Wouldn't it be great if it was a revenge strike by the young woman so hastily dropped a few weeks back?

You know, getting back together with him just so she could be the one to turn round and say: "Actually, you know what? You're going bald, your dad's married to his granny and I don't really fancy it."

Except Kate is probably much too decent for that kind of behaviour.

And, despite all the sneers about how she was a bit too common for the royals - his hooray friends like to guffaw "doors to manual" in a reference to her former air hostess mother - it seems Wills has realised just what he threw away.

Kate's a young woman prepared to disguise her great figure in stuffy tweeds and, since he publicly dumped her, has kept her dignity and remained loyal, not for a moment considering selling her lucrative story to the red tops.

I suppose the pundits were right when they said class was behind the break-up.

It seems Kate has it all ... and William has none.

Jeanie's very private agony

Well done to UTV's Jeanie Johnston for having the courage to lay bare her private life and talk about how she was forced to take her abusive husband to court.

In fact, well done for actually having the determination to contact the police and press charges.

Because Jeanie, mum to Fiona (21) and Euan (14), will have known that from the moment she started that chain of events, this matter was likely to go public in fairly sensational fashion.

And as one of our best-known journalists, it would have been perfectly understandable - though unfortunate - if Jeanie had tried to manage the situation herself and keep it out of the headlines.

She could have pushed on with the divorce, reinforced her home against another attack and sat tight, hoping it wouldn't happen again.

After all, it isn't easy appearing on screen, the consummate professional, knowing that thousands of viewers now know how her estranged husband, William Hull, made a surprise visit to the family home on Christmas Day and behaved outrageously.

That he shouted abuse, insulted her daughter's boyfriend, then physically attacked her and threatened their daughter.

"I didn't notice my husband follow me in, but he walked up behind me and grabbed my left arm with his right arm and twisted it up my back," she says of the moment he assaulted her in the utility room. "He twisted it so hard, I thought he was going to break it. Minutes later my husband squared up to my daughter."

Two days later, he was back - this time with an iron bar. She huddled upstairs with their son as he tried to batter down the door. Yes, it makes for uncomfortable reading, but the impact of Jeanie's determination to get justice cannot be under-estimated.

Because she is from Northern Ireland, Jeanie is both famous and local - everybody 'knows' her, this is a small place and yet she has made herself a standing example of when and how to say enough is enough.

She has also further helped to explode the myth that domestic violence is something that only happens to women in less well-off homes.

Well-known or not, middle class or working class, all it takes is for one disturbed, deranged man to decide that someone is going to pay. And it's the small details in Jeannie's story that make it even more poignant - and one that will resonate with so many women.

Like the fact that when her husband of 25 years arrived unexpectedly on Christmas Day, she tried to cope with it because she wanted to make it a lovely day for her children. As mums do.

Or the fact that her husband hadn't worked since the 1980s, so Jeanie was sole breadwinner, doubtless under pressure for some time to hold together a disintegrating situation. As so many women are.

Or the fact that ultimately she was forced to take action against the man who is - and will always be - the father of her children. As so many women must do.

Through work, I know Jeanie - not that well, but she's been writing a 'Weigh To Go' fitness diary for the Belfast Telegraph every fortnight, so we've been talking quite regularly.

She's always good fun even under pressure and very much a journalist's journalist, and that hasn't faltered over the past few months while this court case was pending. No matter what, Jeanie's copy will arrive on time, word perfect.

Perhaps work has provided a refuge of sorts, but she's still turned in an extraordinary performance recently.

Evidently, too, one of the reasons Jeanie has excelled at her fitness drive is because it's marked some kind of fresh start.

Jeanie's husband received a one year conditional discharge after being found guilty of common assault. He has also received a non-molestation order and must stay away from his wife. Of course, he still insists he is "not a violent person".

A pal of Jeanie says she feels she'd no support from the courts and that some of the domestic abuse organisations she had featured in her work let her down when it came to the bit.

In court Jeanie Johnston told the plain truth. And they do say that the truth will set you free.

Let's hope that we as a society - our legal system, our police, our support organisations and, yes, we as individuals - give battered women the hope that when they tell their truth, we will all listen to their story.

Conscience bothered by an MBE? Pants to all that!

Agent Provocateur's Joseph Corre's turning down of an MBE smacks of a tatty ego trip.

After all, why did he initially accept it a few weeks ago? Mr Blair was still in office and people were still dying in Iraq. The fashion world is self-obsessed, but surely Corre must have noticed: it was in all the papers.

And what about those who do accept such baubles ... like Dame Vivienne Westwood, his mother, and Serena Rees, his partner? Do they not have his highly refined conscience?

Perhaps Corre originally said yes because his vanity was flattered. Perhaps his ostentatious public rejection is the result of the same vanity.

Let's face it, it's not every day when the rambling opinions of the offspring of celebrity parents are treated as holy writ by the broadsheets.

Makes a change from flogging peekaboo bras, I'll bet.

Savage response from God's Rottweiller

One considers himself spiritual leader to millions and infallible ? and the other is the Pope.

An old joke I know but the last official foreign engagement of soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair before leaving office was to tell his Holiness that he wished to 'cross the floor' and become a Roman Catholic.

If reports of the half-hour meeting are to believed, Benedict didn't exactly fall to his knees in gratitude. On the contrary, God's Rottweiller took the opportunity to review 'certain significant contributions by Prime Minister Blair during his 10 years in government'.

There then followed a 'frank exchange of views' (which is VatSpeak, experts tell us, for a shouting match) with the Pope chastising Blair on Iraq and the refusal by the EU to incorporate any reference to the continent's Christian roots into the new European treaty.

As if that wasn't enough for Tony, the Pope - a firm believer that private conscience should inform public policy - also had a pop at recent UK legislation of stem-cell research, abortion, gay 'marriage' and adoption.

To which I say, well done that Bishop of Rome.

Even if you don't agree with him on particular points, at least you know the Pope's got a firm point of view and is prepared to say exactly what's on his mind, no matter that it made for an uncomfortable visit for his esteemed guest.

Could you imagine a similar dressing down if a Catholic Tony Blair had expressed an interest in joining the modern Church of England?

Iraq, maybe. But as for the rest, forget it. I suspect that we'd get a lot of yadda yadda yadda from the Archbishop of Canterbury which would boil down to: "Well, at the end of the day, it depends on your point of view ? " Same-sex marriage? Stem-cell research? Abortion? Can anyone give the CoE view in 20 words or less? No, thought not. His Holiness may not really be infallible, but how refreshing to hear from a Christian leader who at least thinks they might be right.

A matter for debate

Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, has unveiled plans to allow laptops and BlackBerries into the debating chamber.

This would enable honourable members to answer urgent e-mails and keep up to date with constituency correspondence.

Or, for the more postmodernist and net-equipped among them, to watch themselves on BBC Parliament watching themselves on BBC Parliament watching themselves on BBC parliament and so on into infinity.

Anything, it seems, rather than listen to an actual debate ?