A few days ago, Duchess Kate allegedly had to cancel another appearance. Just like last week, she apparently waited until the last minute and she didn’t send any kind of surrogate. Unlike last week, she didn’t make any kind of statement. The appearance was for Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup thing. She was supposed to make an appearance at the new headquarters in Old Portsmouth. The new facility will bring 90 jobs to the community. It was the kind of event that could have easily been promoted by another member of the royal family, but Team Kate continued their on-going commitment to terrible staff work. So, I wonder what’s going to happen with this latest event, which was just announced yesterday?
Princess Kate is set to return to public duties. Kate and husband William are scheduled to help welcome the President of Singapore Tony Tan Keng Yam to London on behalf of Queen Elizabeth later this month. The expectant mom has not been seen in public since the Sept. 8 announcement of her pregnancy and she became ill with severe pregnancy sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum.
Mindful of Kate’s ongoing struggle with the effects of her current condition, a palace source tells PEOPLE that Kate “very much hopes to be able to undertake this engagement, but as with all recent engagements her attendance will be reviewed closer to the time, depending on her health.”
The President of Singapore event is set for Oct. 21 at London’s Royal Garden Hotel – a short distance from Kate and William’s Kensington Palace home. The couple will then travel with President and Mrs. Tan to the Horse Guards Parade, where the visiting dignitary will receive a ceremonial welcome. Kate and William visited Singapore during their 2012 tour to help celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
If she’s too sick, they need to stop scheduling stuff for her to do, only to cancel at the last minute without sending a surrogate. If she too sick to stay at Kensington Palace, then what does it matter if this event is within walking distance from KP? I’m not saying that to “hate” on Kate – at this point, I’m just sort of disgusted by her staffers, schedulers and office people. It’s like they’re setting her up to fail…?
A few more pieces of royal info – Australian media outlets had totaled up the costs of William and Kate’s Australian tour (not even factoring in the cost of the New Zealand leg), and the tour cost Australian taxpayers $474, 582, mostly for protection officers and transportation.
And finally, Will and Kate were made honorary lifetime members of the Marylebone Cricket Club, one of the most prestigious cricket clubs in all of England.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’m sure they (and she) keep hoping that she’s going to feel better as time goes on.
Exactly. Anyone who has experienced that severe morning sickness really has to think it will go away soon. I think either she or her people are hoping for the best. My cousin suffered from the same condition and was hospitalized at some point to help her gain weight and to get some relief. It can be very debilitating and I feel nothing but sympathy for her.
Well this is the lady Angelina will soon be bowing to. Though in the last post it was such a great honor to get an award from these goons.
I feel for her when she’s preggo. That sickness she gets is nasty, and scary. Wish her staffers would do their job for her.
Her staffers *are* doing their jobs. By pulling this bait and switch, they’re making her seem relevant and caring. I’m actually wondering if they won’t find a way to put these engagements in her year end totals. “Oh dear, she was *going* to work, but, you know….”
Well, there would be other ways she could do charity.
Make some phone calls.
Write some letters.
She isn’t exactly lying in bed 24/7, is she?
I understand them trying to schedule her in the hopes she can make it but not securing a back-up on standby for her is ridiculous.
That seems a very reasonable idea.
I mean, I know that the main royals that are doing events book them months in advance, but the not having a back up is absurd. The staffers/press office know they aren’t going to be able to find someone on the same level and just cancel. I think they are setting her up to fail.
Just clear out her schedule for all of October-including the NYC trip, and just let her rest and recover. People will understand. Even people that don’t like Kate get that she’s sick.
I agree. Just clear her schedule, even if it’s for the whole of the pregnancy, because she wasn’t going to do much work anyways with or without the HG or whatever illness she has.
This scheduling/canceling and waiting until the last second to decide what she’s going to do looks ridiculous.
She wasn’t doing much work before the HG/whatever-illness, so trying to push the image now that she’s a “keen” worker/trooper trying so hard to get back to work amidst the ever present HG/whatever-illness is just a lot of hooey.
I agree.
This first-scheduled-then-cancelled thing will look ridiculous. As if it were done one purpose with everyone knowing it won’t happen.
Well, hyperemesis gravidarum can be a b_tch. I hope she feels better soon.
I empathize with Kate. When I was pregnant with my daughter my Doctor advised me that I should prepare for a miscarriage.
I was violently ill and nauseous the entire pregnancy. Even during Labour I was barfing.
I never took anything for the nausea, and was vilified the entire nine months by co – workers and my ex mother-in-law.
I only gained 17 pounds -was 132 pounds at delivery. My miracle baby girl was 7 lbs. 2 oz.
Grateful for a healthy baby.
I think Kate should put her health first, and focus on her pregnancy. No matter what Kate decides, she will be criticized. Wish her well. My gosh, George is adorable!
*yawn*
Since she’s sick, why not cancel everything? It’s not as if she was doing anything prior to her pregnancy. It’s not as if people were actually expecting her to do anything this fall anyway.
+1
Because the trip to NY probably immediately follows the event in Oct. Now how would it look to a hawk-eyed public if she were to make the trip to NY but have been to ill to make a handful of local appearances?
I agree. Her staff should just say she’s not available for the next month at least. This is ridiculous. It looks like they’re trying to say she really cares about working when she can’t. Too bad it doesn’t look that way when she’s healthy!
Exactly! The narrative doesn’t fit with reality.
B: De ja vu!!!!!
I suppose the first tendency is to blame the PR staff for this farce, but most likely they have to follow the whims and directives of two difficult people and try to douse the fire as best as they can. These spin doctors must really be spinning like a top trying to get a handle on this situation. They can have it; I wouldn’t want to be working for the Difficult Duo even for the cachet of working for royalty.
Although you do have to wonder if someone is secretly paying the PR team to sabotage Kate’s image, if you’re looking for a conspiracy theory! 😉
Exactly bluhare. Maybe it’s so and maybe not, but suddenly attempts to work are more common than when she actually was well and could work. f
Yes!
Her staff sucks. Period. Clean house, and if do it before the baby is born. Maybe Will could get on that. *snort*
Her staff don’t suck, they have an impossible brief. How do you manipulate people into believing that Kate is a caring, relevant, hard working princess? You lie about shit. A lot. Because she’s not helping them at all. She’s not doing herself any favours either, actually.
+1.
A+
She is digging her own grave.
I just wonder if her staffers try to purposefully make her look bad with all this cancelling or if her staffers honestly think they were doing good for Dolittle.
At this point they just need to accept that her royal “work” right now is carrying the “spare”, as vulgar as that may sound. The people working her schedule and PR are making her look even worse with the constant scheduling/canceling. Let her feel consistently great before putting anything on the books. If it isn’t until after the baby is born, fine.
>> “I’m just sort of disgusted by her staffers, schedulers and office people. It’s like they’re setting her up to fail…?”
Ooooh! I love a good conspiracy theory! *adjusts tinfoil*
I wish she’d hire someone to do her makeup. I just can’t get over how OLD she makes herself look. I like Kristen Stewart’s makeup on the KS & Nicholas Hoult post. She should totally hire KS’s makeup person.
She got heavily criticized for getting a blow dry for her hair after giving birth, so I can only imagine how much the public would complain if she used more of their tax money to add a MUA to payroll.
If she doesn’t make a few appearances before the NY trip, then they know she will be raked over the coals in the press. I think that is why they want today give the appearance of it looking as if she really wanted to work prior to that NY trip.
Wow – that would be very disrespectful to her fellow countrymen, taking a pass on everything except a trip to New York City! If she can’t do her job at home, I would have a hard time respecting her; showing up for the good times only.
Kind of makes her, not a princess of the UK, excepting for the babies.
If she’s pretending to want to work just so it would look OK for her to go have fun in NYC, then that’s a bad strategy on the part of her & her PR team. It would show that they think the public is stupid.
@wow – We all know she spends a lot of time getting her hair done, even though it’s a very simple haircut and style. I don’t think she necessarily has to hire a MUA every time she goes out. All she needs is some lessons from a pro and stick to what she learns instead of being so stubborn that she thinks this look she has now needs no adjustment.
Kate: “NY – shopping?”
You gotta love that wtf look on Prince G’s face!
Guess he isn’t interested in meeting Agent Smith.
LOL! Maybe George is “The One”!
WTF is going on at KP? They’ve turned into the Keystone Cops. Piss up and brewery are the two words that come to mind (do you Americans have piss ups in breweries, I wonder?) here. If we’re not careful, there will be a West End farce about it!
Kate should just go into some modern day confinement mode or somesuch and come back when the baby is toddling. It’s all too irritating.
LOL!!!
Agreed. These stories about ‘LOOK everyone, she’s going to do something! Wait, she’s too ill’ are not doing anyone favors. It’s like they’re desperately trying to prove she’s able/willing to go to events, but then she’s pulled at such an awkward time so people feel sorry for her? I’m just trying to wrap my brain around this weird PR. What is the motive for these stunts?
If there’s anyone on CB who works in PR, I’m interested in your two cents.
Just let the poor woman rest. The world will continue to spin. Will can go by himself.
It’s the perfect tactic to combat her workshy image without having her do more work. “No, no. She would work and she wants to, but she’s sick.” I believe Kate is severely ill, but if it’s so bad, the planning she reflect that.
I work in PR and this looks like a classic case of difficult clients. Y’all are assuming that the staffers/schedulers/etc are advising and directing Kate, William, et al… that the royals are merely victims of hapless PR amateurs! Isn’t that rather a case of shooting the messenger?
The royal PR/scheduling staffers are most likely treated as underlings who are hired to do as they are told and are NOT respected as advisors. If Kate agrees to schedule an event and then pulls out of it, it’s because that’s exactly what she and William have decided to do and directed their staff to communicate. I would bet the staffers regularly chase their tails trying to do the jobs they were hired to do and instead run around executing the daily whims and orders of their clients (lest we forget: a bunch of extremely spoiled entitled people living in an antediluvian, state-funded bubble) all while being subjected to colossally dysfunctional family in-fighting.
How can we blame the staff… these are normal, non-excessively paid individuals who probably struggle desperately to please their bosses and do their jobs amid what I’m sure is a constantly crazy, demanding, frustrating, super weird environment.
Yes to all this!!! Rebecca Deacon must be pulling her hair out trying to make her boss seem to have all the qualities she should have but doesn’t .
Interesting side note: Rebecca English at the Daily Mail has been using the phrase “ante-natal sickness” instead of HG. Makes you wonder why.
Ugh. Every picture I see of her and William just seems so joyless to me. We talk about how miserable Charlene looks around Prince Albert, but I really get the same vibe from Will and Kate in pictures. They both seem really tense and uncomfortable around the other.
And I don’t want to shade on Kate completely, but after all the bad press they caught heading into this announcement, it’s hard not to side eye the whole extreme morning sickness thing and not look at it as a convenient excuse for her to just blow off her responsibilities for a couple months.
Nothing about this couple is simple and easy; everything is just so complicated, stressful and Sturm und Drang with them. Other royal couples have been able to announce their respective pregnancies with no drama and just got on with their business. Not with these two; it’s a continual case of dodgeball and “will she or won’t she” with them.
ITA. I think she really is feeling poorly, but the PR “updates” about missed engagements are starting to sound farcical. There’s really no reason to publicize this drama. She didn’t work much before the illness, so why make a big deal about her missing engagements that may or may not have been scheduled before the pregnancy announcement.
Perhaps it’s leading up to that rumoured trip to NY, whereby she will have miraculously risen like a Phoenix from her sick bed with a splendid new wardrobe. Look how hard she is trying now to keep her engagements! She will overcome.
Kate had better put in a couple of noteworthy engagements before coming to the Big Apple if that’s true, otherwise that will be perceived as a frivolous, custom-made vacation for her. I think she’s her own worst enemy. Gad, to think of gridlock because of these two……..
I have a cuban friend who is going through the same issues with her pregnancy as Her Royal Highness. My cuban friend works at the preschool room at a daycare (picture Toy Story3). Just like other million of women on planet earth my friend has constant nausea, dizziness, doesnt want to eat and just wants to stay at home and be pampered. But she has bills to pay and no servants in her castle to take care of her, so, whatever. My point is: If you had a chance to stay at home watching tv with 20 people and your mom to your service, wouldn’t you?
I’ve been reading Dickie Arbiter’s new book (no juicy gossip so far) and it sounds like the way logistics are handled for individual royals makes sending in a royal surrogate extremely challenging, if not impossible. I suspect Pippa would be glad to step in, but let’s not even go there.
Yes, it appears as though they have wrapped themselves in a tangle of likely unnecessary administrative considerations. Really, it shouldn’t be “extremely challenging” or “impossible,” should it?
My friend who just had her baby had debilitating morning sickness for most of her pregnancy. She actually lost tons of weight while pregnant and had to be hospitalized multiple times. I feel for Kate after seeing what my friend went through.
Will and Kate are royal grandchildren. They won’t be king and queen until their 60s if then. Why are people carping at them about making appearances at places? Either they are royalty with all the perks of being a ruling family or they’re a bunch of British Customer Service reps. How is it people are demanding royal grandchildren do anything? Do Queen, King and Prince now have a different meaning?
They can give back all of the perks, including the 57 room London mansion and the giant country mansion plus the $250,000/year/person protection officers (over $1,000,000 a year in protection officers just for these two), and be like all of HM’s other grandchildren who do NOT get those perks. So if W&K don’t want to be working royals, no more working royal-level perks. Simple.
are you twelve?
Perhaps she should just take up informal visits. There must be a few locations/offices that the Duke & Duchess have a good working relationship with. They could give the office quiet advance notice to expect her with the understanding that she may cancel and she could pay publicly unannounced, short visits when she is feeling well. The press could even be informed AFTER the fact. She gets media coverage as being an informally “active” royal and there is no public pressure, no public disappointment.
Surely there is something wrong with that idea or they would be doing it. It wouldn’t hurt her.
Off-topic:
I have a question for those who follow the BRF more closely than I do.
I read somewhere that William and Kate didn’t attend the wedding reception for the foreign dignitaries and royal guests at their wedding, and I wonder if anybody know if this is true because it seems extremely odd to me that they didn’t entertain those guests that were invited to their private wedding celebration.
ArtHistorian: are you referring to the reception held a night or two before their actual wedding day which was attended by everyone you mentioned? If yes, that it true. Though reception was in their honour, they didn’t attend.
At the time I dismissed it, but considering how little diplomatic/royal ties they have to other royals and diplomats, I think of it as a major oversight inkeeping with their overall way of life. Makes you laugh when you remember the trial balloon of William joining the Foreign Office this september to learn about diplomatic relations.
That must be it. I know they held a private wedding party and that there was a reception for the foreign dignitaries and royals, but I didn’t know if the latter was on the day of the wedding or before the wedding.
Regardless, it is odd not to show up to a reception in their honour and meet with their guests, even if those guest were invited for state reasons – they were still there to celebrate their wedding. I find it quite rude that they didn’t attend their own reception.
I really don’t know what’s wrong with these two, especially William, because social events like this are also a part of a monarch’s duties and it would have been the perfect opportunity to meet their European “counterparts”. I always had the impression that the wedding was a sort of threshold for them, and William in particular, to become more engaged in the inner workings of the British monarchy.
I think there was also the problem that the wedding was slapdash, neither fish nor fowl. Not a state event (but still cost millions from the taxpayers), and lots of diplomatic snafus (Obama’s not invited because it was “private”). Many VIPS were not invited to the after-wedding reception.
Ordinarily, I thought another reception or event would have been scheduled for them but they were just left. That might be why there was a pre-wedding reception – to try to smooth ruffled feathers for VIPs who weren’t invited to the post-wedding event – but W&K not showing up was incredibly poor taste.
The wedding was supposed to be a threshold and coming out for William. A visible sign that he was ready to join the working part of the monarchy.
It’s ridiculous that he turned down the original organisation which was inkeeping with the diplomatic aspects. In his own words, he took the original guest list to HM and tore it up because he didn’t know anyone on the list. The odd thing is when you do look at the final list, half the guests *were* unknown as they were simply filler randoms of Kate’s village. I’m sure those people were thrilled to bits to attend (only the abbey part per the invitation), but it was a lost opportunity for the diplomatic relations part.
Also, there was a rumour going around (haven’t watched the video) that WK apparently didn’t know or appeared not to know who Felipe at the Belgium engagement. Considering he attended their wedding, as an honoured guest, it’s a curious lapse,no?
At the end of the day, these 2 don’t care, have never cared, will never care.
I have seen the video from the Belgian engagment. King Felipe greeted Francois Hollande, who sat next to Kate. Both Kate and Will looked away, but Felipe really didn’t seem keen to greet them, he made no attempt to. However, there are pics from the lunch after the event when they look rather chummy.
I have seen pics of Will, Kate and Harry completely ignoring the Swedish royals at the Olympics, while Sophie who was seated next to Will greeted them Cp Victorian and her husband warmly. I just find Charles and Diana’s sons odd and inconsistent in their behaviour, though Harry seems to be doing better than his brother and sister-in-law. I’m sure the brothers know at least some of their european counterparts, whereas Kate seems a bit lost. Maybe she could be another fragile princess for Queen Maxima to take under her wing ,-)
I love Queen Maxima.
Yes, I have a soft spot for Maxima as well. She has oodles of charisma, she always have a big smile on her face when she does official engagements and she appears to be a warm and caring person. She’s apparently also involved in some very important causes:
“Her financial background helped win her the job of UN Secretary-General’s special advocate for inclusive finance.
She is involved in domestic debates on the divisive subjects of immigration and integration – something that has, in the past, put her at odds with the country’s influential right wing.
Maxima is also a prominent proponent of gay rights. One of her first appearances as queen will be at a two-day international gay rights summit in The Hague.” –
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22340046
The japanese Imperial Court has gone on record saying that Maxima played an important role in the continuing recover of CP Masako and she has apparently also been very sweet to Princess Charlene, giving her advice and being available for her. She’s doing a great job, so all the controversy when she became engaged to Willem-Alexander because her father had been involved in the government of a dictatorship in Argentina.
Her fashion is also great fun to watch, sometimes her clothes are horrendous and sometimes she just pulls of outfit that shouldn’t have worked in theory.
The fillers from the village were odd, as some went on record saying they didn’t know the Middletons and didn’t know why they were invited. It was either 1) the Middletons were given X amount of seats and they didn’t have friends to fill them or 2) they wanted to look like they were regular old country folks — but the people they invited publicly admitted that was a fraud.
Kate needs an assistant like in The Devil Wears Prada. Someone to study faces and backrounds of people so at large gatherings you appear to have taken interest in someone. Otherwise it does come off rude and you take the risk of insulting them from not remembering them when they’ve remembered you.
I would figure in these packets to prep for events there would be information on who’s who with pictures.
It’s so easy to forgive Max’s fashion foibles when you consider what talents and skills she brings to the table as Queen Consort. And when she gets her fashion right, she gets it right in a big way. Even when the fashion isn’t right, she just dominates what she wears since she wears the clothes and not vice versa. And I can’t fault anyone who loves to delve into the Dutch jewel vault, dust off those pretties and just dazzles us with her magnificence!
Yes, our Maxima the Magpie!
That first photo with that navy blue hat really makes me laugh. She looks ridiculous.
She and William should just clear her calendar and leave it at that.
Why doesn’t she cancel being a princess? It would be good for everyone. It’s not like she does anything except flash her husband’s late mother’s ring. Goodness knows the UK citizens can use the money. High taxes and unemployment, immigration problems and welfare fraud abound. I bet her household budget for the year could feed 100 people on asylum status. She should quit the princess thing and get a job selling toys on mommy’s website.