What chance an ordinary life?

This is the Duchess of Cambridge's first video message broadcast in April, winning hearts across the UK with her support for children's charity.

IF there was a single moment at which Kate Middleton won the hearts of her already adoring public, it was during her debut TV broadcast.

The broadcast ran for just under two minutes but the public rarely gets a chance to hear her speak and when she did she cemented her role as a future queen in the hearts and minds of the British public.

The video message broadcast on TV and the internet in April was for the UK's children's hospice week and what the public heard was an emotional, very heartfelt appeal for them to get behind the work done by charities for sick children's palliative care.

She even chose to wear a simple inexpensive black dress from chain fashion retailer Top Shop showing modesty in austere times.

Diana worked hard at giving baby William as normal a life as possible, but that's not easy when your baby is destined to be king.

It was a Diana moment, the sort of thing William's mum dubbed the 'Queen of Hearts' would have chosen to do and in a nutshell showed an ordinary compassionate side by a soon-to-be mother.

And ordinary is what Kate and William want their newborn baby to have as much as possible of, albeit for a baby from a famous privileged family set to inherit a $1 billion trust fund and eventually the monarch's crown as head of state for 16 nations including Australia.

The interest in this royal baby is immense and from the moment it is born it will be scrutinised by the world's press.

But in William and Kate and her Middleton family, it may just get the right amount of "normalcy" her parent's desire.

And in many respects, they will also look to the royal life of Lady Diana, who broke the mould on royal parenting and provided the footing for those generations who would follow her in making a royal modern family.

The royal baby will no doubt get a private education including an elite nursery and possibly a spell in a boarding school. William attended the famous Eton while Kate the well-heeled Marlborough College.

The couple are unlikely to have full-time nannies having already declared an interest in being more hands-on in much the same way as their own parents, or in William's case just Diana, was.

But their own family upbringing is the critical key as to how normal a life their baby can expect.

THE MIDDLETONS

Prince William has long lamented about his desire to be treated like "everyone else" and he only achieved this when he went to university and the British media agreed at the palace's behest to stay away.

It was at this point he met and fell in love with Kate who while also from a wealthy family, knew little of the burden of fame.

She soon discovered it after university when the glamour couple's every move in public was recorded.

But even in public it was obvious the prince and his commoner girl were different to previous generations.

They were both relaxed in public, both happy to share a joke about when they will get married and when that was done, when they will have a baby.

William's own childhood was dysfunctional in many ways, as he had to watch the very public disintegration of his mother's marriage and then be relied upon to be a confidante to his emotionally fragile mother.

But when he met Kate, she brought with her an example of a stable family with her parents Mike and Carole very much together but also the experiences of everyday trials and challenges of an ordinary suburban life.

After the turmoil he had had in his childhood, seeing this must have brought him security and a degree of comfort.

In a rare interview he gave after the pair became engaged, he hinted at his ease with his in-laws.

"Kate's got a very, very close family," he said.

"Mike and Carole have been really loving and caring and really fun.

They have been really welcoming towards me so I've felt really a part of the family."

He has since spent a lot of time at the Middleton family home in Bucklebury in Berkshire.

The couple were staying there when in December last year they were forced to rush Kate to hospital suffering acute morning sickness and thereby having to prematurely reveal that she was pregnant ahead of the conventional 12-week scan.

No doubt William enjoys his days in the Bucklebury home, less austere and stage-managed as his own home but also a source upon which to draw inspiration from secure middle-class values and worries.

This was a life William had never seen but Kate had long enjoyed. William reportedly even refers to Mike Middleton as "dad".

In 2006 Carole Middleton made headlines when she was seen chewing nicotine gum at William's Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst. Maybe a huge tut-tut for the royal household but a highlight of normalcy and attitude for William.

With William as a conduit, the Middletons have since been embraced by the wider royal family - even invited to sail down the Thames as part of the flotilla for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and also the Queen's exclusive carriage procession at Ascot.

Such inclusion is breaking new ground but is a clear sign the royals, dubbed the Firm by Prince Philip, want to also create a more in-touch next generation.

People today would expect if you were having a party you would have to invite the in-laws.

William too has been embraced, spending time not just with Kate's parents but also her siblings Pippa and James.

Pippa and Kate are very close, best friends as well as sisters and early on were branded the "wisteria sisters" - decorative, fragrant and excellent at social climbing.

William will be at Kate's side as she gives birth but Pippa will no doubt be waiting in the ward for the cry.

Perhaps adding to the normal household, Harry will also not be too far away from his brother at the hospital but also has now moved into Kensington Palace along the corridor from where the royal family will eventually settle.

DIANA

Royal watchers believe William and Kate will be very hands-on parents in the same way Diana was with William and Harry.

Diana broke many royal conventions with the raisingof her sons, least of which making sure she and Prince Charles were there for the boys at sports carnivals and school concerts, walking them to school, spending the afternoons playing with them at the palace and bathing them at night.

She read to them and holidayed with them and famously took them to Selfridges Department store on Oxford Street to meet Santa and rather than agree to be ushered ahead, made them line up behind other children.

There were nannies too and one in particular Barbara Barnes who William adored, only to see his emotional mother sack her because she and her son were becoming too close.

William made a point to years later to ensure she was invited on his personal friend list to his wedding.

So what William had in love from his mother and father he lacked in stability as his parents' marriage disintegrated and then Diana tragically lost her life.

Princess Margaret's official biographer Christopher Warwick said William's bond with his mother Diana would be followed.

"William and Harry were very, very fortunate with Diana as a mother because her ideas were so different to the previous generation," he said.

"The importance of this to her two sons has been enormous. William will want this for his children."

The same would go for Kate.

"Her childhood was pretty ordinary," he said.

"She won't want her baby to be subject to rules and protocol before they need to be."

The Middletons will play a large part of the baby's life as the "other" granny and grandpa and it is expected they will fill-in for baby sitting duties.

"They will probably use a part-time nanny to help them out when they have to attend events and don't have a babysitter but they don't want a full-time nanny," a royal insider has said, adding the Middletons had said they wanted to play a significant role in the baby's life.

HOME

William and Kate's baby will call Kensington Palace Apartment 1A home.

It is a huge wing, once formally occupied by Princess Margaret, with 20 rooms and a big private walled garden offering space.

Finishing touches are being placed after it received a $1.6 million makeover and it will be available by the northern hemisphere autumn.

William and Kate are also likely to use the 10-bedroom Georgian Grade II listed house Anmer Hall on the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk as a country home.

Holidays will be divided between there and the Scottish countryside about Balmoral, but the couple is also likely to take their baby when it's older on skiing holidays in Europe much the same way their own parents did.

The couple has already shown they are willing to break convention and last year spent Christmas with the Middletons at their home.

They are likely to do that again this year but make an effort to visit Sandringham and the other core members of the royal household.

Immediately after the baby is born, Kate has privately told friends she wants to stay with her mother at least for the first six weeks at the family's $7 million Bucklebury manor and the palace's security detail have already gone over the property to make it is more secure.

Add to the modern family attitude, William has announced he will work right up to when the baby's imminent and then only take two weeks paternity leave.

He hasn't wanted any special privileges for himself and neither will he want it for his baby.

He has responsibilities as a public figure and one-day future king, yes, but he also has responsibilities to his family and he cherishes each as equal.

The Palace has noted the affection to which the public hold William and Kate and won't interfere any more than any grandparent would in how the child will be brought up.

At any rate, William's influence continues to grow and his determination as far as possible will see a fairytale beginning for the next generation royal.