Personally, I don’t think the Queen ever *disliked* the Duchess of Cambridge. I think the Queen questioned Kate’s work ethic pre-marriage and post-marriage, absolutely, but the Queen has always been generally sort of fond of Kate. We can see now, in retrospect, how the Queen and the palace courtiers really coddled Kate for years, especially in comparison to the treatment the Duchess of Sussex got in her first two years with the Firm. But according to Katie Nicholl – who is a Middleton hagiographer – the Queen has only recently become close to Kate.

The Duchess of Cambridge has a ‘very easy relationship’ with the Queen and is expected to join the royal family at Sandringham this year, a royal commentator has claimed. Kate Middleton, 37, who tied the knot to Prince William in 2011, is thought to have developed a stronger bond with the monarch since the birth of her three children – Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and Prince Louis, one.

‘Both women are actually quite shy so it’s taken time for them to get to this stage, but they have a very easy relationship now they’ve both made the effort,’ said royal commentator Katie Nicholl, speaking to OK! ‘The Queen loves seeing Kate because it’s an opportunity to spend time with her and hear how her great grandchildren are doing.’

She went on to say Kate has a made a conscious effort to make the Queen feel as involved as possible in the children’s lives. Katie also told how the Duchess of Cambridge is expected to attend the royal family gathering at Sandringham this year.

The reports come after Buckingham Palace confirmed Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, will not be spending Christmas at Sandringham. A spokesman revealed they will instead spend the festive season with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland and their baby son, Archie, at an undisclosed location.

‘I imagine that spending Christmas at Sandringham with her grandchildren and great grandchildren will be something she’s very much looking forward to,’ she said. ‘So Kate and William are doing the dutiful thing and putting the royal family first.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“So Kate and William are doing the dutiful thing and putting the royal family first…” Unlike those years that they didn’t put the royal family first and they went to Bucklebury to spend the Christmas holiday with the Middletons, but why even bring that up when the Sussexes will be spending Christmas away from Sandringham this year?! The comparison is clear and obvious: Kate is a dutiful Future Queen because she isn’t going to Bucklebury for Christmas this year, and the Sussexs are anti-royal, anti-Queen because they are doing what Will & Kate did several times. As for Kate making a conscious effort to include the Queen in the lives of the Cambridge kids… Prince Charles literally had to publicly shame William and Kate into letting him spend time with his grandkids, so… this narrative is probably going to change once the Cambridges understand that Shadow King Charles is in charge, you know?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.