Princess Kate Is Being Set Up as the Next Princess Diana, Whether She Wants It or Not

Princess Kate‘s first overseas trip since her cancer battle ended with one name on everyone’s lips — Princess Diana.

Teachers wiped away tears. Children rushed toward Kate for hugs. Crowds leaned from windows just to catch a glimpse as she moved through the streets of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Now a report published in People on Wednesday, May 20 sheds light on just how deep those Diana comparisons ran — and why royal insiders say the parallel is impossible to ignore.

One local reporter summed up how the whole crowd felt.

“She is like Diana was,” Paulo Rosato told the outlet. “Here in Italy, we need a good story — a good representation of family.”

The report sheds light on how the Diana comparisons followed the Princess of Wales everywhere. Royal insiders say it was far from a coincidence.

At one preschool, Kate crouched beside children in the outdoors, handled newts from a pond, and sculpted tree roots from clay alongside students.

The report also stated that Kate wore a bracelet engraved with the initials of Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8. She told locals she had spent the night before on the phone with her children, sharing stories from her first day.

Diana, who tragically died in a car crash in 1997, connected with people the same way — a fact that the palace is fully aware of, insiders stressed to the outlet.

“There’s no denying that everyone concerned has been missing the princess’s star quality. She is a huge draw wherever she goes,” royal author Russell Myers told People.

“Catherine is undoubtedly a central force in the monarchy’s popularity and ability to achieve its goals and move forward. There is no better time for her to return.”

Ailsa Anderson, Queen Elizabeth‘s former press secretary, agreed.

“She is our future Queen,” Anderson told People. “As Queen Elizabeth used to say, you have to be seen to be believed. She is glamorous, she is beautiful. She is warm and approachable.”

The warmth masks real pressure. King Charles, 77, continues cancer treatment. The royal family is still navigating ex-Prince Andrew‘s connections to Jeffrey Epstein — though he’s repeatedly denied any wrongdoing — and the ongoing rift with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

“It will always be a throbbing wound in the background,” Anderson said.

Royal author Catherine Mayer was blunt about what is at stake.

“Princess Anne and the other senior working royals are all stretched thin — and none of them are young,” Mayer told People. “William and Catherine carry the whole thing.”

But Kate has avoided comparisons with her beloved mother-in-law, as Rob Shuter reported in his Naughty But Nice Substack on May 4.

Anna Wintour made a direct and aggressive effort to secure Kate as her marquee guest for this year’s Met Gala, sources told Shuter.

An insider told the outlet that landing the mother of three, 44, had become something of an “obsession” for Wintour. “Kate is the one celebrity Anna wants and cannot get,” the insider noted.

But Kate knew that attending meant walking the same steps Diana once took. Shuter reported, and “saw the entire proposition as too calculated, too obvious, and far too loaded.”