Kate Middleton’s private secretary quits her post after two years working for the future queen

The Duchess of Cambridge is set to lose her ‘gatekeeper’ after just two years – but the pair are said to be parting on the ‘best of terms’.

Royal right-hand woman Catherine Quinn has worked as Kate’s private secretary since October 2017, a role that is similar to a chief of staff.

She is responsible for everything from organising Kate’s diary and meetings to accompanying her on engagements.

But she has also been instrumental in helping the future queen develop her ‘early years’ project, working with organisations to better support children in order to avoid issues such as addiction, social exclusion and crime in later life.

The high-flying Oxford-educated mother-of-one’s appointment was seen as sign of the duchess’s determination to ‘beef up’ her office and public profile as a working royal and future Princess of Wales.

Miss Quinn had been working a chief operating officer at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, and previously worked as head of grant-giving at global charitable healthcare foundation the Wellcome Trust.

Royal right-hand woman Miss Quinn (left) has been Kate’s private secretary since October 2017, a role similar to a chief of staff

She also had positions on the boards of The Charity Commission for England and Wales, The Met Office, The Royal British Legion and The National Memorial Arboretum.

Her six-figure salary was met by Prince Charles, through his private income from the Duchy of Cornwall.

But now Lancashire-born Miss Quinn has decided to quit the role in search of new challenges. She will be leaving just after Christmas.

Miss Quinn has also been instrumental in helping the potential future queen – who opened a children’s hospice in Norfolk dressed in bright purple yesterday (pictured) – develop her ‘early years’ project

Her decision to go after just two years is unusual. The job is considered a plum one and private secretaries can often stay in the role for a decade or more.

But sources insist the parting is amicable and Miss Quinn simply wants to take a step back from what is a demanding, full-time job and return to her charitable roots, working part-time.

‘Catherine is a thoroughly lovely lady and has achieved a lot working for the duchess. But she simply wants to take a step back and focus again on her charity work,’ a source said.

‘Working for the duchess was actually never a job she had ever thought of taking on as she was scaling down her commitments, but then it came up and she couldn’t resist.

‘She has done an incredible job but just wants some more time for other interests and feels she has helped the duchess create a solid platform in order to move forward.

‘Catherine has helped to created such a strong team around the duchess, sources say, that she feels it is a good time to move on.

‘They are parting on the best of terms.’

Kate, who is due to make some major announcements on her work with young children early next year, is now having to look for a new right-hand woman at a crucial time.

She and her husband, the Duke of Cambridge, are redefining their working lives and charitable operations following their very public split from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have moved out of Kensington Palace to join the team under the Queen at Buckingham Palace and set up their own charitable foundation.