Prince William and Kate Middleton updates the royal family’s lifestyle

William and Kate are providing a more modern picture of the monarchy for a new era by bringing a more relaxed and personable attitude to royal duties and by raising their children in a reasonably hands-on manner.

The popular pair, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, wed in 2011 and have since promoted their family, which includes their three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, as role models.

With carefully crafted peeks into their lives on social media, they have “mastered both the official and the informal,” according to royal analyst Richard Fitzwilliams, in a distinct change from the past and to appease the ongoing press attention.

“They’ve been tremendously successful in protecting this mix of normality and royal status,” he told AFP.

While attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, William and Kate, who are both now 40, became friends.

The prince was a popular figure at the time, and his presence greatly increased applicants to the venerable university in Scotland.

William chose a military career, becoming an army officer in 2006, following in the footsteps of his father Prince Charles, brother Harry, and uncle Prince Andrew.

In 2009, he earned his licence to fly search and rescue helicopters for the Royal Air Force. After being married, he spent several years living with Kate and their son George, who was born in 2013, on a rented farmhouse on the Welsh island of Anglesey.

From 2015 on, William changed careers and began flying air ambulances for civilians while residing at Anmer Hall on his grandmother’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England.

In 2017, he transitioned to being a full-time royal, moving the family’s base to an apartment in Kensington Palace, London.