Kate Williams is a historian, author and broadcaster. She is Professor of Modern History at Reading University and an expert in Royal and constitutional affairs. Kate co-presents the hit podcast Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things for The Daily Mail, in which she reveals and explains the more scandalous side of royal history alongside Mail columnist Robert Hardman. Kate has contributed to several Channel 5 documentaries, including The Secrets of the Royal Palaces and the Royal Residence series. Kate is the in-house historical analyst for CNN, providing expert commentary for news and events such as the Queen’s funeral, the King’s coronation, and the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Kate often appears on Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News,...
Kate Williams is a historian, author and broadcaster. She is Professor of Modern History at Reading University and an expert in Royal and constitutional affairs. Kate co-presents the hit podcast Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things for The Daily Mail, in which she reveals and explains the more scandalous side of royal history alongside Mail columnist Robert Hardman. Kate has contributed to several Channel 5 documentaries, including The Secrets of the Royal Palaces and the Royal Residence series. Kate is the in-house historical analyst for CNN, providing expert commentary for news and events such as the Queen’s funeral, the King’s coronation, and the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
Kate often appears on Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, ITV News, Channel 5 News and Good Morning Britain to discuss the historical aspect of royal news. The Radio 4 Today programme called her ‘Historian Extraordinaire’.
She recently performed the first in a series of live shows with Suzannah Lipscomb – To Kill a Queen: Two queens. One crown. The show explores the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, and why Elizabeth signed her cousin’s death warrant. The show has proved so successful that the pair added five new tour dates across the UK.
Kate has worked with BBC Politics and BBC Events on numerous occasions including the Scottish referendum, the anniversary of the outbreak of World War I and the RTS award winning 70th anniversary coverage of VE Day.
She co-presented BBC Two’s RTS-nominated Restoration Home as well as The Stuarts for UKTV and Netflix. To accompany the major BBC Two Drama Versailles, Kate co-presented two series of Inside Versailles, delving deeper into the history of the French court. She has presented two BBC Inside Out films on Derbyshire’s Belper Mill and how the nation’s transport system resumed after WWII.
On Radio, Kate has presented radio documentaries about the history of the smile (Smile) and about the author of Self Help, Samuel Smiles (The Grandfather of Self Help). She was the historian on Frank Skinner’s Radio 4 series The Rest is History – called ‘Professor search engine’!
Kate loves quiz shows and was a regular on the BBC Four show, The Quizeum, hosted by Griff Rhys Jones – dubbed the ‘human encyclopaedia’! Kate won Celebrity Mastermind, with Emily Bronté as her specialist subject. She also took part in BBC Two’s The Great History Quiz: The Tudors, regularly appeared on the BBC Two quiz show, Insert Name Here, and has been a guest on BBC One’s Would I Lie to You.
Kate is a NYT bestselling author of six historical books. Her 2014 biography of Josephine Bonaparte, Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte, was cited as a primary influence by writer David Scarpa for his screenplay of Napoleon (directed by Ridley Scott). Her biography of Emma Hamilton, England’s Mistress, has been optioned for film adaptation. Her most recent book, Regina: A New History of Women and Power, is an epic history of royal women from Cleopatra to Grace Kelly; upon release in the summer of 2026, it was met with rave reviews.
Kate is also an experienced after dinner speaker and lecturer and she speaks regularly to historical societies, groups, conferences and commemorative dinners.
