Kate Middleton has put yet another year on the books as a crucial component of the working royal family. There was so much to love about her and Prince William’s work in 2022.
However, this year, we also learned more about the princess’ life as a mother to her three children. Here’s how one royal commentator believes Middleton will break the dreaded “heir and the spare” curse.
William And Harry Exemplified The ‘Heir And Spare’ Dynamic
Prince William and Prince Harry had an extremely unique upbringing. They were the first royal children to be raised completely in the eye of the press.
Their early lives were marked by their parents’ tumultuous divorce and the sudden death of their enigmatic mother. To add to that, the media was constantly pitting them against each other as the “heir and spare” to the British throne.
This reputation followed them into their adulthood. While Prince William bore an impossible weight as the young heir, Prince Harry had his own struggles.
Everyone knew that he most likely would never become the king, but that slim chance kept him from leading his own life or pursuing his own interests. From childhood, he was bound to a throne that he would never occupy.
While it was always clear that he got along just fine with William, Harry carried a certain stigma as the “spare” son. With no other siblings to bear that title with him, the phenomenon certainly left its mark on his psyche. The duke even titled his upcoming memoir Spare in reference to his longtime moniker.
Kate Middleton Battles The ‘Spare’ Curse
Flash forward a good decade, and now Prince William is raising his own heir. However, he and Kate Middleton also share two beloved children who are not in the immediate line of succession.
According to royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, the Prince and Princess of Wales are working hard to combat the polarizing “heir and spare” conception.
“There’s this heir and spare dynamic that we have been talking about for the last few years, in which the spare typically is so completely lost and they fall into trouble… I don’t think that it’s going to happen to Prince William’s children,” the author explained to Express. “I believe that this is where they’re going to break the cycle. I think that they’re going to stop with the spare talk and I think the ‘necessity’ for a spare ends now.”
Schofield adds that she thinks Middleton will fight to “break the cycle,” instead encouraging her children to pursue their own interests outside of the firm.
“I think we’ll see his children go off to school, find careers that they’re sincerely passionate about and be an adult in a way that we never got to see Margaret or Andrew do,” she asserted.
What’s clear is that, now that Charles has ascended to the throne, royal dynamics are in a state of flux. There’s no doubt that we will see the royal family continue to evolve in 2023.