The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s last “tour” was their three-day blitz in Ireland in mid-March. The trip had a half-assed feel, and there were some theories going around that the trip was organized especially to pull focus from Prince Harry’s return to England, and to give the Cambridges an excuse for why they weren’t doing anything with Meghan when she first arrived in London (because the Cambridges were “resting” post-tour). The Irish tour was a mess, in my opinion – Kate spent a fortune on polka-dotted clown ruffles and Irish-flag cosplay, and I can barely remember any of the “events” they did. But it certainly cost a lot to be that boring:
The cost to the Garda of providing security during the recent visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Ireland has been estimated at €1.3 million. A major security operation was required when Prince William and Kate Middleton visited the Republic last month for a trip of just over 48 hours.
It involved armed gardaí from the Emergency Response Unit escorting the couple around with Royal protection officers from Britain. Snipers were also deployed on rooftops in some areas they visited for long periods. The high visibility policing operation, involving uniform frontline members, was also in place in the places they visited and on the routes between those locations.
Significant road diversions were also in place while drains were combed for any explosive devices in advance of their visit. Many of the gardaí involved in the security operation were working overtime in order that regular policing could continue across the country. The cost of the security operation has been confirmed by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in correspondence to the Policing Authority.
Garda sources while it may take some time for all of the overtime and expense claims to be processed before a precise cost could be arrived at, the final bill would be €1.3 million or very close to that figure. Mr Harris told the Policing Authority the visit was a “significant pressure… specifically on the overtime and travel and subsistence budgets”.
The cost of the visit, from March 3rd to 5th, compares to €300,000 for a visit to Ireland of about 36 hours by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. However, the cost to the Garda of the visit was modest compared to the €24 million security budget for the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland in 2011.
I remember the Sussexes’ trip to Ireland and they did several “big” events too, but I guess they just got less security because they weren’t demanding all of these bigger photo-ops. Plus, I don’t think the Sussexes traveled outside of Dublin? I could be misremembering that, but Will & Kate left Dublin and that kind of in-country travel is obviously more expensive and puts a bigger strain on security. Still, I bet no one will say sh-t because Will & Kate are currently being heralded as the saviors of… something. Who knows. This was just a reminder (to me) of how half-assed the Cambridges’ Irish tour really was though, and how it didn’t even make that much sense timing-wise, unless you look at it as “Will & Kate were trying to preempt the Sussexes’ headlines.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.
Im sure someone will argue that of course the security cost for the Cambridges is higher.
They are the future/future rulers of Britain.
But I wonder why security ended up being so expensive.
the tensions between Ireland and the UK/Crown drive up security costs. The recent talks of “building a wall” under Theresa May’s Brexit plan etc, did not help things. The price of security here does not surprise me 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏿♀️
But why would there be such a difference between the Sussexes who were there in 2018 for 36 hours and the Cambridges were there closer to 50 hours. The costs are four times as much. That’s hard to explain in a reasonable way.
Nic919 – their security was higher because they traveled across Ireland, like Kaiser pointed out. Those logistics ramp up the costs. PW’s great uncle was killed by the IRA, so security is going to be tight and expensive as they move across the country.
@ NC919
The Cambridges are 4x more valuable than the Sussexes, clearly.
There were only in the country doing events for an extra few hours. There is no way that would quadruple the cost.
@CATHERINE I dont know if that explains the security cost.
No offense to the Sussexes, but if some radical of any bent was intent on making a statement, taking out the future King and/or Queen is a bigger statement than taking out Harry, who is now 6th in line. I would imagine the threat level is probably higher for the Cambridges than it is for the Sussexes.
So the “value” spoken of above would be that attributed to one couple compared to the other couple (and also compared to the Queen) as targets in an act of terrorism.
That’s insane to think that Ireland would be ok with any VIP getting killed in the country. After all the IRA killed Mountbatten in the 70s.
Please stop saying that succession makes a difference in terms of how much protection they provide. Not only is it stupid but it would be a lawsuit and massively negligent. Any one going over doing a tour gets protection and they don’t slack because someone is number six in line versus number two. FFS the Irish don’t give a shit about British royal succession. They treat a VIP visitor to their country with the same protection. Are we now going to say certain PMs who visit deserve less protection than others?
@Janet and @Catherine, yours are the stupidest comments I ever read on here. Please, William and Kate’s lives are no more valuable than those of any homeless guy living under any bridge in Dublin, regardless of their positions in the succession to the British throne. They are all human lives and therefore equally as valuable and thus all equally worthy of all protection from harm. You probably are one of those Ms that think like Dr. Oz, how shocking, not.
Of course all life is valuable – when it comes to threat assessments, there are such a thing as ‘high value targets’ and while we may find the term demeaning to those that don’t fall into that category, for terrorism purposes, some targets bring more value in terms of destruction than others.
It is not stupid to acknowledge it – is it fair? No. Is it reality? Yes.
All governments use target value in threat assessments and apply it to both human life and buildings.
@Melissa, the Republic of Ireland would consider both Harry and William high risk in terms of security. If anything, Harry would have the high-risk in terms of being a terrorrist target. All govt officials would be high risk, so suggesting that Ireland cares enough about the British succession to the throne and would therefore provide lesser level of security to Harry than to William is just nuts. William’s tour was publicized way ahead of time, Harry’s wasn’t. That tells you who is the highest target. A military vet that fought 2 tours in Afghanistan would have a higher target on his back than some guy that sat at home during all that time, regardless of where that person is in the line to the throne. Both these people are very high risk and the Republic of Ireland would never provide a watered down version of security for one person over the other. Just think about the consequences of if anything happened to the person that received watered down security because the RoI didn’t consider him high enough in the succession to the British throne. That would be absolutely crazy.
Has someone done a workup on her clothing costs from the tour? I’m sure it was a significant sum for some butt ugly clothes. She really has the worst taste (in clothes and men).
I came here to say something similar. That wardrobe, especially that green “squiggly” outfit and coat, was hideous. A 1970’s secretary, and a 1940’s secretary.
You’re funny. Her clothing choices aren’t getting any better, new stylist or not. Looks like every appearance represents a granny dress, hairdo and/or hat, further down the stone ages. Can’t she look at the 35+ years old modern royal women for fashion inspiration (or advice), like those from Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Monaco, Jordan, The Netherlands, Belgium, just to name a few, who understand age appropriate fashion and styling far better.
Her style wasn’t always quite so terrible, but it seems to get worse and worse as time goes on. I honestly can’t understand it.
I loved her day two look and hair but that dress on day 1… who let her do that?
I’m sure it was unbelievably expensive too. I like that both Kate & Meghan go for lower cost items and feel more relatable but they do it so rarely that it’s just a token effort. There’s no substance to it.
I loved her third day sweater so much.
In this article, there’s a link to a previous article about the cost of her wardrobe for this tour. She spent more than £26.000 on (ugly) clothes for a 3 day tour! That’s a lot of money. Though she spent much much more for her 3 day tour to Paris a few years ago (and I don’t think that she’s re-worn many of those items). Kate has a massive wardrobe (often of extremely similar-looking bespoke items) and she very rarely re-wears her clothes. She’s spent an obscene amount of money on clothes she’s only worn once.
Of all the European royal women, she’s the one who re-wears her clothes the least!
Cue the outrage from the Fail for security costs in 3, 2…. Oh wait it’s the St Cambridges. They’re perfect and can do no wrong! Perfect future leaders, never put a foot wrong blah blah blah
Butbutbut Frogmore! Butbutbut Future Kweeen!!! ButbutbutNHSAllInItTogetherOhLookLouis!!! Butbutbuttons …
What’s that sound? Oh, a squirrel accelerating on the road to Whataboutery…
It’s very sad to see William is seeking his kids to tabloids to hide his affair. William and harry was spawn on their parents evil pr game. It’s very sad indeed to watch the innocent kids being used for own benefits. I have so much respect for harry not using archie for cheap pr .
Hey, @Aria: William has signed a deal with the devil, all right. He’ll never be free from his Faustian pact and, as you rightly say, he’s embroiled his kids in the whole mess as a trade-off – in the full knowledge that the press is evil. Did you ever read that quote from one of the Diana biographies in which a paparazzo, in response to her question ‘you’d like me to die, wouldn’t you?’ said ‘yes, I’d film every second.’ He knew that, yet he plays the PR game. Pretty sordid and disgusting. Well done the Sussexes for their bid for privacy for their child.
William would do well to remember moments after his mothers car crash, paps were taking photo’s of her dying instead of trying to help her – this is the type of people he’s sold himself and his children to.
When Harry and William were about the same age as the Cambridge children are now, they were not brought out for photo ops as much. There was a film of life at Highgrove with Charles and Diana and the young children they had. There were photo ops of milestones but nothing like the way the young Cambridges are now brought out a lot more. I see the Cambridges youngsters seem more like child actors that are brought out to clap or to pose in gardens and so on.
Tessa there was a noticeable change once the Rose affair came out. George and Charlotte were not seen as babies for months at a time whereas we have seen much more of Louis.
I don’t even know the importance of that vacation, except Kate’s proving to us that she can wear ugly dresses all year
From an Irish point of view, I’m fairly certain you’re correct.
I found the difference in security costs interesting. I can understand the costs for the queen being high – just in terms of people gathering to see her at every appearance, I imagine the costs for just “basic” crowd control and security were really high, never mind everything else involved.
Were the costs higher for William because he’s the future king? or because of the nature of events? They were there slightly longer but not that much longer to warrant 4x more in security costs.
I wonder how their security costs compare for other similar tours – like the Australia tours or something.
I think it’s because he’s the future future king hence why higher costs. Like if something happens to him, that’s one person who absolutely will be King gone.
That’s what I am wondering too. Since they only arrived the evening of the first day, it was really a two and 1/4 day tour so maybe closer to being there around 50 hours. So had the costs been around 500,000 then it would not be as bad. But 4 times the costs really makes you wonder. They didn’t do that many public walkabouts either.
All that happened for that visit was William showed himself again to be an ignorant ass while making his coronavirus “joke”. Hope it was worth the 1.3 million.
Possibly the size of the entourage is much larger for W&K.
*blinks* that’s not the cost of the whole trip? £1.3M is security alone??????
I can’t believe my taxes are paying for an unnecessary and completely unrequested 3 day lepruchan-couture fashion show.
I feel for you because they did nothing of value and managed to bring attention to Guinness as if no one ever links that beer to Ireland until they decided to do it.
We need a like button here.
@kellebelle YES Totally agree. Have wanted one for ages here!!
Lol! Thanks for the laugh! Much appreciated!
I see it was released to ; to borrow Rhiannon Mills’s mantra; to overshadow the court case.
Kate reminds me of julianne hough. Both are insecure or their looks and they both constantly change their hairstyle to hide that. They both messed up their face and hair. Kate has beautiful hair in the beginning of the marraige now her hair is dull and flat. Her face is too much with botox and whatever she is using. Her smile is manic which is sad because in her dating day she had good smile now her smile looks fake and she aged a lot .
Her hair is not dull and flat, Aria. You can say a lot of things about her appearance, but there is nothing wrong with the texture and shine of her hair.
no during the beginning of her marriage her hair beautiful. now her hair is not that great. Even in Sussex’s wedding, her hair looks good. but now her is not that good, it looks like Pippa and Carole hair.
@Aria
I don’t like Kate, at all. But she’s always had nice hair. Also, I believe women’s hair can change after they get pregnant, and everyone’s hair changes like every 7 years or so. When she married William she was younger and had barely a job and barely any responsibilities/stress. She’s older now and has had 3 kids, so of course her appearance is gonna change and her hair is gonna change. But she spends a lot of money on it, so her hair has never looked bad IMO it’s one of the few features she has I actually find pretty.
A friend of mine was at one of the Irish events and she said Kate was lovely – incredibly warm, friendly, engaged, and seemed to actually care about the issues they were discussing.
I’m a Meghan stan (as is my friend) but that’s what she said 🤷♀️
I think when Kate genuinely cares about something, she can do it well. Like her garden which we all admit is juvenile but she seemed to genuinely care about it. But the problem is that she’s pretty lazy overall. She just seems to half ass things and that’s it.
If she put some effort into her work, I’d get a lot quieter with my critiques.
I agree with her being friendly , warm and wonderful mother. No doubt in that. I dont think she cares much about any of cause beacuse otherwise her charity wont be busted with little money needed. She is lazy and she cares about her kids that’s no harm in it. But as future queen consort its problem. Diana was naive when she got married , she is hands on mother than Kate. But she never gave excuse to her duties and she step up her game.
I haven’t read negative comments from people who’ve actually met her at one of these engagements. After all the H&M drama, I think it’s safe to say that whatever she does or doesn’t do is probably approved or dictated by the palace, her husband, etc. It’s crazy to me that people insist that if she wanted to, she could do this or that. Really? Meghan tried and she was good at it. Look where it got her. There were other factors of course but this family/firm has shown their ass over the past few years and to still think she has any power within it, is a bit insane. But I was shouted down about this issue before. So whatever.
Will is another story altogether. And I would agree that you are, to an extent, the company you keep. You make choices. So we can side-eye her for that. But people seem to not want to blame other women for who their partner is so …
Kate didn’t have to give the cold shoulder at the commonwealth service. She also could have been more welcoming to Meghan behind the scenes. While I agree that Kate can never be a workhouse without making William look bad, there are many other things she could do but chooses not to. Part of why William agreed to marry Kate is because he liked that she did what he wanted. So he knew that she would not outshine him. But that doesn’t justify her at times bitchy behaviour, which we all saw at the commonwealth service with our own eyes.
I find most body language reading a bit sketchy but okay. And none of us really know what happens behind the scenes. We really don’t.
Kate’s mother-in-law joined the family with a worse reputation than Kate yet Camilla manages to work with domestic abuse and rape victims just fine without Charles (publicly) crying about it. And Charles is someone who’s jealousy for his first wife was very publicly shown
Kate doesn’t have to set the CC on fire but she can at least try and crack 200+ engagements a year or at least more than 160. That way she’s working but she’s still working less than William who is currently doing more than 210 engagements or so a year.
Plus we always get these PR articles about how they’re “going to” do something yet most of the time nothing happens. Kate was supposed to release a “body of work” late last year. We’re in the second quarter of 2020 and half way through April yet nothing. When they hype themselves up, people get excited thinking they’re finally going to do something and when nothing happens, people start getting pissed. Hence why, even when the Cambridges do good things, people are still snarky because they’ve been dealing with almost a decade of the Cambridges saying they’ll be doing something but it ends up being not done at all or lacklustre
Edit: I am aware Camilla’s CC numbers are much lower than Charles but she still manages to do meaningful and impactful work and projects. I have yet to see something similar for Kate.
I’m sure she is generally a friendly person at these types of engagements. I’ve never heard otherwise.
Re: her work – she absolutely could work more and does not. I don’t know why people keep insisting “the palace” doesn’t want her to work more. the palace lets Sophie work a great deal. The palace is not what’s standing between Kate and breaking 200.
Whatever problems the palace had with Meghan, it wasn’t with the fact that she wanted to work. It may have been with her approach to royal duties (more concrete projects) but I honestly think it was more due to her race and her star power. And I don’t think the Queen or Charles was that bothered by her star power, to be honest. I think the cambridges were.
Video confirmation of Kate ignoring someone is more than just body language interpretation. The world saw it for what it was. Maybe Kate isn’t rude to the peasants while in public, but her filmed behaviour is hard for anyone to just brush off.
Sofia, Camilla is not Kate’s mother in law. She is step mother in law. Diana is William’s mother not Camilla. I have seen criticism of Camilla taking on the abused women cause (criticism which I do agree with) even though she condoned the bad way Charles put down DIana and she loathed Diana. She famously wrote to Charles to ignore that ridiculous creature. It is all spin but I don’t buy that Camilla is compassionate, she tried to mentor a teenager so she could manipulate and micromanage. Kate also would not be ideal for that cause because of the way she treated Meghan and condoned the coldness of WIlliam towards Harry and Meghan and even cooperated with the commercial flight stunt. Sophie would be better for the cause.
Tessa you’ve missed my point completely. My point was not Kate should take on the cause of abused women or whether or not Camilla is right for it.
My point was and remains that if Camilla can work with them then Kate can do some meaningful and impactful work as well. I did NOT say she she do exactly what Camilla is doing.
Kate never really followed through like the 5 question survey that took her eight years. And her charities seem more superficial. I think though all of them posture and practice the “compassionate” looks I think this most apparent with William and Kate.
Mental Health and Early Years are important and not “superficial”. It’s just that Kate is lazy and half asses most things when it comes to her “work”
with Kate it would have to be superficial since she never studied this. She was an art history major. Maybe she read some textbooks or something. But she never got a degree in it.
i am sure she is all of that, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that she is complicit in the smearing and ultimate exile of the Sussexes. it’s not mutually exclusive.
A compassionate woman would have backed up publicly her sister in law and not gone along with William’s obvious PR stunts to try to put down his brother and sister in law. Even the little children were dragged into it.
i agree Tessa, she is not compassionate. i was replying to loubear who said she was warm, friendly and engaged when speaking to someone. i think someone can come across that way and still not be a nice person.
I don’t like them and I don’t hate them either, they’re meh to me, just doing what is expected from them, so don’t jump to my throat, but this is the future king of England and his family, which includes another future king of England. Of course his security will cost more than other royals.
The kids didn’t go with them so that’s hardly a good excuse for the cost.
still, he’s third in line to the throne. I suspect his security, alongside with Charles’ and The Queen herself is gotta be a bit more elaborated than for the other royals as Anne, Andrew (yeah, I know…) Edward AND Harry. The same will happen to Louis and Charlotte in regard with George: the spares are NOT institutionally important.
You can’t explain that it costs four times as much for their security compared to the Sussexes when they were in the country for only about 15 hours more than them. There is no justification for that.
again: he’s still the next king of England after Charles, like it or not, there’s an institutional role and as such his security will always be more important to the UK than what is for Harry, as well as Charles security is more important than Anne, Edward and Andrew’s. Same will be for George and his siblings. And it simply doesn’t matter if the ones in the direct line to the throne are visiting for an hour or a week, you can’t simply compare their institutional importance to the ones of their siblings. that’s simply a fact, don’t hate me, is not a dig to your faves at all.
What is the extra cost? Do they require double the security guards? That’s what no one is explaining here. And up until George was born, Harry was right after William in terms institutional importance and yet we didn’t hear about discrepancies in security between them prior to that.
Also what about Andrew? Because we know he’s cost a lot of money when he travels and according to your logic he is unimportant and requires little security.
There are no facts to actually demonstrate that security is provided according to rank but go on. I’m pretty sure Ireland wouldn’t be okay with any royal getting murdered in their country. But nice try.
I think it would be horrifying if any of the royals were threatened hurt or even heaven forbid seriously injured or worse. It would make them all vulnerable that one of them could be victimized. And I don’t believe that one is superior and less expendable than a one further down in line of succession.
It is a stupid argument to make. The British line of succession is irrelevant to the Irish. A VIP visiting is the same regardless of rank. FFS it would be massively negligent.
But how deranged do you have to be to justify the excessive unexplained security expenses for the Cambridges by suggesting that it’s because Harry Is more expendable. My god I really wonder at the excuses to defend this archaic system.
Pence and Trump’s trips cost between 15&18 million. Pence stayed in Trump Doonbeg and flew to Dublin after a 45min drive to Shannon airport for meetings. Maybe Kaiser, you should look at that for a waste of Irish Gardai money.
There is a credible security risk for British royals in Ireland. I know who I, as an Irish tax payer, prefer to pay for.
People can be outraged by the Trump/Pence AND Cambridge security costs at the same time.
Trump and pence are elected head of state by the people. Not cambriges monarchy is mockery of democracy where one future is decided purely based on his bloodline.
Comparing to the US president is not the point here. Of course Dump is wasteful.
The real issue is why it cost over four times as much for William and Kate to be in Ireland for about 15 hours more in total than Harry and Meghan. Does the spare just get less security? 300,000 to 1.3 million is a huge jump and it needs to be explained.
Presidents don’t make nearly what the Queen does.
Thanks for including pictures of Kate’s clothing, correlating flag colours & the days she wore them on! It’s so freaking obvious now that it’s been pointed out.
What an absolute waste of taxpayer money these people are….
➕💯👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
The rich should look after the poor not the other way around!
Can someone please explain what the return of investment is for these tours? It cost millions to put on for what reason? So the royal family can look good? Do the charities involved or whoever they are seeing benefit from the exposure? It’s only Meghan and Harry’s charities that seem to have done well.
Thank you!
What 1.3 mil pounds!!! What are you kidding me just for what like 3 days??? And thats on security alone. Is this necessary, do they think money grows on trees. I am asahmed to admit that I live in a Commonwealth country, but atleast we’re not suckered into paying for these useless on a daily basis. So glad our govt treats us all the same, our upper, middle and poor are treated equal in the sytem, it’s forward and secure. Not some archaic insituation where Kings and Queens do cermonial hooplas to celebrate themselves, while all the rest of their men and women fend for themselves of disease and poverty and hunger and the royals look on from their golden palaces, what kind of world is that. There’s power in numbers, and the numbers is with the middle-lower people remember that. End of rant.
That is a lot of money- I don’t really understand any of the points of these tours (for any royal) but I remember people from Pakistan really appreciated what W&K did and felt it helped the country and same for H&M with South Africa. So I guess they add value but that is a lot of money
Also Kate spent way to much money on clothes for that tour. The clothes were terrible.
I don’t think William and kate saved Pakistan’s reputation. At the time, Pakistan PM was under lot of pressure to go against the Indian government for Kashmir, so shady Pak PM ask money from the British government and they gave them via Cambridge. At that time trump also cut them off financially and Pakistan’s struggle and the UK cant openly support Pakistan with Indian being their major trade and the Modi government will bust the UK. So they send Cambridge via money to Pakistan.
No wonder the Pakistani’s were so happy to see them.
India and Pakistan both get money from uk and usa. For uk dealing they give money because of their history. For USA giving india to money means they will allow american corporate to run freely in india without any restriction like Amazon biggest money maker are indian and amazon destroyed all his competition in india. For usa giving Pakistan to check Afghan and they are closely board with russia. During trump period he cut Pakistan off.
Whatever the reasons for the high cost it will still be silence from the media. None of the BM will be complaining about their tax dollars unless its directed towards Meghan
Well, I hope they never attempt another visit to the United States. They can visit Canada, but they’re not welcome here. They’re petty, envious and vindictive, their treatment of H&M has been nothing short of hideous. This is H&M country now.
What did Canada do to you?
Eh, I wouldn’t mind if they did an American tour. Then again I am pretty solidly neutral on all of them, I like tiaras.
Thank you, please take care of them 🙂 I am not British although I have lived here for 2 decades and I am quite appalled by what we have witnessed from the BM over the years. Not just H&M, but Milly Dowler and many others that they have used, betrayed for their £££ profit (The poor girl had her phone tapped when she was already dead, and they could have helped with the enquiry, to find her, but instead chose to make “sensational” headlines). I haven’t bought a newspaper in nearly 5 years now and do not intend to ever again. So yes, I am glad they are in a friendly environment, they deserve it.
NOTHING LIKE PAYING A FORTUNE TO WATCH A CLOWN JUGGLE
Comment of the day.
Interestingly, I’ve seen people say that PW’s trip had to cost so much because of what happened to his great uncle, but I guess PH didn’t have the same great uncle. Lol.
Anyways, isn’t this the tour when PW joked about everyone overreacting to the coronavirus? Classy.
This goes to show how the BM is selective of the news they put out, they are unbearable.
Well, security costs are what they are, unfortunately. What bothers me is why exactly did they arrange this trip and what was the benefit to Ireland from it? Did the Irish invite them or were they like a pushy couple who just calls and says “Get out the good silver, we’re coming over.”
That’s a helluva lot of money just to avoid your brother and his wife.
I don’t know why security costs are reported. If you opt to have a royal family it is a given. There is security cost for almost everyone in that family whether they go overseas or stay home.
The media should talk about their home upkeep and wardrobe costs and when I mean wardrobe I’m also side eyeing the men. How about the costs of their horses and stables?
Just a thought: there could have been a credible security threat we don’t know about. With Brexit-ing stirring up some of the sectarian resentment…even if the IRA decommissioned its weapons, there have still been isolated events of violence from both republican and loyalist paramilitaries through the years since the Good Friday agreement, and not just in Northern Ireland but also in the Republic. It’s not very likely, to be fair, but it’s possible. The snipers on the roof reminds me of Michelle Obama telling the story of when she and Barack visited their daughters’ school for parent-teacher conferences (imagine being that teacher!) and there were snipers on the roof for their protection, and Sasha and Malia were embarrassed about it. Of course there was a discrepancy in security for H&M compared to W&K. It’s the royal family. Everything else about their treatment has been woefully uneven, why would this be any different? Everything else we know about the inner workings of The Firm has told us that H&M were quite literally seen as less valuable than the Cambridges. People say the line of succession influences this kind of stuff, but that doesn’t mean it should. Dickie Mountbatten was Harry’s uncle, too.
Ireland runs the security once they are there and they are a republic. They are not going to apply the UK royalist nonsense in Ireland. Perhaps there was a threat or their entourage was much larger, but it wasn’t just because of the line of succession. Not in a country that broke away from British control a century ago n
British royals have only been visiting our country for a short time due to a long violent bloody past which is still not over. Our country remains in part under British rule and so tensions are ongoing. There is continuing sectarian violence. Brexit has soured only barely newly improved relations between the islands. Talks of walls and land bridges from the north have increased tensions. William and Kate have more of a celebrity allure IMO over here than the Sussexes was hold have had at the time of their visit. IMO William being in the line of succession would definitely result in more of a threat to his security in our country. Review the Queens security costs for her visit here. Also travelling outside Dublin in our very rural country would definitely complicate security matters.
Another thing their pals at the British press will overlook🙄these two can do no wrong in their eyes
I forgot about that hideous 1980’s pink dress. Did Kate hire Nancy Reagan’s white house stylist? I can’t figure out why someone who is young and has access to all the best fashion in the world would dress so badly.
While I usually find myself liking a lot of what Kate wears – seeing this montage all in one place is jarring. It makes me question my taste because it is ALL just awful. The white coat was so-so but not enough to make up for the rest of this disaster.
But her hair is nice and looks natural.