THE TRANSFORMED LIFE OF KATE MIDDLETON

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ON THE NEWSSTAND

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The Kate Middleton Cover

The cover story of the new issue of Us Weekly offers an inside look at how marriage and baby has transformed the life of Duchess Kate Middleton. The life of a 21st-century princess isn’t just tiaras and designer dresses!

Since George’s July 22 birth, Kate has been balancing motherhood and work her way, putting family before established protocol. Even with the challenges of a fretful baby, she and her husband of two years are determined to keep their home a (mostly) nanny-free zone. Kate’s mom routine would appall 19th-century monarch Queen Victoria, who saw her children only to supervise their baths. And it would even come as a shock to her late mother-in-law, who had to miss William’s very first birthday because of a long-scheduled official trip with Charles to Canada. The duchess’ rules: Her duties cannot take her far from London, and overnight trips are forbidden. With Christmas fast approaching, the pair are charting new ground there as well. Royal tradition has it that blue-blooded VIPs spend the holiday at the queen’s Sandringham estate — no commoners allowed. With his grandmother’s blessing, however, William has arranged for Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole, sister Pippa and brother James to stay 2 miles away at the couple’s new country house, Anmer Hall, for Boxing Day December 26.

The ’25 Things You Don’t Know About Me’ feature in this week’s issue of Us centers on the Hunger Games: Catching Fire star, Lenny Kravitz. A few fun facts about the crooner-turned-actor are listed below:

--“I wrote my first song, “I Love You, Baby,” at age 7.

--“Angelina Jolie auditioned for the lead in my “Stand by My Woman” video. The director passed!”

--“Jonah Hill’s dad is my business manager.”

--“As a high school student, I worked in a fish market. I had to cut, gut and fry.”

--“When I was 5, Duke Ellington showed me how to play piano.”

Also in the new issue, Us Weekly reveals that Once Upon a Time actress, Ginnifer Goodwin, is expecting a baby with fiancé Josh Dallas. Rumors that the star had a baby on board first swirled when she was photographed on the set of her hit ABC drama in a gray swing coat that seemed to strategically conceal her stomach. This will be the first child for Goodwin and Dallas.