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Prince William reportedly saw red after King Charles made an early request of Kate Middleton.
In his biography, Kate! The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, royal expert Christopher Andersen claimed that before the now-Princess of Wales, 44, officially became a member of the Royal Family when she wed Prince William, 44, on April 29, 2011, the then-Prince Charles, 77, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 78, issued a strange request involving her name.
The future King and Queen allegedly pressured her to change her name from Catherine to Katherine, claiming that having three "C" names in the family felt "overkill." However, the bride was "offended" by the request. Meanwhile, insiders claimed that William was left "seething."
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According to Andersen, Charles and Camilla argued that the name change was a "logical progression" because the world already knew their future daughter-in-law as "Kate."
However, William viewed the request as insulting, not only to his soon-to-be wife but to her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, who had chosen her name and exact spelling at her birth.
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Prince Harry, 41, exposed the tension around the request in his bombshell memoir Spare. He recalled that when the proposal was first given, William's "face was blank."
"I remembered the time [Charles] and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name, because there were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above," he wrote.
"Charles and Camilla. It would be too confusing to have another. Make it Katherine with a K, they suggested. I wondered now what came of that suggestion."
A royal source claimed to Radar Online, "For Catherine, it felt like they were reaching into something incredibly personal - the name her parents chose for her and the way she has been known her entire life.
"Being asked to alter that, even just a letter, struck her as strange and quite intrusive, especially when the public already recognized her as Kate.
"William reacted very strongly. He was seething and viewed the name-change suggestion as needless interference and, more importantly, as disrespectful to the Middleton family."
The insider explained, "In his mind, changing his wife's name to suit a neat set of royal initials was completely unacceptable. He was genuinely angry that anyone thought it appropriate to try to rebrand something as fundamental as her own name."
Another insider claimed, "For William, this was anything but a minor cosmetic tweak. He has always been fiercely protective of Catherine and deeply respectful of her parents, so the idea that she should change her own name to suit someone else's aesthetic preference felt fundamentally wrong to him.
"He saw it as crossing a line in terms of how far the institution could reach into their private lives. In private, William was unequivocal.
"He made it plain that there would be no alteration and that clarity is what brought the whole discussion to an abrupt end. It became a small but telling flashpoint between a more traditional mindset - where everything is molded to fit the royal mold - and the modern stance William and Catherine are trying to take."
They added, "From the Waleses' perspective, asking Catherine to reshape her identity to match a tidy set of initials was a step too far.
"Keeping 'Catherine' exactly as it had always been was, for them, a quiet statement of principle - a way of saying that some parts of her, especially those rooted in her own upbringing and family, are not something the royal machine gets to rewrite."
The request was obviously dropped. After Charles ascended the throne upon Queen Elizabeth II's death on September 8, 2022, Kate became known as Catherine, Princess of Wales, alongside her husband, the new Prince of Wales.
Kate and William have demonstrated their tight bond over the years since their highly anticipated nuptials. New reports claim that Kate is trying to give William a new outlook on life amid her cancer journey.
The mother of three is encouraging her husband not to let the pressures of being the next in line to the British throne overshadow their family life.
Her new three-word motto is "Life's too short" as she navigates her post-cancer life with a new perspective on her royal duties. Kate reportedly wants better control and balance over her time at work and with family, even as experts claim she and William are carrying the slimmed-down Royal Family.
Sources have told Marie Claire that Kate has learned "the power of saying no" and wants to simplify her life after her health scare, despite the fact that her popularity has also brought increasing expectations.
Meanwhile, her new motto comes at a significant time for William, as he continues to deal with the pressures of keeping the monarchy afloat while preparing to become king.
Behind palace gates, Kate reportedly also helps William manage all the pressure.
A former royal butler told InStyle that Kate makes William "more confident" and helps ease the tensions of royal life when they're together.
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