THERE will be always be moments in the Duchess of Cambridge's public life that risk attracting the hashtag #awkward. Yesterday was one of them.
At the Taj Mahal, Kate was obliged to face a bank of cameras at the exact spot where her late mother-in-law had signalled so publicly that her marriage was over. The difference, of course, is that Kate was not alone. At her side was William - for whom this must have been a poignant occasion.
In a carefully staged photo opportunity, they sat on the same marble bench where Princess Diana had posed 24 years ago.
William is fiercely protective of his wife and they work well together. Kate - cleverly dressed in clothes that bore no resemblance to Diana's - looked assured as they recreated that famous image. In love and as solid as any young married couple could hope to be, they were picture perfect.
The images, which were instantly flashed around the world - for these young royals are global superstars - packed an extra punch. Their stated aim was "to create new memories" at India's iconic monument to love.
For more than two decades, the most potent memory of any Royal at the Taj Mahal has been that of Diana, sitting alone in front of that magnificent, impossibly romantic building, while her husband, Prince Charles, made a speech to business leaders 1,000 miles away in Bangalore.
It was three days before Valentine's Day in 1992, the year that turned out to be the Queen's annus horribilis" - the year that Diana spilt the beans about her marriage to the journalist Andrew Morton, and that ended with an announcement of an official separation.
But it was Diana's demeanour at the Taj Mahal on that warm February day that gave journalists who were there - as I was - the clearest clue yet that the "fairytale" marriage of Charles and Diana was heading for the rocks. Indeed, it was already all but shipwrecked.
We knew that when Charles had visited the Taj as a single man 12 years previously, he had declared that, next time, he'd bring the woman he loved. So it seemed odd, to say the least, that he'd allowed a clash of engagements to prevent him from being there with Diana. She cut a solitary figure sitting quietly, apparently lost in thought. She posed for us all and lingered long.
And then, as she left, she allowed the media, unusually, to question her. What, I wondered, had she made of it?
"It was," she said, wistfully, "a healing experience?... very healing". We asked her what she meant. "Work it out for yourself" was her loaded, coded reply. The rest is history. And it was that painful history that William and Kate went some way to expunge, with their own, happy and harmonious visit to the Taj.
The contrast between the two marriages could hardly be starker. Diana, an innocent, naive 20-year-old with a husband 12 years her senior, and with whom she had virtually nothing in common; and Kate, who married her best friend after a courtship lasting nearly 10 years.
Five years on from the wedding, and with the addition of George, and now Charlotte, they make the perfect family unit. William is an intriguing blend of Windsor and Spencer. He has inherited his mother's willingness to face issues head-on and deal with them.
And, though I don't imagine that William himself penned the phrase that the visit to the Taj would "create new memories", he certainly would have sanctioned it. In doing that, he addressed in straightforward terms the comparison with Diana that the world would inevitably make.
In 1992, the Princess was at a stage of her life when she was finding it impossible to maintain the charade of a happy marriage. On the India trip, she reached a point where she didn't care what people said or wrote.
Fast forward to yesterday, and the Royal Family - once, it seemed, the most dysfunctional in the land - looks in fine fettle. As the Queen heads for her 90th birthday on Thursday, Her Majesty is at her most relaxed.
At last it seems that the marriages, and remarriages, of her offspring are strong and healthy. There's broad acceptance of a future King Charles, and the public have duly warmed to Camilla. The younger generation have managed to make the monarchy "cool". Young women worldwide swoon over Harry as he - along with William and Kate - take on more royal duties at home and overseas.
Between them, they've knocked the stuffiness out of royalty: they're all suited and booted if the occasion demands, but they're also delighted to don jeans and T-shirts and simply appear more normal.
So I've no doubt that it was with satisfaction that the Queen watched her grandson and his wife carry out one of the most sensitive engagements of their Indian tour. Almost 20 years after Diana's death, another scar has begun to fade - and new memories have, indeed, been forged.
Jennie Bond is a former BBC royal correspondent. Her documentary, The Day I Met the Queen, is on BBC One at 9.15am on Tuesday.