Tom Quinn's new book Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family relies heavily on commentary from palace staffers who claim that everything isn't as picture-perfect behind closed doors for Prince William and Princess Kate. In fact, Tom claims that the couple has had some rocky moments during their marriage, including knock-down fights.
Fox News interviewed the author, and boy, does this book sound like a doozy.
Tom claims he's spoken with someone at the palace who was keen to dish on some of the problems that Kate and William have behind closed doors.
"They have terrible rows where they throw things at each other," he said. "Kate might seem to be a very calm person, and William also. But it's not always true. Because the big stress for William and Kate is that they're constantly surrounded by [Palace aides]. It's like a Jane Austen novel."
Um, yikes!
They also have some catty nicknames for one another.
When they're not yelling or throwing things, Tom said they get their frustrations out by calling each other by some of their less-than-endearing pet names.
William apparently likes to call Kate "Duchess of Doolittle" or "DoD" as a jab over a past comment she made about the fact that Queen Elizabeth didn't hold a full-time job before becoming monarch. As for Kate, she gets her digs in by calling her husband "Baldy."
Despite the fighting, William and Kate are committed to sticking things out.
Tom doesn't think that any of this is a sign that there's trouble in paradise for the beloved royal couple.
"Of course, privately, William and Kate, like all couples, fall out, row, shout at each other, and say unkind things to each other, but Kate is an appeaser by instinct and William always gives way as he had more than enough emotional turmoil, divorce, and disruption as a child," he noted.
William and Kate are simply under an enormous amount of pressure.
The Waleses obviously aren't like regular couples, and they have never wanted to come off as "the perfect couple that everyone else should try and emulate."
"She said, 'Like every other couple, we have days when we are really, really cross with each other, or days when we don't talk to each other,'" Tom explained. "They want to be seen as an ordinary couple with the same stresses of having children, work, and everything else that life brings."
They seem happy enough to us.
Even though it's a bit unsettling to hear they throw things during fights, everything else really does sound within the realm of what we'd expect a couple living under a microscope to be like. Plus, thanks to Tom, we know that the two also make time to be sweet to one another. He said that in addition to their more insulting nicknames they also have a few loving ones.
Kate reportedly likes to call William "Babe," and William uses "Babykins" to address his wife when things are good, which by all accounts seems to be more often than not.
