Kate and Cressida: how to be royal sisters

Rumours are bubbling away that Prince Harry is about to marry and make Cressida Bonas a royal duchess.  And hot on their heels are rumours that Kate isn't overly keen on the idea.  Because if there's one thing as certain as a royal wedding spawning tea towels, mugs and a couple of days off work to enjoy the festivities, it's that there will be endless talk for years on end of competition, real or otherwise, between the new wife and the princess already in situ.  The Duchess of Cambridge and the duchess in possible waiting might want to look to Europe for lessons on what happens when another brother finds himself a wife.

 

Kate of Cambridge is all smiles now but what will she do if she finds another royal duchess vying for the flat tummy of the year award?

 

While it's impossible to know what royal sisters in law really think of one another, Kate will be hoping for a better press than that enjoyed - or rather endured - by the Spanish sisters in law.  Ever since Letizia arrived at the Zarzuela Palace there's been all kinds of talk that Elena and Cristina aren't exactly forthcoming with the invites to pop over for a glass of wine and a natter.  And that the princess isn't ringing them up every weekend asking them round for a barbecue and a chat about what they're going to do at Christmas.

 

 

They all look so happy.  Royal sisters-in-law Letizia, Elena and Cristina at one of their rare appearances together in the summer of 2010 at the wedding of Prince Nicholas of Greece

 

From the very first, there has been talk of friction between the Princess of Astrurias and the two infantas.  But without the people themselves speaking it's impossible to know the truth.  The first real rumour of a big rift came in 2005 when it was said that Letizia, then heavily pregnant with Leonor, had refused to let the parents-in-law of the Infanta Cristina stay in her home.  Since Inaki Urdangarin has been under investigation for financial irregularities, more and more has been written about the prince and princess distancing themselves from the Infanta Cristina and her family.  But the crisis besetting the Spanish royals makes this set of family relations very different from those in the rest of Europe. 

 

 

How hard was it for a photographer to get a shot of the three royal women looking distinctly uneasy in each other's company?  Here the Princess of Asturias, the Infanta Elena and the Infanta Cristina present a very uncomfortable family group on Spain's National Day in October 2011

 

Kate will also be keeping an eye on Denmark.  Princess Mary is said to get on well with Mrs Cambridge but her friendship with her sister in law, Marie, has been rumoured to be warm, cold and everything in between.  There are press reports saying that Marie is so keen to be like the future queen that she's taken her emulation of dress and style to epic proportions.  Others paint their friendship as a happy tale of two young women who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Not even Marie and Joachim's decision to ask Mary to be godmother to their first child together, Prince Henrik, stopped the chatter of those who wanted to see a less than rosy tint to their relationship. Whatever the truth, the lure of two glamourous princesses with royal husbands is like a fairytale waiting to be written complete with all the intrigue, jealousies and rivalries that come with that territory.

 

 

A Crown Princess and her fellow royal - Mary and Marie of Denmark are said by some to be friends and by others to be distant

 

And what happens to that relationship when one gets promoted to the top job?  So far, it doesn't seem to have had an effect on the Belgian sisters in law.  Queen Mathilde of the Belgians asked one sister-in-law, Princess Claire, to be godmother to her youngest child, Eleonore, while her other, Princess Astrid, will be taking on the responsibilities linked to business that would otherwise fall on the heiress to the throne, Elisabeth.  There's been little chat about whether Mathilde gets on well, or otherwise, with either of them. 

 

 

Queen Mathilde with Princess Claire and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at the christening of Princess Eleonore

 

And that's part of the problem for Kate and whoever Harry does marry.  If there's no friction or over the top, girlie bonding then their presence next to one another on the balcony just isn't of any use to those who want to talk.  Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Martha Louise of Norway have a simple, friendly relationship that garners no gossip but that partly depends on the local press which has a very different attitude to the royals that the papers in the UK.  Every aspect of the friendship between Kate and any future sister-in-law will be subject to years of scrutiny.  Let's hope that Cressida thought of that as well before starting to consider life as a royal duchess.