As we learned in recent days, Prince Michael of Kent has used his royal titles, status and proximity to the Queen to sell access to Russia and Vladimir Putin’s despotic government. Michael is exploiting both the House of Windsor and his Russian connections, and he’s apparently making hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. Buckingham Palace refused to comment on the Times of London’s sting operation and reporting, which exposed Prince Michael. Which is odd, because while the Kents don’t receive money from the Sovereign Grant, they do live in a spacious apartment in Kensington Palace, receive royal protection, and undertake duties on behalf of the crown. Michael also carries several honorary military titles and gets invited to big events, like Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot. All of which was taken from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they were told there was no “half in, half out” option. Weird! So now there’s “pressure” on the Queen to do something about the tacky Kents.
A Buckingham Palace insider claims the Queen is under pressure to strip Prince Michael of Kent of his royal banquet invitations after cash for access claims were aired in an embarrassing exposé. The undercover investigation claimed the Queen’s cousin was willing to use his royal status for personal profit, and to seek favours from Russian president Vladimir Putin.
An insider has claimed that because Prince Michael was a regular guest at royal banquets – it gave him plenty of opportunity to try to make business contacts. The sting has reportedly prompted discussions at Buckingham Palace about invitations to banquets.
The source told the Express: “It gives him a perfect opportunity to make business contacts. Perhaps the Queen felt she would throw him some breadcrumbs that would allow him to keep the lifestyle.”
The allegations against the Prince were laid out in Dispatches: Royals for Hire, which was broadcast on Monday evening on Channel 4. Prince Michael does not receive money from the civil list and earns a living acting as chairman of his own private company, which offers consultancy advice.
So… Prince Michael would still have been invited to all of the big royal events anyway? Like, the Queen is completely fine with all of his activities, however tacky, criminal and shady, and she would have to be persuaded to merely take one thing away from him: invitations to banquets. I sincerely hope that palace courtiers understand that they will have to do more than that. The Kents should be stripped of their military honors, banquet invites, Trooping invites and a lot more. WTF? Do they really not understand how stupid, racist and hypocritical this makes them look?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Banquet invitations. 😐
The poor lamb! How would he cope? I suppose the HRH title, free rent, honorary military titles, security detail and representing the queen whilst doing dodgy deals can stay right?
I don’t understand why he would be invited in the first place.
Well taking them away will fix the mess……..ugh.
It’s going to be so tough on him, not going to any banquets, during a pandemic, when there aren’t any banquets anyway
I wish there’s no repercussion for the Kents so we have prolonged period of comparing his treatment to Harry’s. I mean whatever they do has no effect to Harry but yeah I’ll be gleefully pointing PMK each time they try to throw Harry under the bus.
Princess Michael should no longer be allowed to use her HRH to schill her books and the Prince should be stripped of his honorary military titles.
To be to the Blackamoor brooch wearing, go back to the colonies racist, her books are so bad she needs all the help she can get.
ITA about the hypocrisy of not stripping him of honorary titles, etc., but I must say that I am smiling wickedly at the idea of that racist jerk wife of his throwing a fit at not being able to attend royal banquets and swan about like she’s somebody.
Gasp- No, not the invites!
But the military titles are still good? Omfg
These people wouldn’t recognize hypocrisy even if it were to slap them in the face several times a day. After all, Andrew is still around and he was accused of much worse and has done more or less similar shady deals as the Duke of Kent while he was still representing the UK trade and investment interests.
The most staggering in this whole saga has been the royalists trying to explain how different prince michaels situation isdifferent from harry’s situation. Like he still has his all of his privileges because…. reasons.
What reasons could they *possibly* come up with? None of their treat passes the eye test much less under a microscope.
I explained the situation to my grandma (who was and is a big Diana fan but had only tangentially kept up with Royal gossip via me and my sister in law and the Oprah interview) and she said, “They just showing their whole entire ass aren’t they?” and she doesn’t swear that often lol
Well their to go to argument seems to be that he doesn’t represent the queen. Which is funny for multiple reasons:
1 that argument seems to be protecting the monarchy more than prince michael. (In the sense that since he doesn’t represent the queen, the queen is far removed from this issue)
2. It only exposes the double standards within the BRF more. Because according to them he doesn’t represent the Q, yet he lives on a royal estate, renovated by taxpayer money, he holds honorary military titles (something that got taken away from H) he is entitled to use his HRH to make money and apparently he also gets royal protection (which is also taxpayer cash i believe)
3. The royal family website states that prince Michael of Kent occasionally represents the queen on some engagements. Making their argument completely invalid.
If she’s ok with her pedophile son, I can imagine this is absolutely no big deal to her at all.
For years and years the queen’s best strategy was to never comment and keep her head in the sand. Waiting for the press to distract everyone with sugary articles. She’s still trying and it’s not working. Philip is gone and once the queen goes it will be interesting to see what Charles does. This is a monumental mess.
Yes, and this is the power of social media. Information that we might have heard months later is now almost immediately available. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone has a platform in which to express it. Try as they might to control the narrative, if the facts are in opposition to the spin, social media will call the royals out every time.
Her legacy is going out with a bang!
The whole uniform debacle will resurface next time he is wearing his and Harry is not allowed. Boy, that was the dumbest decision the queen ever made.
Look, I know how bad this looks, but is it really surprising to anyone? This is what you get when you have a monarchy! Harry and Meghan were treated differently because they were doing something the Crown (mainly Charles and William) did not want them to do – i.e. leave. So they were punished. Prince Michael is the Queen’s cousin and she really likes him and she does not really care about what he has done. Therefore, he will not be punished. This is how a monarchy operates – how it has always operated, since the beginning of time.
Harry and Meghan did not leave until the royals made it unavoidable, so that different treatment began long before. They were punished for being in a mixed-race marriage, for Meghan being biracial, and for having a biracial child–oh, and for telling some of the truth of why they left.
Don’t forget the overshadowing of the heirs with their work ethic and them actually helping people through their patronages.. For shame!
cindyloowho, yes, that’s how it has always operated. There’s a difference now. It’s called social media. Nothing gets swept under the carpet. This is why the Monarchy will likely fall, because they refuse to acknowledge that they HAVE to do things differently in the 21st century. So, while I’m not surprised that TQ believes that she can continue to do as she always has, I am surprised that there isn’t anyone in the Firm who doesn’t understand that fact.
If I were in the UK military and the honorary whatever is PMK, I would NOT be happy. Hello! Has anyone thought about that? I wonder if BP will be getting calls about losing him as an honorary.
My daughter: “He looks like a Hunger Games villain.”
Your daughter wins the interwebz today! 😂
I’m glad this has happened as it has exposed the Palace’s hypocrisy and double standards when dealing with the Sussexes.
This was a sting. We’ve heard that the BM aren’t allowed to publish what they know of the RF’s goings on. Maybe the targeting of PMK means the sharks are circling closer? Who’s next?
The queen won’t do anything unless her back is to the wall. Parliament AND the UK security forces have to show Mike compromised the nation with his Russia dealings. If his businesses are with banking and infrastructure and the Kremlin can use that to disrupte everything that’s it for them.
They do not understand and they do not care.
‘Do they really not understand how stupid, racist and hypocritical this makes them look?’
No. They have shown time and again that they do not. They neither understand nor care.
The royals do whatever they want. Put the Queen’s name on it and it’s done.
Luckily he won’t go hungry those nights, since Vlad gave him a killer recipe for borscht.
I hope to see Norman Baker do a detailed dive into this particular nest of corruption.
every time the queen name is involved,it seems like the press goes easy on her. when Meghan was being bullied every day on the press for years ,i read so many comments saying the queen had no clue about it , she is zooming with Harry/Meghan Archie. but Charles/William pushed the queen to strip Harry of nearly everything and she had no regret about hurting Harry. they wanted to be part time royals, like Catherine /William was for yrs. she denied them that .Charles/william also made sure the queen told them they can’t use the HRH. and yet the queen can laugh and joke with harry wife and son like she is innocent.
Harry and Meghan really could’ve shown them a path forward. Part of the issue with the Kent’s is they used to be full time working royals. That ended during the period in the 90s when the royals slimmed down amongst a wave of bad PR and kicked off the then-Civil List. so Michael had never held a job, wasn’t ‘allowed’ to under the same mindset we see now with Harry. (However faux that is in his case.) They came close in the 70s when Prince Richard of Gloucester was preparing to be an architect but soon afterward his brother died and he became the heir to the Gloucester dukedom and the responsibilities as they were then to be a working royal. (And he’s one of the few to be scandal free and hard working. He still has three times the number of patronages as William and quietly carries out a ton of events. As does his lovely wife Brigitte who had only just married him when his brother was killed.) So those royals are left with no significant funds, Michael the most so because he was the Queen’s only male royal cousin without a dukedom and accompanying property or inheritance, but are now free from the old rules. I’ve side eyed his dealings for two decades—Andrew’s too with Middle Eastern autocrats. And the Kent family was never flush to begin with going back to the Queen’s uncle but that’s another story. But the Sussexes could’ve shown a ‘half in, half out’ system. One that allows for money making but would still be in the public eye enough to prevent these kind of shady dealings as they were still working royals (not the on occasion ones like Michael) and thus under more scrutiny. But no. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Weird or racist ?
As is my lot in life, I give you what the royal family could have had, other than racist, bigoted, and entirely unable to live in the real world ACTUAL people they have left. Behold, Meghan, early days.
I get why you hated her, Brits, she has always been amazing.
https://www.celebitchy.com/563445/meghan_markle_received_gifts_of_spoons_aprons_and_says_harry_is_a_feminist_too/
she looks so happy in those photos. they both do. pity how it all went to shite. she really seemed born to it, a natural. I know, that’s a big part of why the establishment and TOB were so bovvered. it’s really just sad. they coulda had a bad betch.
Is this a warning to senior royals about access or the Times power manouver in the making/breaking of a royal’s reputation? It can be with the hiring of communications guru on Prince Charles’s part a threat to the selling of briefing as consumption of royal ‘news’, they owned William but cannot afford to hold him accountable as in BTM speak.
Why not do a test trial on Prince Michael? He is the only one reported on his alleged abuse of privileges? a ratify of entitled individuals?
Maybe the publishers sees him as expendable irregardless of how this turns out.
One obvious factor – The Queen will not emulate William’s behaviour towards the Sussexes and Prince Harry in particular.
Queen, Charles and Will are hypocrites and racist in more than one way