But she has also seemed committed to a notion - foreign to modern celebrity - that less is more, nurturing a royal mystique.
Because her international fame was triggered by moving images, she is a watershed figure in the history of modern celebrity.
In many ways, royals are no different from modern celebrities, though their fame is older and inherited.
Jonathan Bate has described him as one of the "key makers of modern celebrity".
He was arguably the first modern celebrity, famous solely for being himself.
In his prime he took on the kind of personal life, rife with women and various residences, that would do in many a modern celebrity.
Johnson, who has written obituaries for many modern celebrities, looks at the art, history and subculture of obituary writing.
This might seem like a particularly corrosive consequence of modern celebrity - any emotional casualty can be a star!
Despite its modern celebrity, it is neither precious nor vulgarly commercial.
Trying to recast a public image she did not even have a month ago, she is the very essence of modern celebrity.
