Here are more photos from Prince William, Prince Harry and Duchess Kate’s appearance in London on Monday, where they launched Heads Together, the umbrella organization for various charities and mental health campaigns in the UK. Heads Together is setting a fundraising goals, but it’s unknown if Harry and the Cambridges will actually do some heavy lifting with organizing fundraisers and shaking the dirty peasant hands of the nouveau riche potential donors. Which brings me to this fascinating story by Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast – Sykes spoke to some charity and fundraising professionals who are not all that pleased at the idea of Will, Harry and Kate teaming up for one big umbrella organization. Some highlights:
Kate is the one pushing for a focus on mental health: Sources say that it is Kate, however, who has led the way in encouraging the royal focus on mental health, and she has made a point of championing this unfashionable cause throughout her royal career. Kate has taken on very few patronages, but several of those—Place2be, Action on Addiction and, now, Heads Together—are focused on this area.
The money: Heads Together, an umbrella organization bringing together eight of the country’s leading mental health charities, is now set to reap enormous rewards from its association with the young Royals. The coming together of Harry, Kate and William as a kind of triple-threat, fundraising A-bomb for just one, big cause is a huge departure from the way the Royals have traditionally done their philanthropic business.
But there are concerns: The Heads Together event will have sent shivers down the spine of seasoned professionals in the fundraising world who will be wondering how they will be able to attract royal attention to their smaller causes, which don’t make the cut for the newest Royal Foundation. There is little doubt that, as a unit, the young royals can bring tremendous attention to their favored causes, but the united front is actually a significant worry for countless small British charities that have long been highly dependent on the Royals for public profile in the UK. The general idea was that you got one royal per charity, not three.
The slimmed down monarchy: The core of the problem is to be found in Prince Charles’s decision that a ‘slimmed down’ monarchy—him and his kids, basically—is the best way to maintain support for the institution. It seems reasonable to conclude that Edward, Andrew, Eugenie et al won’t be spending their lives cutting ribbons after they have been cut out of the perks of royal life. Charles’s pared-down monarchy means a smaller group of working royals and, inevitably, a smaller number of organizations supported.
Kate is never going to be Prince Philip: Kate may not be as lazy as is sometimes portrayed by the British media, but equally she has no intention of emulating another royal spouse, Prince Philip, who has already shed many of his most time-consuming patronages but is still patron of more than half of the 1,300 organizations of which he and the Queen are the figureheads. It is an astonishing number, but when the monarch and her husband die, there will be no repeat of the scene following the death of the Queen Mother when the Royal Family was reported to have laid out index cards with each patronage written on it, and divvied them up.
Royal leverage: Officially, royals talk about using Harry, Kate and Will as a unit to create more “leverage”, but that’s not the way everyone sees it. “It’s actually almost impossible to raise any significant sum of money in England without a royal being involved, even a minor one,” one experienced fundraiser tells the Daily Beast. “The fact is that there are effectively not going to be any minor royals in the future. William, Harry and Kate all coming together to promote this one ‘foundation’ may be great for efficiencies, but there is a major concern about where it leaves the rest of us.”
What always bugs me about William and Kate (and to a lesser degree, Harry) is that it’s like they don’t realize how easy it would be for them to simply take up the “Fundraising Royal” mantle. They wouldn’t have to pretend to be “keen” about this issue or that issue. Just be a prince or a princess, wear some great jewelry and put on nice clothes, and just go to fundraisers three nights a week. Shake hands with people, make a short speech, and BAM, you’ve raised awareness for an important cause, plus people gave money to an important cause just because a royal was in attendance. Why don’t they get that? Why all of this wringing of hands about “privacy” and such? Just go out and use your title to raise money, for the love of God.
Beyond that, I feel strongly that the real reason why the Cambridges and Harry are uniting for Heads Together is because Will and Kate NEED Harry. Harry is the best-reviewed royal these days and Will and Kate are the worst-reviewed. Here’s their speech:
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Kate looks and acts crazy.
I know that’s trying to be flippantly funny, but it does an injustice to people with mental illness, most of whom neither look nor act “crazy.” Kate is self-conscious and exaggerates for the camera.
That shaggy dog head shaking thing she does is really unprofessional.
If my dog (my Irish wolfhound, mind you, yes the same breed Waity snubbed back in March) shook her head that much in two minutes we would be off to the vet to check for an ear infection.
And the puffy-sleeved blouse really cracks me up. I swear I see shoulder pads!!
IT. IS. SO. ANNOYING. Not least because she had this problem with the last speech she made and you would assume she learned her lesson. When you need to make a speech, get your hair out of your face. She will be making speeches for the rest of her life, and she’s not doing what she needs to do to be great at it; to look great at it. BOGGLES the mind.
The irony of this comment…
The idea of being handed index cards of charities to divvy up and being told that by just dressing up, shaking hands and chatting a bit, that you, your person – by an accident of birth – can raise much-needed money for good causes … good lord, how uncaring or indifferent do you have to be to reject that opportunity?
Quite.
However, it’s absolute stuff and nonsense that UK charities need royal involvement to be successful. I have always done loads of charity work and nothing I’ve been involved in has ever involved a royal. Not once.
I do agree that these big umbrella foundations – particularly when done by royals with their notorious lack of financial transparency – do sieve money from smaller, local organisations. And it’s the smaller organisations that often do the most effective work.
Also, mental health is NOT an “unfashionable cause”. It’s more like the cause du jour. About time, because yes, historically it has been neglected. But in the last decade awareness and public demand for action has grown exponentially. This isn’t the younger branch of the BRF bringing an “unfashionable cause” to our attention. Our attention was already there.
Suggesting charities can’t raise money without a royal patron is total BS. Suggesting the best and easiest way to raise money is through big galas is also BS. Where is the evidence that big name charities suck up all the money? Who are these fundraising “professionals” Skye’s spoke to?
It does seem a rather imaginary article!
A couple of examples: if you want to help in the current European refugee crisis, you will get considerably more bang for your buck if you avoid Save The Children (CEO on £200k a year) and go for one of the grassroots groups. Here in the UK, the military charity Help For Heroes, championed by TPTB, strangled funding for many smaller charities, despite some questionable spending of the money raised. We’ve just seen the collapse of Kids Company in scandal – yet it had been the charity in its area championed most and funded most by the British Establishment: government, politician, celebrity and royal.
Personally, I mostly stay away from the larger charities and find smaller ones, doing more focused work, to contribute to. I won’t be contributing to this particular endeavour, for example. I’ll find a smalller mental health charity, probably local to me, that will likely be more effective, more responsive, and more accountable.
Sixer, as someone who’s experiencing the “smaller” charities (it’s actually a large nonprofit with various semi-independent small projects), I have to add though that the issue with raising money is that smaller charities/projects often (at least here in Germany) can’t attract big donors because they simply don’t have the infrastructure to put large sums to good use. The donors want their names on current issues, in our case refugees, but they also want to see results faster than anyone could produce them with a team of 7 in charge. We were recently offered money and had to turn it down. We told them we could use maybe €5000. Right now. They wouldn’t donate less than €20,000. Which is an insane amount for a small group of people running a tiny office. We told them to approach a larger charity or allow us more time. But they want control over what happens with their money. Corporate social responsibility only works if you can put a cute face on a brochure and tell people that kid learned to ride a bike because of you.
There is something to be said for organizations that can handle the big bucks. I wouldn’t have thought so 2 years ago but I learned the hard way. Having said that, THAT WOMAN MAKES HOW MUCH????
Littlemiss – absolutely. I wouldn’t say there’s NO place for big organisations. More that they shouldn’t be allowed to evolve into monopolies (local or national or international).
Scroll down here for a list of more exorbitant salaries! http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-pay-study-highest-earners/management/article/1335060
Well, I immediately had to look up MSF. They seem alright. I’m not against big bucks for that much responsibility but there has to be a line. I’m a little on edge when it comes to this topic because the person who’s effectively my “boss” at the project I work for uses 95% voluteers to run it. Which is fine. But SHE is not a volunteer. She is using this for her career and she is quite bad at her job. The whole thing only works because the volunteers are patient people who will do good work despite bad leadership. That is the disadvantage of small projects. You encounter all kinds of big, unqualified egos. Frankly, if the charities’ finances are transparent and they don’t run mostly on volunteers, I have no problem with a higher salary.
My motto is give the money to the big ones, give your time to the local smaller ones.
People expect big charities to deliver a massive amount of services and be good stewards of donors’ money, yet they reject fairly compensating executives who shoulder huge responsibilities. Nonprofit workers deserve compensation commensurate with their duties. They are highly skilled professionals and should be treated and respected as such.
Thank you. That was the question I was about to ask to Brits. Do they really need to see a royal cut a ribbon or shake hands to reach for their pockets? The idea seemed so weird.
You just clarified it for me.
They’re egomaniacal dipsh*ts. It’s not about how they can use their time and energy most efficiently to help as many charities as they can. It’s about how to make themselves look best without working too hard. I don’t know to what extent that applies to Harry because even if you don’t appreciate what he’s doing simply because you’re a Republican, I don’t think anyone would argue he is lazy at this point. Or not engaged. But the other two … my god. The idea that all it takes is the presence of a royal is nuts. But if it works? Put on a dress and shake some hands.
your first sentence pretty much sums up my opinion on the cambridges!
And the part of the story that says Kate may not be as lazy as portrayed? Yes, she is. Has there been any evidence to the contrary in the last 15 years???
It would take so little for them to do so much. Boggles the mind.
Yes, it does boggle the mind and the thing is, unfortunately for them, that these are not times to favor this behavior. I don’t know how and when but I do think they will be held accountable at some point, in some way.
Before the economic and refugees’ crises maybe people were more tolerant, maybe they still are, but I just don’t think the general trend of the world is favoring them. Leaders are falling all over the place, corruption and lies are exposed. It’s just a matter of time until they start digging deeper into the monarchy.
Chutney and Chopper have just been so very spoiled really beyond repair, they are dooming themselves!!!
more than just needing Harry’s good PR,
they need Harry to work! so they can have an event at the end of the day that they can show up to.
a few days ago, Daily Mail had the audacity to call the project the most ambitious thing the three royals have ever devised.
this is mere days after the Invictus Games and Sentebale’s announcement of expanding its scope to neighboring countries.
compare to these: Kate has several charities she rarely visits and rarely contributes to. same as William. they offer a multitude of excuses (look being an heir of an heir is a huge burden, i know, boo hoo). neither of their charities seem to benefit from their royal patronages… the number of bake sales and raffles that has to be canceled because their patrons couldn’t even spare a measly tweet in support? #PoorJason
funny how they are once again putting Harry down to lift the Laze Quitters up.
wow. i hope Harry wakes up and ditches these workshy albatrosses.
Funny how much work Diana was able to do while raising two kids herself (with precious little help from Charles, I’m guessing).
Rich people pay servants to raise their children. Even Diana.
tcbc what an incredibly nasty statement towards working parents. It is possible to work a 40 hour week, do good work, and be a great parent. I am more than tired of the W&K fan belief that they cannot work hard for charity AND be involved parents. Their multiple nannies + not working = selfish and lazy
I didn’t find tcbc’s comment to be a slam on working parents. I took it to mean that W&K should have more time and be able to do more than parents working normal jobs because of all the help they have.
I read it as a slam of Diana, whom William has recently bashed for (paraphrasing) “working too much for charity and ignoring him”.
Agree. I too think that Harry needs to distance himself from the Doolittles. This includes getting his own PR person and removing himself from the Kensington Palace PR umbrella. It’s shameful that the Doolittles use him for some much-needed good PR but what is he getting from this deal? Being seen associating with them does him no favours. William is disgusting person and a terrible brother. Poor Harry.
MTE. Why would he agree to this? Surely he can see that these two are self-serving, so what’s in it for him? He seems like someone who likely surrounds himself with people who, you know, get stuff done.
@ Green girl. Charles controls the purse strings and does not want to pay for another staff.
I don’t know why he doesn’t ask to go back to his father’s PR team. Didn’t Clarence House do William and Harry’s PR too before W&K got married?
@Tiffany Someone with more BRF than I have said once that Harry could go over and join Charles and Camilla at Clarence House with their offices and PR. If that’s the case, I wonder why he doesn’t.
Just speculating, but I think Harry going from Clarence House to KP was supposed to signal his move into adulthood and relative independence. That’s how I read it, anyway — sure, he’s sharing with W&K, but the fact that they’re of the same generation makes it seem, at a glance, more like a partnership, as opposed to a thirty-something man still being shielded by his daddy’s advisers. Personally, while I don’t think the KP arrangement is necessarily working out for him, I also think that going back to Charles’ team would look like a retreat, a backward slide. Kind of the royal equivalent of moving into your parents’ basement after uni, you know? In summary, I think he’ll definitely get his own staff when he gets married, but until then, he’s probably stuck with Jason and the Egonauts.
Harry by himself has done much better. He seems to be more reserved when he is with the Lazy Duo.
Yesh he looks distant from them and over it, in pictures. But in fairness, that may be too speculative of me. I’ll catch the video later.
He might have also been tired. He had just gotten back from a very busy week in Orlando. Even a reserved Harry is more animated than Will and Kate, though.
Does she just refuse to take public speaking lessons? I have to speak publicly fairly often, and I practice like all hell at it. I also take advantage of professional training whenever I get the chance. The director at my organization is petrified of public speaking – if you’re sitting on a panel behind her, you can see her knees shake behind the podium – but the audience would never know it because she works so hard to know her stuff and get it down pat before getting in front of people. I just cannot understand why Kate still cannot competently deliver three sentences about something that is supposedly very important to her.
is the idea of a “slimmed down monarchy” because the public won’t tolerate/ be able to support a large number of “lesser royals” on the payroll in the future?
I honestly think Charles wants the spotlight, finally, on himself and his progeny alone. Poor neglected Prince of Wales.
Unfortunately, I think the whole idea is doomed to fail when half of his family won’t go along with his plan and are proven lazy do-nothings. SMH
He is doing what George 5 had to do to ensure the survival of the monarchy. Whether or not the public is able to support or tolerate the monarchy is irrelevant. It’s pure survival.
And under the survival umbrella, he’s tried to take over the Crown Estates using argument that it makes monarchy self sufficient. Considering the family takes 15% of the Crown Estates already, not to mention all other hidden sources of govt funding, that was ballsy for Charles to attempt.
Honestly it seems purely motivated to maintain the monarchy long enough for him to reign. It does not seem like a feasible longterm solution at all to me. Like Prince Philip’s patronages. Even if William, Kate, and Harry attempted to take it all on it’s not possible. Now spiral that outward and remove The (2?) Kents, The Gloucesters, Andrew, Anne and The Wessexes. You may be reducing the cost, but you’re also reducing the BRF’s footprint, it’s influence, and effectiveness. I genuinely question how much you can chip away at the British monarchy until you’re left with nothing worth keeping. Sh*t’s already going to hit the fan when QEII passes. A lot of the protection and goodwill the BRF has built up is Queen specific. People just don’t have the same affection or respect for Charles through no fault of his own, (and a few faults of his own). Even more, QEII legacy will become a talking point, with enough people wondering exactly did she accomplish and what did her reign represent. (Umm…She lived a long time. She allowed tv cameras into the coronation… She did that documentary that only aired once…) The BRF gets by largely on the indifference of people. Most are just not paying the slightest bit of attention to them. That’s not going to happen when QEII passes. There’s going to be a major adjustment period and they’ll have the biggest spotlight on them since Diana’s passing… shall we revisit that? What is the conversation about the Buckingham Palace reno going to be like when they can no longer bury those stories deep in the DM scroll while everyone’s out of town? Not good!
This article didn’t go hard enough about connecting all those dots, (and covered their rear saying Kate’s probably not THAT lazy). And I’m glad you pointed some of that out too @LAK. Because I do respect Charles. And I think he has many admirable qualities. But his greed and his tendency to overreach like that? Not virtuous, nor appealing.
OT- But lest people think I’m simply a “Kate hater”, the other day I was frankly kind of disgusted to see that Camilla had debuted more V.C.&A’s Alhambra jewelry to the tune of $17,600 and $9,350 for a malachite necklace and earrings. And she already had a pair of the diamond and white gold earrings which cost $48,000 when she first wore them. Charles lives large! This might also explain why Kate thinks her rinky-dink obscenely priced jewelry is the way to be.
“The BRF gets by largely on the indifference of people.”
That’s how I see it also.
Amber, I think you are absolutely right in your assessment. My belief is that the BRF knows the end will come sooner than later and are trying to accumulate and nail down whatever they can get their greedy hands on while the public is being forcibly screwed to support them. Charles wanting to confine the monarchy to his lot is just dumb given his first son is a complete tosspot. It would see incredible scrutiny on William and Kate and the evidence thus far reveals them to be lazy, selfish and a whole less polite adjectives. Why are these people necessary at all? Who has the money to support an independently wealthy family who do virtually nothing and have no intelligence, no accomplishments?
With regard to Harry, poor guy being stuck with Those Two. He would be better off relocating back to his father’s office rather than being lumped in with two slackers. It doesn’t do his reputation any good; actually it raises questions about him being associated with them.
At least, like his father, Harry set up a movement from scratch and has shown immense involvement and passion in it quite clearly, instead of the Buckets just being patron to several and going through the motions. Not even any murmurings of behind the scenes diligence like no nonsense PR Anne. There is no doubt that this big launch was to make the Buckets more visible, cut down on their involvement with the rest and leverage on Harry. So transparent.
Charities will go from royals to movie stars (if they haven’t already.) Royals will become even less relevant than they are now.
Good.
I think it’s incredibly brave that they have taken up the cause of mental health in light of three reasons:
1. There have always been rumors that Princess Diana suffered from mental health issues, and that those issues were covered up by the palace. For the boys to take up this cause in light of those whispers is very admirable, IMO;
2. I think William suffers from terrible anxiety. And I think it went untreated after his mother passed away;
3. Again, just my opinion, but I think Kate is to be admired for pushing the boys to be outspoken about this cause, for military vets, children, and adults everywhere. Say what you want, but she did seem to have a very stable, healthy, loving childhood. And she seems to bring some kind of balancing factor into their lives.
Catherine
What changes have been seen regarding H/W opening up on things because of Kate? They haven’t changed, but you might be noticing a change because of the tone of articles centering around Kate.
This can all be directly linked to HuffPo approaching KP on a mental health angle for mutual PR. Which Kate couldn’t be bothered to spend more than a few minutes being a part of.
Meanwhile Harry has been working on PTS for years now, but it does not get covered as much of his work isn’t to keep the appearance of his numbers low.
I wish she showed she cared, but her actions over and over again show indifference until there’s Harry or a camera. If it was up to her would she be doing this? There’s no evidence to support that.
Kate “pushing the boys”? I seriously doubt that.
I think that’s some bullsh*t, until I hear the boys themselves talk about Kate pushing them
“Kate is to be admired for pushing the boys”? Did I miss something? Perhaps an entire personality shift? When did this happen?
ETA: Ditto, Vava.
Kate brings a balancing factor to Harry’s life? Maybe William, because she’s his wife, but what in the world is Kate doing for Harry?
There’s a jokey narrative on GFY that Harry shows up to raid Will and Kate’s fridge etc., but there’s no indication that it’s anything close to their real lives. Kate seems to require a great deal of care herself, grew up in a privileged bubble and still ensconced in it. If anyone’s doing some mothering and giving guidance, it’s probably Carole Middleton for William, and Tiggy, the Queen, and Michelle Obama even for Harry.
And they’re not boys. They are two 30 something men.
I also don’t want to belabor the point, but while it’s certainly a good cause, I don’t agree that it’s brave of them to take it on. They’re not sticking out their necks by supporting mental health charities.
Harry called her The Limpet for a decade. I doubt he’s taking any advice or getting any closer to her than he has to.
@NOTA. Didn’t Will’s security called her The Matress. How she endured this for more than a decade is beyond me.
I find it very hard to believe William’s security team would give his girlfriend a rude code name. I hope the story about Harry is fake, too. I hate to think of him describing any woman in such rude and sexist terms.
At least one member of the press called her The Mattress in print. If that was what her actions made her appear to some people, that is what she gets to “endure”. Just like earning the names Middlebum and Waity Katie.
Rude and sexist? Where does The Limpet become rude and sexist?
Limpet: a marine mollusk with a shallow conical shell and a broad muscular foot, noted for the way it clings tightly to rocks.
Published story goes he felt that she was clinging too much to William, not doing anything but waiting for the phone to ring, and milking the royal association by demanding royal discounts on things like Audi leases.
Generally not acting circumspectly like Chelsy was, who was chased through streets into dead ends, mercilessly attacked by the press, and never once complained until a single statement after they broke up.
Harry wasn’t referring to sea creatures. He was using the slang expression, which is used to denigrate women.
The term can be used to refer to anyone (male or female) who clings uselessly and to the detriment of others. Harry used a term originated by their group of friends. If William had a problem with any of them using it, he should have stopped them. But as per usual, William shows little or no respect for Kate Middleton and she clung for 15 years anyway.
There is still a lot of stigma connected to mental health illness in a way that there is not to physical health. One of our local newspaper reporters came out a few months ago to talk about her mental health issues because of the stigma attached to this. One of my relatives suffered badly from anxiety for 20 years but not even relatives knew.
Also all very well slating Kate for being a bad public speaker but some people just cannot do this. I would truly rather die than to have to make a speech. She maybe did not know if would be such an ordeal until she was in that position. Even so though for her role not the be all and end all to do anything than say a few brief words
There is still a lot of stigma connected to mental health illness in a way that there is not to physical health. One of our local newspaper reporters came out a few months ago to talk about her mental health issues because of the stigma attached to this. One of my relatives suffered badly from anxiety for 20 years but not even relatives knew.
Also all very well slating Kate for being a bad public speaker but some people just cannot do this. I would truly rather die than to have to make a speech. She maybe did not know it would be such an ordeal until she was in that position. Even so though for her role not the be all and end all to do anything than say a few brief words
Um, Kate is a follower not a leader. She doesn’t have the smarts or gumption to suggest that her husband and BIL do anything. I guarantee she had little role in this so-called initiative. Like @Sixer said above, putting the spotlight on mental health seems to be the cause du jour. I’d say #poor jason is behind this latest plan to seem busy and she just had to show up in a new outfit, as she does. Kate knows her place and would never put her foot forward in anything, unless it’s shopping or primping.
Harry does not need these lazy assholes cramping his style.
+1
Harry looks tired. And there’s so much justification for that.
Can W/K work without Harry? Did they need him there to do anything regarding their crusade on certain mental health awareness within a small demographic? They had to wait, I suppose..
Now let’s kick back and see if more than claiming to raise awareness comes of this. I can talk about how we should talk about something all day… But to do something… That’s called work. And shows dedication and caring.
When happens to the three musketeers when/if Harry marries? What if Mrs Prince Harry works hard and doesnt fancy being used to make Chopper and Chutney look good? Harry does it cos he loves and supports his brother, but Mrs Prince Harry wont owe the Dolittles anything. Will the few charities they have now also be left in the lurch
Kate does seem to glow when she is between Harry and Normal Bill. I think she will HATE Mrs Prince Harry
I hope Mrs. Prince Harry has her own money and support system because she will be turned into Fergie 2.0
Say what you will about her but Cressida had her own wealthy, established relatives, a strong support system looking out for her public image and she even had royal allies.
Harry should not marry until he has firmly established his own role apart from his brother and Kate. It just wouldn’t be fair to his wife to push her into the Cambridge issues with lack of work and fighting with the press. An actual middle class person, rather than that unique form of Middleton middle class, would find it really difficult marrying into that family.
Natalie; I didn’t follow the Cressie months/year or so too closely, but it seemed to me that getting her to the alter became a project for her whole family, the same as Kate and the Middletons. That put me off her. Will getting himself a surrogate family hasn’t worked out well for him, I wouldn’t want Harry to make the same mistake
True, but I wonder if it’s possible for that not to happen. I look at the family support as protecting her in the face of public scrutiny -showing a united front. And they seemed okay with the breakup. I’d change my mind if I heard stories of Cressida’s mother inviting Harry over to work on getting them back together, or having Harry’s picture as her phone background. And Harry was already friends with the Bransons and his York cousins.
I actually don’t think William is totally wrong for giving his in-laws some consideration. It makes sense that Kate might want to also spend Christmas with her family. I only roll my eyes at the annual articles about the Middleton middle class Christmas when we all know how desperate they are to be included by the Windsors.
Natalie, a royal spouse does definetly need lots of support from her family but Kate had her whole family helping her seduce her prince. They financed her during the waity years, played happy family for Will’s sake, encouraged her to go back to him even though he mistreated her.
Oh, I agree with you that the Middletons took it way too far to a really unhealthy place. My point is with any family, there’s probably going to be some involvement and I think that can be actually necessary and okay and healthy as long as that family doesn’t push it as far as the Middletons.
you know this is one of the reasons why i half jokingly mentioned #ParisHiltonforHarry a few blogposts ago. Paris would not be so easily intimidated or fazed by The Middleton Machinations.
we know she can hustle successfully.
she is a Hilton and Rothschild-adjascent.
she can hands-down beat Kate’s flashing game (even Nicky who flashed the aristo-set at her own wedding huzzah).
she can beat Kate’s PR game too given sufficient motivation. or at least weather it or anticipate it better. she has a knack of reinventing herself (obv money helps).
she has enough ego to push back if the W/K tries to sideline her.
although i really want to see Harry settle down with salt-of-the-earth type war veteran, i just feel that throwing a woman, any woman, into the royal machine is a bit cruel. but Paris is worldly enough and has enough notoreity to be interesting for gossip at the very least 😀
at the moment, i’m still joking, of course, but the more i think of it the more i wonder if this kind of Teflon-grade woman has merit. and just the kind of person needed to save Harry from the Duke and Duchess Spotlight Grabbers.
Paris once described Chutney as mousy during the waity years. 🙂 Mrs Prince Harry will need balls of steel to deal with all the royal intrigues and the Middleton scheming. Its not a job for an innocent. Maybe Harry should marry a Lady Macbeth type, who can give as good as she gets
I’d rather see Harry break free of those two losers – especially Kate. Sort of seems as if he’d like to avoid her too, based on body language and his demeanor around her in the last year or so.
Did someone tell him about the flirting stories from 2012? Was he told to keep his distance? If that’s the case Kate didn’t get that memo cos she still lights up when he’s around. To be far Will does to, Harry is just that kind of person
The Three Musketeer’s thing should’ve never started or should’ve been nipped in the bud the minute Invictus took off, and announced that they would split around Bill and Bucket’s five year mark. Between Sentabale, Invicutus and what he brings to the foundation, Harry is well past capable of sustaining his own foundation and more than justified to be on his own. Even back-when as a newbie royal watcher I didn’t understand putting the three together. Because I totally bought into Kate being a new Diana, and Lady Di didn’t need to be propped up to do this job. I also thought that if William and Kate are such a great team shouldn’t they strike out as that unit? Represent who The Cambridges are? Why the hell is it The Cambridges and the Duke’s brother? They really tried to sell it in 2012. It kind of made sense. It was the jubilee. Kate was new. Present the future of the monarchy, and more than anything, sell what a super-duper close team they are. But then Harry seemed to pull back. And since leaving the military, if he’s in the UK at all, he’s stuck in with Bill and The Hair more than ever! Any long-time R.Ws do tell, did Charles and Andrew or any other combination of the Windsors ever behave like this? It’s so odd. At this rate I think even if Harry married it would become “The Royal Foundation of The Cambridges and The Whoever’s”. They won’t let him go. It’s so very, very, odd.
The Heir and The Hair. I love it!!
Asking rhetorically, since I did read the page, but who wrote the crap embedded article? “[Kate] who has led the way in encouraging the royal focus on mental health, and she has made a point of championing this unfashionable cause throughout her royal career.” Come on, what now? No she hasn’t! She’s been “keen” for years, but that hasn’t translated to any work on the matter.
Since Harry literally just finished Invictus, the implication that he’s as lazy as these two is totally unfounded.
I agree – for goodness sake, she has done a handful of engagements over several years. Tom Sykes the Daily Beast royal correspondent is totally playing into KP’s narrative of Kate (and Will) doing tireless and serious work in the mental health arena. To call what she does at this point a “career” is insulting to people who actually have careers.
Chutney was really “KEEN” to bag him in bed !!!
KEEN SEX!!!!!
Kate spearheading anything sounds like a bit of fiction. Especially when she couldn’t take take time to write an original speech for this event. William just floats along on his heir status while Harry is truly in the trenches working with soldiers suffering PTSD.
They can bundle their engagements into 4 appearances a year, each lasting an hour or so. If that’s bad for the smaller charities, tough luck on those. The Cambridges need their privacy after all. I am sick and tired of the man child and his perma-twen.
For Harry it makes sense, he is so fully invested in Sentebale and the IG, he needs some efficiency in his work. Besides, the IG have a strong focus on mental health of military people and thus the Heads Together initiative is complementing work that Harry is already doing.
Anyone know how long they stuck around for this time?
Charles ‘It’s me first’ then you Wills get it’ LOL Harry Enfield The Windsors.channel 4
I wonder if the three musketeers have to be the three musketeers to have some gravitas and I don’t think Kate likes or wants to be a musketeer attending a charity on her own. Anyway much needed representation for charities in general to be honest especially bullying, if that comes under the umbrella of mental issues, I hope so anyway
as someone who worked to big charity foundation, I can tell you confidently that big foundation tend to ‘corrupt’. I was so disgusted how the big bosses use the money for themself. So little money for the ones who need it..
after two years I quit, and now voluntering on way smaller foundation and never ever again on my live I give a donation to big charity foundation. smaller better.
And seriously, I doubt brits people only doing charities because royal..
I doubt young generation give any attention to royal member
I worked for a large PR company who, in addition to some very shady clients and Fortune 500’s with questionable ethics, had several big name non-profits as clients. After seeing how much those non-profits were paying my company, I swore up and down to never donate my time or money to them or to any big name charity.
…. And Jason, next time, makes sure the two microphones are better placed in front of Kate before she makes her speech!!
Superficially speaking, she has no style. If Princess Charlene was wearing that outfit, she would be owning the hell out of it. Kate just looks like she puts on expensive clothes and expects them to do the work. Her styling sucks, her accessories suck, and nothing ever fits her correctly. She spends a ton of money, but never gets it right.
I agree. She used to be much more confident in her sense of style before she was married. I think she lacks confidence in her choices, and it shows. She needs to go to a proper stylist, (I’m sure anyone at British Vogue would help her and be discrete about it) let a hairdresser take four inches off her hair, and call up someone like Pat McGrath to do her makeup & teach her how to do it. This doesn’t need to be complicated.
Kate just looks like she puts on expensive clothes and expects them to do the work.
But that’s how she operates everywhere; her clothes are no different. 🙂
Surely they’ve got teleprompters in England?? why are the reading off papers for a press event????
Why wouldn’t they be?