Diana was called 'Princess Diana' then why Kate is not Princess Kate?

For most people, the UK Royal Family is intriguing as well as confusing. The one thing that baffles people across the globe is their often lengthy titles. These royal titles make it even more perplexing to figure out why everyone is called with their present titles and what would happen to the designation in future when monarchs ascend to the throne or somebody in the family gets married. However, one particularly common question is that why Kate Middleton is not called a Princess even though Diana was. 

Why isn’t Kate called Princess?

Even though Kate’s mother-in-law was legendary ‘Princess Diana’, she is not a princess just because she married Prince William. To become a Princess, one has to be born into the Royal Family such as Prince William and Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. Kate became ‘Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge’ when she married the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II. The UK monarch gave Prince William the title of the “Duke of Cambridge” ahead of the wedding. Therefore, Kate naturally got the feminine version. But, it still did not make her a ‘Princess’ as she was not born into the Royal Family. 

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Why was Diana called Princess?

Officially, neither Diana was a Princess. Reportedly, Diana Spencer did not become a princess when she married Prince Charles. Metro reported that Diana became ‘Her Royal Highness The Princess Of Wales’ when she married Prince Charles of Wales. She was also known as Diana, Princess of Wales. She did have 'princess' in her full name, but it was never the formal title because it would require ‘princess’ to come first followed by her first names such as Princess Charlotte or Princess Anne who is the second child and only daughter of the Queen and Prince Philip.

It was basically the public that began referring to Princess of Wales as “Princess Diana”. As per the Metro report, Diana herself had pointed out that the title was not technically correct. Now, even though one has to be born into the royal family to be called ‘princess’, any daughters that Prince Harry and Meghan have in the future won’t automatically have the royal title. Implying, that they would be a lord or a lady but not a prince or princess. The same analogy applies to Prince William’s children but reportedly Queen decreed that George, Charlotte, and Louis got their titles as HRHs.

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