When Kate Middleton joined the royal family in 2011 and solidified her future as the next Princess of Wales, the royal family knew it would have to respond differently than it did with her predecessor, Princess Diana. [Former royal press secretary Ed Perkins, in a new ITV documentary, The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor (via Express), said, "Kate was a breath of fresh air."

"She was like a breath of fresh air.

"The public recognized this, but I think the family also understood that whatever the mistakes they had made with Princess Diana, it was important to embrace Kate and understand the potentially very important role she would bring."

People will disagree on the mistakes the entire Royal Family made with Princess Diana, but it is clear that the strong feelings she gave to the rest of the world were somewhat underestimated by the Farm.

Perkins, who directed the documentary "The Princess," once said of the film (and the life of Princess Diana), "This is the story of someone who was able to make a difference in people's lives, and continues to do so. Someone who people could project their own hopes, dreams, and fears onto and find a strangely personal connection with. It was only after she was gone that many people realized what they had lost."

Princess Kate, by contrast, appears to have been very popular with royal fans and the royal family itself from the beginning of her tenure as Duchess of Cambridge. Her time as Princess Diana was marked by the upheavals of the monarchy: her own divorce, that of Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, and Princess Diana's untimely death in 1997.