While Kate becomes used to life as a member of the royal family, joining the Queen for special events, Prince William has been kept busy by his RAF commitments.

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The Queen will take a royal salute at Portsmouth as she bids farewell to the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

BBC: Queen bids farewell to carrier Ark Royal

There, the foundling, raised by the King and Queen of Corinth, grows up as a spoiled royal whose courage is bravado and whose strength is ignorance.

NEWYORKER: Oedipus Rex

Ms Stephens worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for 17 years before serving as a nursing officer captain of The Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.

BBC: Claire Stephens

Meanwhile, a royal watcher has estimated she has carried out more than 30, 000 public engagements as Queen.

BBC: Queen to celebrate 87th birthday with family

"I view my relationship with him as a partnership, " she explained during an interview at the queen's wing of the Royal Court compound in Amman.

FORBES: Partner In Progress