Kate Middleton certainly ingratiated herself into the Royal family following her marriage to Prince William a lot smoother than Meghan Markle did after her own wedding to Prince Harry, but there were still likely numerous hills to climb and sacrifices that had to be made on the Princess of Wales’ part in order to become the potential future queen she is today.
Many of these Princess Catherine presumably accepted as part of her duty, but thankfully one bold proposal from now-King Charles didn’t come to pass. No, it wasn’t a proposal of the indecent kind, thankfully, but it was still a huge liberty to ask nonetheless, and Kate can’t be blamed for turning the request down.
In his memoir Spare (that’s still causing trouble for the Duke of Sussex a year and a half on from its release), Prince Harry recalls a time he was with his father, Charles, step-mother, Camilla, and brother, William, and the current monarch came out with a bizarre idea: he wanted Kate to change her name for his convenience.
“There were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above: Charles and Camilla. It would be too confusing to have another,” Harry recalled his father’s argument. “Make it Katherine with a K, they suggested.” Harry was shocked that Charles was even voicing such a selfish proposal, but William’s reaction to it was harder to read. “I turned to Willy, gave him a look that said ‘You listening to this? ‘ His face was blank.”
It seems Harry wasn’t around when this request was ultimately thrown out, as he notes in Spare: “I wondered now what came of that suggestion.” Clearly, the idea didn’t take, though, as Princess Catherine still goes by her birth name and occasionally signs off messages to the public with the initial “C.” We can assume, then, that she must’ve found some diplomatic way of dismissing the notion of a name change without offending her father-in-law.
Charles certainly doesn’t hold a grudge over Kate being the third C in the family, as all the signs point to the king and his daughter-in-law being very close — he did just appoint her as his “Royal Companion” after all (it’s not as creepy as it sounds). Likewise, William is extremely loyal to his father so it’s no surprise he decided to hold his tongue during this conversation. He’s probably used to his dad’s occasionally… let’s say oddball ways by now.
Just think, if Charles was really that dedicated to not having the same initial as Princess Catherine then we could be living in the reign of King Kharles right now.