Is Kate in danger of eclipsing her Prince? A Christmas card that left William on the fringes and a niggling question... 

The state of a royal marriage is, all too often, rather precisely mirrored by the choice of Christmas card the couple send. 

Take Prince Charles: the collapse of his marriage to Diana was accurately charted in the photographs they selected for their annual offering. 

The worse things got, the greater the distance between them, the more palpable the unease.

What a contrast to the cards he sends from himself and Camilla these days. They positively exude contentment. 

By this measure, we should perhaps look more carefully at the image chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their Christmas card this year.

On the surface, it’s a picture of perfect family harmony. All glossy hair, glowing skin and pearly white teeth, Kate beams at the camera with a direct and friendly gaze. Prince George is adorable, clowning around in a blue Fair Isle jumper. 

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Prince on the sidelines: William and Kate's Christmas card

On Mummy’s knee sits Princess Charlotte, elfin in pale pink. But what about William? Crouching to one side of the shot, his eyes are fixed on George rather than the camera, his bald patch more prominent than ever. 

Not to put too fine a point on it, the second in line to the throne looks like a spare part; a gatecrasher in this lovely shot.

No wonder, then, that two national newspapers gave in to the understandable, if slightly tactless, urge to crop him out of the picture completely and made it a holy trinity of mother and children happily posing together.

So what should we make of William looking like an afterthought in his own family Christmas card?

The awkward truth behind the picture is this: the more glamorous, the more confident, the more photogenic his wife is, the more uninteresting and colourless — in some eyes, at least — William becomes in comparison.

Ironically, it is middle-class Kate who looks as if she’s been touched by royal stardust — and it’s blue-blooded William who resembles a run-of-the-mill Sloane Ranger.

See more news and style from the Duchess of Cambridge as her Christmas card is released

Publicity savvy: Courtier's sat Kate next to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the state banquet

Indeed, looking at recent appearances, it is William who seems to be the man who accompanies the increasingly regal Kate, rather than the other way round.

He is, it seems, painfully aware of how the land lies when it comes to his and his wife’s popularity.

More pragmatic than his father — who was driven to distraction by Diana’s fanatical following and while on tour in Australia with her, he said: ‘I might as well stay in the car’ — William has tried to adapt to what the public wants where possible.

He and Kate have tried to become less dependent on each other and more efficient — or less rivalrous, if you like — by performing separate engagements when they can.

But that doesn’t always work out that well. Take last year’s gala dinner in aid of the Royal Marsden Hospital at Windsor Castle.

Joint visit: The couple conduct separate tours independent of each other which avoids any competition, as well as joint visits. Above, the royal pair meet young people who volunteer with the charity Mind in Harrow or the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change

American fashion designer Ralph Lauren was a very generous donor and Prince William was the host.

But, naturally, the one thing a fashion designer who has parted with lots of money in aid of a good cause wants at his party in a royal castle is a real- life ‘princess’ looking exquisite in one of his gowns.

So Lauren could be forgiven for, as rumour had it, being intensely disappointed when he discovered he was only going to get Kate’s stolid other half. Even William couldn’t ignore the blindingly obvious on the night. ‘I’m sorry my wife’s not here, you probably would far rather you saw my wife,’ was his apologetic opening gambit. 

You can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. After all, in the early days of their marriage, it was always said by courtiers — with palpable relief — that when Kate and William were on tour, no one in the crowd much minded which of the pair chose their side of the street during a walkabout.

Stunning: Kate's daring, backless, braless pale blue chiffon Jenny Packham gown she wore to the premiere of Spectre knocked all the Bond girls out of the picture

Absolutely flawless: Every appearance sees her immaculate, as flawless as a movie star

One was the beautiful new Duchess, the other the touchingly motherless, young and fresh future King. Both were charismatic and engaging. So what’s changed?

William, for all his pragmatism, seems to have let his distaste of publicity grow and fester, hence his sometimes extraordinary complaints about life in the spotlight — including one bizarre statement released by his staff to the effect that photographers who follow his family might be mistaken for terrorists and shot.

However, the real game changer has been Kate.

She’s increasingly performing for the cameras, more and more willing to give the crowd what they want — whether it’s a beatific smile or a wave fit for a future Queen.

The excitement an appearance by her creates has only been heightened by the fact she tends to space out her public duties, following the formula Diana used so effectively. For weeks, she’ll not be seen at all. Then — bam! — she’s everywhere, beaming and graceful.

She seems to be becoming rather publicity savvy, too. Naturally, every appearance sees her immaculate, as flawless as a movie star.

But there’s always something different or interesting going on — a tweak to her hair; an unexpected choice of jewellery — for the eager cameras to lap up. Take that swishy fringe that came after the birth of Charlotte or that much shorter cut she’s currently modelling.

As Kate’s confidence has grown, so, too, have her fashion choices become more experimental. The L. K. Bennett nude heels that, at one stage, seemed to be glued to her feet have been traded in for towering Jimmy Choo stilettos, while she’s recently added edgy Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana to her stable of demure British designers.

And what Kate chooses to wear inevitably steals the show. For example, the daring, backless, braless pale blue chiffon Jenny Packham gown she wore to the premiere of Spectre knocked all the Bond girls out of the picture.

Remember, too, the red evening dress, also by Jenny Packham, and the Queen Mother’s tiara she wore to the banquet for the Chinese president. (Cannily, courtiers placed Kate beside President Xi Jinping for the meal, fully aware that the proximity to the royal superstar would be interpreted by the Chinese as a great honour — as well as a great photo opportunity.)

Seven months on from the birth of Princess Charlotte, Kate’s figure is more toned than ever thanks to a new exercise regime that includes yoga, cycling, swimming and gym workouts with a personal trainer.

Regal: There’s always something different or interesting going on — a tweak to her hair; an unexpected choice of jewellery — for the eager cameras to lap up

Refined: Her make-up — in particular the much mocked Middleton heavy kohl eyeliner — has been toned down and her perfect teeth are said to have benefited from whitening treatment

Her make-up — in particular the much mocked Middleton heavy kohl eyeliner — has been toned down and her perfect teeth are said to have benefited from whitening treatment. Little wonder that William jokingly ordered Kate to ‘stop flirting’ when they attended a charity fundraising event on the trading floor of a stockbroker firm in London earlier this month.

In the face of such glamour, such fascination, poor William hardly merits a mention.

What is there to say? A white shirt might become a blue shirt, a tuxedo a military uniform, but, as in that Christmas card, he looks withdrawn in the glare of the flashbulbs, just as Kate looks supremely confident and rather as if she is basking in the attention. And it’s not simply the case that an average-looking, balding man will always be in the shadow of a wife as beautiful as Kate.

One only has to look at his younger brother Harry — engaging, effervescent, instinctively charismatic and cheerful — to see that the issue with William is one of temperament.

Like his father once was, he is in danger of being viewed as something of a cold fish. The warning signs are there on those tricky royal walk-abouts, which are rather different to how they were in the early days.

Crowds on tour were known to groan when they ended up with Charles on their side of the road and Diana on the other. He would make a joke of it, saying ‘You’ve got me. You’d better ask for your money back’ or ‘I’ll have to cut Diana in half so she can walk down both sides of the street at the same time’.

And there are indications that William and Kate are heading in the same direction. Take the Australia tour last year. The wildest crowds were in Brisbane, where royalist Aussies queued from 3am to get a spot near the barriers.

When they saw the royal couple, what did they — mostly frantic young girls — start chanting? ‘Kate! Kate! Kate!’ of course.

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Lots of her adoring would-be-princess fan club wore tribute fake tiaras. Part of this, says one royal insider, is inevitable.

‘It is always the way that one half of the couple — yes, usually the female half — will get more “heat” around them and more attention. The question is how do you handle it, and how much does the other one mind?

‘Prince Philip is an old hand at it and couldn’t mind less. If he saw a glum child looking at him on his side, he used to sometimes pick them up and carry them over to the Queen to cheer them up.’

But then, Prince Philip was always happy to play back-up. Crucially, he was not the British born royal in the couple. Another former member of the Royal Household says: ‘How much it matters entirely depends on the relationship between the two. If they are mutually supportive, it is fine. Any ill-will and it isn’t.’

So the question is: does William actually mind if Kate is treated like more of a royal, getting much more attention than he does? The answer is, broadly, yes — though thankfully not yet to the same degree as Charles did.

Kate's fandom: When fans saw the royal couple on their Australia tour last year, they chanted: ‘Kate! Kate! Kate!’

For while there was a certain amount of envy on Charles’s part, William starts from a position of intense concern about the burden of the scrutiny his wife endures — caused, of course, by his memories of the life and death of his mother.

Where Kate seems breezy and confident, William is intensely protective of his family rather than attention-seeking for himself.

‘He is not an ego maniac,’ said the royal insider. ‘Any unhappiness will be out of spousal concern rather than jealousy.’

If you were to be cynical, perhaps that lack of jealousy is sustained by the fact that William still retains a certain fascination for the public.

As one member of his circle told me: ‘There is still just enough gloss on William as a result of him being Diana’s son, which means that though he’s the less glamorous one, he still exerts a certain pull.

‘And he is good at one-to-one chat; it’s not all platitudes. People like him when they talk to him.’

It is fortunate, though, that William doesn’t share Charles’s need to win as much publicity as his wife, because interest in Kate can only grow. Luckily, she was older than Diana when she married into the Royal Family and the marriage seems happy and stable, rather than fractious and competitive.

But even for William, who rather loathes the limelight, actually being cropped out of the family Christmas card must be more than a little galling.