By Katherine Tinsley
2:10am PDT, Aug 28, 2025
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Kate Middleton has evolved into a beloved member of the royal family over the years, but she might not have been able to do it without some expert advice from her husband's late grandfather,
Prince Philip. Keep reading to get the scoop on the wisdom he imparted on her early in her relationship with
Prince William…
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Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth, who was friends with Prince Philip, claimed that the late Duke of Edinburgh was "relieved" when Prince William found Kate Middleton, whom he described as "such a level-headed girl."
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Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II approved of Prince William's chosen mate, who's taken a different approach to her role in the royal family than his late mother, Princess Diana, did. "One of the things that saddened — and worried — the queen and Prince Philip about Diana, Princess of Wales, was not that she was popular, but that she allowed her popularity to go to her head," Gyles Brandreth wrote in Philip: the Final Portrait. "Once upon a time, Philip and Elizabeth were seen as characters from a fairytale. The difference between them and Princess Diana, I think, is that they did not take it personally."
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According to Gyles Brandreth, Prince Philip once said, "If you believe the attention is for you, for you personally, you're going to end up in trouble. The attention is for your role, what you do, what you're supporting. It isn't for you as an individual. You are not a celebrity. You are representing the royal family. That's all."
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According to Gyles Brandreth, Prince Philip once advised Kate Middleton to avoid looking directly at photographers. "Don't look at the camera. The [late] queen never looks at the camera. Never. Look at who you are talking to. Look at who you've come to see. [Princess Diana] looked at the camera," the late Duke of Edinburgh reportedly told Prince William's wife. Brandreth noted that to this day, the new Princess of Wales "never looks at the camera."
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Gyles Brandreth noted that during their younger years, Prince William and Kate Middleton lived "a relatively normal young officer's life" that was "not dissimilar to the experience enjoyed by [Prince Philip] and [Queen Elizabeth II] when the Duke of Edinburgh was a young officer serving in the Royal Navy in Malta 60 years before."
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Gyles Brandreth also shared that he got to witness Prince William and Kate Middleton "doing their thing" at a royal gathering in 2012. "They did not put a foot wrong," he gushed.
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"At all times their focus was entirely on the people immediately in front of them," Gyles Brandreth said of Prince William and Kate Middleton, adding that "not once did either of them play to the cameras — or even acknowledge them." He also noted that "in more than 70 years of royal duty, [Prince Philip] never once put himself above, before or ahead of his wife and sovereign." Finally, Brandreth wrote that although "Philip would take no credit for the successful way" that Kate Middleton adjusted to royal life, "she appeared to have learnt all the lessons that Philip could have taught her."
