Duchess Kate got a job! No, not really. But she has just signed on as a royal patron to her first charitable organization. Doctors Without Borders? Red Cross? No and no. Kate has been named a patron(ess) of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. Well, this was what I wanted. I was flabbergasted that in a year’s time, in which Kate had been a fiancée and then a wife of a prince, Kate had yet to take on just ONE charitable obligation. So now she’s taken on ONE. Good for her! We must praise her when she does something good, you know.
A first for the Duchess of Cambridge: She has been officially named a patron of the foundation set up by Prince William and Prince Harry.
This marks a first royal patronage for Kate, 29, and a likely name change for the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. Trustees are “considering changing the name,” according to a palace source.
The move from a supporting role to an official one was something of a formality, with Kate joining the princes in utilizing the foundation “as their main charitable vehicle but in the way that it will be grant-giving rather than anything else,” the source says.
Only last week, after Kate’s visit alongside William, 29, to open a a children’s cancer unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital, she joined the princes at a special reception back at St. James’s Palace.
There, the trio thanked those who had helped the grant-giving body through the year and met some potential new donors to the cause.
And it was at the party that her formal involvement was announced. The decision had been made earlier in the day by the trustees.
[From People]
I’ll admit that I was thrown for a loop by last week’s revelation by Kate that “Will’s in charge” of deciding what she does. And no, I don’t think Kate was speaking in the narrow term of “Will’s in charge of this charity, he’ll decide if I should come aboard.” I think “Will’s in charge” of everything now, and she’s only signing on to things that he wants her to be involved with. Because she’s a (nearly) 30-year-old geisha who has no opinions on anything unless her husband says she can.
A few days ago, The Mail ran an interesting report that alluded to a theory I’ve been holding on to for months – basically, the Palace (the Queen and her advisors) want Kate to be much more active as a royal starting now. I think the palace is tired of answering questions like, “WTF does Kate do all day?” and “What accomplishments does she have besides getting the ring?” and they’re at their wit’s end trying to do end-runs around the press. The palace wants Kate to get to work – NOW. Here’s an excerpt of The Mail’s report:
…Behind the obvious success of [Will and Kate’s most recent hospital visit] lies a real dilemma for the Royal Family. As all their advisers are acutely aware, Britain’s new golden couple are currently walking a tightrope between trying to maintain the privacy and normality of their daily lives while having become dazzling uber-celebrities. William has told the Queen that he is desperate not to be considered as a senior Royal quite yet; that he wants to keep up his real-world job as a search-and-rescue pilot, with all the flexibility that necessitates.
For the moment, the RAF, rather than his Royal future, is the focus. In a rare interview with the Mail’s Robert Hardman last week, the 29-year-old Flight Lieutenant seemed happy not to consider any new Royal role for the moment.
‘As I’m flying in my helicopter through the mountains of Wales,’ he said, ‘I try desperately hard not to think about it. That can wait until I’m a bit older.’
He is seeking to be promoted to Captain, but is also unable, and unwilling, to forgo all his Royal duties and the accompanying media fanfare. Anyway, it is too late for that. For Kate’s part, although she has no other job to juggle with her Royal duties, she feels the split just as keenly. But most of the time, for now, she can play at not being royal.
She can be a military housewife in windy Anglesey, waiting for William to return from RAF missions; she can be her old shopping self in West London, mooching around Topshop in Kensington High Street and going to her favourite hairdresser, Richard Ward, in Sloane Square. At weekends, she can go to Sloaney weddings with her sister Pippa.
But at some point, she will be expected to do more.
This weekend, it was reported that Kate, a History of Art graduate, is to become a patron of the arts in the not-too-distant future. Last week, she was given a private tour of the National Gallery by curators, where she would have been able to swot up on her knowledge of Britain’s artistic heritage. In coming months, she’s expected to attend meetings with directors and curators at museums and galleries across the country.
[From The Mail]
The Mail also draws a harsher comparison between Diana and Kate, basically calling BS on the kid-glove treatment of a nearly-30 university graduate. It’s very interesting – and I suspect that even though Kate has been “advised” to wait until next year to announce her charitable commitments, she will in fact begin to add some royal work soon. Hopefully. Because if she doesn’t, these stories will really get worse.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I think the “Will’s in charge” comment was probably a funny comment made by a newlywed bride. I guess it could be either interpretation, but unless we hear tape of her making the comment…we will never know. I want to not like her, but I can’t help it – I think I’m a Kate fan.
I find it odd that they are so concerned with privacy and normality when they were married in front of the world!! Get a clue…that all went out the window in April. He seems in denial about this future.
You’re so hard on her 🙁 Love Waity!
Whoop-de-doo!
Again-he wants to be cautious after what happened with his mother. And just because she’s 30 doesn’t mean she knows how The Firm operates. Just because she personally finds a cause interesting doesn’t mean it’s “worthy” in their eyes. She married into a family business and she’s slowly being groomed by them. And in terms of the British press turning on her and starting to be critical-no big surprise there. That’s what they do.
I usually laugh at Daily Fail, but they have this one right. Duchess Dolittle is 30. Not 19. She doesn’t have to be coddled. If anything, she should be out there showing what a modern monarch can do. Not hiding behind her husband’s sword doing absolutely nothing in Wales. If she’s that mentally & physically fragile, he shouldn’t have married her. He should have allowed her to live a life of relative anonymity in posh English society.
They have a creepy marriage.
It’s like she was picked deliberately to put women back in ‘their place’.
Wow! Well done Your Royal Highness. That’ll placate those of us who think you’re all parasites.
I think they’re trying hard to keep these two relevant in a country (and world) where their peers are struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. Shopping, getting the hair done, even the duty obligations like charities are a not going to going over well in the long run. It’s a bitter pill to swallow watching part of your hard-earned tax dollar go towards keeping Waity’s hair pretty.
I really want to see her succeed and be happy. Why do we always want to bring people down? It’s sad to me.
I generally like Kate. But this is getting ridiculous. if she is not pregnant, she nees to do something to earn her (substantial) keep, just like almost everyone else on the planet.
The Royals had such trouble with Diana’s popularity because it overshadowed them–perhaps now, they are thinking, well, say what you will about Di, but the girl got her ass out of bed, dressed up, smiled at people, and did her job as a royal even when she likely didn’t feel like it. Kate–who by all rights is in a much stronger, healthier position than Diana ever was, is being treated like she will crack wide open if asked to work at the job she campaigned endlessly for.
Duchess Dolittle! lol. Very fitting.
I’m in two minds, i think she should be doing something, at least a few appearances or whatever a month. But i also see and appreciate that they want to have a year or two to themselves, to just enjoy being married.
However i think that if she doesn’t step up fast, the British press will rip her a new one!
all the best to kate, i think she’ll need it
p.s. i really really want her to get knocked up soon
She is so boring. William chose her because she is content at being a stepford wife. I dount she will ever step out and do things without him.
Most people don’t have two years to enjoy being married without working.
Before she married him, she lazied about enough. That was when she was always watching DVDs and waiting for William, while doing almost nothing at all.
Well, it’s not quite the same thing, is it? Deciding to do work for a charity that already has the power (lack of a better word) of Royals behind it.
It’s unfortunate she could not a found a charity that much needs attention, and brought it to the world.
I like Kate, but this smacks of a platitude for the masses.
She should talk to Angelina for some great advice.
When then Princess Elizabeth married Prince Phillip, weren’t they able to stay out of the public limelight while they lived in Malta for a year or two after they first married? Let this couple have their private time too. There’s plenty of time for her to fill her calendar with public events.
Good point, Lucky Charm.
Though if she did only 10% of the things Angie does on any given day, her work-allergy will turn her completely purple.
This is just a PR move, a bandaid on an increasingly problematic public image for Duchess Dolittle. Reminds me of when they said she worked for the “family business.” Sorry, I don’t buy it, but then again I’m not a fool. I don’t know why the majority of the British public swoons over these aristocratic parasites.
She is lazy and she sucks.
The Queen was 21 when she married in 1947, so I think it made sense for her to spend time with Philip away from royal duties. This was also after WWII, which must have been quite stressful for her, even as a princesss.
Will and Kate, however, have been together for several years and were living together in Wales before they married. Anyway, I thought they waited until their late twenties to marry because they wanted to enjoy being together before having to deal with public attention.
Kate now spends alternate weeks in London because she’s bored and lonely. Would it really be so difficult to fit one work appearance in during each visit?
Firstly Kate has not really had a job since she left Uni, her Assistant Fashion Buyer job was only 2 days a week and only lasted 8 months before she left because she wanted more time to herself (her words not mine). Secondly, about them wanting time together just to themselves, they have been living together for 10 years so that is a waste of an excuse. Finally, HM and Prince Phillip did have 2 years to themselves but while Phillip was in the Navy HM did charity work and was working every day so that excuse does not work either
Kate’s “William is in charge” comment has always struck me as pertaining to their whole relationship. William makes the decisions, and Kate happily obeys. That deduction of “I will obey…” from their wedding vows was utter nonsense. Kate has behaved like a doormat for William for the last 9 years. I don’t think she was the one dictating what he could or couldn’t do back then. Kate seems to have cultivated no goals for herself except marrying William. Her life for the last decade has revolved around being his girlfriend. Now that more is required of her, she and William don’t want to deliver. And so the Palace must find something for Kate to do, to please the media and the public and avoid the backlash from getting bigger.
The photos of Kate shopping every week in London must have created a stir, too, since she and William said they’d be living in a cottage in Wales like normal people, yet Kate is caught doing a lot of shopping around London and doing nothing else. If she can spend money and shop every week, surely she can do some charity work?
It never occurred to me that the Palace wanted Kate to take 2 years off. This is The Firm, where the Queen and Prince Philip still have more than 300 charities between them, and the Queen and Philip work tirelessly to promote their causes even when they’re already in their 80s and 90s, and should be taking a rest and starting to ease their workload onto Charles, Andrew, and their children. I can’t imagine the Palace just suggesting that the new Duchess take 2 years off because she needs to be eased into royal life. They won’t make that leeway just for Kate.
IMO it was William who doesn’t want Kate to work for 2 years, and Kate has no problem agreeing because 1) she’s absolutely lazy and has no ambition to work whatsoever, and 2) she’s become a nanny-mother-wife to William. She takes care of his needs like a 1950s housewife.
Again, I’ll bring up their engagement interview: When asked about Kate’s work, William said Kate was in “a good place, work-wise”, meaning her bogus position at her family’s business was good enough for William. He didn’t care if Kate made a career for herself or not, as long as she was available whenever he needed her.
Kate said she only cares about William’s opinions. She doesn’t care what other people think. That means she doesn’t care what the taxpaying public– who supports her and her husband’s lifestyle–think. It’s what enabled her to cruise through 10 years being lazy and doing nothing but shopping and partying. Would that have changed now? Probably. There was backlash about that McQueen outfit worn when visiting riot victims. Now there’s a bit of a backlash with Kate’s lack of work ethic and future responsibilities…Kate will have to care about public opinion, or the stories will just get worse.
William is babying her because of what happened to his mother. Again, Kate is 30 years old. Why can’t people see this? At 30 years old, most people have figured out their lives and what they’d like to do, their career goals, their family goals, etc.
If this was someone else and not Kate, people will be labeling that person a loser, pathetic, bum, freeloader, useless, and other words to note the person’s failure in making something out of himself/herself.
But when it comes to Kate, some people insist that she should be given a break, and that she’s just like many people who haven’t figured out her interests yet, and her role now is so stressful so she should be protected from all the scrutiny, etc. The double standards applied to this girl are just ridiculous. She’s being treated like a child who must stay in a bubble unless she gets hurt. Oh, boo-hoo.
How would Kate learn how to deal with the public in her role now as Duchess if she’s not urged, not given the chance, to show what she can do? Will she be forever protected because of what happened to Diana?
Well said, Rashiel.
Nicely put, Rashiel.
I called it in last post! I said that she would parton the arts. Ha.
Talie – I wish he would abdicate (when it comes time), and let Harry take over. William does not want the crown, he doesn’t want the responsibility, and he certainly doesn’t want the press. I think he would make a very bad King. The Queen should just let him be and give into his desire to take himself out of the running. It wouldn’t be good for anyone if he were to ascend.
As for Waity’s new “position”, this is a pathetic attempt to put her name to anything. In this case a charity her husband and brother in law founded (shouldn’t she have had a name attached any way?). She’ll get her name to it and will have to do f-ck all because it’s Will and Harry’s gig. Just keep coasting Kate. Hopefully the Brit public will see though her bs and Marie Antoinette her ass (or at least switch to a republic). She’s a lazy, free loading, waste of space and I can no longer stand William for not only putting up with it, but for foisting this waster on the public. It leads me to believe he’s no better than her.
@ Rashiel (#24) & @ The Original Ashley (#28) – Well said & I agree with you both.
If the Palace wanted Kate to be a full-time royal, that is what she’d be doing. As the Mail article pointed out, there are many drawbacks to that strategy. No doubt she would eclipse Charles and Camilla in the public eye, as well as William himself, just like Diana did. The Palace does not want that to happen, so Kate has a limited public role at the moment.
She is first and foremost William’s wife, and it looks like everyone in the royal family is happy with that arrangement, for now.
I’m sure every single aspect of her life is controlled by her husband and in-laws — what she wears, what she says, who her friends are (probably none), EVERYTHING. And it will never change. She will always be under their thumb because Charles proved that a prince can divorce even a very popular princess, if he wants to. That will always be hanging over Kate’s head, and I’m sure the royal family is ruthless enough to use it as a threat to keep her in line. That is the life she chose, the life she wanted more than anything in her life. And I don’t know if I depise her for it, or pity her.
What does it even mean, the ridiculous title of a “senior royal”?!
The guy is a pilot and a serves his country in the army.
In the very distant past, a Senior Royal had the role of governing, but we have democracies and elected officials for that purpose.
It’s one thing to have an old lady playing “Queen”, without any real meaning or governing power, but, why should this young man, who, as opposed to his wife, actually sounds like he has some values, wants to work and do something with his life (or days) and for some reason, he needs to ask his grandmother for permission to actually “work” and have a career that he wants to keep?
That’s absord.
England should get back to 2011 and stop having paid celebrities and join the modern world.
Celebrities do not need to be paid by the taxpayer to be famous.
They are artists, musicians, actors and people who actually have a job.
Leave this guy alone to live his life as he pleases.
I predict they will pop out a kid sooner than they originally planned.
The press and public sentiment isn’t as supportive as they were intially. If they feel they are losing public sympathy, the easiest fix is to have a kid. Who could possibly criticize Kate if she’s pregnant? You’d have to be a monster. Then she won’t be expected to do anything after that because the nannies, I mean Kate, will be busy raising the kid, right?
Mark my words: there will be a pregnancy announcement soon, to stop the public’s increasing criticism against Kate. And the backwards-thinking members of the public will love her again, because she fulfilled her true calling in life. Disgusting.
let’s give credit where it’s due and say, yah she finally got a job!
I love Kate! Why are you so hard on her? Face it the world adores her- no matter how you try to spin it. Her wedding dress display alone brought in 10 million pounds- about 16 million USDollars.
I love Wills and Kate – there story is such a positive one in this nasty negative world we live in.
Some people hate to see people succeed!
Team Kate!!
Dot: Omg your comment made me remember that during WWII, then-Princess Elizabeth:
“volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.”
Lol, the contrast between her and Kate. Yes, the queen undertook voluntary military service as a teen or really young adult during a world war… and Kate just signed onto her first royal charity!!!
Katie is supposed to be getting instruction about taking on charities in the arts realm, the palace is spinning the PR hard on this one but no one in the media seems to be taking it seriously, it’s probably the only thing she is mildly suited for but I’ll only believe it when I see it.
Link below to the ‘Queen of Arts’ fluff article on her proposed new calling.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/8801273/Duchess-of-Cambridge-to-become-Queen-of-Arts.html
Enough of the hating on this girl. It’s getting ridiculous. It reeks of jealously. The royal family is a job in itself. They had a terrible time with Diana’s intent to upstage them at every turn. When all is said & done I am sure she will have patroned many charities & will have done a great deal for her country.
Can all those constantly slamming this girl say the same? No one knows what a fishbowl she live in except William & he seems intent to protect her as much as he can. Accept that & go bash the Kardashians!!
What the palace won’t reveal about Kate’s wedding dress is whether or not the tourist traffic to Buckingham Palace increased because of her frock or if that’s the typical visitor attendance. No doubt they charged extra to see the creepy display.
Somebody finally realized that being seen to be doing nothing but shopping wasn’t a good look. She won’t be doing any more work than she has to this point, but they figure this almost passes as a resume filler.
@Kaiser – Please stop calling her a Geisha. It’s not a fair comparison. Geishas were young women from poor families who trained hard to be artists. Sure some element of their job involved being courtesans, but they were not unemployed, pampered wives.
Stepford wife. That’s the cultural reference that’s relevant here.
Looks like Kate’s got some more protectors, more than ‘everybody’, that is. Look, I really don’t think the well-worn bleats about jealousy is the thing that makes people tick, it’s that we (if you’re a member of the the Commonwealth), have had this distant figurehead institution carving its institutional ways into our lives for as long as we’ve had them. It was the same picture of the 1952 version of Elizabeth that was in all of my classrooms, I think they put up the PM now as well, but they sure didn’t when I was there. Not so bad though, I cringe at the thought of my niece and nephew having Stephen Harper’s scary lemur eyes follow them in the dark; at least Queenie’s frock was a pretty one, they really knew how to wasp that waist back then.
Who is on the back of all the money I don’t have? Legitimately insane anti-Semitic PM/medium Mackenzie King? Suez negotiator/Vietnam opposer/got beat up by LBJ for opposition Lester Pearson? Oddly-visaged sex star and hippie-wrangling Rolling Stones Opponent Pierre Trudeau? That damned Mulrouney? No. I even attented a school named after her, so even though her presence is physically felt, I think a lot of people think that largely, that presence is one descended from a leaving era and since she doesn’t interfere in the politics of the nation that much, it’s easy to forget that she’s there, ready and yes, quite willing to admonish and still model herself as icons of enduring dignity that retain a quality that can never be allowed to dim, be trampled underfoot by this revolution or that, or be allowed to stray from its original form.
So, we’re at a point where the iconography at my old school and the images of these figures of reverence are so far away from those sentiments that believed it was right and just for a young woman to ride in a carriage of gold towards her coronation toward a crown with which she could kind of do nothing. A lot of that rigidity and stoicism was pretty dignified, but no one knew why it was of such great importance–for whom was the protocol required, and if the powers of the crown were so continually decreasing, why not so the case for the luxuries? Is it a stretch to say that there was some mutual animosity governing the confused and widening gap between king, as it were, and country? I suppose one of the difficulties (like I’d know) of extreme wealth is that no problem is allowed to be a problem, but after the taxes and castle burning and her later appeal to the people to subsidize construction on another home, I heard a lot of comments that basically said that her loving subjects had been ‘doing their bit’ for the last 60 years and when was it going to be her turn again?
I wouldn’t presume to speak on their behalf, but it seemed like Diana’s crime was one of over-familiarity. I don’t see anyone faulting her charitible efforts or common touch, but I guess it was one that lingered too long, didn’t compartmentalize, forgot itself and applied its zeal across all areas of her world. But one knows that the one-time most photographed woman in the world will have many others in it, and being stuffed into that cramped space against one’s will or power made everyone hot under the collar after being yanked out of the barricades and the micromanaged and serene vistas you knew and kept to your liking.
With scandal after scandal and not a great deal amount of responsibilities that don’t consist of ‘sign, cut, smile’, what are they supposed to emulate? What do they rule? What would happen in this real world (politically, not the souvenir money and so on, and not in sentimental terms, just politics) if they were just aristocracy, perhaps?
I think a lot of the frustration with this wedding (besides weddings being boring and kind of over-hyped in general) was that people felt more acutely than before that the gears powering this old grey mare were turning in order to secure another revolution into the old order: the next generation. It has been a long time since we’ve seen a portrait of this family that wasn’t wadded up in salacious events in another day of glowering, self-worshipping papparazzi clowns. Whether you bought it or not was up to your discretion, but wait a minute, are they doing anything? Whose all funding this? So, when Kate came along, it was taken as a re-confirmation that possession was eleven-tenths of the law. It was inevitable that a daughter of wealth who used some of those funds to seemingly bide her time for a decade so she could Catch That Man! would appear as unseemly, to some. I just think there are a lot of people who need to see this creaking institution justify its existence in some domain and seeing daily hair updates or experience a real cognitive disconnect at seeing someone have to be trained for an undisclosed amount of time for something she already is, well, tripe. Or, an unconvincingly-phrased defense, I don’t know what they all do together, I’m busy thinking about me, whoo!
I lost my grandmother when I was 24, but if some other family member of mine were that–the whole gaggle of them, really. Hell be damned if your sister wants to marry a man who left his wife because she cuckolded him, and I don’t even want to think what barely-submerged Nazi filth would rise up like the voices of a southern Baptist gospel choir united in song–if a family member were so invested in other people’s marriages, I hope it would be taken as a sign of good luck because a hard, inbred rain would fall.
I nominate Rashiel for comment of the year. She put into words what most of us think about Waity. I understand why people want to believe in the fantasy but I am very practical. When I determine whether someone will be good at their job, I first look at their past work performance and achievements. This is especially true for politicians and public figures. Actions speak volumes more than photo ops. Has he or she used their power and influence for good? What has this person DONE to deserve the public’s praise?
So I wonder, if Waity loves the arts so much, why didn’t she become a patron of the arts years ago? She certainly had the money and influence to have an active leadership role in promoting arts education or outreach programs before she married William. Or is it because she honestly has no passion or interests other than being a socialite so the Palace took it upon themselves to choose an area of interest for her and the only thing they could think of was her art history major?
Her inaction for 9 years says a lot about who she is and what kind of relationship William has expected from the get go. I think he might have subconsciously chosen to be with a woman the exact opposite of his mother because of Diana’s tragic ending. But even the Queen can see that being inactive can become as much of a public relations disaster as being too active, especially now that we are in the 21st century and a college educated royal with no real job should at least be up to the task of promoting charities and showing interest in worthy causes.
William shouldn’t worry about Kate becoming Diana. Kate will never have the star power Diana had, so he should be afraid of pushing Kate into finally doing something with her life other than shop and vacation.
Wow. Good call Rashiel. At 30, I was once divorced with 2 children, engaged to be re-married, and in a career I’d been in for 6 years. I cannot imagine being 30 and having no goals, aspirations, or life outside of being someone’s wife.
In this case, though, “being someone’s wife” IS a career aspiration. She will one day, presumably, be queen, and before that, she has to be the wife of the Duke, and then eventually, Princess of Wales. Camilla Parker Bowles doesn’t wait tables or clean people’s teeth–it is her job (again, presumably. I hate that old horse-faced witch) to support Chuckles and do what they tell her to do. So, okay, fine–Waity married into both a family AND a tenured job…but she actually has to DO the job at some point, right? I mean, there are expectations here. I guess they are not “senior royals,” so they are, I guess, what we would consider “part -timers”–they work at other jobs (like Will and Harry have their army stuff) while Chuckles and the Rottweiler work full time at their royal engagements. But even still, the part-timers do something other than attend countless weddings and visit the salon. But if they are not telling her to do anything…whose fault is it?
I think, at the end of the day, I’m just freaking jealous, because I have to go to work to pay for my car and my electricity and crap like that.