Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and US First Lady Jill Biden visit Connor Downs Academy in Hayle, Cornwall on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 11, 2021. Photo / Getty Images
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and US First Lady Jill Biden visit Connor Downs Academy in Hayle, Cornwall on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 11, 2021. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion
OPINION:
With a very impressive outing, Kate Middleton has made royal history – but is it a bitter pill to swallow for Meghan Markle?
In the long and storied history of the at-times bumpy relationship between Buckingham Palace and the White House there have been alleged spats (looking at you,Jackie Kennedy), protocol-busting hugging (Michelle Obama) and the time Jimmy Carter supposedly got a bit too touchy-feely with the Queen Mother.
The weekend saw the latest chapter in this diplomatic pas de deux play out against an idyllic Cornish backdrop as US President Joe Biden and his wife Dr Jill Biden touched down in Blighty for the G7 meeting. The Queen and the royal family were out in force, with the entire titled troop wheeled out as part of the most vigorous British charm offensive since their 1997 Eurovision campaign.
And the biggest, shiniest winner of those 48+ hours of Windsor gladhanding, photo-opping, and trans-Atlantic-friendship-building?
The pair seemed to be having fun and bonding during the school outing. Photo / Getty Images
With only one outing involving a primary school, a hutch full of rabbits and the First Lady of the United States, Kate managed to achieve what her sister-in-law Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex has long been reported to crave: Entré into the upper echelons of the US political firmament.
On Friday (UK time), Kate and Dr Jill Biden, twinning in co-ordinating shades of pink, united for an outing, laughing and smiling for the cameras as they arrived at a local school.
Not long after, CNN published an op-ed piece co-authored by the duo, with the pair passionately pushing for "a fundamental shift in how our countries approach the earliest years of life".
For Kate, this was all history-making stuff. No member of the house of Windsor has ever undertaken this sort of meticulously co-ordinated and staged joint project with a US administration before.
Kate and Dr Jill Biden during a visit to Connor Downs Academy, during the G7 summit in Cornwall on June 11. Photo / Getty Images
Kate, long cast as the pretty-but-dim princess-in-waiting, the woman who has in the past been consigned to Zara-clad broodmare status, has, with her Dr Biden project, in fact deftly established a new level of closeness between the royal family and the White House.
Make no bones about it: This is Kate stepping on to the world stage courtesy of her legacy-defining work on early years interventions.
Next stop, a speaking gig at the World Economic Forum in Davos? An address to the full session at the UN? A highly coveted invitation to the annual "Summer camp for billionaires" in Sun Valley?
What only a few years ago would have been a risible notion is now very much a real-world possibility.
It is impossible not to wonder how this latest turn of events is going down in Montecito as Harry and Meghan begin their five months of parental leave. (On June 4 they welcomed their second child, daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.)
For Meghan, is it a bitter pill to swallow to have to watch her sister-in-law (and the woman who allegedly made her cry in the lead-up to her wedding) snagging the glittering prize of being embraced by the Biden administration and being accepted as an international mover and shaker by the White House?
It's hard to know how Meghan Markle will feel about Kate Middleton bonding with Jill Biden. Photo / Supplied
Speculation that Meghan might have political ambitions has been growing for the better part of a year now with the Duchess even alleged to have her sights on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
A close friend of the Duchess told Vanity Fair last October: "One of the reasons she was so keen not to give up her American citizenship was so she had the option to go into politics. I think if Meghan and Harry ever gave up their titles she would seriously consider running for president."
Last year, Meghan worked with a nonpartisan organisation set up by Michelle Obama to help register voters and the couple's first (and so far only) podcast for Spotify featured Democratic superstar Stacy Abrahams whose work in the state of Georgia is credited with helping Biden win.
In February this year, it was revealed that the Sussexes had had an hour-long "introductory meeting" with Californian Governor Gavin Newsom in the run-up to last year's presidential election. At the time the virtual meeting happened, Newsom was looking for a possible replacement for Senator Kamala Harris and The New York Times later reported: "Active campaigns are also under way to urge Mr Newsom to replace Ms Harris with a woman, particularly a black woman."
The same month Mike Trujillo, a prominent Democratic strategist, told the Times: "She's definitely putting her toe in the water … Everything she's doing is similar to what other folks have done before they run for office."
Factor in too here both Harry and Meghan's ties to the Obamas, with Harry having secured a high-profile interview with Barack in 2017 and Meghan having interviewed Michelle as part of her guest-editorship of British Vogue in 2019.
Given all of this, signs would seem to point to Meghan angling to enter, at some stage, the political fray and to wanting to be a future leading light of the Democratic party. (Chances are she would excel given her humanitarian bonafides, zeal and handy way with a hashtag.)
Meghan is said to have ambitions to go into politics. Photo / Getty Images
And there, rubbing shoulders with the Bidens and earning plaudits by the metric tonne is none other than Kate.
