Prince William backs his wife to make more Diana-style appearances on her own: report

Royal expert Dan Wootton has shared his thoughts on Kate Middleton's first solo trip in five years to Copenhagen.

The trip, according to the expert, was a test case for Kate star power will be harnessed over the next decade. He also revealed William has backed his wife to make more Diana-style appearances on her own.

The expert wrote for Daily Mail that the royal courtiers are seeing Kate's solo visit a rare triumph in what is fast shaping up as a second annus horribilis for the British monarchy.

He wrote: "In fact, those on tour with Kate believe she performed even stronger on tour, including an impromptu moment where she joyfully went down a children's slide, because her husband wasn't alongside her."

Disclosing details of a new strategy, which will see Kate become the most publicly prominent female in the Royal Family, Dan said: "With her three children growing up and a glaring shortage of senior royals to deploy, Kate, who recently turned 40, has accepted she will start making semi-regular appearances at home and abroad without William by her side."

The expert, citing his royal source, wrote: 'What will happen is that when the couple go on visits abroad it will be more like what Charles and Diana did, where they each branch out and do more engagements on their own. They'll go to the same country, but she'll go her way and he'll go his.'

In his piece of writing to Daily Mail, he claimed: "Courtiers acknowledge this could put some strain on William, just like it did his father Charles, when the cameras naturally gravitate towards his more glamorous wife. However, William is far more assured than his father was in the 1980s.

The source told him: 'That can have its difficulties because then you see the Press will only be following her jobs. And that's what happened with Charles and Diana.'

'She's painfully shy,' the expert, citing another royal source, revealed 'She's so much better at speaking now. When she's interacting with kids, she's very good and very natural because she's got three of her own.'