Kate Middleton Celebrates 29th Birthday

Kate Middleton will turn 29 on Sunday (January 9) and is expected to spend it with her family and Prince William.

British women’s magazine Tatler released a special edition for February 2011 celebrating the future princess with Middleton replicated in the style of the pop artist Andy Warhol’s silk screen prints.

In what appears to be the magazine’s commentary on Middleton’s growing popularity across the world, many are asking whether she is the new Princess Diana.

The two have similar backgrounds, glamorous women considered „commoners“ but marrying into the British royal family, and according to Richard Palmer, the Royal Editor for the Daily Express, the two women could be interchangeable.

[Richard Palmer, Daily Express Royal Editor]:
„The thing about Diana, although I wasn’t covering the royal family when she was around, is that she was a fashion icon but she used her fame and celebrity to become a serious figure on the world stage. Speaking about issues like HIV/AIDS, landmines, so in that case she was unique. I don’t think we’ll see Kate as outspoken, but there will be an awful lot of interest in what she looks like, what she wears, what she says, what she does and I’m sure over the years she’ll expand her role and she’ll start to identify particular causes so yes to a certain extent, she could be the new Diana I suppose.“

Middleton is expected to celebrate her last birthday as a commoner with her parents and future husband in the Middleton family home in Bucklebury, southern England.

Prince Charles’s press office would not comment on the details of Middleton’s birthday, only saying she would be spending it „privately“.

With her youthful looks and fashion sense, the soon-to-be princess Middleton appears to be envied by women across the globe, but, Palmer warns, the life of a royal is not what many would expect.

[Richard Palmer, Daily Express Royal Editor]:
„Everything they do and say is analysed. Whatever they say they will be criticised for something. And for all the clothing allowance and the palaces and the life of splendour that awaits Kate, many people will ask, ‚Do I really want all of that, with everything that goes with it?'“

The wedding of Prince William and Kate will take place at Westminster Abbey on April 29.

Foto: NTDTV