The outspoken 75-year-old author told US magazine, Newsweek that while the Duchess, formerly Kate Middleton, is “a great deal more intelligent than the rest of the royals” she has been pressured by the British monarchy to “appear absolutely anodyne”.
“She [Kate] cannot do or say anything spontaneous,” said Greer.
“She has learned what she has to do and say and how to do and say it in the approved way.
“Spontaneity will get her in trouble.”
While accusing the royal family of “mad anachronism”, the Australian writer deduced that Kate has simply “been put in charge of William” which she described as “a bastard of a job” and her position has robbed her of many personal freedoms.
“Kate is not even allowed to decorate her own houses,” said Greer. “Even the wives of the American presidents get to do that.”
Of Kate’s pregnancy Greer said she hoped it would be her last and expressed concerns that the Duchess was “too thin”.
“[Kate] is vomiting her guts up and shouldn’t have been made to go through all this again so soon,” Greer said.
“It’s not so much that she has to be a womb, but she has to be a mother. I would hope after this one she says, ‘That’s it. No more’.”
Greer’s scathing comments reverberate those of contemporary British novelist Hilary Mantel.
The award-winning writer sparked controversy in 2013 when she delivered her lecture, Royal Bodies, to the London Review of Books.
In her critique of the monarchy Mantel referred to the Duchess as a “plastic princess born to breed… as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character… Her only point and purpose being to give birth.”
Greer‘s remarks were made in relation to a wider investigation by YouGov which sought to discover the attitudes of Brits toward the Duchess and the monarchy in general.
The specially-commissioned YouGov poll found that only one in 100 would trade places with the Duchess and only six per cent of men wished they were married to Kate.
