Back in May, the British Royal Air Force let it be known that they were displeased with Prince William. William had been trying to balance his RAF job with his royal duties, all while trying to maintain his extensive vacation schedule with Duchess Kate, and it seemed like he was falling short with the RAF. His RAF superiors basically gave William an ultimatum: choose between his military career or his royal duties, because trying to balance both would be impossible. He was given until the end of the year.
This goes to one particular criticism I’ve had of William for years now – while I think it’s great that he’s following in the royal tradition of military service, and I applaud his commitment to the British military, this was never going to be his career. The RAF was always going to be wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds training William for a job he would only be in for a couple of years, before he would eventually and inevitably give it up for a career as a full-time royal. While it’s great that William got to experience a military life, it definitely feels like it was a waste of time, money and training that would have been better spent on an RAF candidate who was actually going to make the RAF his full-time career. Plus, over the past year, it got to the point where it seemed like “living in Wales, having a quiet life in the country” was part of the larger excuse for why William and Kate did so little royal work when in reality, Kate spends most of her time in London, shopping and going to lunch and getting her hair done.
Anyway, royal gossips are trying to read the tea leaves and figure out if William and Kate are going to leave Wales and begin moving into full-time royal work. Apparently, William and Kate have begun to hire more staffers and their Kensington Palace renovation will be completed soon. So… they’re feathering their London nest:
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are ready to establish their own powerbase at Kensington Palace. Until now, William, Kate and Prince Harry have shared an office with Prince Charles at St James’s Palace. But they are about to create their own court in time for Harry’s return from Afghanistan in January More than a dozen staff will begin the switch to the Royal residence in West London next month.
Kate and William, both 30, have a cottage on the site but will soon set up home in Apartment 1A, which used to be occupied by Princess Margaret. The move is viewed as another sign that William is preparing to leave his role as a search-and-rescue pilot at RAF Anglesey to begin a life of Royal duty with his wife.
‘The new set-up will be known as the Household Office of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, and will be transferred from St James’s Palace in stages,’ said an aide. ‘Charles has agreed to fund the private office out of his existing income from the Duchy of Cornwall and has even offered to foot the bill for Kate’s not inconsiderable working wardrobe.’
Another source adds: ‘The irony is Kensington Palace is where Diana fashioned her powerbase after her divorce from Charles. There is no rift with Charles, just a recognition the time has come for the boys and Kate to create their own full identity.’
By next spring, each of the young Royals will have a private secretary.
Vicar’s daughter Rebecca Deacon will support Kate and former Ministry of Defence press secretary Miguel Head will act for William, while Harry’s aide has yet to be appointed.
Helen Asprey will serve as personal private secretary and confidante to all three. The aides will be overseen by long-time Royal gatekeeper Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who will act as principal private secretary and equerry. The Kensington Palace retinue will include representatives of the trio’s charity foundation, security staff and press secretaries, such as Kate and William’s new media guru Ed Perkins. The office will also house admin staff who will manage the rising number of public engagements undertaken by the three Royals.
I hope this finally ends the contradictory messaging from William and Kate about their staff and just how “self-sufficient” they are and have been this whole time. William and Kate have ALWAYS had extensive staff at their disposal, but they played fast-and-loose with the press about it because technically all of their staffers were employed by Prince Charles. Kate and William tried to play it in the press that they were so humble and modern and self-sufficient and they barely had anyone helping them when really they’ve always been coddled by a full staff of personal and professional helpers. My problem isn’t that they have a dozen people working with them already – I just hated that they never admitted it, and that part of their “Cambridge Brand” was that they were just like any normal couple. Of course, if they had admitted that they had a full staff a year ago, I think people would have asked, “So why don’t they do more royal work?” Haha, JK. We asked that already!
Anyway, I would enjoy it if William did formally begin to be a full-time royal, and Kate too. There was some talk that he would take another position, this one in Scotland, for a few years in which he and Kate could continue to not do any heavy lifting with their royal duties. But I think that dream might be over, don’t you?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Anti climatic. These two when they are together, are like watching paint dry.
Couldn’t agree more.
Yep, they are about as thrilling as exposed brick.
But still you and dozen of others take time to comment lol.
How does the fact that people post about diminish what she just said? They ARE boring.
If they are so boring then why do you bother to read articles about them and take the time to write comments about them? When something is boring to me I spend as little time as possible on it, not more time than necessary. It seems that it’s kind of a waste of time to read and comment about two completely boring people.
@ Luffly: what an over articulated unnecessary long post…how about sum that up something like: if they are boring why post/read about them…..
This move has been in the works for months now and have nothing to do with him leaving raf and doing royal duties full time. I will believe it when it actually happens, for now it just looks like another pr article trying to justify there staff and palace renovations funded by tax payers as they do so little work as royals and as raf pilot. the fact is she was never a normal housewife living in a cottage, the cottage is the size of a mansion with attached house and they had a housekeeper cook cleaner driver from the very beginning all paid by Charles through duchy and in directly by tax payers. This is one of the reasons I dislike them so much, they are liars and their pr image is a big fat lie. they are both all image and no substance and if they just stop pretending to be normal couple im might give them a benefit of doubt because now they sound so condescending and dishonest.
agree, couldn’t have said it better. Ill add that this applies to all of the european monarchies, my country’s included (spain)
Angelic, you got that right!
Don’ be pissed at the ‘cottage’ deception. There frame of reference is Palaces and castles. Don’t you watch DOWWNTON ABBEY?!!!!lol
LOL Sellum, AGREED!!
Here is for hope….once more LOL
Her facial expression is the best!! The one with the black coat and wearing the poppy my husband just said she look she orgasm! haha
I thought that the RF wanted to avoid a full time schedule of royal duties for Kate so she would have time to adjust and so they would help avoid the pressures that Diana had to face?
They have not even been married two years and if you look back, she has done allot. More than I would be willing to do, and I work full time and raise a family.
I don’t think it was a waste of money for the RAF to train and employ William for a few years. Just because it won’t be his permanent career doesn’t mean that they didn’t get anything out of it — William’s services, positive press, etc.
Plus, William himself will have the benefit of all he learned during those years, and of the interactions he had with colleagues from different walks of life. That experience will serve him well in the role of King.
What positive press? You mean the allegations that they bent the rules to train William as a pilot because he diss not have a prefect vision or the time he took the helicopter he was not even qualified to fly for a joy ride at Kate’s backyard without any permission and at the time when we are at war and having our defender budget cuts, they were forced to make excuses for him or him leaving his training in middle to go on a vacation or rumours of his colleagues missing their family fictions because he again decided to go on an unplanned vacation. Yeah so many positive press that a top retired navy officer openly said that they want him with them
I meant they don’t want him work with them.
Spell much?
How can William bring positive press to the RAF when they have to cover for him all the time?
They’ve been asked by some media sects about William’s training and the costs of it on the taxpayers’ dime, but the RAF refuses to answer. They won’t divulge just how much money has been spent/wasted on William’s training just because he felt he deserved to have a military career because the men in his family did.
As Angelic said, William took a helicopter in an unauthorized “mission” and landed it in the Middletons’ backyard. An average Joe would have been fired on the spot. But lo and behold, while the RAF superiors were angry, nothing was done to reprimand/punish William. What do you bet that they didn’t even say anything to him and just swept the issue under the rug?!
A Search & Rescue mission pilot must have 20/20 vision. William’s eyesight isn’t perfect. He wears eyeglasses and has been photographed on several occasions wearing them. Why did he qualify for the position when he didn’t meet all the qualifications? Does that mean he was the very best for the job and the RAF had no other person to hire who was more qualified?
The RAF admitted that William is a “case by case” allowance and a loophole was used so William could squeak by and get the position. I wonder how many other aspiring pilots who didn’t have 20/20 vision had even been considered to train, like William? Or were they not on a “case by case” basis so there was no hope for them?
Special treatment is awesome, isn’t it? It’s one of William’s middle names!
If anything, all he brings to the RAF is speculation about the true nature of his work there. It’s become his hiding place from his royal duties.
She really needs to get to work on that heir. Of course, “full time mother” doesn’t sound nearly as glamourous as “full time royal.”
I fairly certain that heir making is not a solo activity.
I guess being a full time royal will delay again when she’s getting pregnant this year 😉
I think they both need to get back to royal duties. Honestly, although I’m not a fan of her, I thought she did better on the Asian tour than the Canadian one. The only way she is going to become less ridiculous is if she gets actual experience.
They have a staff of a dozen?!?! How much help do two adults need in their daily duties?! I mean, I get Kate isnt living like me, waking up, cooking cleaning, gestating, running errands etc.. but I certainly wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I had a even a single person to help me during the day!
Both totally useless wastes of air. What an anachronism to have a royal family these days – such an egregious waste of money and public funds. It’s time for them to get out and actually work for a living instead of swanning around in helicopters and taking endless holidays.
It’s so nice of them to spin out old information as though it were new despite the fact that all of it has been in place or for months. BUT a they want us to pretend it is all new. They will have to excuse us if we wait to see it before we applaud because we have been down this road many times.
LAK, did I read somewhere that Kate was spotted in Aberdeen in the last week or two? Isn’t that where William could be transferred if he did stay in RAF?
I didn’t know they’ve had a staff of 12 all this time. Where do they put them all in what I assume is a small cottage at KP?
I heard it was Aberdeen airport which is the nearest airport to Balmoral. They have a ‘cottage’ on the estate so she can come and go as she pleases without going up to the main house.
I thought you knew about the staff. 12 is only the London staff. The ones in Wales are an open secret especially because the house can be viewed from the main road so they can be seen coming and going and have been in place for years.
Last year, they advertised for a quiver of household staff for KP including cook, housekeeper, butler, valet.
Office staff are something William has had for a long time, although initially they were shared with PC.Rebecca has been in place since 2007!!!! Harry and William shared staff for awhile BUT don’t anymore.the whole office thing was re-organised late last year.
OK, I’m getting confused between office staff and household staff. I didn’t think they had household staff, but they do?
Yes. They have office AND Household staff. A lot of what is being discussed in above article is Office staff.
I would say that at a minimum they have 20 in total if you take into consideration the bare minimum of household staff that they have at each establishment, Scotland not included, plus the basic 9 in the office.
Wills has as much personality/leadership quality as his father – none. Kate is growing on me (like a fungus)…but really, I like her.
To be fair, Charles, despite his shortcomings, is pretty charming and has an incredibly sexy voice.
William takes after his uncles Edward and Andrew and great uncle David in terms of looks and personality respectively.
I think Charles have leadership quality or at least a sense of duty, irrespective of the result he even married because of his sense of duty. He has been working relentlessly for decades now while William is a spoiled brat who needs to bring his dead mommy to gain sympathy and make excuses for his laziness and shortcomings.
Gad, they are dull. The news never changes. Upper class twits, indeed.
I’ll believe this when it’s official and William and Kate have actually increased their workload to include more than just galas, movie premieres, VIP parties, art gallery visits, and the occasional one/two visits to charities for 1 hour, etc.
They actually have several events to attend this month and the next…but most of them are actually just galas and hobnobbing with celebrities and other wealthy people where they’ll be feted and praised, don’t have to deal with the ‘unwashed masses’, and they get to dress up in expensive clothes. Fun!
Nothing taxing, no hard questions for Kate to fathom, no faking interest and warmth…just good ol’ fancy parties that are right up their alley. They get to stay in their exclusive little bubble but they will count the galas and movie premieres as ‘real work’ and include it in their work tally so they can fluff up their calendar and say they worked a lot! 😉