Over a year ago, Mamamia’s Rosie Waterland asked the universe a simple question: What is a young entertainment journalist, meandering through an onslaught of stories based on royal weddings, babies and pastel suits, supposed to call the Duchess of Cambridge?
Since then, K-Midz has had her baby, come to Australia, conceived another kid, and yet we’re still sitting around, debating the semantic implications of ‘Kate’ vs ‘Catherine’, and of ‘Middleton’ vs ‘of Cambridge’.
So, we’ve decided to open the floor once again…
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By ROSIE WATERLAND
What do you call Kate Middleton?
I know. I know. Second to climate change, it probably is that next great moral challenge of our time (thanks for the handy phrase Kevin07).
I’m not talking about what you think you’re meant to call her, but what do you actually call her? Got it? Okay, don’t tell me yet – but hold onto it for the big reveal (coming in about 1 minute).
We discovered a bizarre phenomenon in the MM office last week. Okay, maybe not discovered, but we certainly used ‘important pressing royal research’ as an excuse to chat for 20 minutes. And here’s what we found:
Catherine needs some serious Cher-style branding – stat – because her name has gone rogue.
Take a deep breath:
Yes, she has an official hoity-toity title: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. But, the girl we fell in love with while she waited patiently for her prince was just plain old Kate Middleton. Then, when he finally proposed, it was revealed that she actually prefers Catherine. After that, people started calling her Lady Catherine, but there were still those who stuck with Lady Kate, or just plain Kate.
Then, there were those who jumped the gun and started calling her Princess Kate or Princess Catherine. But on their wedding day, it was revealed the Queen had decided to give the lovely couple the title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.