Imagine this: you’re out, trying to communicate something to your spouse, and the entire world is watching you, analyzing you, employing the skills of lip readers and body language experts to deduce what you’re saying and what you’re not saying. Exhausting, no? Well, that’s life for the Prince and Princess of Wales every time they step outside of their Windsor home of Adelaide Cottage.
William and Kate—together for 20-plus years, and half of their lives—don’t know any other way, really. The blinding glare of the spotlight has always been on them, all the way back to the early aughts. So, naturally, the couple has managed to find a way to handle it, with The Mirror reporting that they “have developed a secret method of communicating with each other whilst attending official engagements when many eyes are upon them.”
Body language expert (see? Their services are employed all the time) Darren Stanton told the outlet that the two have long shared a private shorthand that has allowed them to grow in confidence. Though Kate—who will celebrate 13 years married to William in April and, vis a vis, 13 years as a senior working royal—has relaxed into her royal role and is confident and self-assured, that wasn’t always the case. In the early days, she was more shy, timid, and cautious (who among us can really blame her?) and as such developed a secret communication method with William, Stanton said.
“Kate’s confidence has grown dramatically in recent years,” Stanton said. “When Kate was first introduced as a public figure, we would see her play with her hair a lot and look to William for support during joint interviews or events. We would see this from William, too, as they both wanted reassurance from each other. There’s a sense they weren’t very confident early on and looking into each other’s eyes was their way of checking in with each other. They both wanted to feel at ease.”
These days, Kate has adopted a “subtle confidence,” Stanton said, and nerves no longer seem to get the better of either of them, he said. “In more recent years, Kate hasn’t shown any signs of nervousness or a need for reassurance from William,” Stanton said. “Her confidence has grown massively. We get a sense she’s happy to be there and wants to prove she’s here to get on with her job. She has an inner strength and is very motivated to do the best she can. This is shown through holding her head high, being active in conversations, and engaging in strong eye contact with people she’s never met before. Kate didn’t have this confidence previously, and the confidence she has is quite stable.”
He added of this confidence that “It’s not too overwhelming, and it’s clear her role comes naturally to her. Kate always has strong eye contact with anyone she’s communicating with and never comes across as slouched. She rarely crosses her arms, either—and that is normally a giveaway of someone feeling out of place with a lack of confidence.”
