It’s weeks like this that make me wish that Prince Harry had a separate press office, his own dedicated press secretary and his own “court” of loyalists. So many Will & Waity-defenders were crying yesterday about how NO ONE ever yells about Prince Harry’s vacations and he parties harder than William, therefore William’s drunken lads-only holiday in Switzerland is just FINE. Except that Harry actually works a lot, it’s just that much of Harry’s work isn’t included on the Court Circular. Harry’s work with Sentable and the Invictus Games don’t “count” as royal work. Plus, I’ve always believed that Buckingham Palace knows they have a problem with William and Kate and they’ve been buffering W&K’s event-numbers since the beginning. I think only W&K get to count “private meetings” (which could be defined as mere phone calls) as “events.”
Anyway, we’re talking about Prince Harry because he was out and about again today in London. This was his sixth event… since Saturday. Last week, Harry was in Jamaica for his good friend’s wedding. This week, he’s back doing a variety of public events, like attending Commonwealth Observance Day with his family, planting trees with schoolchildren, and today’s event, which was the Veterans’ Mental Health Conference at King’s College. To be fair, it’s not difficult to make Prince William look bad. But Harry makes it look so easy. I’ve always said – Harry is the one with his mother’s natural, hands-on appeal. He has “the common touch.” And Harry – more than William and Kate combined – understands how to be a public person.
If and when Harry proposes to Meghan Markle, it will totally overshadow whatever Will and Kate have going on this year. Which isn’t to say that Will and Kate won’t try to passive-aggressively bully Harry. I suspect William is plotting some story about how Harry still “looks up” to him and William “advises” Harry on everything. Which, again, is why Harry needs his own press secretary. Sooner rather than later – Harry should not put this off. He needs his own office before he proposes to Meghan.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I dont think WIlliam lets Kate do more. I think he has that kind of control over her “work life”.
I think Kate is perfectly content not working. When she does show up she is unprepared and obviously uncomfortable (possibly because she didn’t bother to prepare).
I think it’s a little bit of both. Kate will do anything that allows her to keep her status, so if it means working she’ll do that, and if it means not working to make William not look so bad, she’ll do that, too.
I feel bad for her. This is the bed she’s made for herself, yes, but she doesn’t seem to be her own person. Plus William sounds like a piece of work, at best.
Yes-it’s not as though she had any kind of work ethic before she married him.
She didn’t work for the 10 years worth of dating. That didn’t make either her or William look good. She doesn’t work because she doesn’t like working, and she is fine with a husband who doesn’t work either.
Is his hair thinning in the back too??? Nooo not the ginger locks!
He’s losing his hair fast.
“siiiigh”
I think that’s why he’s keeping the beard. He’s trying to balance it out.
He’ll have a monk’s ‘do!
These guys are rich. Hair implants, dudes. Some people look good bald. The two of you – no way.
The only reason he favours this longish, messy hairstyle is to try to conceal the bald spot. Unfortunately, it’s not a very hip or flattering cut.
Oh yeah his bald patch is really big now, photos from the wedding show it. I always feel for guys with curly hair because it’s quite difficult to manage losing your hair with the unruliness of what’s left. My poor brother had hair curlier than Harry’s and when he started losing it in the monk/horseshoe pattern it really looked quite bad for a long time. Now it’s settled down and he can keep the rest quite short it is a big improvement.
Harry should use his father’s PR team. They would position him and his causes in a much stronger way. His/William’s team doesn’t have the experience to get the job done right.
Yes! Charles knows how to get it done, even if it is done in sneaky or heavy-handed ways. Harry needs to put himself and his PR in the hands of his father’s team.
Can Harry make that decision himself? I doubt it. He will be asked to be on the sidelines since he is not a direct heir to the throne, especially now that W&K has also produced a spare. I can see Wills throwing a fit if and when Harry asks to have his own separate press office. He won’t be able to cover his tracks anymore.
Charles could make that decision for him, as he tried to do when he consolidated press offices before.
notassugarhere- I believe I read that Charles’ PR team was looking to combine all three, Wills, Harry and Kate into one unit, Press-wise. Charles was tired of those three taking coverage away from HRH Charles, soon to be HM Charles. Doubtful he would do anything for Harry. He has always been a extremely insecure Prince when it comes to others he percieves to be getting more attention ..
Charles happily attended Invictus London and looks pleased as punch at Harry’s achievements (Invictus, the family visit to Harry’s Chelsea Flower Show garden honoring Diana, etc.). I don’t think he has trouble with his children’s accomplishments, as he wants his line being seen as the best and brightest – and worth the ongoing funding.
Harry is NOT Charles in his work ethic, at all. Charles always worked hard. The more I see of Harry, the more he seems like a dilettante like his brother, just more charming. He still has his friends, his drinking, about 100 events a year, weeks lolling around his cottage with his girlfriend, trips to Toronto with taxpayers paying his security, and a few weeks of charity work. Wow!! Poor fella must be exhausted.
With both William and Harry, it is very hard to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
He looks great in this colour and very happy. None of the engagements were galas or celebrity events, but actual royal and charitable work too.
I’m loving the 180 the press are doing here.
They pointed out that William has only worked 13 days this year, while Harry’s now on his 19th working day of the year. When did any of us last see Harry get top billing?
Do I think Harry should do more? Yes. Do I think Harry is *willing* to do more? Absolutely.
I also believe the palace have been holding him back, precisely because they don’t want him to outshine his brother. Harry may be doing all the work for The Firm he can get coming his way. There’s also the issue of Charles being a workaholic control freak, which could be in play here.
Although that may be changing – Harry’s proved he can act like an adult and toe the line for The Firm since his last deployment. I think that short sharp shock Granny gave him after Vegas, coupled with his last Afghanistan tour, matured him. He’s growing out of the young party boy ways. He’s being given more responsibility – within reason, because again, can’t overshadow the heir to the heir.
William, by contrast, is a case study in arrested development.
I wonder if the Establishment are secretly grooming Harry to take the reins after Charles, as they did with QE2’s dad when Edward VIII turned out to be such a nightmare? There’s precedent for it… and Wills is shaping up to be David 2.0, as so many have pointed out before.
The Waity and Willy supporters will all claim that of course Harry has more time because he doesn’t have a family. Poor sausages have to look after their kids, so that’s no comparison.
Wow!!! 19 days!!! And how many days traveling to weddings or visits? Hanging at home doing nothing?
Come on, 19 days of work for an adult male in 2 1/2 months – and we cheer him? Sad.
I don’t get William’s intelligence level.
Diana wasn’t book smart, but she had high emotional intelligence and knew how to read a room (and, by extension, the public).
Charles is, in his own way, somewhat intellectual. He has a genuine curiosity about ideas, it seems. Had he not been a prince, I could see him having some kind of academic interest in architecture or something like that.
Yet William inherited neither of their strengths.
William appears to have inhetited their weaknesses and none of their strengths.
Ouch! I can see your point. William inherited his mother’s pettiness and narcissism on one side, plus his father’s emotional tone deafness and entitled wooly-mindedness on the other. Yikes.
Despite their weaknesses, both Diana (even without O levels to her name) and Charles (even with his slight boringness) seemed like fully-realized individuals. I don’t get what William is. He’s so underdeveloped, it’s bizarre.
Both W&K seem psychologically stuck in their late teens to me.
I actually think teenagers are more psychologically developed than William and Kate! A lot of them are running around doing lots of different activities.
I also think that William is very thin skinned and quick to lash out. The only people who could stand to be near him are his enablers and arse kissers. Chief among them would be, I suspect, the Middletons.
It is not a stretch to imagine that Kate’s mother put herself out there as his “replacement mother” especially since his own father married the mistress.
Kate too is an enabler who will not raise her voice or criticize William in a way that would turn him off her. She has been a bit passive aggressive of late, but I imagine that William is quick to put her down and her own mother might have some words for her as well.
I am beginning to pity Kate, she is in no good position. This is not a healthy way to live.
Ophelia, KM was the “mistress” for months while William was openly dating someone else at university. If William had a problem with his father’s relationship with Camilla, he would have demanded a different property than Anmer – the house where C&C conducted their relationship.
I think all of that (I don’t thik he’s unintelligent per se) was killed by how he was raised, frankly. It doesn’t matter how intelligent or educated someone might be, when you shelter them like he was and treat them like the golden one, when someone is surrounded by a very specific group of wealthy and privileged people, by sycophants … this is what you most likely get. He is a petulant, spoilt child. Diana and Charles were not. They grew in up in the same circles (well, Charles did) but you bet your a** the Queen and Philip made sure he learned what work ethic meant and what was expected of him.
I highly doubt William has heard the word “no” more than 3 times in his life.
I don’t think he has a low IQ or anything like that, but most people know how they come across to the public. He seems very obtuse in that regard. Geez, even Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have some awareness of how they comes across. This is a level of deliberate stupidity I can’t really fathom.
I also think he was spoiled by everyone is his family because of the divorce, and then Diana’s death. I think Charles feels guilty and has overcompensated. Same with the Queen and Prince Philip.
I read an article that was linked on this site a while back about how Diana and Charles raise the boys. It talked about how, when Charles was a boy and his parents went on diplomatic trips he had to wait in line behind other diplomats to greet his mother when she came home. But Diana was not that kind of mother. She would rush to her children when she came home, not bothering to make them wait like they were supposed to (Like Charles had to do, what was considered proper protocol). According to the article, she also was more hands on with her children then other women in her position previously had been. It also talked about how Charles acted similarly to how William is acting now when his children were younger. Not in the work department, but that he spent a good deal of time away from the place & even with Diane’s family. I don’t necessarily think any of these things were particularly bad, but it appears that Charles (either because Diana wouldn’t let him or because he just didn’t want to) failed to teach them, particularly William, the other side of things, & the parts William needed to learn about being the next in line to the crown. Maybe he gave him too much leniency after Diana died; I don’t know. But I can’t imagine William will even bother to teach George anything that he needs to know.
@ perplexed: Oh absolutely, I didn’t take it that way. There are different types of intelligence and self-awareness is definitely part of it. He has NONE. It’s astonishing, really. I think this is a case of a certain type of personality being in exactly the wrong circumstances growing up.
Perplexed: Unlike Paris or Kim K, William has been completely protected leading to an aschewed sense of how he comes across.
His bad deeds, mistakes were removed from media, blame shifted elsewhere whilst the Palace relentlessly painted a golden prince to the public. Similarly any private misdeeds were not called out and others blamed.
Further, since he left to go to university, he has been surrounded by sycophants and enablers. To extent that he won’t hire anyone who isn’t a yes person and shows absolute deference.
Coupled with the arrogance inculcalated in Eton boys that has never had a chance to be checked by real life of adulthood because his Princely privilege smoothed away any edges and only allowed in enablers and sycophants.
When you watch his interviews, what strikes you is his sincere self pity and victimhood at what he genuinely believes wronged him. Everything is reviewed through the prism of how it affects *his* life and the misery of it.
William is a case of “learned helplessness.” He was raised so cosseted and rarely told no. He was not taught independence. IMO that is why he acts this way. This is why we need to teach children independence and give them chores, etc.
Wills and Katie Keen were both cossetted and never given consequences for their behaviour, I think. It is a huge error in their upbringing. This is why we have Duke DoNaffAll and Duchess BiscuitFlasher.
I didn’t see any “crying” in the comments. I saw some opinions, I didn’t agree with those opinions, but no one was “crying” about it.
There were plenty of cries of “the media is attacking him, it is all the media’s fault, he didn’t do anything wrong” on other forums.
Tanna’s most recent tweet seems ominous. He doesn’t say who he’s talking about though, something about news coming sunday?
Love the jacket, looks so dapper. Come on Harry, get your own PR team, and marry Meghan. We want a wedding! When it comes to Waity, I think she has very little say on matters, she is not a strong personality like the Queen Mum. I’m pretty sure she is more or less ignored by the rest of the royals.
Here to honk for Harry! HONK!! HONK!! 😊
:lays on the horn:
He’s brilliant this week. I think being in a stable relationship suits him. He’s got that anchor finally that he doesn’t seem to get from his family.
Me too! Yay Harry!
He should shave his head or a close buzz cut and keep the beard a la Jason Staham….
ugh….*fans loins*
Can I borrow your fan Idub?? 🙂
I’m American so pardon my ignorance please. Is it standard for the children of the heir to share a press team (or is Harry being set up for failure on purpose?). For instance, when Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward were William and Harry’s age, did they share a press team among themselves? Likewise, will George and Charlotte have to share one? I just don’t understand why they have this arrangement.
BP represents all royals, but as they have developed their individual passions, the different royals have hired a separate press team to represent them. They still have the BP option.
In the case of William and Harry, back in the day, around the time they came of age, there was a plan to have them work as a team because that seemed like a good idea at the time. Good optics to see joint enterprise of loving brothers. This is why they have a joint foundation as well. Kate was added to this joint endeavour after the wedding.
Mixed in with that is William gradually distancing himself from his family operations. Lots of examples of him working or PR-ing independently from BP or CH or SJP. The rift between him and the family became apparent when Charles tried to consolidate the press offices a couple of years ago. William allegedly hated the set up and removed his people to his own separate operation.
Harry seems to be stuck with William. Personally, i feel it’s a case of spare-ing gone too far. The spare is the back up plan of the monarchy and supports the heir at all occassions. Harry might want to strike out on his own, but for the moment he is supporting William (and his family).
Interesting. Thanks @LAK! So theoretically, no one is forcing Harry to stick with a joint press team. He is sticking it out due to some misguided notion that it’s best for his family.
I’ve always wondered how close the two brothers really are.
Do you think that will change if/when he marries? My theory is if he marries someone like Meghan, who is more sophisticated and media savvy, is that they will definitely be doing their own thing and not necessarily trying to stay in the background.
Nola: Yes.
Happymom: i hope so, but it depends on how strongly the woman he marries feels about this because i don’t think Harry will automatically push for a separation.
Lak – you really think he’s that indoctrinated into the spare mentality that he just accepts being thrown under the bus (as people on here have suggested in the past) by William / the press team ?
So interesting! i think that Charles is behind all of this– release of pics/video from verbier, loading up Harry’s official schedule this week for contrast. It seems like usually H isn’t usually scheduled for a lot of things when the press is going after work shy will. So this is a msg to William from TQ and Charles. lainey said that more pics from the Jamaica wedding likely to drop to take the heat off will. Hmmmm. Harry def needs his own press office, but is unlikely to ever get it, as his job Is to support the crown i.e. Go through cycles of elevation and being thrown under the bus per the firm’s needs at any given time.
Charles isnt going to throw his own son under the bus! When Harry was in Jamaica there were some pretty nasty comments regarding his freeloading and entitlement. His appearances this week could have been damage control. I think the press are out for revenge because the RF esp Harry and Wiiliam are telling them to back off which hits them where it hurts the most. This is all about money! It’s a greasy smear campaign and tabloid journalism at the expense of a well known person’s private life. It’s intrusive and extremely disrespectful. Whether you approve like dislike or dont approve of the RF is not the issue. The press is relentless. This type of journalism reminds me of how they hounded Diana.
Reporting the facts of what William was up to last weekend is not a greasy smear campaign. It is showing people what this lazy, workshy, taxpayer-funded (Duchy and security) government employee has been doing all along.
Charles threw Harry under the bus for PR – to make both William and Camilla look better. Harry was publicly reported to be upset by it – and to understand it.
It’s a matter of opinion Nota. See it however you like. I dont think it was the best PR move on william’s part but I also dont think its right to be so intrusive by the press. It’s mean spirited. He has children and a wife. The innuendos were disgusting at best. I’ve seen plenty of men on guy ski trips in Whistler. Theyre just having a good time. This was trash journalism and click bait at the expense of a person’s privacy. You dont like the guy…fine but this was really sinking to a low level.
@Joannie: William’s ski trip last year with his family was a bad PR move. Just like now, he was accused of being lazy and he decided to go skiing and release pics of the happy family on holiday!!!
This year though, he’s sending a big FU to the Commonwealth, to his family especially the Queen. His uncle was also skiing in Verbier but flew back to be at the service, William couldn’t even bother being present to support an institution that he might lead one day and for what? Boozing and clubbing.
KP’s response seem eerily similar to when Kate decided to skip the Irish Guards ceremony: we don’t want people to expect we’ll show up every year.
I can’t wait until reporters truly take their gloves off so that they can expose these two twats.
It isn’t the press who has forgotten that William has a wife and kids. It appears to be William the Forgetful.
“Charles isnt going to throw his own son under the bus! ”
Uh, except that he has, repeatedly, going back to their teen years. Charles’ advisor Mark Bolland, ring a bell? Remember the documentary “Reinventing the Royals”?
Bolland was accused of planting stories in the British tabloids about Harry’s teenage drug use and details of William’s first meeting with Camilla Parker Bowles.
If that was done without Charles’ knowledge or consent, then there would have been *immediate* retractions and sacking of Bolland. There wasn’t.
Oh, and the accusations in the documentary were backed up by Sandy Henney, Prince Charles’ former press secretary.
Charles cares about Charles’ reputation, first and foremost. And he’s sly about it. Sadly, it is increasingly obvious that both characteristics also form a part of William’s character.
Say what you will about Charles, but he’s always been a hard worker. Harry really did inherit the best of both his parents: his mother’s touch with people and both of their work ethics.
Does anyone else feel like maybe Charles would prefer Harry as the heir?
Preach. Yep.
Harry doesn’t have to make William look bad,
he manages that all by himself.
Prince Phillip and Princr Harry have a great relationship. I love seeing them together. I think Prince Phillip empahzises with Harry and his position in the royal family being the spare as Phillip himself is consort to Elizabeth. They are basically in the same boat.
Harry is having a great week – he was at an event today about Mental Health for Veterans. I imagine this won’t sit well with William, esp as photo’s of Harry and Meghan kissing on a balcony at that recent wedding have been put down. The stories are that KP and Ch press offices asked that they not be published and to respect the couples privacy which was duly done.
I tend to think the press give Harry some slack with his private life now, considering he makes an effort with them with his work/duties.
All the royals count private meetings in the court circular, including Harry.
No, this was announced last year or the year before that they were going to be counted for W&K. That was how the press figured out that things like arriving at an airport counted as an engagement – by tallying up how little KM actually did and connecting the dots.
That’s because he’s desperate for Granny to grant him approval to marry his woman who has been ruled out by the firm. Yup ancient rules require approval from the monarch for those in line to the throne no matter how distant and those in “service of the monarch”. So unless Granny says yea (highly UNLIKELY according to the firm’s eligibility checklist. Yup the same people who ordered Wills to look for a suitable alternative to Kate then until it became clear no aristocratic woman or remotely aristocratic was interested)……..Meghan’s gonna be Waite-Katy part deux. She might win – again no aristocratic British girl want to be involved in the circus that is the Firm specially as it is predicted to be retired to republic with the eventual death of the last Royal superstar that is Queen EII.
HM must approve the marriage of first 6 in line, not all of them. They won’t refuse Harry if he wants to marry MM. They’ll get the church wedding, he’ll get the ducal title, she’ll be a working royal. HM let the Middletons in, MM is no problem.