It really did feel like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge decided that they would go on maternity leave along with Duchess Meghan. Like, as soon as Meghan stepped back and stopped making public appearances, Will and Kate stepped back too. It was weird. As it turns out, William was actually doing something though: for the past three weeks, he was basically doing an undercover internship with British spy agencies. Hm…
Prince William spent three weeks secretly shadowing Britain’s top spies. The Duke of Cambridge spent his placements with agents from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to get a better understanding of how the UK’s security and intelligence agencies work. William spent his first week with the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, which deals with foreign intelligence and protects the UK from risks abroad. He learned about the risks to the UK’s national security, military effectiveness and economy, Kensington Palace said.
He then shadowed the Security Service (MI5) for a week, where he saw counter-terrorism teams analysing intelligence and conducting investigations on UK soil. Finally, he worked at GCHQ, the Government’s listening centre in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which monitors communications to look for potential security threats to the UK.
After finishing his placements on Saturday, the Duke said: “Spending time inside our security and intelligence agencies, understanding more about the vital contribution they make to our national security, was a truly humbling experience. These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe. They work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face. They are driven by an unrivalled patriotism and dedication to upholding the values of this country. We all owe them deep gratitude for the difficult and dangerous work they do.”
William did this three-week adventure for the same reason he took some un-enrolled agriculture classes at Cambridge Univerity and why he has taken various internships over the years – he sees it as part of his preparation for being Prince of Wales and eventually king. He wants to understand how government agencies, businesses and farms work. It’s actually a good thing – I’m not going to criticize him for doing this kind of stuff. I am going to workshop some 007-William jokes though. Double-Oh Willy? Normal Bill, License to Kill. On Granny’s Secret Service.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Good for William, no snark from me this time.
As for Kate, the kids are on their Easter break, right? I am not expecting to see her (or William) until Easter Sunday. They are probably on Ammer Hall
We last saw Kate on March 28 and you don’t think we are going to see her again until April 21?
Maybe she is out on leave with Meghan….
They always take the Easter break off. They did it last year (Well, William did, Kate was already km maternity leave). And I went and checked with someone who tracks the royals and their appearances, and they also took the break in 2016 and 2017. (although she told me that they didn’t take the whole 3 weeks in 2016).
So… Going by their previous years, the pattern seems to be: George and Charlotte on school break= no appearances for William and Kate
The kiddos are on Easter break until April 24th so don’t expect to see Kate until then. They always take time off when the kids have a school break, this is nothing new.
My question too… is Easter Break in the UK 2+ weeks long? 3 weeks long? That’s not an Easter break. That’s a Lent break lol.
The kids have a THREE WEEK Easter break? Seriously? That’s…a bit much. No way should Kate take practically a month off just because they’re home. If it was one week, then maybe, but that’s ridiculous.
The posher the school, the longer the break. If state schools have one week, public (private) schools have two. If two, then three. The more you pay, the less time they spend in class (don’t ask me, I’m common as muck).
The state schools have 2 weeks off for Easter here in south Yorkshire, my partner works at a secondary school and he’s got first and second week of April off, then a short work week next week due to it being Good Friday and Easter Monday.
I wonder what Kate has been up too. Working on her project I guess.
Perhaps researching some more work experience outings for Mr. Kate
Sitting at her front window glaring in the direction of the Chumleys’ house.
Like Cersei staring at the Sept of Baelor.
😂😂😂
Ehh, there’s nothing interesting to read today! William is still a hella boring potatohead. The most interesting thing about him recently is who he possibly managed to convince to DL boink him! I’d love it if it were a dude, but we will probably never know.
I think I’m going to take advantage of it being Sunday here and take a nap.
@Mumzy. That’s a good one!
Good for him. It seems like an important way to spend his time. I had been wondering where he was; despite our jokes on here he HAS been improving his numbers and working more, so his absence over the past few weeks was noticeable.
The sun had a headline about him spying for Britain and it just cracked me up for some reason.
Maybe because he is one of the most recognizable Brits in the world?! “Hey, doesn’t that guy kinda look familiar?!”
That headline made me think of the sitcom The Windsors where Normal Bill worked at a cafe with just a fake mustache on and no one recognized him lol
OMG The Windsors—hilarious show.
Fantastic show! And Harry worked in a thrift shop, after he learned to read.
The episode of The Windsors where Prince Charles’s secret twin brother was revealed was my absolute favorite.
I need to see if there are any new episodes of that fabulous show. Camilla is just so perfect. I loved when she and Teresa May had the knock down drag out fight.
Such a funny show! Can’t wait for the next season
Harry, Wills, Pippa & Camilla are particularly well cast
Weirds me out/disappointed me to find out that Kate is played by the much younger woman Mr Bean left his wife of many years for though…
The Windsor’s was SO GOOD!!
I finally figured out that normal Bill has gained some weight in his face. It was throwing me off.
Yes he looks a bit fuller…i wonder if he is trying to get some cool tricks and gadgets to be stealthy on his “affairs”…lol…so far he’s been more of a “Johnny English” kind of mess. Off to some professional training!
I feel like it’s “Take William to Work Day” again. He is definitely 000 now.
I wonder what his next adventure will be!
His kids are at a great age for short story reading so maybe a train conductor, a Wild Thing, or a chocolate/candy factory owner.
@MUMZY lol
Signing up with Hairclub for men?……that would be an adventure and hey, it worked for Elton John, so why not William?
Indeed – I wonder if Kate will intern at Buckingham Palace, to see firsthand how a proper royal and royal household works.
He is at least taking an interest in his future role beyond PR opportunities! But yeah it did seem a bit like that LOL.
Maybe she will intern with Prince Phillip. “75 Years of Using One’s Spouse’s Status to Have a Pretend Career as an 18th Century Carriage Driver.”
😂
22,191 solo engagements
637 overseas visits
5,493 speeches
14 books written
Plus Philip made both Sandringham and Balmoral self-sufficient. Because of his interest in carriage driving? It is now considered an official competitive sport.
Phil gets no passes from me either. Ugh.
This news beats rumours of cheating in the countryside.
Maybe this is an attempt to teach him to be more stealthy about his escapades…
LOL. Could very well be the case.
KP did an IG story on this and posted a picture of black men when they talked about fighting terrorism. I sincerely doubt they’ll be called out on their dog-whistling beyond some comments on social media.
Don’t be ridiculous! White men obviously can’t be terrorists….they can only be….uhhh….”Disturbed”. :/
It’s idiotic to have this posted. Also… isn’t this a breach of privacy law? You can’t just post stuff from MI-5 for kicks. Regular civil servants have to deal with the Official Secrets Act and it would be breached here.
I decided to check it out after your comment since I no longer follow KP and you weren’t kidding with that pic black/brown men. That was a… choice. And I am eyeing it.
I saw that and noticed the photo choices too. I also noticed that the caption was miles longer then they used to be with posts.
Don’t see this. It’s deleted or do I have to watch a 30 min video to see a terrorist pic you’re mentioning guys?
I think it was on their IG stories, which disappear after 24 hours. I think. I don’t use the story feature on any SM.
Who wouldn’t want to “intern” at a freaking spy agency given the chance? I doubt this is some noble cause on his behalf, it’s just a cool thing to do.
I agree, it would be very cool, and I think a good idea.
At first glance, I thought the headline said that Will was undermining the UK spy agencies!
I don’t understand the point of this other than a fun little excursion for William. It seems like intelligence officers needed to babysit him so he could have a 007 experience. A waste of their time and resources imo.
Right? I don’t understand why people are praising this. What possible value does it have? Just seems like Willy wanted to go play with big-boy toys.
Once he is King he will get briefing’s from the various Security Services. If doing work experience is a way for him to really understand the roles of these Security Services and the work that they do then so be it, I don’t have a problem with that. At least he has been doing *something* its better than doing nothing.
There are a lot of different ways he could have learned about the vital importance of the security services without having to take up a week of their time. Watch a couple documentaries, have dinner with a senior security officer and ask questions, talk to his grandma about it, etc. I come from a family of intelligence officers so I might be a little sensitive about it.
Watching documentaries, going out to dinner with a spy or asking granny is no substitute for getting actual real-time, practical experiences inside these intelligence agencies. If they didn’t want him there he wouldn’t be there.
Besides, I don’t recall people getting this upset when Harry did his work experience in the Ministry of Defence a few years ago. I’m sure it took a lot of time and effort on behalf of the MoD to accommodate him but he did it anyway.
But my point is he doesn’t actually need real-time practical experience. He needs to be able to understand his intelligence briefings, it’s not like he’s going to have any control on how operations are run. If he just would have spent a day talking with senior intelligence officials, that would seem reasonable imo. Talking with granny seems like it would be pretty helpful seeing as she’s read intelligence briefings for the last 65 years. Resources used to accommodate Will’s educational experience were resources not used for securing the country.
Melly
Then the criticism would have been he is too lazy to get involved himself. Quizzing people only gives you a sense of their experiences not your own and research or documentaries are less impactful, especially without context.
@Monicack
I really don’t think people would think to criticize him for not doing something no one expected him to do in the first place. Most people who criticize him do so because he doesn’t do as many public engagements as he should & he has bragged about not being prepared for those engagements. Public engagements are the royal bread and butter, that seems like a better use of his time. The Queen didn’t spend a week at MI5 and I don’t think Charles has either, no one has criticized them for that. I just don’t get how much “context” and hands-on experience he reasonably needs to understand intelligence briefings. It’s not like he is going to have ANY say in operations.
This would normally be behind the scenes prep work but KP turned it into a “look at me” story similar to the photo shoot with garden designers. And he clearly didn’t learn much about privacy because KP has an image on their IG story that shows racial insensitivity and could be actual surveillance which taints it as evidence and breaches the Official Secrets Act among one of many applicable laws.
If they didn’t want him there, they wouldn’t have a choice. He would force his way in as he did with EAAA.
@Melly….. so you’re saying you can get all the information you need in life third and fourth hand.
That’s like saying you can become a doctor by just reading books and watching videos of operations or Trump could know all about being president by watching the West Wing / House of Cards or watching the evening news and listening to ‘expert’ commentary instead of serving a term as an aid or in the senate to learn the ins and outs.
Nothing beats actual first hand experience. Nothing!
William doesn’t need first hand information about this subject. All he needed was a short 2-3 hour intro. This was yet another dodge for him to do what he wanted, causing all kinds of trouble for others.
It is nothing more than the fun excursion you describe, like his rumored classes about being an EMT last year. A couple of hours of briefings was all he needed from security agencies, but he took up three weeks of their time simply because he wanted to. Another way for him to avoid the type of work he’s supposed to be doing.
Exactly this. The bar for William is SO LOW. I don’t know how people can spin this like it’s vital for William to know methods and sources. He needs to be able to read and understand briefings, that’s it. A couple hours with some intelligence people and a convo with Granny is all he really needed, but William wanted to play secret spy.
Do we know if Charles ever did anything of this scope? Embedding himself like this for a number of weeks? I kind of doubt it. Either way, if he did he didn’t splash it all over the front page for PR, so.
Well said. Agree 100%
Exactly Melly.
Agree @Melly! I’d judge a college student who was still shadowing a week at a time – there are actual summer internships for those who are legitimately qualified – let alone a 35 year old prince
I thought I was alone in thinking this was unnecessary. Being royal is a largely idle exercise z- make work aka engagement in order to be visible. William has a history of starting things but losing interest and not turning up eg his degree(drunk and absent) , the RAF (almost booted out), EAAA (rarely did shifts), the specially formulated agriculture course (did not complete), and last year he started some course online. He has limited intelligence and no staying power. This latest outing sounds like William fancies a whirl at spy stuff. They have to keep the dolt entertained.
More ‘distraction from The Rose bush Hanbury
It comes out that way but they would have had to set him up with scheduling and clearances well in advance.
It’s probably useful for him to have some knowledge of how the services work, as whateVer explained above. In the US, the elected president – the true chief executive – has no idea how the intelligence services work and has to take his daily briefings in crayon, apparently.
There is an article on the DailyFail today about “a new private secretary to keep William out of trouble who also has a wild past”. They are really circling around the affair accusations. Some of the reader comments reference the cheating rumours and interestingly the comments aren’t moderated. Wonder if they are getting close to breaking the story? I hope so. Everyday there is at least one ridiculously spiteful story about MM but the real story goes unpublished. Also noticing some negative stories about Kate and the Middletons but not as many as MM. Now that K&W are also getting negative press, will all the leaks get shut down? With the amount of stories coming out on H&M, it is obvious that it’s a concentrated effort from someone inside. What is surprising is that Prince Charles and The Queen have not intervened.
I don’t see this article? Did it get taken down?
TALK OF THE TOWN: Prince William’s private secretary is paid handsomely to keep him out of trouble, but he has a wild past of his own.
I googled the headline and found the story.
There must be a deal where the daily mail will write the story but not have it on the front page.
I don’t get his appeal, ok maybe future king… but he’s got no swagger and looks like something smells bad all the time. Is it me? Why are these women having affairs with him? Yuck
Because hes going to be king? That alone is enough for some women. Imo William is ugly plain and simple and seems to treat people like crap, but since hes going to be king for a country that enough.
Still not enough for me to drop panties. Harry though… 👙
Well, he’s tall, thanks to his mother, I’ll give him that. He’s pretty bald for being so young, and unfortunately he doesn’t have the kind of head shape that looks good bald. He used to be so cute when he was younger, but I can barely remember that. As far as attracting women, royalty goes a long way lol.
He was kind of dreamy in the late 1990s/early 2000s but it was for but a brief shining moment in time.
All preparing him to be a future king.
I imagine when we don’t see him around and he is not sneaking around with turnip toffs his training program includes:
Spy training
French, Spanish, mandarin and Farsi training
Join the Freemasons
Leadership training
Public speaking training
How to raise kids who are not spoiled training
7 habits of highly successful people training and
History lessons etc
Quite busy that one.
I noticed the Middletons are getting more negative press lately. I think the story may be the Cambridges are calling it quits. William has an heir and two spares and Charles is proof that an affair and a divorce will not cost one the crown. I always thought the Middletons are the posh version of the Markles and apparently the Turnip Toffs do too. Therefore the leaks of Norfolk.
they will never split
Thank you. I know some people would love it if they split, I just don’t see it happening.
Former employees of Party Pieces are talking to the tabloids about working conditions.
Carole sent an employee over 70 emails and expected employees to work on weekends without pay.
Carole regularly gave employees the cold shoulder when they fell out of favor, Mike was always cleaning up her mess.
With Amazon and a Supermarket chain in the same business as PP, it seems PP is on its last legs.
That story about Carole was very strange. Running at about the same time the Fail claimed MM was “snubbing” the Queen by not using the same obstetricians or some nonsense.
If the DM story on Carole being the Miranda Priestly of party supplies is true– yeah that is just about what I would have guessed even down to Mike being a softy.
The story about Meghans so called snubbing of the Queen/Kate’s obstetrician-gynecologists made me want to scream -especially when it called Meghan extravagant for wanting to choose her own!
Carole’s high handedness and grand behaviour has been well known around the gossip sites for years, given that the press are printing this is big news as previously the Middleton parents and PP were off limits for this kind of story in the UK press – William made sure of it. Normally any kind of negative story about them comes from the European press.
Someone somewhere is sharpening their knives for the Middletons – is it them who is being ‘put in their place’, rather than another Ducal couple we know of? Chuck has no love for Katie Keen’s family, esp Carole. The negative stories about them in the UK press does indicate a change in how the press treats them.
There is def something going on behind the Palace curtains.
Someone posited on here the other day that Rose’s family being of ancient and superior lineage, was not going to sit back and accept a smear campaign against one of there own, and to watch for the hit pieces.
I thought for sure that it was the ‘Chumleys’ who spread this little rumour as a warning shot to William.
@Lady D: the negative stories about PP and the Mids started before TurnipToffGate hit the headlines but then again we don’t know how long that had been going on in the background before it made it into the press. But it could be her family, her mother is allegedly another Carole (social climber who schemed to marry her daughters off well). I could see this being a hit piece from her to Carole, to show that ‘see I have press contacts that I can leak stories to as well’ just to give the Middleton closet a shake.
If it is the Chumley’s/Hanbury’s then this article is a warning shot to Carole, not necessarily William – it means back off our daughter and we won’t have our press contacts throw your family and business skeletons out of the closet. There has long been rumours about PP/Mids shady finances and rumoured investigations by HMRC. IIRC there was an article around the time they applied for a mortgage for Middleton Manor and I think the application showed that they use banks based abroad (legal tax evasion as it gets you round some of the stringent UK banking rules for businesses – under the rules banks are required to report on your business tax status and finances to the tax authority, esp if requested). Am self employed and just recently had to fill in a form for this for my bank.
If the Mids are looking for investors for PP, stories like this will do a lot of damage. Esp if she is treating her staff like a Victorian work shop. Makes you wonder what else the press are sitting on.
Lady D – you have a point and the Middleton story could be coming from the Hanburys.
Nahhhhh…….she didn’t wait all those years just to call it quits based on Turnip-gate. Kate’s going to stick to it till the bitter end.
She would psychologically have to break from her mother to leave.
She will never divorce or leave him but he could leave/divorce her.
How would Carole treat Kate if she ended up divorced from William? I think it would be harder for Carole than Kate by that point.
William will be preparing for his role as future King for probably another 40 years ( If Charles inherit longevity from both his parents) … having said that this story coming out is questionable. IMO, probably to tamper any thoughts that William and Kate are on Maternity Leave or Turnip Gate has damaged his reputation… Future King of England title. Really, who takes William serious. He and the future Queen Consort (English Rose) are a joke!!
Deflecting us from the affair story eh?
Normal Bill. Spook.
OO Willy learning how to sneak around professionally. Gonna be able to ghost right in to see his True English Rose.
You didn’t see me. I was never there.
😉
If I had the money and privilege of Will I’d do the same thing. I love to know how things work and if my name or position can get me into different places to learn about them, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
He just look so smug in that picture. 🙄 I guess good for him, nice to see hes doing something related to his future. Star for you William.
I wonder where Kate is? Is she still researching? Or planning the greatest garden exhibit the world has ever see .
Ot…the daikymails story about carole? I believe it 🤷♀️
Thia man is a joke
Should this be in the public domain?
He will be Prince of Wales . He is the heir of the heir.
This is based on lineage. Why the need to reiterate rank?
Let me guess: to maintain order and precedent. Then. Who is disorderly and needs to be reminded?
Just remember popularity is just that in terms of royalty. If one is personable and professional one will be recognized.
This silly competition is boring.
Don’t you just love the nice open minded approach to the different members of the BRF? One would almost think that folks had made their minds up before reading. 😆
Don’t you love how everyone seems so knowledgeable about what Will needs to know and do as future king? lol I was expecting to read about how granny and daddy have surely scolded him for wasting the country’s resources.. lol
I think most made their minds up about big will a long time ago. Imo hes a donkeys rear end 🤔
Don’t you just love how William constantly proves himself to be a a$$ as guest wrote?
Now it’s not just the women being pitted against each other. The brothers have been firmly cast in the saint/sinner light. Doing this requires a considerable amount of history re-writing and a boatload of assumptions.
William has been given a lot of different chances to make himself not come off as a pompous arrogant brat. Harry is not perfect by any means and has done his own brat things but hell he at least can fake it.
It is no assumption that William has used Harry for PR for years. Pretending that didn’t happen is rewriting history.
Code name Spyhard.
“People from everyday backgrounds” Just sayin’. Yes, they do exist Will.
This quote is what jumped out at me too — geez, people from everyday backgrounds can be smart and educated and take on demanding careers, whodathunkit! He always comes across as so smug, entitled and not so bright.
Ugh. So condescending and out of touch with the masses. What else can we expect from someone who has been handed everything he got in life. Really and truly why should he have that and the ordinary folk have to work for every single thing they get. The More I think about it the more I support a republic.
I do t think he and Kate will ever split but I don’t see him becoming king.
Golf clap, I guess. I mean…are we really congratulating him for learning about the security of his country? And it took 3 weeks? Really? Isn’t this basically cover for him? Look over here! Big Willy has been shadowing spies. Forget about that nonsense in Norfolk. This is what the future king is really all about. Spare me. And why is it necessary for the low work Cambridges to stay home with their kids for 3 weeks when they barely work and are home in the mornings/afternoons during the school year?
So, this is where I think will and Kate were “smart.” They started out doing so little, so now they get praised for doing “something.” I mean we all just sort of assume they are going to do the bare minimum, so if they even do that, we praise them. At the top of this thread you have people just shrugging at the fact that Kate isn’t going to work for basically a month.
I know Harry doesn’t have that amazing a work ethic either, but i feel like will and Kate are more blatant about it. Like people know they don’t work that much and they have conditioned many people to praise them for it because “they have kids.”
I don’t know if this was a good idea for William or not. I can see the points @Melly and others pointed out. But at this point it’s like……hey he was doing something! Golf clap!
I’m sorry but these ppl are the most boring.. why is there 4 pages of them a day
Also, can someone please explain to me, no snark intended, how has Harry been used by the Cambridges throughout the years? And how was Harry always thrown under the bus? I only started following the Royals after the W&K wedding.
Werent they *all* party animals duing their twenties? Falling out of clubs, attending shady, racist parties?
Here’s@ another test of WWilliam’s would be royal mettle: plans are in the works for Trump to come to the UK for a full on state visit
https://www.google.com/amp/s/inews.co.uk/news/donald-trump-uk-state-visit-queen-d-day/amp/
As future king and queen William and Kate can’t get out of this especially if Trump insists he meets them. Right now Harry is thanking his lucky stars he is sixth in line to the throne but given his marriage to American Meghan the Sussexes may be expected to turn up. Body language experts are going to be in great demand.
I dont understand why everyone here gets upset when it comes to W&K doing ‘work’ because its not ‘worth anything’ in their very expert opinion.
Do you guys not realize that all the ‘work’ the royals do is fluff? Give a pretty speech here, attend a function there to raise awareness and cut a ribbion to bring attention… it all amounts to the same… fluff work. Two hours spent attending a function, hundreds of thousands spent to host one and provide security to raise some thousands. Meh. Pay celebs. Probably a lot less expense – to the tax payers and the charities.
Their expense does not justify their existance, ‘work’ or no ‘work’.
I don’t disagree about the work not justifying the existence generally, but some of the work that the royals do actually does matter. Historically, Diana’s work with AIDS patients and land mines. Charles has helped thousands of young people (most famously, Idris Elba) with the Prince’s Trust. Meghan’s cookbook with Hubb has provided funds for some of London’s most deprived people. You cannot pay celebs to achieve the impact of Diana holding hands with an AIDS patient in 1987.
What all of this has in common is that none of it is done by William and Kate. The “work” that they do has not been worth anything (because they don’t take it seriously, and none of it matters to them) but that doesn’t mean that royal work in general has no value.
I tend to agree.
Having a royal family merely provides Brits with the idea that there is such a justified thing as hereditary meritocracy which is ridiculous. 😉
Also the royal family puts up a smoke screen for a lot of things going wrong in Britain. They provide the feeling to Britain that it were still an empire which it is not.
Considering the money that is spend on the Royal Family all their so-called charitable stuff doesn’t really balance those costs. Prince Charles’ trusts has helped fewer children than organisations like boy scouts and the latter are usually financed by their own members. The costs of providing Charles with his lifestyle are much much higher annually than the annual grants which are handed out by his Princes’ trust.
Royals’ work simply doesn’t measure up to the cost of keeping a Royal Family. Brits are investing more into the Royal Family than they will ever get out in terms of charity or donations to charities or well-being of Britain.
Charles receives around £20m each year in Duchy of Cornwall income (with which he supports Camilla, William and Kate and their children, and up until now, Harry and Meghan). He receives nothing from the Sovereign Grant or the Duchy of Lancaster. The Prince’s Trust raised around £70m and spent £59.2m on its charitable activities last year.
The Prince’s Trust has helped over 800,000 people with job training and starting their own businesses. Nothing to sneeze at.
Perhaps William lacked so much knowledge and understanding about international politics coupled with William’s general royal ignorance that it had been decided he needed to understand the seriousness of the matter and change his attitude. Hence the 3-week internship to change his attitude. I guess they didn’t trust him enough to take him for a month or two? Or was he too lazy for that, too? I mean how much are you going to understand in 3 weeks? That can’t have given him a good overview over the current political landscape but merely changed his attitude towards this.