as an antidote to adult problems in society by looking at ways to get lives off to the best start at the very beginning. Explaining the mission, a source close to the princess reveals, “She often says, ‘People think I’m doing this because I’m a mother, but actually it’s not just about children. It’s about adults.’ ”

Attending a St Patrick’s Day parade at Mons Barracks in Aldershot last March

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“There is a sense that the centre has a ‘Your country needs you’ type of message,” says Christian Guy, its executive director, referencing the Lord Kitchener First World War recruitment poster. Guy, whom Kate has publicly thanked for “holding the fort” at the centre during her illness, says that she is “ambitious” for the project.

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“One of the key things to understand,” he says, “is that the earliest years — this period of profound human development and the way we build brains and set people up for their future — is a job for everybody. This is a societal cause. This is not just a job for parents and those caring for babies and young children. And she’s very determined to help to inspire and inform everyone who can play their part.”

She worries about technology ‘fragmenting our focus’

While William is known to WhatsApp his staff at the Duchy of Cornwall, sometimes dozens of times over the weekend, Guy says Kate is just as likely to call or email. Interesting, given her reticence when it comes to smartphones. Part of her mission to spread the word of the importance of a child’s first years included writing an essay with Professor Robert Waldinger, a Harvard academic, in which she warned about the perils of screen time for children. In The Power of Human Connection in a Distracted World, Kate argued that smartphones and other gadgets were playing a “complex and often troubling role” in the “epidemic of disconnection”. Technology, the princess said, has become “a constant distraction, fragmenting our focus… We’re physically present but mentally absent, unable to fully engage with the people right in front of us.” (Prince William also talked about the perils of technology and children, telling the actor Eugene Levy, “None of our children have any phones, which we’re very strict about.”)

At the Future Workforce Summit in November with, centre, mentor Robert Waldinger

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In her essay, Kate’s co-author brings some heavyweight academic ballast to the piece. As the fourth director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which began in 1938, Waldinger is leading the longest investigation into adult happiness, a study which has found that the most powerful indicator of a long and happy life is not a person’s cholesterol levels or blood pressure, but the quality of their relationships with others. He first met Kate in December 2022 when, following a visit to Harvard, the princess convened a national symposium on the subject to launch Shaping Us, a campaign about those crucial early years.

“Tony Blair was at the first summit two years ago on a panel and he said something that really struck me,” Waldinger says. “He said, ‘You know, it’s so important that an institution like the royal family does this, because politicians can’t do it.’ That’s what we’re talking about — investing in early childhood, so that we have healthy schoolchildren and teenagers and young adults. And so if the future queen can say this is an investment that will pay off in 20, 30, 40 years, she can really say that with authority, and she’s going to be here to watch it pay off. I just think that’s fabulous.”

Speaking to Waldinger, it’s easy to see why his charm, intelligence and innate sense of calm have endeared him to the princess. The smiley 74-year-old is not your average academic. He’s also a Zen priest or roshi, a term for Zen Buddhist leaders. In his 2015 TED talk, which has had more than 50 million views, Waldinger talks about replacing screen time with “people time”. He signs off with a quote from Mark Twain: “There isn’t time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving and but an instant, so to speak, for that.” It’s a message that the princess appears to have taken to heart, although her latest public announcements sometimes seem inspired by Gen Z as much as Zen philosophy. Each season last year she released a video in which she urged us to “simply love and be loved” and praised the value of love and the way it “weaves” through our entire human experience.

At St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in June last year

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In April, she told the chief scout, Dwayne Fields, that she had a “spiritual and intense emotional reconnection” with nature and, later, the order of service for her annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey in December featured the William Morris quote, “Love is enough.”

Those close to the princess point to her life-changing experience of cancer as a driver for her to share what she has learnt. “On a very human level, if you go through an experience like this, it changes you,” says a source who has known William and Kate for decades. “And it can change you for the good. At heart, they’re both good, proper people. While you’d never wish it upon them, it’s made them stronger as a couple and stronger as individuals, with probably more wisdom than they had before. When your kids are young, you just barrel forward at great pace and everything is just about the growth of the family. And with this, you know, it’s the obvious cliché, but it sort of stops you in your tracks.”

In March 2024, Kate recorded a video to tell the public that cancer had been found following major abdominal surgery earlier that year. She was seen sitting alone on a bench in the grounds at Windsor, putting an end to increasingly lurid speculation online about her condition. A fortnight beforehand, a Mother’s Day picture was released of Kate with the children, which had been meant to reassure the public, but only served to add grist to the gossip mill when it emerged that she had edited elements of the photograph. Behind the scenes, sources say, she had only wanted to do a nice thing with the best of intentions, but it backfired spectacularly. When it came to returning to public duties, it was a case of slowly but surely.

The family at Kate’s Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey

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‘Crowns and gowns’

With all the focus on nature and love, should we expect to see a future queen with garlands of flowers instead of a crown? Not so fast. Kate appreciates that her “enduring love” routine must go hand in hand with other aspects of the princess gig, or what one royal source refers to as the “crowns and gowns” element of the job.

When Vogue published its 2025 best-dressed list, it described the Princess of Wales as an “eternal influencer” and “culture-shaper” whose “quiet support can change the trajectory of a brand”. (Certain designers are no doubt holding their breath ahead of the spring, when Kate will grant her first royal warrants.) In 2025, the princess lost the services of Natasha Archer, her senior private executive assistant, who left the palace to set up her own consultancy. Having been by the princess’s side for 15 years, it was seen as a huge loss, but aides are quick to remind me that Kate does not have a stylist. Instead, she is said to be “very much in control” of her own sartorial choices. These were seen most memorably at the last three state banquets hosted by the royal family.

At the French state visit Kate, Camilla and Brigitte Macron all looked as if they had got the memo when they each emerged at Windsor Castle dressed in a different colour of the French tricolor: Kate in red in a floor-length Givenchy gown, Camilla in white and Madame Macron in blue. Emmanuel Macron winked at Kate across the banquet table.

From left: at the state banquet for the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, last December; in July, when the Macrons visited; at the banquet for Donald Trump in July

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When the royal family welcomed Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, for a state banquet in December, I’m told that it was the princess’s idea to wear Queen Victoria’s Oriental Circlet tiara, an heirloom designed for her husband’s great-great-great-great-grandmother by her consort, German-born Prince Albert, highlighting the Windsors’ long-standing ties with the country. Kate combined it with a lilac gown from one of her favourite designers, Jenny Packham.

For the US president’s “unprecedented” second state visit in September, it had to be something special. Kate went for Donald Trump’s favourite colour: gold. In an outfit that was specially created for the occasion, Kate wore a full-length hand-embroidered gold Chantilly lace evening coat over a silk crepe gown by the British designer Phillipa Lepley. The picture in which a golden princess smiled benevolently at Trump seemed, in the soft diplomacy stakes, to pave the way for a new form of “special relationship” between the countries. If his broad grin was anything to go by, the president was thrilled to sit next to her, using his speech to profess that she was “so radiant and so healthy and so beautiful”.

With her health apparently improving, there has been a suggestion that Kate and William will make a joint foreign visit this year, perhaps to the US for the 250th anniversary of independence (Queen Elizabeth II visited the US in 1976 for America’s bicentennial). Kate and Melania appear to get on well, with a shared interest in the scouting movement. It could be the sort of gold dust Sir Keir Starmer needs to continue to woo a US president who seems less interested in spending his voters’ money on supporting his European allies in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

With Melania Trump at Frogmore Cottage in September

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If there’s one thing that William and Kate understand perhaps better than anyone else in the royal family, it’s the value of their own brand. “While it may seem a completely ridiculous comparison, it reminds me a bit of dear old David and Victoria Beckham,” a well-placed source says. “I think the public can spot a genuine relationship and a genuinely strong marriage and two people who fit well together. How strong they are individually, but also as a couple. And I think that’s probably a great asset.”

Raising a future king

Not far from Windsor, south of Ascot, there’s a small community hut in the village of Sunningdale that serves as a meeting place for the local Women’s Institute. To get there, you walk over a zebra crossing marked “Kate’s Crossing”. On a sunny September morning on the third anniversary of his grandmother’s death, Prince William was due to arrive. What truly excited the guests gathered among the homemade cakes, however, was a short announcement just before his arrival that he was bringing a plus-one.

Kate’s appearance caused a buzz. She smiled, she tried modest amounts of cake, delicately lifting them to her mouth with a fork, and she held her own in conversations about the best recipes for chocolate brownies (William’s favourite). She told the women that she and her children had been “crafting in every corner of the house” over the summer holidays. What most of the WI members wanted to know was whether Prince Louis, the couple’s youngest son, was “a bit of a handful” compared with his big brother, Prince George. When it was pointed out that George appeared to be the sensible one whereas Louis was “a bit of a character”, William said that while George knew how to behave in public, “behind closed doors, it’s a different story”.

This year, George will go to secondary school as he and his siblings follow a far more “normal” trajectory than was ever afforded to his grandfather, King Charles. In a coming of age television interview in 1969, Prince Charles, then 21, reflected on his childhood: “Out of certain necessity I’ve perhaps been more lonely. I haven’t made a lot of friends. I haven’t been to a lot of parties… Essentially it is, I suppose, compared with other people’s lives, more lonely.”

Announcing her cancer diagnosis in March 2024 and, right, with Prince William that September

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Kate, who has written about how loneliness can be “toxic”, will be at pains to avoid the same fate for her own son, the second in line to the throne. The frontrunners on leaving Lambrook School include Eton College and Marlborough College (respectively his father and mother’s alma maters). Motherhood is daunting enough, but the stakes are even higher when you’re raising a king. She does, I’m told, feel the pressure to “get it right”. It’s why the school runs and sporting fixtures are important, as is time with grandparents Carole and Michael Middleton. He is also used to helping on errands, with one Windsor local recalling how they once bumped into a young Prince George at a soft furnishings shop where he was happily eating orange segments while granny Carole picked up fabric samples.

In July, Kate, William and family moved from Adelaide Cottage and into Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom grade II listed Georgian mansion in Windsor Great Park, a grace and favour residence that was returned to the Crown Estate in the Nineties by Queen Elizabeth II. The Crown Estate says that Kate and William are paying an “open market rent”. It is described as a “for ever home” by sources close to the couple yet they only have a 20-year lease on the property, although someone close to the deal says that this is typical of such a contract, with a plan to extend the lease when it expires. They are certainly good for it. As the Prince of Wales, William is entitled to the profits from the Duchy of Cornwall to fund his public office and provide a private income. Last year, that figure was £23.6 million, on which he pays tax (although the exact amount has not been made public).

Life looks secure at Windsor, with Kate’s parents not far away. I’m told they have no plans to relocate to Buckingham Palace when William becomes king. Some of the neighbours leave a little to be desired, though. William’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will be moving out this year, having finally been forced out of Royal Lodge for a windswept cottage on the Sandringham estate. In the whole sorry saga, William was often painted as the tough guy urging his father to put his foot down. This image of ruthless William was, I’m told, wide of the mark. If anything, William was deeply concerned for his uncle’s mental health and how Andrew would cope after everything was taken away. Nevertheless, William realised that while Andrew had always denied any wrongdoing, he supported his father’s decision to strip Andrew of his royal titles. Kate, in turn, supported her husband in the matter.

Visiting Sudbury Silk Mills in Suffolk in September

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There’s also the issue of other former neighbours, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who vacated Frogmore Cottage nearly six years ago. Prince Harry is not in contact with William. After repeatedly taking aim at his brother and sister-in-law, it’s hardly surprising that William and Kate would rather focus on raising their own family. There was a sense of weary inevitability in William’s camp when Harry decided to announce a trip to Canada for “remembrancetide” at the start of his brother’s official visit to Brazil. If Kate has learnt anything from her cancer ordeal and the teachings of Robert Waldinger, however, she’ll know that life’s far too short to get hung up on Harry.

‘She leans in. She’s very aware of what’s going on’

It’s November 2025, we’re on the 36th floor of the Salesforce Tower in the City of London and the princess is giving her first speech in two years following her cancer diagnosis. Giovanna Fletcher is here but, this time, Kate has a far larger audience of 80 chief executives. She’s talking about her campaign to help families and improve lives by focusing on getting a baby’s first years off to a solid start with the “essential bond” of love. Dressed in a business suit, Kate’s speech goes down well, and not just in the room.

On Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, 2020

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With never a hair out of place, she seems the perfect ambassador for Brand Britain. All well and good, but the question I’m asked most about the enigmatic princess is, “What is she really like?” Might her unofficial role as “head girl of the royal family” lead to her being seen as aloof?

“I don’t think that at all,” Fletcher says. “She’s full of heart. I think she’ll be a queen who really listens, who leans in, who’s very aware of what’s going on — like the King with the King’s Trust. I think [the Prince and Princess of Wales] are going into it with their eyes completely open. I don’t feel like it’s ‘us v them’. We have to work together as a society to make that change happen [and] I think they get it. They understand things. And so, for that reason, I think it will be a welcome change.”

Aides say the princess shares her husband’s desire for “impactful change”. Kate as queen may also be more ambitious and bold than any of us appreciate. Just don’t expect her to respond to messages while she’s on the school run. Perhaps she is in no rush to find her phone after all.