SHOWING HER INNER STEEL THE PRINCESS OF WALES PREPARES TO MOVE PAST THE RUMOURS AS SHE LOOKS TO THE FUTURE

After a tumultuous week in which she was thrust into the spotlight while recovering from major surgery, the Princess of Wales is determined to move forward and put the events of recent days firmly behind her.

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

Kate, who came under intense scrutiny after releasing an edited image of herself with her three children to mark Mother’s Day, is now focusing on spending the forthcoming Easter break with her family before making her longawaited return to public life.

Royal sources tell hello! that although recent events have proved testing for the Princess, her inner strength will have helped her deal with the speculation and criticism that have cast a shadow over what should have been a happy family celebration, as well as a chance to assure the world that she was on the road to recovery.

Supported by her husband the Prince, as well as by her mother Carole Middleton and no doubt her father Michael and younger siblings Pippa and James, Kate will be drawing on the same steely resolve possessed by generations of matriarchs in her family.

“Kate is strong, that’s for sure; I don’t think she could have taken on William if she wasn’t,” Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty Magazine, tells us.

“She has always been strong and determined, and someone who knows what she wants. She’s got her mum, her sister and a loyal gang of girlfriends with whom she was at Marlborough College, and she will stick up for herself. She’s certainly no pushover.”

MADE FROM STRONG STUFF

Strength is a characteristic that runs through Kate’s maternal bloodline. Former flight attendant Carole is a self-made millionaire, thanks to the party-supplies business she built from her kitchen table, and the Princess’s maternal grandmother Dorothy, who came from a family of coalminers, shrewdly invested in property and was nicknamed “the duchess” because of her determination to better herself.