'Perfectionist' Kate Middleton had elocution lessons to sound 'more regal'

ok.co.uk:

Kate Middleton underwent elocution lessons to sound "more regal" before marrying Prince William, a royal expert has claimed.The claim has been made ahead of the 40 year old's appearance on CBeebies Bedtime Stories on Sunday, when she will read The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark to children watching across the nation.

And while the Duchess of Cambridge was always well spoken, royal expert Duncan Larcombe says she didn't always sound the way she does now.

Speaking exclusively to OK!, Duncan says: "I first spoke to Kate in April 2005 when she was on a ski trip with Prince William, Prince Charles and Prince Harry in Switzerland.

He continued: "She was always well spoken, she went to Marlborough College College, she was hardly the fishwife in the way she spoke. "But, having said that, it's as though her accent and the way she carefully speaks and pronounces her words have become more regal over the years and morphed into what we see now. "It's almost like her accent has changed in accordance with the role that she's played over the years. "As a royal girlfriend she just had to be prim and proper and polite and she always was, she always smiled for the cameras and she always said very little when we heard her talking. "She was every bit the Prince's girlfriend material and, of course, now she has an accent that is fitting of someone who will be Queen." Duncan adds that it has "never been denied" that Kate had elocution lessons, and that it is a decision she would have made by herself and not on the advice of the Royal family.