Kate Middleton reportedly 'hurt' by magazine cover and 'never saw this coming'

Kate Middleton feels 'hurt' and 'betrayed' by the cover of her on Tatler magazine as the magazine's editor-in-chief Richard Dennen is a close friend of hers who even accompanied her on holidays in the past.

According to a report in The Sun, the tone of the article would have come as a major shock to Kate Middleton, as she was previously championed as a society icon by the magazine and "never saw this coming."

The Tatler article, written by author and journalist Anna Pasternak, made a series of negative comments about the Duchess of Cambridge, alleging that she has been left "exhausted", "trapped" and "furious" with the extra workload after the exit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from the British royal family.

In the piece titled "Catherine The Great: How the crisis made Kate the Kingmaker," Anna Pasternak described Kate as having "an aura of blandness" and alleged that the 38-year-old who was born a commoner crafted a "posher" accent when she entered the royal family. The article also alleged that Kate felt her three young children had been "thrown under a bus" after Megxit and her friends were quoted as saying, "I don't know who she is", and describing her as "impenetrable".

The article, which has launched a legal battle between the magazine and Kensignton Palace, reportedly left Kate in shock and feeling betrayed as editor Richard Dennen had been a close friend of her since university days.

"Kate remains hurt and upset by the article. It was very unpleasant. But she also feels betrayed, as Richard had been a friend from St. Andrews set. Kate never saw this coming," a source told The Sun.

Chicago-born Dennen, known as Tricky Dickie, studied the same art history course as Kate at St. Andrews and lived just two streets away. The duo even went to France together in 2004 when Kate and Prince William had taken a break from their relationship. He is also believed to be in attendance at the wedding and both the receptions of the royal couple in 2011.

Dennen had even posted a candid picture of Kate in 2015, which was deleted later probably because Kate was a senior royal by that time. The picture which showed the royal eating a sandwich at an airport was captioned: "Before life got serious and we still ate wheat and flew economy #TheCourtJester #TheKensingtonCrew."

However, the author behind the piece didn't come as a surprise, as Anna Pasternak is famous for her controversial articles about the British royals. In 1994, she released a book "Princess In Love" which told the story of Princess Diana's love affair with Captain James Hewitt and was published when William was just 12.

She is also known for writing a book on American socialite Wallis Simpson, wife of former King Edward VIII for whom he abdicated the British throne. Pasternak also wrote a newspaper article drawing comparisons between Wallis Simpson and Meghan Markle headlined: "To stop history repeating, Meghan must learn from Wallis Simpson."

Meanwhile, the report in The Sun also states that there are fears among the royal sources that Meghan had a hand in the article about her sister-in-law Kate, as ex-Tatler journalist Vanessa Mulroney is the sister-in-law to Meghan's best friend Jessica Mulroney. Meghan, who is herself in a legal battle with British tabloids over the publication of her letter to her father Thomas Markle, was previously accused of asking Jessica Mulroney to intervene in stories to ensure a more "favourable" slant about her.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions, particularly who said these things to Tatler because her real (Kate) friends would never talk that way about her," a source said about the article.