Over the weekend, Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast had a lengthy piece about the Duchess of Cambridge, “How Kate Middleton Built A Palace Power Base.” Sykes starts off by quoting the unnamed palace sources who spoke to Dan Wootton for his completely unhinged column last week, and then Sykes folds in his own information gleaned from Kensington Palace’s PR lackeys. Pardon me, I mean “unnamed royal sources.” We actually haven’t seen a concerted PR effort for Keen Kate in months, not since the Keen Peacemaker/Linchpin/Kate Needs to Go to the Fakakta Statue Unveiling in the spring and early summer. I wonder why they’re doing another PR blitz right now? You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
The summer vacation in Tresco: “It was miserable weather but George was running up and down the pier crabbing with all the other kids,” says a source who was on the island at the same time. “Kate was there watching him and chatting away to the other mums. They really were remarkably normal and non-weird. Although I did think a few times, ‘What are you doing here? You could be in Mustique!’”
Kate calls her husband WILLIE: Compare that with the deliberately professional and more informal atmosphere at Kensington Palace, where Kate can regularly be heard talking in person or on the phone to “Willie” (as she calls William) even in front of their “team.” Visitors are introduced to the couple as William and Catherine and positively encouraged to use their first names. The staff have the option of addressing them however they feel most comfortable, and most prefer “William” or “Catherine” or at a push “Sir” or Ma’am,” or “Your Highness.”
Willie & Kate do their own coffee runs? The couple are famous for occasionally doing the coffee run themselves, regularly popping over to the Pret a Manger on nearby Kensington High Street to get a round of lattes.
Kate copykeens her mother’s management style: Kate’s attitude to business, learnt at her mother’s knee, has created an astonishingly loyal cadre of employees, says a source: “People would walk over hot coals for her. Kate and William do not make the mistake of trying to be friends with their staff, but they are certainly nice and considerate: if it’s your birthday you get a card; if your dad dies, you can take a month off.”
Kate doesn’t participate in big royal meetings though: Kate was described by one source to The Daily Beast as occupying a COO role in the office, attending to the execution of daily operations. Of course, she is far from absent in the construction of the big picture, but it is William who sits down with his father and grandmother for the big royal think-ins. It is notable, for example, that during the big showdowns with Harry such as the “Sandringham Summit” where the terms of Harry and Meghan’s departure were thrashed out, Kate was not present.
Oh really: Another source who knows the family personally said, “What’s quite remarkable is the loyalty of their staff and friends, especially when compared to Harry and Meghan. Harry and Meghan got through staff at a quite incredible rate, which really raised eyebrows because it was so different. Many of Harry’s friends literally haven’t heard a word from him since the wedding, but Kate and William’s inner circle remains very tight.”
The Cambridges have friends, they swear: William is close with a very small band of close friends, mainly dating back from his childhood, and Kate’s friendship group includes several of the children’s godparents, most of whom are low-profile private citizens she went to school with. In their private lives, William and Kate don’t exactly shun the perks of their aristocratic status. Shooting parties are still a huge part of their social life: friends are often invited to Balmoral for grouse shooting and William and Kate are prized guests at England’s smarter shoots over the winter months.
The photo-op at the pub: Kate and the family were photographed sitting on a slightly rickety wooden bench table in the garden of a Norfolk pub this weekend. Cynics might suspect it was a staged picture designed to show the family in an accessible light, but The Daily Beast understands the Cambridges were actually extremely irritated when the photograph of them enjoying this relaxed afternoon was printed in national tabloid the Sun. They regard their time in Norfolk as particularly sacrosanct from press intrusion. It was soon taken down following angry representations from the palace, a source says, and has now disappeared from the internet.
The “pub lunch” photos happened the day after Harry and Meghan took the stage to wild applause at the Global Citizen festival. The Cambridges’ photo op was obvious and it looked especially desperate. But here’s the thing: Sykes is right. The pub lunch photos have been removed from The Sun, which carried the pics exclusively. The Sun even removed their photos on Twitter. Now, I suspect that the photos were only scrubbed after they had been widely circulated and reported on for about 48 hours. It is weird that no one – not the Sun, not Kensington Palace – made a big deal about having the photos taken down though. Very curious.
As for all of the happy horsesh-t about how Billiam and Keen Kate are amazing bosses who retain loyal staff… none of that is true. Kate and Bill go through office and household staff like Kleenex but their staff turnover has never been exploited like the Sussexes. It’s also not true that Will & Kate are hands-on in the office OR particularly well-liked by staffers. Kate disappears for months on end and William has long been known as a petty, tantrum-prone tyrant. The best thing Kate’s staffers could probably say about her is that she’s pretty compliant – they create all of these dumb little busy-work projects for her and she waltzes in, slaps her name on it, poses for photos and goes shopping.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, KensingtonRoyal’s social media.
The pie charts always make me chuckle. They’re so useless.
same with the unopened novels on the desk. Because a complete works of an author are incredibly useful to a working person. You never know when you’ll need to quote a Bronte sister or Jane Austen. Especially when you could look up said quote that comes to mind on Google.
I would have thought books on early childhood development etc would have been more appropriate but hey the colours are pretty and match her suit damn it 🙂
As a book reader, I loved seeing the Clothbound. But what really got on my nerve was the fact that they were the exact same, unread copies from 2016. If you’re going to pose yourself as a bookworm, do it properly! Everyone and their mother knows that avid bookworms buy more books and display them in beautiful and elegant bookcases. Don’t reach and pretend to be something you’re not
I bet if anyone was to ask Kate or William the plot or even the main characters of any of those books (except maybe Jane Austen) neither one would be able to tell you
The thing that makes me laugh about that desk photo is that it’s trying to appear as if this is an office, when it is absolutely not. I can tell from the background that it’s the same room that they entertained the Obamas in. It’s basically a formal sitting room, and I guarantee you that it a decorative console table that they pathetically tried to make appear as a “desk”.
I do actually love that printing of classic novels. I wish they’d bring out my Poirot or Miss Marple novels in those; all I can find are paperbacks.
And @layla – I’m a book worm and mine are never in “elegant” shelves. IKEA Billy shelves or just stacked on the floor wherever I was reading…
You beat me to it. That Keen Pie Chart is absolutely ridiculous. My 6-year-old cousin made mud pies that were better than that.
Also, that chair is ridiculous. Was there not a single office chair in the building? That chair would be impossible to work in for long periods. It has no back support and the thin padded seat would be very uncomfortable after a short time.
Useless is as useless does: Kate is uselessness personified, so why wouldn’t she use a useless, outdated, and totally pointless “aide” to her own uselessness?!
“Remarkably normal and non-weird.” Sorry, but W+K are completely weird.
That statement tells me all I need to know. Why the desperation to make them seem normal when they remind us every five minutes that they are royals and not celebrities. Will and Kate have no discernible skills. They have no charisma and they are lazy. Even the embiggening focuses on them personally and not their work. Of course their staff ‘love’ them. They are barely there. Remember when they accused the Sussexes of expecting meetings every day? Will and Kate were reported to meet with their staff once a month. Something is afoot.
Wait – what’s afoot? Haven’t we always known that William and Kate never work and that Harry and Meghan worked diligently? What’s different?
They do seem very weird in their obsession with appearing “normal”, even though they’re already so basic snd boring so why bother? They admit that Kate doesn’t attend many meetings, certainly nothing to do with the firm, and that the Sussexes KP staff wasn’t loyal ( quelle surprise🙄). No way are they doing coffee runs. That photo in the Sun landed with a thud abd made them look desperate. It was mocked and called out, which was why it was taken down. Once again, every article about these two have to insert the Sussexes in it. One thing we rarely heard mention when he Sussexes were in NYC was the other royals, specifically anyone. We heard it compared to a royal tour, but not specifically calling out anyone, even these normal aspirants.
Absolutely. There’s no way the Sun printed pictures of them and the kids without permission in that pub garden. The Cambridges have a lot of form when it comes to complaining about press intrusion and their children. They tried to counter the H&M New York tour with their ‘non Hollywood normality’ and got called out on it. So now they’re trying the ‘we were so cross we had the pics pulled’ line. Nonsense.
Didn’t Prince Harry buy a coffeemaker or something for the KP office, or did he take it with him when their staff moved to Buckingham Palace? I seriously doubt that William or Kate are running out to Pret. If they were, we would have seen photos of how normal they are because they are out doing a coffee run.
Cue next week’s candid coffee run pic…Kate juggling coffees for the office…that will be taken down 48 hours later…for reasons.
@ L4Frimaire, those comments about KKWeen making coffee runs is about as plausible as KKWeen sitting in the company of TQ as they chat about what her “role” will be, as TQ knows full well that KKWeen will work as much as her corgis do for treats, that’s it!! KKKween is a one-trick pony, unless you pull out jewelry or another addendum to the upcoming divorce/separation agreement. KKWeen probably doesn’t have sex with Wil-I-Am-Not unless there are jewels attached, though she did stalk him for 8 years so she may give into his tantrums every once in a while. FFS, the thought of HIM amd sex is enough to put me out to pasture for a decade, or two!!
@ElizabethKerri –
that was a weird story that came out pretty recently IIRC. I can’t remember the details – either Harry or Meghan bought a coffeemaker or Keurig or something for the office for meetings and the staff was like “so now we can’t even make his coffee for him!!!!” It was something weird like that where any normal person would have been like, cool, coffee.
“ They really were remarkably normal and non-weird”
Seriously, who describes other people at “NON-WEIRD”? WTF!?
They are still desperately trying to compete with Harry and Meghan when the Sussex’s clearly don’t give them a second thought. They’ll blatantly lie if they have to. I think this is the RRs new business model.
Them lying about the Cambs isn’t new. They’ve been doing it for 3+ years now.
I believe the Keens are well detested in certain circles. And when-oh-when (if ever) will the Sussex comparisons end? Also: anyone else getting Liz Hurley vibes from the coral pantsuit pic? How about that lineup of books with decorative spines on the desk—can anyone see what they are?
They’re classics that have been re-published in these bindings – Dickens, Austen, etc. Waterstones had a whole section of them when I was in there last week (I’m assuming as a push for Christmas present shoppers). The main point being they look great.
Wasn’t Kate seen shopping at Waterstones around the time of that pic? Copying Meg’s blue in the umbrella photos of Meg and Harry, which was like a few days earlier?
Thank you @SarahCS – classics make sense. They look pretty and can be read to children at bedtime.
“Royal think-ins”. What an oxymoron!
I would not be surprised if Kate’s staff love working for her. I would also love working for a boss who takes months-long breaks from the office and expects me to do almost nothing in exchange for my paycheck.
Remember when Omid said that in an interview? that part of the issue with Meghan and the staff was that she expected regular meetings and his quote was something like “I guess when you go from one meeting a month to daily meetings it can seem like a lot of work” LOL. So basically the staff love working at KP bc they don’t have to do anything and then Meghan was like “lets get to work!” and they flipped out.
Yes they are many equally lazy and undriven people who would love this gig. Im guessing they dont even bother with asking for reports or any kind of follow ups.
I would love to have a job where I got paid to not actually work much. Yeah, I bet they do love working for Kate.
I had a job like that. I hated it and quit after 3 months.
I would hate a job like that. I cannot simply sit around and twiddle my thumbs, i need to be busy and actually doing something productive.
@Persephone @Sudie The American work ethic places a high value on being busy all the time. I, too, would feel weird and unmoored if I didn’t have anything to do. America’s right up there with Japan when it comes to productivity rates. I don’t know what the work culture is like in the UK, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not quite so driven.
I also remember TQ’s “loaned” housekeeper and her groundskeeper husband who RAN back to Sandringham less than 6 mos. after starting work for the Lames.
@Jan -yup. It seems the Cambridges don’t require a lot from the staff that is directly involved with their work (like PA, secretary, etc) but require TOO much from the staff that they deal with on a day to day basis, like the housekeepers etc. I remember there were some quotes around that time about how Carole was always around Anmer ordering people around.
Basically the Cambridges don’t want to do ANY work, so they are going to work some of their staff to the bone (i.e. nannies, housekeepers, gardeners, anyone who does work that means the Cambs dont have to like cleaning cooking lawn work etc) and other staff get a free ride if their work means the cambs have to work (like no the scheduler doesn’t have to work bc the Cambs dont want to schedule anything.)
Lol forever. What a dog and pony show.
This is their usual “We are NORMAL and LOVING parents!!!! Just regular Wills and Kate with us!!!!” PR that happens pretty much every month or two. The bit about their friends is new (normally their friends aren’t really mentioned) but I guess they’ve added that to go “We’ve got friends TOO you guys!!”
But I do love how the emphasis is on how “unroyal” and “normal” they are but then mentions how they have shooting parties and attend them. Middle class people don’t really do shooting parties. Hunting/Shooting in the UK is seen as a very upper class sport.
I think the bit about the friends is in reaction to how H&M clearly have supportive and loyal friends AND in reaction to the Tatler article from last year, where it seemed obvious that none of the aristos really like Kate and her family. This feels very “no no they’re an important part of the aristocratic set, we swear!!!”
I think it could be in response to the Tatler article, especially that part about going to shooting parties which like I said, is a very aristocratic thing to do.
If it IS in response to Tatler, I’m going to laugh at them still being upset over an article that came out over a year ago – and an article which they succeeded in editing away the “bad bits”
@Sofia – right??? I felt sort of silly for suggesting it could be in response to tatler since that article was from over a year ago and does anyone even remember it??? But I guess it stung…..
Becks- the dead giveaway it is at least partly in response to the Tattler article is the mention of them being “prized guests at England’s smarter shoots.” Such deliberate wording to make them posh sounding.
Lol…I bet those “smarter shoots” are the one’s Carole creates for them (remember that?) and this comes from her.
Not just “upper class”, but “ARISTO class” sport.
Kate is VERY KEEN to be accepted in there, esp. after the Rosebush bit.
@Sofia, yes…it *still* stings them. And we all know they’re like dogs that won’t let go of a bone. If there was a master class in how to NOT do a “Streisand Effect”, these two could teach it. Every time they open their mouths to whine, they keep bringing up the parts they should let die a quiet death.
I don’t think this is the “slam dunk” they think it is. A really strong criticism that can be made of the Cambridges is that they have zero friends who are POCs. Or even middle class white people. They only associate with aristos, and have since college. I remember the aristos at St Andrews when I was there (about 7 years before them). They NEVER socialized with anyone but each other, went to country houses on weekends, and even had their own bars where they socialized where non aristos were not welcome.
How is that going to land in a UK where people can’t get fuel and shelves are empty? They sound out of touch with the people that pay their living. No one gives a crap about aristos, really. They are fun to watch fictionalized on Downton Abbey, but for the Cambrides to have no non-aristo friends, especially when the Sussexes are seen as relatable to so many people, is a really, really bad take. It makes them look like very much a racist family indeed.
The way they put those two on such a pedestal the downfall will be glorious. Does it ever occur to them that the reason why the monarchy has such a long run is because there’s more people that don’t care than the opposite and by trying to be so much in the limelight their fuck up are more noticeable. There was a lot of unhappy Brits complaining about their appearance at the film premiere.
Right!? Royals are better seen from a distance. To quote Cher from Clueless “[They’re] a full-on Monet. It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess.”
Cher! That’s it! Kate’s dress reminds me of some of the get ups Cher used to wear during the Sonny and Cher show. She looked more like a Vegas headliner than a Queen to be.
Cher! That’s it! Kate’s dress reminds me of some of the get ups Cher used to wear during the Sonny and Cher show. She looked more like a Vegas headliner than a Queen to be.
Cher! That’s it! Kate’s dress reminds me of some of the get ups Cher used to wear during the Sonny and Cher show. She looked more like a Vegas headliner than a Queen to be.
I love the accidental conflation of Cher Horowitz from Clueless with Oscar winner Cher.🤣
Snuffles that’s kind of a perfect description. With that in my mind, the royal family’s PR and British Media reminds me of Cher’s driving test from the movie.
@woke; the British establishment will make absolutely sure these 2 will never have a downfall. It will simply never happen.
But it’s not up the the British establishment. In the end it will be the people who decide whether or not to keep the Monarchy. The Queen and the establishment are currently propping up Andrew and he still can’t wash away the stain because the PERCEPTION is he’s a pedo. Willnot and Cannot are currently being hyped up as the future king and queen who can’t put a foot wrong, but if people go back to seeing them as the lazy duo they were b4 Meghan came along, if people see them acting ‘woke’ and trying to get US network deals like H&M instead of doing work inside the UK; if people see them acting ‘Hollywood’ and dressing up like glittering Hollywood starlets instead of attending to people’s needs, all while the common people have no food on the shelves and no petrol in their cars, that perception of them being King popular & Kate the Great will change.
I guess the lack of loyalty from the Sussex’s team and friends is why there are so many leaks to the press. *eyeroll*
Its not even a well made pie chart, either. Terrible graphical layout. Too much big text.
It’s a pie chart of a student who is desperately trying to hide that they haven’t done the assignment.
Again – LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
First – if you have to insist so much that they are professional, they work hard, they really do, their staff loves them, they have friends, they’re super popular…..then none of those things are probably true .
Second – the coffee line is a DIRECT hit at Meghan. Remember she said in the interview, about how her mom wanted to run out and get coffee and Meghan said they couldnt, and Doria said something like “you’re a prisoner here” or something? But Will and Kate pop down to the local coffee shop all the time?
Finally – re: the pictures, I think there are a few possibilities. the least likely IMO is that the picture was taken without permission and the Sun ran it without permission. The middle of the road scenario is that the deal was ALWAYS the picture had to come down after a few days – so that way it looks the Cambridges are still protecting their children’s privacy but they get the PR out there. And another scenario is that someone at KP realized the picture did not give the impression of the happy family outing that was intended so then it was removed.
No way did someone get a picture of the kids without the RPOs noticing and asking for the picture to be deleted, as they have done in the past.
Re the pics: I think your second option of the pics being up for a certain timeframe agreed upon before is true. If they weren’t genuinely supposed to be published, KP would have gotten them removed in a few hours max. They can work quick to remove pics. Remember when pics of William and George hunting came out last year? Those pics were removed very quickly. Yet these pics stayed at least for a day or two.
I forgot about that incident, but I used the grocery store one. It’s the same action. Quick removal happens within hours if they don’t want them there. Not 2 days later.
Sounds to me like they are reading all the responses on here/Twitter and responding directly to it. They have friends too! See, they did tell the Sun to take those photos down, so there!
I thought the same thing! They’ve got their social media management scouring places like here, Twitter and Instagram and are coming up with BS stories to combat our perception of them.
The photo of Will with a large burger in front of him yet scowling was hilarious, giving rise to my new favorite name for him as Burger King. He really should have gone for fish n chips instead for the photo op.
There is no way, after not being photographed all summer, that the Sun comes into possession of a royal family photo right after Meghan & Harry’s glorious NYC romp. No. Way.
They did a whole interview to go with that picture so there is no way that wasn’t agreed upon in some form, if only for a brief time. And 48 hours is a long time to keep photos up. The photos of the camb kids at the grocery store were removed by the end of the day and that article was just a brief “hey Kate is doing groceries with the kids” article. Not the extended discussion that accompanied this one.
Also I wouldn’t put it past them that they know people can see through when the kids photos are allowed to be published and so they let them get in the cycle and then pull them later on for plausible deniability.
I agree with you in the pictures for sure – I think option B – take the pics, have them out there for a few days, take them down so it looks like we weren’t participating, but you’ll have already received the clicks you wanted and we will have received the press we wanted
I think it’s option C….they realized Will’s scowling face didn’t portray the happy family they tried to con the masses with.
The source who says “What are you doing here? You could be in Mustique!” is Kate.
Or Carole.
LOL
Lol the source is def Carole or someone from KP, but either way Kate was def thinking “I could be in Mustique!”
“if it’s your birthday you get a card; if your dad dies, you can take a month off.” And if you help bully their sister-in-law and leak information to alphabetti spaghetti Dan Wootti( I almost want to call him Wetti. Can we do that? Call him Wetti now on?), you get a promotion. No big deal
“Cynics might suspect it was a staged picture designed to show the family in an accessible light, but The Daily Beast understands the Cambridges were actually extremely irritated when the photograph of them enjoying this relaxed afternoon was printed in national tabloid the Sun.blah blah blah It was soon taken down following, and has now disappeared from the internet.“ Translation: they thought they would get brownie points following Meghan and share us amazing NY ROYAL tour but they’re staff saw the incredulity of Celebitchy.com and realised that their plan failed…again so they removed the photos, never to be seen again (except social media)
The fact that Sykes states that “Cynics might suspect it was a staged picture…” suggests that the KP source is also aware of how obviously staged it looked.
The photo was pulled after they didn’t get the kind of response they wanted.
I don’t understand why every single article written about them has to refer to Harry and Meghan …..why. Harry and Meghan are irrelevant and their ratings are poor poor poor, in Britain.
Why do articles about Kate and William have to mention Harry and Meghan???.
They totally read this site. 🤣
Also the juxtaposition of giving a card for a birthday and the death of a parent is just wild. Normally bereavement time is required by all employers, especially for a parent. And giving a card is cheap. Many smaller workplaces arrange cupcakes or something along those lines. Some places even give you the day off.
A month off is amazing. My work gives three days for parent. Five for spouse or child.
@Delta, mine was the same, as I expect most (white collar jobs) do. When my mom died, I got 3 days AND I had to bring in a copy of either the death certificate or the papers from the mortuary as proof. I will NEVER believe the Lames give someone a MONTH OFF for bereavement. Not unless I see the contract for myself.
The BRF are NOTORIOUSLY cheap, they pay staff LOW wages in return for the “honor” of working for them. They’d never give someone this paid time. And not many who work for them could afford to take a month off w/out pay.
@Jan90067 – although giving someone a month off for a bereavement is pretty easy when you basically give yourself a month off every time you do one piece of work. At KP it seems a month off is basically the equivalent of a day off anywhere else….
This whole pr just screams utter desperation
Pao, we seem to be on the same wavelength!
I’ve noticed since Kate and will have been back from the 2 month vacation all these PR stories have popped up about William and Kate but now it’s especially William. Lol
On people alone there’s like 3 today lol.
But even with that they can’t help but add some snide remarks about Harry or Meghan to try and make themselves look better. They just can’t help themselves lol.
Even still not many will care enough to read them.
Kate calls her husband “Willie?” I know several old British ladies who giggle uncontrollably when they hear the word “willie” because it’s slang for penis. It’s like Kate is calling him Dickhead, or Rosebush Wrangler.
I am laughing hysterically reading this comment! 😀
Last time we were told she called him, “Babe”. And he called her “Poppet”. 🤢
Easy, Stomach, don’t turn over now.
Yeah, the nickname bit reads like subtle shade to me.
Yeah, it’s the fact that she calls him Willie in front of the staff that has me wondering … Is she canny enough to mean it as an insult? Because it sounds like an insult. “Can someone please get a glass of water for WILLIE? The poor cabbage is thirsty.”
All these articles do is scream desperation. Sykes and Tominy and Wootton et al are getting desperate because they have nothing but the same old fake stories to report on. They’re like hamsters running madly on a wheel and going nowhere. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the photos were sanctioned by KP, then deliberately taken down so as to appear that Mean and Keen had nothing to do with it and are indignant that their privacy was invaded.
I though Kate was Top CEO, exhausted from top to toe from having to be “wheeled out” all the time?
And Wtf does that even mean “wheeled out”? It gives me the image of the butlers wheeling out poor dressed up Cathy lying on a stretcher with her backhand to her forehead.
Maybe they bribe her with a car every time they want her to do something? 😆
I got a “Silence of the Lambs” image, on a dolly, being rolled out standing (straight jacket, mask and all!!) 😂😂😂
I asked myself (and have done more so lately) who in the heck writes this stuff???? But the clue was here: “learnt at her mother’s knee”.
There is a lot of PR going around trying to make them look good, are in love and hard workers – oh yes and great parents. It’s getting old and they need to stop.
Considering her work ethic, pre AND post marriage, doesn’t seem like she learned much at her mother’s knee (except how to be a doormat and settle for someone who treats you like crap for monetary/social gain).
Yeah, Carole all but signed her name with that one. Maybe she hoped Sykes would throw readers a link to party pieces in exchange!
And the details about Kate and William being “prized” guests at the very best shooting parties is just sad. Does anybody else think that Mrs. Middleton is just like Mrs. Elton from Emma?
Ha ha! Maybe she calls William “Cambridge” !
@Nick 😂
What is up with the Cambridges buying out all of the formerly “independent” royal journalists? I used to look forward to Sykes’ pieces since he seemed to be an equal-opportunity hater of ALL the royals, and was the one RR who went out and said, “yeah, I have a source confirming William had an affair.” Between Sykes putting out this crap now and the complete turnaround we’ve seen in Lacey’s output, how much money do they have lying around to bribe journalists and historians?
Its clear that the little grey men who run the monarchy feel threatened by the historic & unprecedented decision by the Sussexes to LEAVE the Firm. Theyre discombobulated by H&M’s seemingly rapid rise and hv therefore issued a call to arms to every Brit wherever in the world they are (especially America) to do their duty and come to the aid of The Queen to fight this “rival court” in America which is looking alarmingly strong.
Do not underestimate the fact that the Firm feels threatened by H&M’s actions and trajectory and hv likely conveyed to the Family that it is an existential threat.
Well it was the comments about willis frowning face that took the picture down. People were giving negative comments, and the picture came down before Sunday was up. That was one sad picture, and people were caring it photo op.
Lets face it things are turning, the dm was all over TOB just yesterday on his upcoming eco warrior event, I mean they were tearing him and attenbourough down.
Everything that Sykes has written in this piece rings false. KP PR felt compelled to run to him because they were rattled by Harry and Meghan’s work and reception in NY. There is no doubt that William and Kate, with the help of Jason Knauf, created a toxic work environment that led Harry and Meghan to leave KP. As for the pub photos the Sun was given permission to publish them but were probably told that they had to take them down after 48 hours. It is clear that KP has an arrangement with the Sun.
The thirst!
This is the pattern. Sussexes do something genuinely helpful, mindful, and newsworthy. Everyone at the actual thing loves it…cue step 1-Piers Morgan loses it about Meghan 2-Cambridges kids are “papped” or shoved into limelight 3-put kate in gown, or next to pie chart or both. 4-embiggening article about either Will or Kate or how Will and Kate definitely aren’t in an open marriage and staying together legally for the kids. 5- repeat. 6-repeat steps 1 to 5 as needed and every time Charles or Andrew or the Queen look bad.
At this point, it is starting to feel they are trying to convince themselves the Cambridges ARE all the things they claim to be.
From Sykes to Wooton, from Levin to Nichols, all these so called “royal experts” are just a bunch of establishment operatives and the best we can expect from them is some snark from time to time, because journalism integrity has been all but forgotten.
Erin Vanderhoof at VF seems to be a truly neutral observer however.
The desperation from these people. William definitely has an agreement with the Sun because he attended their awards function.
Also I think all these RRs like Lacey and Sykes are extra thirsty because they want continued access especially for the time when the Queen dies and Charles is crowned. That will be their money maker and they clearly need it. KP already cut off Omid for not towing the party line so we know it happens.
You know you have got nothing when you are still trying to get brownie points for favorable comparisons of your work habits to those of to your brother and sister-in-law who literally quit your firm and moved to another continent two years ago.
I didn’t read the article but it sounds like Sykes version of the Tatler article. It seems to have the same tone.
It’s the weirdness and the lack of self awareness of the Cambridges and their sycophants that I find nauseating.
Has anyone noticed that all these cambridge stories all seem to be hitting the same themes especially when it comes to the “staff” aspect. Anyone want to bet that these so called sources might actually be the idiot “staff” who were behind the bungled “bullying” stories a couple months ago. Also, I find it strange that all these stories seem to be building up Kate at the expense of William. Even the bit about Kate being the COO its “notable” that the sussex exit was not run smoothly and in this article it seems as though someone is trying to pin that on William.
Just to clarify for the theorists on the thread:
I personally saw that the photos were removed from the article/twitter the very day Celebitchy posted about it– they were gone that night. So I don’t think the photos were up for 48 hrs.
My take: there may have been an agreement, but the Cambs saw the negative reaction and had it pulled. The line about cynics thinking it’s staged is evidence they knew they were getting backlash.
So the article here on CB was written a day after the pictures were posted. I just checked (ugh) and the article was edited about 24 hours later – posted at 9 pm sunday night, edited just after midnight on Monday. So the theory about it being an agreement still fits, 24 hours is a solid chunk of time and once the Bond premiere rolled around they didn’t need the pictures up anymore.
But I also think it could have been pulled due to the backlash, because that line about the cynics thinking it was staged is very telling.
Why is Kate on the phone with “Willie” from KP, their shared home and office? Why don’t they just speak in person since they’re supposedly a married couple who live and work together?
All the emphasis on Kate at work and how much people like Kate at work, and Kate being in charge of the day to day COO stuff at KP (while William is more in charge of the big picture royal stuff with the important people), makes it sound like he doesn’t come to KP that often, its Kate’s home/office, and the staff is mostly used to dealing with Kate. Kate, who then uses her scarce time in the office to… “often” phone her husband? So she’s not there a lot and when she is there she can often be heard talking to Willie on the phone? Does she do any work when she’s there, or does she just come in to coordinate with William for when they’ll see each other next at whichever event the staff had put together? “I’ll be wearing blue, shocking, I know, so maybe you should also wear blue? Oh? That’s literally all you own? Right. Okay, pick me up at 8, Willie!” You would think that if they visit the office so rarely, once a month or whatever Omid reported, that they would come in together, right? Unless they have separate offices at this point, too. Why would they always zoom from Sandringham? Because that’s where his office is, now.
This is a really good catch, and Jay mentions it below too. Why are they calling each other to talk about work? Presumably they live together and they work where they live, either at KP or Anmer, so why do they need to call each other? Does anyone think William calls Kate on the way home from an engagement or something?
This really gives the vibe that Kate is at KP and William is at Anmer or Sandringham and that’s how things are.
Good catch and it looks like Sykes left a few tidbits in there to hint at what’s really going on.
This feels a little bit like damning the Cambridges with very faint praise, or like talking points from KP from someone who has read articles about Harry and Meghan and is trying to use similar, relatable details, but misses the mark entirely.
Like, they’re so normal that staff have the option of using their first name? What’s next, eye contact? Don’t tell me, next they might even deign to speak to one of their underlings. And you might get a card on your birthday? Or time off if your parent dies? That’s… literally the minimum, especially for a relatively small organization. It doesn’t show what they think it shows. Now, if they received a personalized or handwritten card, appreciating all they do in the organization, you bet your ass we’d hear about it, but this is the best they’ve got.
Also, not for nothing, it’s been included in articles about Meghan that she refers to Harry as “Haz”, so now suddenly we all have to live with the knowledge that Kate calls her husband “Willy” when she takes phonecalls from him at their (shared) office. So many questions. 1. Are we supposed to be impressed that Kate will take personal calls in front of “the help”? Is that what we’re supposed to love about this story? Genuinely not sure. 2. I understand taking calls at the office if one of the partners is travelling, but during the past year and a half, supposedly, these two have been living and working together, right? Zooming in from Anmer, their shared home, where they work from those beautifully set up offices? So…why would one of them be phoning the other? 3. If she calls him “Willy” (cringe) doesn’t that make it even odder that William is the one who insists on referring to Kate as Catherine? Have we ever heard about the Cambridges using nicknames with each other before?
Guys, I can’t focus, I’m going to be puzzling over this stupid detail all afternoon…
Lol @Jay. The Willy thing is cringey. I actually tried to erase it and not think about it but you got me thinking. This article is obviously drawing from a source close to Kate and not William. So saying that she uses the nickname of Willy is pretty embarrassing…more so for him. Maybe this detail was added in to embarrass him on purpose, part of the games they play with their opposing pr teams. If I was Kate and William couldn’t even pretend to enjoy my company at the Bond premiere, I’d be like, oh yeah, here’s my revenge. I’ll tell everybody my nickname for you is Willy.
Yeah, “Willy” definitely comes off as mocking and not affectionate, at least IMO. And it IS especially weird because we know that William is the one who insists on calling her the oh-so-formal “Catherine”, rather than the common “Kate”. Try again, Keens.
When their phones were hacked in 2006 their voicemails were saved, they were played in court in 2013 and he apparently called her Babykins and she called him Big Willy. Which is still major cringe.
I always thought Big Willy was copying Will Smith, and his Album Big Willy Style. Like, William took the nickname to prove he gets jiggy with it.
@Maria Ewwwwwwww, and here I thought just “Willy” was obnoxious, “Big Willy” just 🤢.
The Sussexes got rid of staffers who were lazy and/or could not be trusted, just as any competent business owners or CEOs would. Ditto for friends – any sane person would not want to spend their personal downtime in a nest of vipers.
I’m thoroughly enjoying the trajectory of how W and K position themselves:
2018: Those two are so terrible and uppity, we’re trying to help and set a good example of noble royalty
2019: Those two are the WORST; they make it so hard for us, the future monarchs, that we cry and become engorged with rage!
2020: What! Harry is leaving with her?! Fine with those two horrors gone, we can resume our elegant, dignified work.
2021: WTF is with those two – popping up like gophers, trying to outshine us! Look at us – we’re also doing stuff! Like streaming things, and meetings things and giving awards things. We’re normal but also royal. We’re the real royals.
2022: … We exist too, you know.
I can’t help it:
2023: Hello? Anyone there?
These comments are on fire today.
They can erase every scrap of that photo, but “Burger King” is forever.
Eurydice, that was my only concern. Burger King stays in the lexicon!
This. LOL
The desperation and ruthlessness from royal reporters/CarolE is real. The wooden table from the original story is now a slightly rickety wooden bench table. This made me laugh.
Picnic tables might need an invisible contract with the rotas pretty soon.
I am a not very bright American I guess but what is the fluff and constant flattery involving St Andrew’s. It is really a top tier school or is it a Honeypot where the chicks go to look for a rich man. Help me please
It genuinely is a fantastic school/uni. It consistently ranks highly in league tables (if you use those to measure how good a school is) in pretty much everything. BUT it does have a reputation of being a very hard partying school and more of a “fun” uni than its similar ranking counterparts like LSE, UCL, Imperial etc etc. And it gets called the Oxbridge rejects school aka where people go when they couldn’t get into Oxbridge. It might not a be fair/accurate reputation but it’s the one it’s got.
(No offence to any St Andrews’ Alumnus who read this. I’m sure you got a fantastic education and enjoyed it a great deal)
Was it removed because it did not have the effect they thought it would have? Curious minds want to know.
Jais, I love your deadpan comments. Please post more.
Thanks. I know that Northwestern where Meghan graduated is a top 15 school in the world and is always put down by the U.K. jerks . I always laugh because their Medill school of Journalism is top notch. I know she was not a journalism major but something about it gives me the giggles. Our daughter went to a top Prep school that is always listed in the best ofthr best and in less you are really smart and have too test scores it is considered a “reach”. She didn’t apply
That is a very good school. I have a friend whose kid scored a 1590 on the SAT, and a 34 on the ACT. Still did not get in.
@nina, do you know if Northwestern is still a dry campus? Went there for a football game in the early 90’s and it was. No alcohol sold at the game or wild tailgating going on.
@Agreereckoning. I don’t know. I didn’t know they were a dry school. They only landed on my radar because of my friend’s kid not getting in. My little ones are still in middle and grade school.
I read up on the school after his mom told me he didn’t get in. Their acceptance rate is like 9%.
The nonsensical embiggening of William and Kate continue. The latest recruit.. Tom Sykes of the Daily Beast. A really tame article from the Daily Beast, simply quoting the Daily Mail.
The royals and their media would scream the loudest if you call them celebrities. But that’s what the British royals are. They are celebrities in a way that European royals are not.
Rethink the need for the royals if they need massaging with daily PR support
Tom Sykes isn’t a new recruit. He’s made his disdain for the Sussexes known for years. He just knew better than to pull a full Piers immediately after the Oprah interviews. He’s still an aristo racist.
I’m actually a bit worried. It feels like the PR game of the doolittles may actually be working because it is sustained and far reaching. They are crossing the pond now. It’s also based on lies and falsehood- exactly like Trump and his campaign. I fear it could work.
Their failing at crossing the pond though. All their fluff pieces fail to get engagement, Keen’s style is not preferred, and people are clowning Will’s attempts at becoming an environmental hero. They’ve had a decade to get their shit together here, but flopped after the wedding. As did Brit attempts to launch Pippa and her flat behind here. They don’t live here and we’re just not that into them. Even their fans don’t do anything to demonstrate their appeal.
They’re always gonna have the Karen’s as fair weather friends, but that’s not enough to make them popular here.
I did think about this. They have Newsweek, daily beast, people, us weekly and some of the tabloids in their pockets. Most with British writers.
The only one that’s been fair to Meghan and Harry is People.
But ultimately I don’t ever remember paying attention to the keens. I only cared once Meghan came along and I still wasn’t that interested in anyone else. Harry and Meghan being in t he US will ultimately benefit as they have first access to the US market especially as they get going with their projects.
But the keens are definitely putting up a fight to piggy back off Harry and Meghan. Difference is Harry and Meghan actually have tangible work to show..the keens don’t.
I like it when they add comments like “like her mother” so we don’t have to speculate on the source; we know right away it is Carol.