Prince William is mad that the Sussexes still refer to his wife as Kate, not Catherine

There’s always a big “tell” between the average royal gossip and a full-blown royalist/monarchist. That tell is how they refer to the Princess of Wales. The monarchists call her Catherine, even when doing so comes across as awkward or high-handed. My little thing, when I’m writing about her, is to refer to her by her title the first time, and then I call her “Kate” throughout the rest of the post. Okay, sometimes I also might refer to her as Keen or Buttons or Waity. But I will never call her “Catherine.” I think the whole “call her Catherine” thing is stupid from a branding perspective – she was always known, and she’s still primarily known, as Kate Middleton. She wants her personal brand to be one of normalcy, relatability, the middle-class girl who married a prince. Demanding that people constantly refer to you as Catherine kind of ruins that. It’s also been clear for years that people who interact with her privately still call her Kate as well. People like… her brother-in-law and his wife. Apparently, Prince William is absolutely furious that Harry and Meghan still refer to her as Kate. LMAO.

Friends of Prince William and Kate Middleton have told the Daily Beast that William took offense at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle publicly referring to his wife as Kate rather than Catherine, “even when they were sending her get-well-soon messages after her cancer diagnosis.”

Kate has long let it be known that she prefers to be called Catherine. It is the name her friends and family use, it is the name William uses in private, and it is how she introduces herself to others. The Daily Beast, in common with many American media outlets, still uses Kate and Kate Middleton, which is how she is still universally known in the U.S. and around the world. Although she was widely known as Kate at school and university, she made a deliberate switch to her full name, Catherine, shortly before marrying William.

In Harry’s book, Spare, he always refers to Catherine as Kate, apart from in one episode when he recalls Charles calling her Catherine and Harry says he “flinched” on hearing the name…. However, a source now says that William was annoyed when Harry and Meghan chose to refer to her as “Kate” in a March 2024 statement, released after the Princess of Wales revealed she had cancer. The brief statement said: “We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace.”

A friend of William and Kate said: “The fact that Harry and Meghan were unable to bring themselves to use her chosen name, even when they were sending her get-well-soon messages after her cancer diagnosis, was noted. William takes offence at people calling Catherine ‘Kate,’ because she has asked to be known as Catherine. It’s a fairly simple wish to respect. I’m sure Meghan wouldn’t like it if William started publicly calling her ‘Meghan Markle.’

“Of course it’s an utterly trivial thing, but those of us who know William know that it is one of the things that pushes his buttons. Pushing his buttons while he was going through his wife’s cancer seemed an entirely unnecessary and deliberate irritation. I wonder if the private card began, ‘Dear Kate…’”

Another friend of the Waleses said, “No-one’s saying it’s responsible for all the trouble, but deliberately calling someone by a name they don’t like is just bloody rude. If Harry and Meghan were serious about healing their issue, a good first step would be to call her Catherine.”

[From The Daily Beast]

As I said, it’s been clear for a while that people call her Kate privately and basically the only time anyone refers to her as Catherine is in formal statements from Kensington Palace. Harry has always known her as Kate, so he calls her Kate. Meghan was probably introduced to her as Kate too. Now, do I also think there’s a hilarious element of Harry and Meghan trying to needle Will and Kate? For sure. The Sussexes are like, we don’t give a f–k, people know her as Kate and we’ll call her that in statements and interviews too. I hope they never stop! It’s also funny because Meghan and Kate are BOTH known by their maiden names and their maiden names are still widely used in reporting, biographies and commentary. Meghan doesn’t care. Kate does.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.