Princess Kate’s regal style transformation from quintessential girl next door to glamorous future queen has won praise online after images captured throughout the royal’s two decades in the public eye went viral.
Kate first entered the glare of the public spotlight in 2004 when it was broken in the British tabloids that she was in a serious relationship with Prince William. The pair met in 2001 while studying at the University of St Andrew’s in Scotland; they became friends and began dating soon after.
William and Kate’s early relationship saw a renewal of public interest in 2023, when their meeting was dramatized by Netflix for the final season of the hit royal drama The Crown.
After the 2004 publication of images showing William and Kate embracing during a skiing vacation, the future princess became an object of fascination for the press, public and paparazzi.
Regularly throughout the 2000s, Kate would have photographers stationed outside her London home. By 2005, her family lawyers had sent warnings to newspaper editors, asking them to cease publication of intrusive reports into her private life; and in 2007, on the day of her 25th birthday, over 20 photographers descended on the future royal as she walked to her car, resulting in a frenzy of camera flashes and obstruction.
Later that same year, a government report on press regulation contained an entire section on the “hounding” of Kate by the media, using the 25th-birthday incident as an example of the failure of guidelines that were in place.
Despite the media hounding, Kate grew in popularity among the public, with the photographs that were taken of her being widely consumed. One aspect of these that earned the future princess widespread praise were her fashion choices.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @sabrinaa_alvess, on August 2, a compilation of images of Kate taken throughout the early 2000s has been contrasted with more recent footage captured during her time as Princess of Wales.
