Prince William has legitimately been working more this year. We’ll have to wait until the end of December/beginning of January to learn the final tally of “events” William has performed this year, but I suspect the number will be notably bigger than previous years. I still think he works significantly less than other “full-time working royals” like The Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales, but whatever. He’s easing himself into a schedule that more closely resembles a part-time job.
These are photos of William attending the inaugural This Can Happen conference in London today. This is being called a “top-level conference,” which just sounds like Keen Jason’s attempt at branding William as Mr. Serious Future King Who Talks About Feelings. Apparently, the focus of this conference – or the focus of William’s participation – was about how dudes have feelings too, and dudes need to focus on their own mental health. This is a super-complicated issue, and I immediately connected it to domestic violence statistics and the rise of mass shooters in America. It’s all part and parcel of the larger conversations about toxic masculinity and what can be done about it. I don’t expect William to solve these problems, no one expects that. But… I don’t know, it sometimes feels like William’s mental health crusade exists in a vacuum, or that the royals are happy enough to just deal with mental health conversations at the most superficial level.
Meanwhile, some of the tabloids are talking about an old story/quote from a “royal expert” who claimed that William dumped Kate in 2007 because of concerns about her “middle class family.” I don’t believe it. I think William dumped Kate in 2007 because she and the press were pressuring him to propose and he didn’t want to.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
“Mr. Future king who talks about feelings”. I love it! 🤣
I’ll never get over the fact that he and his security used to refer to Kate as “the mattress”. I would straight up murder a man if he called me that.
I’m glad William is talking about mental health, I just wish it was more substantive.
Wait, what? That’s horrible.
Really gross story and most likely not true
That is a nonsense story.
Maybe, but it came off as very possible when I read the story years and years ago. William had a history of treating Kate like sh!t during the gf years.
The mattress title has been around for years.
William would call Kate and she would jump right over bag in hand.
@Melly- How does it differentiate us from the the sexist hearsay on Tumblr then? I have literally not even come across 1 story that can confirm this. It’s a very gross thing to say. People say all sorts of cr*p about Meghan too trying to make it sound “believable”, but we dont believe it because it is cr*p
@C
I read the stories a long time ago, i’m pretty sure you can still find them online. It is a gross thing to say, and I find it entirely believable that William would say that gross thing. His actions, especially during that time, seem to line up with him possibly referring to her that way. It could totally be crap, just like a lot of stuff on any gossip site.
I just did a google search and could not find anything. Could you link me please? Also- this “believable” business is entirely my point. People who hate Meghan think this “tiara-gate” was believable (it’s not, it’s sexist reporting) and just because you dislike William, it is “believable” that Kate- the now-mother of his children was disparaged as a mattress to his security personnel- a prime example of SNL’s “feel facts” skit. I “feel ” something is true so let’s repeat it a 1000 times. We are better than this.
I just did a quick search and couldn’t find the articles, just references to the articles. They were written in the early 2000’s and I bet they’ve been scrubbed since W&K got married. William had a history of treating Kate pretty bad, it’s not that big of a stretch to believe he also said terrible things.
I guess I’m not better than this! Just because I think something is entirely believable doesn’t mean you need to think it. Of course I can’t prove it, I’m not in tight with the royal crowd.
It’s cool you watch SNL. In the sketch they talked about Fox News (and other news orgs) reporting “feel facts” not commenters on a celeb gossip site. This is sorta exactly where “feel facts” belong.
so just because we are on a celeb gossip site, we should behave like full-blown trolls and say whatever we like without any basic attempt at veracity? sounds like a good strategy in 2018. I’ll hold you to it next time there is a (justifiable) meltdown over fabricated stories about MM/Harry/Soho House.
….Ok, that’s cool I guess. I had no idea I was acting like a full-blown troll. I read some gossip years ago that I found entirely believable based on W’s behavior at the time. It could be totally made up, you could be totally right! What the hell do we know, right?
You’re a concern troll. Repeating questionable “facts” in order to insult (Will saying it/Kate still being with him despite him saying it) all while under of the guise of looking at for Kate’s honor.
@Herewegoagain
Repeating questionable “facts” is 99% of what occurs on a gossip site. I do not care about Kate’s honor. I remember reading a piece of gossip that I found believable & it stuck with me because I found it so gross and disrespectful. I’m super sex positive, I don’t care what Kate or any other person chooses to do as long as it’s consensual.
This story is made up & seems like it was dreamt up in Tumblr land. Similar to the idiotic stories that claim Meghan was a Soho house call girl. It’s very easy for people to peddle falsehoods with no evidence to back it up just throw in the word ‘sources’ and voilà!
This is a gossip site, there usually isn’t tons of evidence to back everything up. It is believable though because William treated Kate pretty terribly during the gf years. He would flirt with other girls in front of her and would dump her if he thought he could get with someone else. If someone will treat you that bad, it’s not a stretch that they might say something disrespectful.
@Melly I have not read this in any credible outlet. Unless you were there & you witnessed this happening then it is just pure hearsay. The only places I have seen this said is on Tumblr & blogs. Tumblr is a cesspit for tinhats & fan fiction writers.
Is the Soho House girl the stuff that CDAN was Tweeting about on their “exclusive” podcast for their patrons? I was wondering what that was about.
Exactly! The stories are so offensive and dehumanizing to both of them. Women date, might have fwb relationships or be in long term decades long relationships. Doesn’t mean they are call girls or mattresses. Geez. Need a shower! These are human beings we are talking about.
I do recall reading about that years ago but bear in mind that Kate’s rep was whitewashed when the engagement was announced. Who knows whether its true (the press made stuff up to get reactions) but what is true is that when he called she went running with a shag bag in hand – she was papped several times sneaking into his barracks late in the evening and then sneaking out again early in the morning, bag in hand. I remember seeing those shots but they have since been scrubbed from the net, you might be lucky and find them on a royal gossip blog if you are inclined to spend time searching. William bragged about getting sex from her whenever he wanted it and that all he had to do was call.
I’m not a Kate fan but he treated her like sh!t for many many years, even his own friends called him out on how badly he treated her.
@Chloe- yeah, it’s on CDAN and tumblr primarily, about how SohoHouse is somehow the Big Bad that is funding Meghan and how she has been in debt with them in the past and therefore using her royal occasion to “merch” goods and earn some money. They are ABSOLUTELY convinced and will put out non-existent or tenuous linkages to make their case. There are also weiiiird stories about Jessica Mulroney. Really turned me off and in very poor taste. This is why i’m also side-eyeing these comments here about Kate or Meghan or William or whoever.
@Digital- yes you may be correct, but this is how most immature people in their early 20s conduct a relationship- in and out, until they get it together. Harry/Chelsea, Harry/Cressida, Charles/Camilla were also somewhat similarly entangled with each other. But the mattress story (discussed with the security staff by the famously private Bill Middleton) with no proof and very likely made up by a tabloid, is a bit of a reach and frankly, a little bit sexist.
I remember seeing the stories about him calling her a mattress. It was a joke between him and his security. At the same time Harry was referring to her as the Limpet for her clinging abilities. It was all over the net at the time. I can believe they tried to scrub those stories from the net, but they were there.
It could all be lies, but it sounds pretty believable to me. If W was willing to treat her disrespectfully it stands to reason that he would say some disrespectful stuff about her.
I doubt all of this can be scrubbed off. There are unsavoury stories about Phil and Charles even now, I remember the limpet stories and that royal courtiers made ‘mattress’ jokes but nothing about William saying it.
What’s gross is a bunch of women rehashing 10 year old gossip to slut shame another woman. “Shag Bag”, really? Heaven forbid a woman wants sex and takes it for her own pleasure.
Whether this was true or not is irrelevant. She is now his wife and the mother of his three children. Whether this was ever true, it should never be brought up again.
Kate gets to pretend her past doesn’t exist? Why? I don’t think it works that way and wouldn’t we all love to not have parts of our past brought up? I don’t see how you can make that happen.
“Heaven forbid a woman wants sex and takes it for her own pleasure.”
Seriously.
I have not seen a credible source that has attributed the mattress comment to William. I think that the attribution of the nickname to his protection officers has also been debunked.
It’s suspicious that when someone makes a bold claim and are then asked to produce receipts all of a sudden all the ‘evidence’ has conveniently been wiped off the face of the earth! I don’t buy any of it. Either show receipts or it didn’t happen!
You don’t need to believe it, that’s totally ok. It was talked about on this site before:
https://www.celebitchy.com/435160/carole_middleton_doesnt_care_if_you_think_shes_an_arriviste_or_a_social_climber/
It was talked about in the comments section, same thing as what is going on today. One of the commenters put up a link to to the website entertainmentwise-com which is not a credible site. However the link is not even to an article on that dubious website, it is to a picture and I bet I know what the picture is, it’s a picture of Kate wearing a plaid dress side by side with a mattress, that picture is a joke about the outfit that Kate is wearing and has nothing to do with an assholic nickname.
@Melly you’re right — I’ve read this over and over again over the years. I couldn’t point to one “source,” it’s just been out there, like Waity Kaity. I think it’s gross, but you’re not imagining it!
IIRC it was William’s PPOs that called her that, not him, but he tolerated her being called Waity and “the Limpet” etc., in his presence, which isn’t great if true.
This is a celebrity gossip site! Calling someone a troll for discussing this is ridiculous.
@Lorelei
Thank you! I just brought it up to say that I remembered hearing it and being disgusted by it – that was my entire original point. I don’t know how I’m being any kind of a troll lol. You would think by some people’s reactions that I made up the name and the whole story. Some people…
If you do an internet search for Waity Katie there are tons of articles referencing that nickname.
The original comment stated as fact that not only was Kate referred to as “the mattress” but that it was William and his security who referred to her as “the mattress.”
If you do an internet search regarding Kate being nicknamed the mattress, and even worse that her future husband and his protection officers referred to her as the mattress, there are no credible articles supporting that “fact”.
I don’t believe the story ever included William in using that name just his security. But it certainly was scrubbed from most places once the engagement was announced.
+1 @Nic, the story was never about William saying it and claiming it otherwise gives it a wholly different colour
I remember “the mattress” stories. I thought that William broke up with her because she was super boring. Then, when know one else would date him he called Kate, again, and she was at his place in 10 seconds flat.
I’ve always gotten the feeling that while Kate is infatuated with William, he pretty much married her because no one else would have him. The Middleton’s treat him like a God, so he gravitated to them.
I bet William is jealous of the relationship that Harry and Meghan have. Harry married for love. William married for “OK; let’s just get it over with and I’ll cheat in 10 years.”
JMHO.
This is a disgusting comment
William never gave anyone a chance to have him because he kept getting back with Kate shortly after the break ups.
Lets keep it real.. to say no one would get with William ( who was a total fox in his 20s) is a lie. Many many women would have loved to date him just on the fact that he is the future king of England. If the prince of Monaco was able to father children with various women you better believe William could get girls to date him. If Kevin Federline, Carrot Top and Joey Fatone can get women then William damn well could too!!
Say what you want about William in other aspects but stop trying to use the excuse that he couldn’t get any other girls to date him as a reason for him marrying Kate. Thank you Next!
Have you never seen the Princess Diaries 2 where Mia enthusiastically endorsed the idea of marrying William? He was super hot and super sought at in his 20s.m, he did not settle for Kate. He might have treated her badly and wanted to explore his options but that isn’t unheard of that age with the kind of access he had to women. I see them as similar to Liam Hemswoth and Miley Cyrus, sometimes you need to split to appreciate what you had.
He did not. Don’t spread rumors.
Good GOD people. Wills married Kate because he loves her and that is the only reason he’s still with her. Occam’s razor. Simplest explanation. He could have had anyone he wanted (i remember the hysteria) and he chose to be with her. He also lived through his parents’ arranged marriage and the havoc it wreaked..I think it was smart of them to wait through their twenties. And I’m pretty sure he is NOT jealous of Harry and Meghan, he is different from his brother and needed a different kind of relationship. My goodness, the fanfic!
I mean, on one hand, it’s a conversation that needs to be had. Toxic ideals of masculinity are so damaging to men and women…not sure if William is the best spokesperson for this? but at least it’s not hypocritical like his anti-poaching, anti-hunting crusade that falls flat when he engages in yet another sporting shoot.
He’s as good a spokesperson as any, isn’t he? Difficult childhood, went on to establish a stable family of his own, and in a very prominent position. Harry seems to have done a better job relating emotional problems to his own journey, but William seems loathe to connect to his own life, and thus resorts to generalities. Wish he’d be more specific.
he could be really good but he is so unwilling to actually talk about specifics that it comes across as platitudes
He did connect it to his own life and got very specific. He was talking about how the things he experienced in his time with the air ambulance were very difficult for him especially when they involved children. Apparently one family’s situation in particular really upset him and he couldn’t stop thinking about it, but he didn’t want to burden Kate with it because it was so upsetting. He then talked about how he was getting more and more depressed about it until he finally talked about it to a co-worker. Anymore specific and that family would know who he was talking about. He also praised his co-workers for their ability to cope because he only did it for a short time and found it very difficult. It shouldn’t be disregarded just because he is learning to open up and not entirely comfortable yet. He’s doing exactly what he’s asking other people to do.
What topic would you be ok with him discussing? Because it seems like William is doing a really good thing for mental health, but people are crapping on him anyway. It makes me wonder if some people have ever had any joy in their lives…
Well I have alot of joy in my life, thanks for your concern 🙂
As for Will, here is an example: he publicly jokes about mental illness – for someone whose main “cause” is to end the stigma of mental illness, making fun of people by saying they have a mental illness is not the way to do it. I say this as someone with a very close family member who suffers from debilitating mental illnesses.
It sounds like his Mom had some serious mental health issues, may have relied heavily on him as a child, and then the early loss of her, all must have been so hard for him, and I wonder how well his world, his position would have allowed him to navigate all of that. I’ve wondered too if he has some depression or other mental health issues of his own, so maybe that’s why he’s gravitated toward this, and hopefully will grow with it. I don’t know about his joking about it, but that might be a way of distancing himself from it all. But maybe this is a start, for him and for others.
I wonder if it was Carol who talked some sense into him back in 2007.
So I agree with everything here Kaiser. William is definitely working more, which is important to see. He is also coming across as less petulant and “I’m only here because I have to be”, which has definitely been the vibe he has given off in the past. So that’s all good.
But I do agree that their mental health talk just seems like its in a vacuum. I don’t know what the actual HT charities are doing, but whenever William and Kate talk about “mental health” I just don’t get it. I’ve struggled with depression, my SIL struggles with OCD and anxiety, my sister had borderline personality disorder – I’m all for more awareness and more talk about mental health issues. but it has to be more than “mental health is so important” and “we need to talk about mental health.” I dunno. Something about it falls flat to me.
It’s like they stop at “we need to talk about mental health” instead of actually talking about mental health.
Yes! that’s a simple but perfect way to put it.
I would argue that their job is actually to talk ABOUT the need to talk about mental health..rather than listing down all the psychiatric/therapy tools as they are not trained specialists themselves. Britain suffers mostly because of our stiff upper lip thing and they are attacking step 1 of the issue here.
Kate was bullied as a kid. William’s mother suffered depression and bulimia. I just think they are not comfortable with talking and putting their emotions in it, not that they don’t connect.
BTW, many assumed Will was working more cos of his brother, but it’s cos of Chuck and their shady business.
Kate was NOT bullied, that story was debunked and exposed as BS. She was not a boarder, was a day student only and by all accounts well liked by her classmates.
I do remember reading Kate was bullied in Penny Juror’s biography of Wills- not surprising. The aristo set is notorious for being icy to rich arrivistes like the Middletons
I watched part of the Prince Charles at 70 docu (couldn’t watch the whole thing because Prince Charles is such a lovable peacock, I couldn’t quit laughing) and it stuck me again how William is carrying the fire for Diana. He will always put her first in all his activities, his platform. And it also struck me how sort of broken he is. I know he’s a grown man, but I think he still has a lot of work to do to understand what happened to his mother, how he must live in the same spotlight she did, how he must work with the firm and machine that relentlessly attacked her and ultimately killed her. I hope he gets there. It’s a lot to ask anyone to work with the system that killed your beloved mother. But, he has no other choice.
He could step down, but that would mean being cut off from the rest of his family and much of the wealth, right? Mostly he must be torn.
Isn’t that the irony of trauma? In order to heal, you’ve got to connect and/or reconnect with that thing or the aspect of that thing that broke you.
If only it were this easy, Honey. But he is trying…
@Catherine ha ha. I laughed too, but watched to the bitter end. Some part where he says something like “oh is it” like he’s the most hilarious person on earth, oh and when he laughs about getting tea, as though people don’t rush him whatever he wants in an instant was so funny, but not how he intended, were hard to get through. Still I was very curious and kept thinking something interesting would happen – I was wrong. I think William cares, and talks as deeply as he feels comfortable, about mental health issues. Honestly, if he’s helped one person he’s done a great job.
Harry said william talked him into seeking help when was acting out in Vegas etc
I think he is really stepping up and I am one of those rare people who thinks he is a natural, very at ease and confident in his public role. Not exuberant like Hazza or Diana but quiet and steady like his dad.
I’ll take his work with mental health issues more seriously once he stops using serious mental health issues as a joke, as in his crack about OCD during the documentary about Charles.
That is my biggest issues with the DoLittles and this cause – they are totally clueless about it and their involvement/talk is superficial at best. There is ZERO substance to what they are saying and NO follow through other than giving the same cut and pasted speeches. William does more than she does and at a push I would take him over her at these events as he relates to it better. You can’t really understand or relate to MH unless its something you have experienced first hand, either suffering yourself or watching someone else suffer.
No argument BUT is their audience people who currently have mental health issues or are they simply trying to raise awareness and to destigmatize the issue in terms of the general public? What is their goal? I’m both stating a statement and asking a question. I’m not in the UK, so I don’t know what or even how well this sort of issue has been rolled out.
I work for an urban school district, and we’ve been working with school staff around building trauma informed practices, social emotional awareness, and better supporting students who have mental health issues. Those things are surface level to perhaps one level down, at best, in terms of building capacity across all schools and staff members. Community engagement and parent level participation is not really happening (because we haven’t made a significant push). However, people and staff members are generally open and receptive—especially when we personalize it by bringing them into via personal connections. I’ve shared that to say that organizations that support people who have mental health issues and other MH providers may have just needed a prominent “fresh” young face to help carry water for the cause and with whom people can connect with (Diana) and can project their own “story” onto (the boy who would be king but lost his mother just he may have needed her most and she at the peak of her life) in order to use the empathy floodgates in a proactive and to the benefit of society in general.
From a PR perspective, I think it’s good for the House of Windsor and it’s a good thing for the general public from William and the others (although shallow) to act as advocates to further defang mental health issues. However, I will admit that the the cynic and pragmatist is me says that the only reason they’ve taken this one is because mental health is “on-trend” right now and is no longer as much as a taboo as it was even 10 years ago in terms of speaking about it. But, hey, maybe they were actually waiting for something like this to come along earlier but didn’t know how or who to engage in terms of the issue. Whatever. However, I will say this . . . from where I’m sitting in the cheap seats I can appreciate him and the others lending their face and titles to the cause. I wish some of our US-based celebrities and other athletic “youth ambassadors” would help open the door for the types of conversations and actions that are needed in support of people who have and love people who have mental health issues:
^ I agree that its a good thing that they are lending their faces and titles but there are other celebrities who are doing it/have done it better. Stephen Fry has been very open about his battles with depression (he’s written about it a lot), same with Robbie Williams (ex-Take That) and his battles with bi-polar, Ruby Wax has written books about her battles with anxiety, a well known footballer (his name escapes me at hte moment) even spoke about his depression after his wife died of cancer. Even the younger generation has spoken out; Zayn from 1D, Ariana Grande spoke out about how Manchester affected her etc.. My point is that other people have done a lot of work in helping break the stigma of MH and while there is still a long way to go, lets not get carried away with the narrative that its all down to W&K and the HT campaign.
William has also touched on MH issues with the homeless through his work with Centerpoint – TBH I feel that he could really do something good there, helping the wider community understand that the vast majority of homeless people are suffering from some sort of MH issue (relating to sexual abuse, PTSD, etc..).
It’s a good cause. And if it’s their tentpole cause they need to learn more. So no judgment, both should go to these events and often.
Kates beem criticized because she said she doesn’t have issues because she had a loving family, which is a great thing but not the cause of ‘all’ mental health issues. And minimizes other mental illnesses and blames good parents in these situations when they’re probably already blaming themselves. Mental health is a very difficult field, complicated, and no solution works across the board. They will have to continually keep up with new theories and treatments.
They could do more to overcome stigma, which is such a hindrance to people getting help and support. They need to stop using the umbrella phrase “mental health” and start actually using terms like depression, anxiety, psychosis, mood disorder, schizophrenia, mania, and on and on. Even just doing that would be a big step.
Maybe that’s next level (?), hopefully, as they learn more and becom comfortable and confident swimming in these waters.
Except schizophrenia, mood disorder,etc. are mental illnesses that are best dealt by psychologists and psychiatrists and are diagnosable through the use of DSM-5 or the ICD-10 (or 11, not sure which edition it is in now) . Mental health and mental illness are two different terms and should not be used interchangeably. I applaud William for taking this subject head on, but the field of psychology itself is currently struggling in how best to characterize and diagnose mental illnesses vs. “normal” mental health. What is normal mental health? My psychology professor told us that people are like snowflakes – each is unique and so what is normal for each person and what is abnormal is going to be different. I remember reading a comment on this website in an earlier post about how a lot of the underlying causes for why people struggle with mental illnesses or mental health is due to poor social policies – how income is distributed, etc. So one way to tackle their causes head on would be to address policies – but that’s a no no for royals because you do not want to get involved in politics. I have no doubt in my mind that he is passionate about this but I fear his hands are tied in this situation.
That is literally the worst way to take what she said. She was talking about making sure disadvantaged families have the same resources that her family had. All she did was acknowledge her privileged upbringing. She never stated if she had issues at all. If she did then we can assume her parents got her help because that is what was implied. She never said that bad parenting causes mental illness. She was talking about parents needing to have the resources to get their children help and without worrying about the stigma of mental illness getting in the way. She wasn’t talking shit on parents at all. She was saying society isn’t providing parents with the proper resources and the stigma is getting in the way of parents speaking up.
William was attending the This Can Happen conference which is about mental health in the workplace. Workplace includes both men & women & it isn’t specifically about male mental health. Mental health in the workplace is a topic William has talked about many times before. He actually said some interesting things especially to do with mental health in the emergency services which is something he does have personal experience.
Haha@ that picture! He looks so frail and unattractive stepping out the car.
And do people still believe all those BS stories from years ago? They never broke up. They created narratives to keep the press off her whenever he was away for long periods. As we’ve come to know him better over the years, I wonder if she was ever the one to call things off and want to explore her options..? He seems like a sad time in the sack and not all that fun.
They talked about breaking up in their engagement video…to deny they broke up is odd.
They broke up at least twice. In their engagement interview, the interviewer asked about the big 2007 breakup, but William interpreted the question to be about their university breakup and started talking about that. Kate was clearly surprised and chagrined by his mention of that particular breakup, judging by her cagey reaction. She looked super annoyed when he was talking about it. I’m not sure the public even knew they broke up during their time at university before the interview, so that was probably the source of irritation for her. Wonder how many on-and-off moments they had before the engagement…
broke up twice- in uni for a couple of months and in 2007 for a couple of months. that’s it
What on Earth is a ‘shag bag’? The mental health of men would be better served by reversing cuts (‘Austerity’) making housing more affordable and prevent inexorable pressures on family life.