Some people blame the disastrous Keen Caribbean Tour on really bad staff work, and some people blame the tour’s optics on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge themselves. Why not both? It’s all interconnected, clearly. William and Kate are Victorian idiots who refuse to modernize, and they hire staff who will not challenge them, who will be sycophantic yes-men and yes-women. I would love to know what happened behind the scenes for yesterday’s last event in Jamaica. I would love to know what Kensington Palace staffers thought, and whether William and Kate thought the whole thing would make them seem like perfect white future monarchs.
William and Kate’s last event in Jamaica was a stop by the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program. They met recent graduates and William did a walk-through, and there was some kind of ceremony and speech by William. But the vibes were “hello, it’s 1954.” Kate wore this white lace Alexander McQueen which is one of the cheapest-looking dresses she’s ever worn. It looks like a sad ‘80s wedding dress. She was trying to do a throw-back look to something the Queen wore in… 1953. The Queen wore it better.
Not only that, but William and Kate organized some kind of drive-by troop inspection? They stood in an open-top Land Rover, and tried to recreate the same scene that the Queen and Prince Philip did in 1953. It did not work. They look tone-deaf, especially given that their asses were just fired the day before. This just emphasizes that they were only focused on the photo-ops this trip and nothing else.
Kate Middleton channels Queen Elizabeth in white lace dress https://t.co/UQPqFKrhTd pic.twitter.com/8kPnAr5dnG
— Page Six (@PageSix) March 24, 2022
Photos courtesy of Getty, Instar.
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
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- North America Rights Only – Kingston, Jamaica -20220324-Royal Visit to the Caribbean – Day 6 Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural Commissioning Parade for service personnel from across the Caribbean who have recently completed the Caribbean Military Academy’s Officer Training Program, in Kingston, Jamaica, on day six of their tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee. -PICTURED: Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge -PHOTO by: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing
Yikes.
This tour turned out to be WAY more entertaining than I anticipated.
💯
William and Kate are totally out of touch with the times. This Caribbean trip in my mind was a disaster. Independent nations do not want to be reminded of 300 years of British Colonialism. We need reparations for the damage that was done to our economies and an apology for the enslavement of our people. After the Wind Rush debacle Britain needs to repent for their evil deeds of the past and recent times. Added to that the Monarchy was created to make it’s colonial people feel inferior. This mental enslavement is still rife in former colonies all over the world. No the Royals better ‘wheel and come again’ as we say in Jamaica. To think that they still cling to this claptrap in the 21st Century is telling.
If ONLY they had a family member, who could have advised them how they would be perceived, that they hadn’t harassed to almost death.
Shucks, y’all, it’s baffling how all of this happened, Willnot and Cannot are surely innocent of being racist.
/these people are fucking idiots
+2
+3
First time last time in Jamaica I bet! LOL
To quote Chris Rock, “Grand opening…..grand closing!” LMAO
I expected mistakes but not just wall to wall bat shit crazy. Who goes to a country that they NEVER stepped foot into before as a representative of the Queen (not the Queen herself) and expects the people in that country to “roll out the red carpet” and allow what can be only defined as CHILDREN to attempt to take their country back 70 years. I’m 100% certain the Jamaican PM and other officials sat back and watched the Keens drive less than mile in land rover on an empty tarmac to recreate bullshit. I can only imagine the discussion being held on the sideline. Something probably like “look at this bullshit”. William and Kate did more to fast track and destroy the RF in one week than in its entire history. I don’t see how they can comeback from this disaster.
Since the first day of this ill-advised junket, I’ve been wondering when some pundit or tabloid rag would start blaming Meghan for the Cambridges’ total failure to read the mood of the Family’s former colonies. It took a bit longer than I expected, but it happened. So predictable.
According to Dan Wooton, one comment Meghan made in the Oprah interview (almost a year ago) about a racist question by an unnamed Royal Family member has ruined the tour and is bringing down the monarchy.
As if we needed more proof that Meghan and Harry are still being used to deflect attention from the mistakes and failures of other Family members. What miserable cowards these people are!
Even the BBC now has a ‘ok so this isn’t going well from a PR perspective’ story. Obviously there’s a whole lot of ‘but they’re great really’ in there too but they’re acknowledging the disaster out loud. Bravo Charmless and Offensive, you’re turning the tide against the BRF more than ever.
Even the Times of London readers, who are largely pro monarchy and anti Sussex, have come out with comments expressing almost universal condemnation of the way that this tour was blindly conducted.
I am sincerely sad this won’t be part of The Crown – I would LOVE to know the behind the scenes mess.
Who says this won’t be part of The Crown? The Crown stretches TQ’s life so I firmly expect a season 6 will include her death & funeral and thus will have the Megs and Harry story (and the Bill and Cathy seething jealousy story) —- fingers crossed.
I thought the producer of the show said at one time that they only do events 10 years in the past. But l could be wrong.
I’m happy to wait 10 years for the final installment. It will be a DOOZY!
@Nutella, same! But even though this iteration won’t cover it, I keep reminding myself that Netflix did bring back both Arrested Development and Gilmore Girls (and probably others I can’t remember) years after their official series finales. So I can absolutely see them reviving The Crown after some time has passed. IDK if it will include Peter Morgan, because he seems to be the driving force behind stopping it after next season, but after some time passes, and usually if you throw enough money at people…never say never.
So I’m keeping my hopes that it will cover 1997– present eventually, it just won’t be right away. It’s also one of Netflix’s showpiece/popular (and I guess profitable?) shows, and I can’t imagine they just want to walk away from all of the drama that happened post-Diana. It would be epic.
ETA: @NotASubject, the showrunner was the one who said it wouldn’t go past Diana’s funeral and the aftermath. But IDK if there’s anything in his contract prohibiting Netflix from restarting it even if he doesn’t want to participate.
They need to pay Morgan whatevertheheck he wants to break his The Crown rule and keep going. 🤣🤣🤣😈😈
The Crown will keep going in time, but everyone is correct to stop it at that point. Too many details will come out in the coming years. To make a show about recent events now would be a disservice.
People were saying it wasn’t going to be petty but I thought it would go fine – wouldn’t have anything substantial but would go without major controversy.
How wrong was I.
That was what I thought too. I remember saying a few weeks ago on here that I thought it would be fine, it would be really stage managed so while it wouldn’t be a fantastic or interesting tour, it would be fine, very typical “Cambridges on tour” kind of thing.
Well, I freely admit I was wrong at this point, lol.
I anticipated William saying something dumb like he did about no war in Europe but I did not except countries dropping the queen as head of state while they are still there.
How clueless does the whole Cambridge machine have to be not to grasp the terrible optics of that Land Rover drive-by, and adjust to meet the reality slapping them in the face at every phase of this trip?
This tour reminded me of the horrible “Come Back To Jamaica” travel campaign from 1978 (it’s on YouTube, if you’re interested). It featured a song that read as basically inviting colonialists to come back and give Jamaica a purpose (making those colonialists comfortable). I really didn’t think we’d see anything as tone deaf as this tour in 2022, but here we are.
It’s absolutely delicious!
Everyone with a lick of sense warned them, the British establishment spit in their faces and laughed at the notion and now it’s a meltdown of nuclear proportions.
And they truly, karmicly deserved every single second of it.
I think the funniest thing is that everyone under 70 has a picture in their heads of Matt Smith and Claire Foy waving from a land rover while he makes disparaging remarks about the ‘ natives’ Although they were far better at pretending to be Colonial rulers!
If Harry and Meghan had done the tour it would have been a resounding success. Baldy and skinny will always be jealous of them and that’s why they forced them out. We all know that. Meanwhile, Charlie is busy taking money from bad people for Lordships and his brother Randy Andy liked to rape underage girls.
Face it, the non Royal family is going down hill faster than Trump.
Worth it for the royal rack alone. Hey Billy…how YOU doin’???? And can I show you something in a more supportive cup? We can’t have our royal orbs resting on our sash, now! Follow me, dear.
(At least he butched up with hhis face mask. Until I zoomed in, I thought he went as Bane!
To go ahead with this colonialist display after the protests, the press and the prime minister’s speech is the stupidest thing I’ve seen for a while. Every time I think this tour can’t get any worse, they keep surprising me!
And what makes it even more pathetic is the fact that there was no crowd.
There’s always a time in movies where in the midst of challenge the heroes find their strength to change the course of the situation with a smart unexpected move. Nope, not in real life with these 2 coconuts. They are too proud and incandescent to cancel this stupid photo op.
Raheem Sterling must have flown home already.
Exactly! There was a huge crowd for the Queen’s visit including lines of schoolchildren assembled on the parade ground. The ride in the landrover was so that the people who were there could see the Queen. William and Kate’s version was to create an impression for the cameras. There was no comparable crowd and those who were there had no difficulty seeing them.
I recommend The Guardian’s article ‘ Perfect storm’ by Rachel Hall and Amelia Gentleman.
I can’t get over how, in the midst of all this (absurd, colonialist) pagentry going on, Kate still looks directly at the camera. Even the shot of her seated, with her head turned to the side, looks like she’s posing for a cover story in a magazine (shades of Philip’s funeral). What an unbelievably empty headed, useless woman.
It’s actually eerie how easily she finds the camera. Clearly, it’s her main focus. Hard to connect with people when you’re devoted to connecting with the camera. Part of the job is connecting w the camera, sure, but when the other pics reveal the lack of human connection, then it’s a problem.
Yeah, I noticed that too. She’s always zeroing in on the cameras, wanting those glamor shots. Ugh.
I think she’s so used to playing to the cameras that she doesn’t realize (or care) when it’s completely inappropriate to do so. But we saw that at Philip’s funeral. I really believe all she cares about are the photos because those are what will endure, even after she & William are gone.
It’s as if they aren’t paying attention to anything and refuse to change course. It’s so strange.
@D: This is what I struggled with most. Did they not know how to make adjustments after the PM basically said….You’re not welcome here anymore. Why not scrap the 1950’s cosplay at this point and go low key everything? It speaks of arrogance, entitlement and just pure dumbness.
I think that the Camps and their staff are completely unable to think om their feetand improvise.
It seems to me that the thinking was to create as many throw-back to the Queen ‘looks’ as possible, with the idea that they would have coverage comparing them favourably to the queen – celebrating her legacy, being the perfect representatives etc – because they’re almost always covered in that way. It’s why Kate does the weird Diana dress up, and it usually works. They don’t seem to me to have any other viable ideas about what they ought to be doing with their roles. And it’s terrible.
It also shows that the “young” royals are just as racist and out of touch if not more so than the old royals. William and Kate just confirmed that they aren’t going to bring a fresh approach to the monarchy and they don’t have a grasp of the current issues despite their millennial status.
This tour will be a turning point on their popularity in ways they never expected.
I think this whole tour shows how small their world is and how confused they are about the rest of the world. In their world, their tiny little inbred British royal world, this year is all about the Jubbly and celebrating the queen. They thought they were going to the Caribbean to celebrate the Jubbly with them, to be stand ins for the Queen who would receive all the praise and feting and congratulations that they assume everyone in the world wants to give the Queen right now bc of the damn Jubbly.
And they’re thinking, “what do people like about the queen?” And they apparently came up with “regal traditional throwback to a colonialist time,” so they made the whole tour about how special and royal they are, how traditional, how colonialist, assuming that for some reason (and maybe the reason *is* because these countries still have the queen as head of state) “the colonies” also like the queen and the monarchy for all those same reasons.
I think this is also why she didn’t wear any local designers. She and Will honestly thought that this tour was meant to be a big celebration of the Queen of England on her Jubbly, and their job was to represent the Englishness, the stuffy tradition, the royalty if it all, the 50s throwback aspect of the Queen and the history of her reign. Why else would you give a speech referring to the “Queen of Belize”? So they fully embraced dressing and looking and acting as British Royal Family From the 50’s-90’s as possible. “Remember when the queen wore this kind of white outfit and rode around in a car to inspect the troops? Good times. We’ll recreate that for you!” “Remember when she wore a big old fancy 1980s type ball gown while dripping in royal collection jewels? Good times. We’ll recreate that for you, too!” They really thought that this was somehow different than the other tours they do where their job is meant to highlight the host country, be diplomats, increase tourism to the host country, or do charity work in the host country. They really think this tour was just about going there for the Jubbly so people could pay their respects *to them!* And it’s all because they can’t see outside of their own royal bubble and literally drive anyone who can out of the institution so that they’re always surrounded by people who think exactly as they do.
@ArtHistorian. It’s not only their staff, there should have been a U.K representative, an ambassador or someone on the ground who should have worked with them and let them know that some of this won’t fly in this day and age.
@amytoo you are so right and get at why these two can’t fathom that they ARE racist. And get genuinely huffy and offended by the suggestion. Meanwhile they’re asking about Archie’s skin color. There are many who have written about how Whiteness makes itself the default, the automatic, the invisible background to everything. Well, that’s what their world is and why not a single solitary person at KP saw this mess coming.
I also think this tour was Kate and Carole Middleton’s baby. Kate has fantasies of herself one day ruling as Queen (consort) of England. She wants there to be plenty of photos out there of her younger years looking regal and harkening back to Elizabeth. She imagines many documentaries about herself (Catherine – not Kate) with old photos and video clips (like they do of Elizabeth with Kennedy, during WW2 etc). She and William love the nostalgia and think everyone else will too.
Why should they pay attention when it’s all about them?
W has spent his whole life thinking as soon as its his turn, people will automatically worship him because he’s Diana’s son and Q’s grandson, hence he never learned or reached out for help, it would automatically come on a platter. K thought she was marrying into the same and with big blue, she’d be worshiped too, the cosplaying just to remind everyone of this.
So much for the crisis PR team they retained a few years ago.
“Keep calm and carry on” does not apply in every situation. They need to be flexible and adapt to the situation so they don’t look like tone deaf a-holes.
Thing is the couple who can improvise and think on their feet are in California
I think Lainey has an interesting take on their need to improv through the latter part of the tour and how they’re just incapable of that.
The two dimwits had the balls to use a Bob Marley quote on their twitter.
“You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.”
IMO, they were not paying respect to Bob Marley or Jamaicans. They were patting themselves on their backs for keeping calm and carrying on with their ongoing entitled racist stupidity.
Replying to SarahCS – I agree, Lainey’s assessment yesterday was spot on.
Involving Bob Marley in this mess just showed they had zero idea of any of the lyrics of his songs. They are idiots.
William tried so hard with the Marley stuff. He also told the bobsled team CoolRunnings is his favorite movie. STOP. JUST STOP 😀
@ Not a Subject, NO!!!!!
Yet again, these two fools were trying to copy Harry and Meghan and it has backfired spectacularly. Do remember the beautiful scene when Harry and Meghan posed on the balcony in Fiji in front of cheering crowds, and people said the Queen also posed on the balcony. It was fine, but the insanely jealous Lamebridges got it completely wrong, they are still trying to compete with the Sussexes who they forced out of the RF.
Yes, that was their big mistake, l believe they wanted to compete in a bigger, better and extravagant way, the colonialist royal way, to show their superiority over HM as the true royals worthy of all the accolades. Too bad for them it blew up most spectacularly.
NO! No. Nooooo — they seriously quoted Bob Marley in a tweet?
AND Bill told the bobsled team that “Cool Runnings” is his favorite movie?
I am howling and will never stop laughing at all this
This is where I am, exactly. They have had ample cues, that it wasn’t working out however they imagined it working, and this was their last play. Karma has come to roost.
@Christine, it’s amazing. Here on CB we’re just all randos on a gossip website— it’s not as if this is a forum for PR professionals—and since day one we’ve been asking if they really believe the rest of the world cares about the stupid Jubbly as much as they do. And they finally got their answer. It was a much-deserved rude awakening.
It’s as if because the Queen is clearly declining, they thought that would protect them from any pushback; people would be too reverential to bring up anything “controversial” during the Queen’s special year. 🙄
And they were very wrong.
Honestly it reminds me of people who talk about their birthday “week” or their birthday “month” or try to make their weddings into days-long extravaganzas. No. You get ONE DAY. Other people have lives, ffs.
Kate and William deliberately sought to remind people of a time in history when Jamaica was still a colony. The optics of this is racist as hell. It’s not their advisers letting them down except by not preventing William and Kate wanting to be racist on these tours.
This is why Kate hasn’t bothered wearing any local designers. This is a tour meant to celebrate white British imperialism with using these countries as a backdrop for the photos.
It’s not stupidity on their part when these things happen like the painting in Apt 1A It is deliberate racism
I am so happy you brought up Kate’s clothes because that has been bugging me. For a woman that was proclaimed “queen of diplomatic dressing” she really dropped the ball.
She wore almost all british designers. Why not local designers? Or maybe a UK designer with Jamaican ancestry? If the only diplomatic dressing she can do is flag cosplay that they are in trouble.
I know I keep saying this, but its really surprising to me that she is dropping the ball like this with the clothes. A few accessories here and there from local designers but that’s it? her people couldn’t have found ONE Caribbean designer for her to wear? Instead its all Packham, McQueen and Wickstead? Sorry, and “vintage” YSL. She also couldn’t wear anything affordable? Remember when H&M went to South Africa and Meghan deliberately wore more affordable clothes, less flashy clothes, etc bc there was pushback about her “spending” in the british press? (we now have a better idea of what was going on behind the scenes but that’s how it was playing out at the time.)
Kate’s tours are usually when the local designers get a lot of press and/or sell out – I remember she wore this big silver earrings in Canada that were from a Canadian ETSY designer and she ended up being sold out/booked for orders for MONTHS afterwards. But we have nothing like that here.
It’s surprising to me because this is not a typical Kate tour – I’ve been saying this but we all know there is always McQueen and Packham, but there is usually some more sartorial diplomacy than just flag co-splaying. I really can’t believe she and her team decided that wasn’t warranted this time around.
This has me thinking about how their India/Pakistan tour a couple years ago (if memory serves correct) was actually fairly successful by their standards. I recall Kate’s fashion was much more appropriate (without being appopriative!) and she maybe wore local designers??? Like I remember even Kaiser saying they did a decent job, especially her fashion-wise. So what gives now? You would have thought that earlier tour would have been a turning point for how they dress for these diplomatic visits, but she’s actually reversed course and gotten *worse*. And I also don’t remember that much colonial cosplay when they visited India/Pakistan. Granted India is fully independent, so maybe there was no chance for colonial pagenatry anyway but still… I mean what has happened here in the Caribbean is just gobsmackingly tone deaf. Which speaks obviously to their & the RF’s racism but also to how INSULATED their world is. ***To me it’s actually WORSE, and speaks more to their ingrained racism, that they had no clue that this would look bad***
Like I said in a post yesterday — this was purposeful on her part because she didn’t want to bother dealing with any local Caribbean designers. She didn’t want to get in touch, talk to them, develop a rapport and collaborate on a look appropriate for the countries she would be visiting because she refuses to have a relationship with anyone outside of her rich white bubble unless she absolutely can’t help it. Guarantee this biotch doesn’t have even 1 peripheral POC in her life to claim as the “black friend to prove she’s not racist”. Even William made a half-assed attempt to claim that one random dude that allowed himself to be tokenized. Sad, sad, sad.
It’s because kate doesn’t want clothes made by black hands. She thinks black people are dirty. I really really despise these two racist ass—holes
I also said yesterday in a comment that she wasn’t there to celebrate the countries and culture but to demonstrate superiority, and to add she must have felt that cosplaying the countries’ flags was honor enough with a few local accessories thrown in.
Oh this reminds me of a great story from the SA tour. A designer who was contacted by the palace ahead of the tour called his sister to say ‘who’s Meghan Markle’ and his sister started screaming on the phone. Now that’s impact
“This is a tour meant to celebrate white British imperialism with using these countries as a backdrop for the photos.”
I agree with this, but we should add – this is also a tour meant to disguise the Cambridge’s vacation.
But yeah, they don’t do these things in other countries when on tour. This screams imperialism. If this was supposed to make Jamaica want to keep the Queen as head of state….i’m not sure what they were thinking.
I think instead of trying to be friendly and persuasive, they decided to go the other way and be defensive and thumb their noses at people. Nothing about these engagements shows any willingness to sincerely engage with people.
Do not know wear to put this. Several “gay” sites that I follow (which love Cathy and which I will not name as I do not want my comment deleted) for fashion entertainment are calling out Cathy for recycling QEII’s dress from her 1954 Australian tour.
Even these dudes that hate Meghan, because she is not model thin, are loudly commenting that the Cambridges lost the plot on this tour and are wondering if they ever had it to begin with.
Huh, I feel like they usually give her a pass and just write off anything she wears as being part of her role. Interesting. I think it’s funny that they’re so fed up with stans freaking out about Kate being called Cathy. They’ve been doing that since 2011 and with affection.
TLo (aka…Tom and Lorenzo) has referred to the couple as Bill & Cathy Cambridge since the beginning of time which is where I picked it up.
Yes, she and the egg wanted to show the Blacks that white people are their betters. How dare these savages and servants not cater to their whims and defer to their whiteness?! Literally. Keen and Peen base fans are white supremacists and anti-black racists. This tour was to solidify that. They didn’t count on the fact that the majority of the world isn’t white.
I was looking through their posts on Meghan’s events when she was still a working royal and there’s so much joy there. It’s so upsetting knowing that behind the scenes Meghan was being mistreated.
@becks1…ya know, I gotta hand it to them. They did manage to distract from the vacation part!!
Agreed. And here I thought I couldn’t despise Kate more than I already did.
@Bay you’re smart to be cautious; those two are ridiculous. I used to follow them and listen to their podcast, and then one day they blocked me on Twitter. I hadn’t even commented on any of their posts so I was like “WTF” and so confused as to why they possibly could have blocked me. I read later that they summarily blocked ANYONE who RT’d anything with the “#PrinceWilliamAffair” hashtag (it was right when the Rose story first came out…2017 I think?).
I was like SERIOUSLY? These are supposed to be professionals? So I unsubscribed from their podcast and refuse to click their site ever again because if they’re that thin-skinned and petty, I want nothing to do with them. I’d understand if I was being a PITA and giving them sh!t in one of their own threads, but I never even interacted with them at all; apparently they didn’t even want to have to *see* accounts that didn’t worship the Cambridges. So, bye.
Wow Lorelei, that’s a lot. I’ve never followed them or visited their site. Is there a reason they are such Cambridge stans?
Exactly.
Nostalgia colonialism seems to be what they were going for. I LOVE how Charles went to Ireland and left the rest of them to do the Caribbean. One visit to Barbados and he read the room.
And his visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland seems to be going really well! I follow them on IG so that’s the only place I’m seeing coverage of it lol (I don’t know if the British press is covering it or if there are huge gaffes that I’m missing) but even in the republic of Ireland Charles seems to be doing well – he actually wrote something on IG yesterday which is one of the first times i recall him doing that – about how much he and Camilla love Ireland and they want to visit every county before “senility overtakes us” or something and he included some information about Waterford etc. I find it hilarious bc I think its clear that Charles is saying “THIS is what you do on a royal tour in 2022” but…..how is the 73 year old better able to adapt than William?
YES BECKS. LOL.
You know how they sometimes say bad press is better than no press? Seems this is not one of those situations for the Cambridges.
What about that Royal Balcony hat?
I said it earlier but I think they were feeling the hurt post Oprah and they wanted to make a statement. Kate definitely made this all about fashion because that’s all she has to offer. It makes for good pics browsing through a magazine but just seems way over the top for the environment.
It works for some of her fans but they are getting killed on social media. This pic went viral after Richard Palmer posted “a couple of crkers here”
https://mobile.twitter.com/cymrurouge/status/1507104838815203333
Almost everyday of this tour there’s been pics/videos going viral for them being seen as racist. Lol smh
Remember they wanted to capture the American market..they even had a people mag editor there. That’s why Kate is always posing for the cameras. They’re saying look at Kate..ignore everything else. But it just isn’t working and now even their favs in the press are realizing it.
I am *screaming* at that tweet by Palmer. I love his whiny little, “you can’t say ANYTHING anymore” ☹️ at the end. No, asshole, if you want to call yourself a journalist, you need to make sure you know what the words you are typing mean, even in contexts other than what you yourself are personally used to. These people, honestly. Sure, Richard, blame *the entire rest of the world* for your failure to research properly.
OMG Polo! That tweet has me crying from laughter! Too much!
Also, it’s obviously a ‘look over here’ at Kate tour. You can really tell when you see a video. She is only ‘working’ for the still photos and looks so awkward in video hitting her marks. And they shunned Meghan because she was an actress.. who ended up being so much more.
Kate, that is all she is.
It is deliberate racism yes and utter tone deaf stupidity, but they don’t consider it racism, they consider it the natural order of things. They (and their sycophantic advisors that live in a bubble) truly believed that if their subjects saw how glorious they are in person, they would quiver, revel in their presence, and emotionally if not physically bow down before them. The Land Rover, white dress and uniform, and William’s salute makes me gag.
In all the questioning of whether William or Charles asked about Archie’s skin colour, it seems as though Kate’s racism has been overlooked here. The painting was her decision. No one picks that without being an ignorant racist and especially not an alleged art history major. Her behaviour toward Meghan has generally been racist too. Her own family attacked Meghan in media, which was never done to Harry’s previous girlfriends. The Middletons literally excluded Meghan from Pippa’s wedding. This was all extremely racist behaviour. Yes the Windsors are racist and head a racist institution, but Kate and the Middletons have shown their racism as well.
So kate being unable to find a local designer for this tour is because she did not want to deal with black designers. Her milquetoast flag cosplay was ridiculous along with her colonizer styles.
In Pakistan she used a few local designers but it was still a lot of Catherine Walker minions trying to do local Pakistani styles and the other bland British designers she has watered down to bland oblivion.
I totally agree. I’ve said before that Kate is a lot more racist than William and she really doesn’t mind showing it. SHE started the smear campaign against Meghan and she deliberately used racism and the racist media along with a certain section of British society to drive Meghan out.
I really can not stand that racist bitch!
I’m late to the party but I agree with all the comments being made about Kate’s deliberate exclusion of host country designers. AND especially her actions with Megan. When we think about it some more, Kate might be MORE racist than Will because although Will believes his family’s place is divine right, he believes he’s better THAN EVERYONE. Kate included. Kate’s whole adult life was spent trying to pull herself out of the PEASANT class and into QUEEN. She wants and needs to believe she’s better than anyone and has bought into the class system (which is racist) even though she’s seen a whole world where we’re all the same and equal rights etc.
William was the one who kept telling his brother to Slow Down. He’s if anything worse than Kate which is not saying much. I think he and Kate are two of a kind in many ways. Kate seemed to pretend to “like Meghan” but the signs were there like when she did not give Meghan a lift in her car to go shopping then the Bridal attendant episode.
Kate never pretended to like Meghan, Tessa. She and her awful mother worked against Meghan from the start, and Kate even refused to meet her for the longest time. It wasn’t just the shopping bit, it was Kate and her family actively working against Meghan from the start. William isn’t worse than Kate, they are equally racist.
Clothing is a whole language. Kate here seems to be talking AT Jamaica instead of TO it with her choices. Honestly, I get that she’s retro but that is a big big mistake when the monarchy needs to seem forward-looking. The tulle, my god. This is such a freaking bonfire.
You didn’t appreciate the “antebellum prom dress”? LOL
Exactly. Full stop.
I just said “Oh my gosh” out loud to myself in my car (I’m parked before my walk, not reading and driving 😂). That first picture looked like a military dictator and his vapid wife. I am a benefit of doubt, glass half full person generally but good grief, the optics on that choice. Also, recreating something from the 50s after you were fired on camera?
ETA one more item: Y’all, the visuals on this tour are going to be used in classrooms to teach about the downfall of the monarchy in Britain.
Also, I love lace dresses but no. This is a 360 degree disaster. The fashion is the least important part, but even that sucks.
Agree with everything you said! I usually don’t buy in to all of the royal bashing, but dang, this event seems like a totally tone deaf disaster!
My first thought was ‘White Raja’—no thanks—that nonsense was disgusting in the 50s.
You are absolutely right about history. These are the photos that will be shown in books under chapter heading Fall of the British Monarchy.
This definitely has Marie Antoinette and Nicholas II vibes going on.
She gave so much Evita Peron on this trip. Evita undertook a huge tour of Europe after WWII, called the Rainbow Tour. She started strong in Spain, but each stop after that garnered less attention than she expected. George VI said he didn’t want her in England, her last intended stop, and she eventually ended the tour early. It was nothing but fashions and jewels on that tour, very similar to this one. All froth, no substance.
Holy cow…. didn’t think they could top interacting with “native” children through a chain link fence. Apparently I was wrong.
And they still have a few days left:-)
Good God, they aren’t finished _yet_??!!!
To quote duchess dum-dum herself: “Wow.”
yep, “wow”
Did you guys see we got a second “Wow”? From both of them this time, apparently. Kaiser will cover that whole event on Monday, so I don’t want to threadjack, but it’s in People.
Those are their two most memorable sound bites from this entire shitshow: two “wows.” Which I still maintain is an improvement over “how interesting” in India. But I’m sure we’ll have fun discussing this one on Monday.
You should see the People music video tribute that posted on Instagram dedicated to KKKate. Whew. These two are useless, lazy racist who only care about appearances and even that the screw up.
The queen did wear it better! What Unable fails to understand is you gotta dress for your time. That’s what the Queen was doing in the 50s and Diana did in the 80s and 90s. It just looks so dated when KHate does it because there is no attempt to make it fresh. Just copy and paste.
On the substance it is totally clear that they not only want the exact photo ops but that they also don’t view diversity or equity as core principles. I completely agree with the assessment that they are very much a racist family.
Also, while a queen, head of state might have be able to get away with a white lace dress, Kate is NOT a queen, she’s a duchess.
It would be as if an Italian priest who works in the Vatican visited Brazil cosplaying the Pope. Dressing up as though you’re a higher rank in the Firm than you are is one more way K managed to put every foot wrong this tour.
And north, she is not the future queen, she is the future, future queen. Two rungs down. can you imagine Ann or Edward doing this back in the day. I think the handlers know this bunch are aging and wanted to get some of those young royal glory photos while they still had time.
And she’s not even the future future in Jamaica. Her dress bugs me less than PW’s unearned uniform though.
@equality the hat bugs me plus wearing that dress in the middle of the day. No sense of what is appropriate or not.
@equality – Horse Teeth the Bald loves uniforms.
At least Will finally changed out of that rumpled suit jacket and too tight pants that he wore everyplace else. He’s as bad and inappropriate as Kate, in his own way. What a pair.
The daily Mail and other are doing some crazy journalist gymnastics to acknowledge this tour is a disaster but also explain why Will and Kate are not at fault. All it comes across is tone deaf and dumb.
The bucks stops with these two and the failure of this tour is on them. They hire the staff so they still are at fault if they hire people that poorly plan
There is no such publican as “The daily Mail” it is “The Daily FAIL” and “The FAILonline”. LOL!
Totally random, but man, the Queen was stacked.
Yes she was large-breasted. I had read excerpts from a book written by her childhood friend who spent a lot of time with the Queen and Margaret during the war and she remarked about Liz’s ample bosom since her teenage years and said she felt sorry for her.
The Famous Hanoverian bosom inherited from Queen Mary. Anne, Zara and Lady Helen Taylor have it too.
yup. it’s in the genes.
It comes from Queen Mary.
I just can’t – the first pic screams at me and I cringe with the volume of the scream – STOP.
They really have no sense of optics and they cannot read the room – nor can their staff. FFK, pull up your big king underwear and make changes to your tour! This is unbelievable that a 40 year old would not be able to take control of a sinking ship – HIS sinking ship.
And, side note, the queen looked great in that white outfit. Tres chick – take notes Kate.
Yes, the Queen looked great in that white outfit back in the day but she also had an hour-glass figure, perfect posture and was a fully formed adult – all things Kate will never have or be.
Kate doesn’t have the style or gravitas to pull off anything except cosplay. She’s like a little girl playing dress-up but with a limitless clothing budget and her mother whispering in her ear constantly.
“Let’s cosplay that we are the dictators of a mid twentieth century banana republic!”
I got…..”Let’s cosplay we are still Imperial Britian and you’re the King and I’m the Queen….now Blacks bow/curtsey to your betters”
Wowee. These two are such moronic racists – this tour’s implosion has been so delicious to watch.
Washington Post has an opinion post about how badly this tour has gone and how colonialist it feels etc and they’re using that picture of W&K in the land rover as the headline picture. At least its not the picture of Kate touching the hands of black children though a fence?
But honestly, I saw these pictures yesterday and I thought, you have GOT to be kidding me. This just screams “colonialism” and to do this after the PM told them they were going to move towards being a republic? this just seems like the Cambridges said “well for now you’re still ours SO HERE WE ARE!”
I get that they probably weren’t going to cancel the military parade. But first of all – it never should have been planned, that was ALWAYS going to be a bad look, especially since I don’t think we have ever seen them attend this kind of event in another country (I can’t recall ever seeing William in uniform on a tour with Kate before). And second, they should have at least not done the damn “riding around in the land rover inspecting the troops.”
It’s like they’re just giving Jamaica more reasons to push for a republic.
There are other pics pic of Will and Kate interacting with people and kids (touching and being normal) so the fence image can quickly be counter argued that it was one when they have other pics to refute the narrative. BUT this pic is bad because they look like modern day dictators. The white royal couple – dressed all in white – inspecting the academy. They can caption this in so many ways. And it quite damaging. And the zinger is – the Jamaican people are not given the decency to be able to visit England unless they have a visa. I am still dumbstruck.
The visa thing was the news I got from all of this. I’ve always just assumed that people from commonwealth countries could come and go from England as they pleased, no visa necessary.
@seraphina this was my thought. Most of the other insane pics can be argued away if you’re really determined. Tabloids will try to argue that the pics through the fence are a fleeting moment and they also interacted normally; they’ll say her green gown was lovely and we’re being cruel to criticize it; that the khaki and olive colonialist themed pants are appropriate for a hot day; and on and on.
But a sparsely-attended, sad-ass military parade explicitly intended to evoke EMPIRE. There is NO explaining that away. This was the Cambridge’s direct choice. The fashion, the vehicle, the intention, all of it. They might as well have screamed we are nostalgic for colonialism at the top of their lungs.
The picture has been posted in black and white – or sepia – whatever the imaging is called. And it looks even worse and drives home what we all have been saying here.
Yeah, that visa news is fucking infuritating.
Yes, visa’s required unless you are from the white Commonwealth e.g Australia, Canada, New Zealand.
When the children (the Keens) rode in the land-rover it wasn’t to inspect the troops. It was for a photo op. Take a look at the photo and the distanced between the commissioned officers and the children. Also, there is a video that looks worst.
The PM did a great job of trying to keep his people out of that disgusting display. Also, you have to give it to the Jamaicans. They did everything they could to protect their people from this foolishness. I’m sure the Keens had hoped that they would be surrounded by Jamaicans cheering and screaming.
The whole trip was about photo ops for the Daily Fail type rags and Hello magazine.
I think Kate thought she would get the usual sycophantic “pays homage to the Queen” like, if you’re gonna do some diplomacy pay homage to your host country.
As a Jamaican. Stop it. Geez.
For people who are all about optics and photo ops , this is bad. They couldn’t even get that part right.
So symbolic of the sh–show that they gave us.
Even the British press can’t deny how awful this tour is. That’s bad.
Kate and Will are tone deaf idiots.
They are supposed to be the ‘ saviors of the monarchy’ but they will be the downfall.
Again, I did not realize William and Kate had to go all the way across an ocean just to stage an impromptu production of Evita.
LOL
Those optics were archaic and cringey even back in 1953, FFS. And Kate’s inability to get dressed without flipping through the William’s family albums or hate-googling her sister-in-law continues to be embarrassing. No wonder he took up “gardening” — what man, apart from Norman Bates, wants to get off with his grandmother/mother’s doppelganger?
Yes, and the Cambridge team must have spent months planning this back to the past colonial style fashion parade, and imagining the photo opportunities. No planning at all about how to engage with real people in the present Caribbean.
Kate’s dressed like she’s attending Meghan’s wedding.
💀
I am HOWLING!!!!! COTW!
So true. And my first reaction when I saw the pics was that she looked unaccountably bridal, not that she was cosplaying TQ circa 1950s.
1980s bridal, check.
this woman is wedded to white supremacy
Thank you CC, I’m cackling into my lunch here. Outstanding.
BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Good one! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
💀💀💀
Lol I had the exact same thought!! It’s not quite a wedding dress…oh, it’s a dress Kkkate would wear to someone else’s wedding.
CC for comment of the week!
@CC wins 🏆
You think they’ve hit rock bottom. Check back and they’ve dug a new trench. So incompetent. I too shouted OMG! when I saw them atop the Jeep. WTH?! After everything they’ve experienced, they still went ahead with their plans. It all looked so racist & dated & completely unnecessary when Jamaica fired you yesterday.
So bad that even the Fail has turned on them. Jan Moir actually said William was “as ridiculous and obsolete as a royal dodo,” and that Kate’s glue gun grin was going to have to be chiseled off of her. Kate’s Queen cosplay backfired on her and it is glorious to see the reactions. The blame game is now on in the media.
I knew that the Mail would turn on them sooner than later, this is just the beginning……..
You can see the physical resemblance between William & Harry in the carriage shot, something I’ve rarely observed in photos of either brother.
That aside, this tour has been a real eye-opener in terms of openly revealing the disconnect between the world the British royal family thinks is out there beyond the gardens and riding paths and the one that actually exists.
These people, royalists, are stuck in a time that is long gone. They don’t realize that the world has moved on without them. Cosplaying the 1950s is not a good look in 2022, and they refuse to understand. This will be their downfall….
It was her hat that killed me…so “ touring India in the 1930’s”. Plus it looked like the is it yellow or white hat from Meghan’s wedding. The land rover bit was awful. The optics on this were simply terrible. If she had worn a nice simple blue dress, no hat or minimal head covering and skipped the standing in the car it might have looked dignified, you could put a sort of “never complain never explain chin up “ sort of spin on it. But no, they went for the full on “roll the clock back” glory shots. I swear in 50 years when they are analyzing why there is no longer a British monarchy these shots will be used as an illustration of “not moving with the times” ( never mind the far more egregious things the family has done, it will be these, plus the Kate birthday glamour shots that will be the pictures “
I mentioned the hat above before I scrolled down to read your post. The hat killed me, too. So, ” royals reviewing the troops from the balcony” and such an odd note because she hadn’t worn a hat before on this tour.
“If she had worn a nice simple blue dress”
The Issa dress from her engagement interview would have been perfect.
That Issa dress is one of the few pieces worn by Cathy that I would like to have in my closet.
It is a pretty dress, but it was too windy on this day.
The yellow dress she wore the other day is my fifth piece. Love that dress, love everything about it.
@BeanieBean, when has that ever stopped her before, lol
I believe some cretin thought, “This is the Queen’s Jubbly we’re supposed to be celebrating, so let’s do a cosplay of that time when the Queen and Prince Philip rode in the (same) Land Rover to be adored by the natives!” All KKKate could think was this was another opportunity to parade around in a new doily dress, “Look! The Queen wore a lace dress! I love lace dresses!” Anyway, I read an interesting blog last night about how Will-Di-Amin and Khate are really out and proud racists. That they aren’t doing this stuff accidentally or ignorantly, but — like Trump and his cult — playing to their base. Examples were given, such as W’s repeated speeches about African overpopulation. Once is maybe a gaffe. Twice is intentional. Once their racism is no longer helpful, history will be overwritten, just as it was with the Queen Mum, Prince Philip, et al. I’m not sure I buy this theory entirely, but it made me look at their shenanigans through a new lens.
Whether intent or stupidity, this tour has gone from bad to despicable, and while entertaining and probably a perfect motivator for the Caribbean push to republicanism, it’s starting to take on some evil overtones. It will be very interesting to see how the Lamebridges behave once it’s finally over.
Given that their speechwriters/staff all come from the ranks of the conservative party I have no problem accepting that hypothesis. They know where their power base lies and will play to it.
Which is the path to their sure downfall as royal “leaders”. Because despite being the loudest windbags in the room, the right is increasingly dwindling and society liberalizing everywhere.
Even Russia is facing reform pushes from inside the country. Russia!
The British right has no chance when the people all over the world are pushing this much towards progressiveness. None at all.
Bill and Khate quite stupidly hitched themselves to a horse with no legs in aligning themselves to that side of the political spectrum.
@C-Shell I think this might be true, it’s an illuminating thought. I don’t know why, I’ve been laughing all week but this one gave me the chills when I saw it. As someone who grew up in Jamaica and feels the same pride that you saw on Jamaicans’ faces all week, these photos left me feeling hurt, angry. It just seems impossible for them to be THAT stupid. They’re stupid like Trump and Boris Johnson, I guess.
@NickG — I’m so so sorry you’ve had to watch the blatantly racist, colonialist, DISRESPECTFUL posing going on all week in Jamaica and elsewhere. I have been in awe of the people who’ve stood up to the status quo and so eloquently educated so many of us on the work that’s been accomplished on all of these issues. I hope the good that comes out of this debacle is more widespread referenda on republicanism.
@C-Shell thank you and your comments have been lovely (and funny) all week. POC get a little tired of calling things out and it’s always great to see others see the same things that we do.
So out of touch, my lord. Two days ago I could not imagine a worse photo op than the chain link segregation pic, but they done did it. Why not just have the Jamaican people carry them on a throne on on their backs while they’re at it? Jesus.
@WT maybe they’re saving the throne carrying for Bahamas.
Oh god I forgot we still have Bahamas to go. This tour has been going on for years.
And remember, this tour was shortened from the original.
At least he didn’t refer to his grandmother as the queen of Jamaica.
Lol, welcome to the 21st century, royal bitches.
The only explanation I can come up with for this tone-deaf, asinine parade is that they’re both confident that the RR will take the pics and put their usual flattering spin on them: “The FFK & Q inspecting the loyal troops! And doesn’t Kate look regal? She hasn’t put a foot wrong on this tour!”
The Jamaican PM was right: they came for photo ops, and nothing more. Subtext, optics, the feelings and opinions of their unwilling hosts, mean nothing to them as long as they get some pics for the press. Neither one of them seems to understand that, just as with Andrew, there comes a point where all of the fawning press coverage isn’t enough to cover the shitshow or wipe away the stench. And from the negative tone of recent news articles, that point is finally made.
The British on the word stage are looking like a joke from the Monarchy to the government it is like watching a poorly written dark comedy. They need to leave the Empire in the past and deal with the reality of the here and now. The Cambridge’s are not a “young couple” they are entering middle aged and looking like the Royal dunces.
I reallyd need Armando Iannuci to do a Dark comedy about the Death Throes of a fictive monarchy that eeriely resembles the British one.
I saw a Twitter comment that said this reminded them of an episode of Veep. I do agree Iannuci has a lot to work with here. Lots of tone deaf idiots.
omg a Death of Stalin type movie only instead of Stalin it’s QEII
The Boris video…..YIKES. I read a few comments from Brits that basically said they need to get used to being a small island with very little influence. I found this statement to be the problem with the Brits. They still see themselves as being this huge superpower when they are actually a tiny island that is slowly growing less relevant each day. Boris and Keens are proof of that.
Page Six keeps referring to Catherine as “Kate Middleton”.
I wonder who is asking them to do that?
I mean, if none of this sticks to M & H, is she designated to be the scapegoat? Not fit for the Queen role. Maybe a former mistress would work better, like with Daddy.
No one is asking them to do that. People in the U.S. know her as Kate Middleton, not the restyled “Catherine.”
I think they all do it for search engine optimization.
No one calls her Catherine except William and a few royalists. When you are in the media as Kate Middleton you are gonna be that forever.
Oh. My. God. I was genuinely aghast at this. They are literally trying to throw back to the bygone era of the good old boy British Colonel and his decorative wife inspecting their plantation holdings. Who came up with this and was not immediately shouted down?
Who decided, amidst all the other backlash they’ve experienced this week for problematic and colonialist tendencies, nah, were keeping the jeep stunt. People will love it!
Do you think there’s anything they have cut from this cursed tour? Like, on second thought, let’s not wear the tiara to dinner, Kate. Let’s not tell the story about how much George likes Blacks.
@Jay I know your last paragraph was meant as a joke but it’s really probably not too far off. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear Kate did have a tiara packed with her and thought she was making a real sacrifice by not wearing it. I’m still dying that William told the bobsled team that his favorite movie is Cool Runnings. You just can’t make this stuff up.
He did NOT tell them his fave movie is Cool Runnings!🥴 (On second thought, I’m more shocked he didn’t tell them that was George’s favorite movie…)
I’ve sort of run out of descriptors in my own brain to express how awful The Other Brother and Kkkeen are. Loathsome, vile, racist, nasty, cruel, selfish, ugly, absurd, copycatting-cosplay dressers, and racist…did I mention racist? I mean, the list is very long. I never had much hope that this tour would be any different to their other vaca-tours (lots of expensive outfits draped in buttons and flag colors, waving to people they don’t give a shit about, a light schedule filled with breaks for “private activities” AKA snorkeling and sunbathing)…but damn, I didn’t think it would have gone this badly. How stupid and clueless do they have to be to mess up so hard? How high on the smell of their own shit are they to not be able to read the room? Like, at all?! They’ve literally sped up the end of the CW!
Well anyway, too bad, so sad for the royally racist duo, but I’m living for every second of their international dragging!! I can’t wait for the fallout of other countries rejecting the queen and the CW…good job Cain 👏🏽👏🏽 Good job Kkkeen 👍🏽
That dress looks like a Sears Easter special.
A steady diet of racism shows on the middle-aged face: Exhibit A.
All the procedures available to privileged humans can’t prevent someone from getting the face that she or he deserves.
The only thing missing is an adoring crowd of spectators. Not only are they trying to recreate the queen’s moments, they’re also trying to capture a moment similar to the one Harry and Meghan had on the hotel balcony in Fiji. They are pathetic.
The rota is probably busy photoshopping in the crowd as we speak,
Yes, l made that observation too. They are nothing but jealous copy cats. Harry and Meghan act had crowds of people cheering them.
Just unbelievable; the greeting kids through a fence, the Southern Belle dress with the Crown jewels & now this
Do either of them have a functioning brain cell?
Their logistics team must hate them
Wonder if Charles & Cam set them up
An absolute unmitigated disaster!!! Thank you, Lamebridges 😘
Am I the only one curious enough to wonder what was said in that jeep and then on the plane ride later???
On the plane: “Let’s make a quick stop in Mustique. We deserve a break”.
for them still do this after they’ve been put on blast for the optics so far is WILD.
I wonder if at this point they believe the people they’re playing to are the white racist brexiteer-types in the UK and abroad, that they’re the ones who will keep them in power, albeit w a smaller “commonwealth, hence the racist dog whistles we see more and more on display also in the US (e.g. SC confirmation hearings, Trump’s entire presidency). Like they’re no longer in hiding, the cruelty is the point…
They look like cake toppers from way back when. It’s time for this dog and pony racist show to end permanently
This has been the worst event so far in a disastrous tour. It just smacks of colonialism and empires. It’s so out of touch with current events and views. I honestly can’t believe they thought this would be a good idea.
No doubt some poor unfortunate staff member will be blamed for misreading the strength of feeling around such events.
Meanwhile in Ireland, Charles and Camilla have done more events in 2 days than the Keenbridges have done in 6 and are highlighting local businesses, good causes etc.
They seem to be having a grand ol time.
After all these shennaningans, Charles and Camilla are coming out smelling like roses lol!
This royal watching sure is entertaining!
Wow in these not photoshopped photos you can really see all the work done to her face. it has that weird botox filler plastic surgery look.
I feel like you can almost see the needle points. Her skin doesn’t take well to botox and fillers, she should stop. It’s not for everyone.
oh boy i havent laughed so hard as ive done the last couple of days. i wonder if Kate & Wills marriage will last till the end of the year, because wills is going to look for someone to blame for this disaster, and those that would have taken the fall are in montecito. Bottom line they didn’t go on a charm offensive because they don’t have the first clue what that is and that is a shame for them. What this shows clearly is Wills has no leadership qualities and lacks the ability to adapt to whats around him. luckiy for him he probably has a few years to learn and maybe do better next time, but at what cost? Granny is too old to take him in hand for a do over and fly over with him to put things right.
Like she did not too long ago in Scotland. After he messed up in his visit she took him back to show him how it’s done.
Finally de Mail on Sunday had a panel discussion where they said William will be livid about this mess , blames de organisers of course and wait for it, known that he had a terrible temper behind de scene’s!!!!
These pictures are historically bad, just tragic. You can see them crying in some. They look sadder than at a funeral, lol. They’re so hateable. Did the monarchy really expect us to take these clowns seriously. What does that say about their view of us. And who does their briefings? The dailymail? I’m convinced their entire team is made up of hair and make up, that’s the only thing that matters to them
See, this is what happens when you believe your own hype. You fail to see your own ineptitude you fail to see you as you really are.
This outfit is very Kentucky Derby/Ascot, which goes with the vibes of that green Scarlett O’Hara dress. I read some journalist saying it was very My Fair Lady. Eliza Doolittle marries a dictator is a good description. Ans not flattering as the RRs tried to spin it.
That’s just it. The queen’s outfit Kate is copying is from Ascot back in the day. Not the review the troops from the jeep in Jamaica, that was more casual. Kate can’t get anything right.
All I see from these photos is how highly Kate thinks of Kate. She’s having a real love affair with herself.
The smug is just radiating off her. She thinks this tour of the islands is her personal catwalk, and this is where she shows the world how valuable she is to the RF. She probably thinks she’s doing a spectacular job so far.
I want a long form behind the scenes oral history of this mess!
KP’s objective was to tap into nostalgia for the Queen but they’ve not realised that the world, especially last two years has moved on from that. Yesterday’s pictures were just terrible and only reminded people of colonialism.
There they were in all their glory, with no screaming adoring crowds. That lonely picture days it all.
Someone really thought it would be a lovely tribute to the Queen in the year of her Jubbly for Will and Kate to recreate the scene from that visit in 1953, irregardless of the changed political reality.
They just view Jamaica and all the black people who live in it as a colonialist fantasy backdrop.
Exactly. Quite pathetic. Their visit was all about them and trying to be popular and the dreadful invisible contract that they have with the press. All they wanted was favourable coverage in the British press. This whole trip was planned as a photo opportunity nothing more nothing less. No thought at all to raising the profile of Jamaican people. Awful!
Cringe cringe CRINGE!!!
I’m amazed at their tone deaf PR.. they wanted to recreate the queen ‘s colonials tours with Philip 50 years ago, propably in order to demonstrate the continuity of the monarchy (no matter what) even after the queen ‘s death. I have a feeling that Charles, despite all his faults, wouldn’t opt for a similar staged photo op. On another note, I think that Kate owns at least three similar white laced dresses. However, our frugal duchess bought a new one…
It also channels the Mountbattens in 1940s India.
YIKES but with a giggle. What complete morons. You CAN NOT fix stupid.
The picture has been posted in black and white – or sepia – whatever the imaging is called. And it looks even worse and drives home what we all have been saying here.
I stumbled on this gem and wanted to share:
https://twitter.com/munyachawawa/status/1507060485530824711
That was amazing!!
Thank you Seraphina, that was hilarious.
“forget lizzie” I AM DYING
“Shut up Andrew!” 🤣🤣🤣
I had to wait until my break to watch this. RECOMMEND!!!
They even got the bunchy Prince William pants correct, and I gasped out loud at the Sean Paul “remix”..
OMG this is a thing of beauty
HILARIOUS!!! I’m gonna be singing “forget Lizzie” all day.
“The most exciting thing we did was hold hands with some poor children.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Oh shut up, Andrew!”
THAT WAS INCREDIBLE. THE SONG?! I hope it goes viral and Sean Paul actually MAKES ONE!! It ALMOST made me want to reactivate my Twitter account just to LIKE IT. aaaaaaah! Thank you!!
Awww, damn…🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😈
This is so good! A bashment remix- yes please! And love the line about the boat in the end- a great nod to the Windrush deportations! Giggling about describing Beenie man wearing all those chains.
Thanks for sharing.
OMG that is awesome.
Besides being racist, useless, f#%king twats, do they have staff working for them who are secretly anti-monarchists?? Because, I mean, this has been stupendously, horrifyingly bad from the get go. Hope this begins to turn the tide in other Commonwealth countries as well (it won’t in Canada unfortunately).
I have to say, I’ve been enjoying the schadenfreude with a really big spoon!
I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Sussex home- can you imagine what they are thinking? They made the best decision ever by leaving this crumbling firm because you know the very next steps when the Cambridge teams returns to the Uk would be to throw maximum effort at discrediting the Sussex family. They would want to shift attention pretty quickly after this disastrous display and we all know the only way they do that successfully is by throwing Meghan and Harry under the bus.
When I saw that dress I was really shocked at how cheap and ugly it is. How can she make expensive/designer clothes look so cheap? White lace dress? Why? With white shoes? And white purse? And white hat? So.much.white. She looks so outdated and like a 50s house wife.
I always feel kind of triggered by this narrative of “perfect wife” because that is not only about clothes but that literally what the message that they want to convey. “Kate’s whole life is about making William happy”, “Kate is such a calming force in William’s life”, “Kate is so much more patient with the kids than I am”… etc etc etc. It is so not the message to send to young girls… I mean… it pisses me off.
Her “perfect wife” image triggers me too because it gives trad wife vibes which is problematic itself
This is very anachronistic. It reminds me of Titanic, where Rose’s mother talks about her daughter not needing to go to University (the purpose of it to find a husband) but Rose has already done that. Carole Middleton apparently was like Rose’s mother in many many ways.
She is so not a role model for women today.
How can you plan a tour of photo ops in the age of live-streaming? Public figures haven’t had the luxury to exist only in staged images in *decades*.
I don’t know where to put this burning question. If mutton mkbutton gets divorced by baldimort does she get to keep all of the clothes PC has paid for? Or does she only get to keep the clothes she came into the marriage with. Would she get to keep big blue-doubt but she may try
Kathy and Bill are idiots. They surround themselves with idiots. Their whole existence is idiotic.
This tour is such an utter sh*t show, and I’m loving it!!! Oh how sweet karma is.
To quote the immortal Jackie Gleason, “ How sweet it is!”
They are way out of their depth. Royals should stick to touring teapot factories and sticking shamrocks on dogs.
“Pivot? After many days of consecutive sh!t storms? No, we shall double down!”
Thank you, Bill and Kathy for this glorious week, lol!
Lol I can’t believe this its almost like Sacha Baron Cohen orchestrated this. Omg. Countdown to blaming Meg in 5 4,3….
Ah yes, William cosplaying the Big White Bwana in his Big White Dictator Uniform complete with unearned medals while his demure wife adoringly cosplays The Queen in white lace. I’m sure she wanted to wear white gloves so as not to actually “touch” black skin. This is so screamingly bad I can’t believe it. But with each new day comes another unbelievably ill thought out gaffe. I can’t wait to see how they’re received in the Bahamas and what new and more insulting behaviour is shown. This tour will go down in history as the beginning of the end of the monarchy.
They looked so ridiculous. It shows the mind set of those two, Big Time.
I wonder if Kate really likes/has an interest in vintage fashion (and yes, cosplay), but since she’s so lazy and has had folks cater to her she’s never really had to work for anything, and so she doesn’t know how to learn and grow with skills/subjects/interests. Or anything at all, really.
I’m not making excuses for her at all, just trying to think of explanations for her fashion choices because it makes no sense to me.
Would make a handsome bridal outfit for a middle aged bride on her second wedding.
In that case, she should keep it.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 oh damn!
@Julia 🔥🔥🔥
I know I’m in the minority here, but I actually don’t hate this dress (I’m a sucker for lace; what can I say) BUT…not here, not now, not recreating this photo op that was bad enough in 1953. It was inappropriate for her to wear it that day on pretty much every possible level.
I gasped when I saw this picture. I mean I know they are racists and she loves to cosplay but this is a new low.
“Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Total shades of the Perons here for me.
“tried to recreate the same scene that the Queen and Prince Philip did in 1953”, indeed, it seems like their focus is only to get good photos (that would look like they’re working).
Doesn’t matter if it’s a utter mess, but, hey look, we took good pictures! LOL
You do you RF, we’ll keep watching you set yourself on fire.
Little did they realize that the Land Rover was actually their joy ride on the karma bus.
Yes.
Karma ; I have 2 new names to add to the list.
I am British with a daughter who would disown me if she thought I was racist. I have prob been in favour of the RF becausecI liked the glamour and personalities of the females of the Queen’s generations and also the continuity. I do not like William and Kate. Always thought William was Diana’s spoilt darling in a way Harry was not. Started to see Kate’s true colours with all the fuss over Kate’s 1st pregnancy when she able to go to a glamorous sports event all dressed up in another city just a week after coming out of hospital at the start of her pregnancy. She does no work and no quiet work for charities. William is nothing like Charles. Charles works the whole time and has raised millions for poor children with the Prince’s Trust. He does loads of ordinary engagements in Britain as does Camilla. I don’t for one second think he or the Queen were racist. The press have stuff on William from his youth. He and Kate are a disgrace. They went through years of treating Charles and Camilla like dirt. It has changed now though as Charles gets nearer the throne and Camilla is to be the next Queen Consort. That tour should never have taken place. The outfits both wore were appalling. Someone is needing to take Kate aside and tell her countries like Jamaica are not the place to wear jewels costing millions and ridiculous, expensive OTT dresses based on what other people have worn. I am from a fairly remote part of Scotland. I do voluntary work for a local organisation which employs many nationalities. I have heard one racist remark in my life. There are horrors of British people – as there are every nationality- but I am writing this to also say there are “good” people too.
I don’t think Kate and William treated Camilla like dirt. Big sign of “getting along” was the bad behavior of Kate and Camilla smirking during Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Diana loved Harry too and did not want to treat William more “special” and I don’t think he liked that, I think the trouble was he liked to be treated more “special.” I was annoyed with Kate when she did no work for months and the break up in 2007 where she had media appearances at nightclubs to show William what he was missing. I think had DIana lived, William would not have gotten away with his treatment of Harry and Meghan. I also think William would not have gone to St. Andrew’s had DIana lived. A lot of things I think would have been so much better. Kate does remind me of a modern Marie Antoinette. And William is no better especially putting on that uniform with Medals.
The Cambridge’s in the early years of their marriage treated Charles and Camilla like dirt, and painted Charles a bad grandfather. Charles loathes Carole who at one point was pushing herself too forward along with Pippa.
Wtf…William looks like a two bit dictator. Is he cosplaying Moanmar Gadhafi, Stalin or what? Who advised him to dress like that and ride around, in the back of a Range Rover, the day after Jamaica rejected him and his idiot wife.
They should have packed up their shit and left. No, instead they decided to go for a leisurely colonist drive down memory lane. So vile on so many levels. Gawd, I am in disbelief on how stupid they are.
Wearing a military uniform while touring somebody else’s country. That takes some nerve. And stupidity. I don’t even get why the royals do that.
He was wearing Jubilee medals, he never saw real action in the military. He has quite an ego. IMO.
But I wonder if, for every retro performance they are able to tic off on the How To Keep Grandma Happy list, they are getting Been There ribbons they can trade in later for something that makes them look less racist. I mean, there’s a chance someone warned them ahead of time they were going to look like idiots… but it might be worth it for them in the long run if there’s financial gain… especially if they don’t care if they look like racists.
The telling difference in the photos is that there were people close to the car when the queen was riding in it. But in the photo with the Cambridges, the people are distant.
Reminds me of those photos of the Mountbattens in India during the forties. William in that uniform and Kate in the lace outfit was really over the top.
Yes!! That’s it! The Mountbattens in India. That’s who she tried to cosplay here, I guess Rose never did a royal tour so she was off the list for Kate to copy.
Next they will “channel” Queen Mary and George V, with Kate wearing jewelry from Queen Mary’s collection. I can see that happening.
A frivolous fashion rant: I hate clutches and you see women using them all the time. Kate uses them only it seems. Then I noticed the old picture of the Queen on her visit to Jamaica and she was using a sensible handbag with the handles looped around one arm. Why have handbags gone away? Clutches are so impractical. You have to keep carrying it in one hand, they can’t hold much at all, and god forbid you put it down at your table or chair and lose sight of it for one minute – so insecure. (I have a birth defect on my left hand, so having to constantly carry something as impractical as a clutch is just not happening anyway.)
I think Kate uses them to tamp down her wild gesticulating. I agree they look silly on her, and in real life frankly.
She needed something to do with her hands. It was addressed as part of her protocol/princess lessons directly.
@Kaiser This is last event? It’s a hot mess and so tone deaf!
Appreciate this isn’t best place to drop this but just saw this on Twitter and wanted to share….a picture of James Middleton with Rot Hooten. Rot is praising him for some mental health thing https://twitter.com/troubleshade/status/1506728293743140870?s=20&t=OZhO7wMGPePkhPvnZAJL7A
So are we now allowed to say that Kate has put a foot wrong? 😂 obv she has many times but will this become cannon?…I’m fascinated to see where the BM goes in the aftermath of the tour that in the future shall not be mentioned. Am mentioning Kate bc the media has never actually said that Will never put a foot wrong, just Kate in comparison to Meghan.
That hat looks like a communion wafer on her head.
After the media shock and awe of this week, the edict has finally come down from William & Kate and their team: deny, deny, deny. All of the royal rota reporters are now claiming that “on the ground” the tour was an unbelievable success, not a foot put wrong. And the problem, apparently, is that royal haters online (Meghan supporters) and unfriendly media (Omid, Americans media, any black or brown reporter, etc.) are lying and have deliberately set out to sabotage the tour. Even some who already said the tour was not great are now saying the opposite. It was perfect and people just wanna hate, apparently. It’s no wonder that this is the same thing their bots and fans on their payroll were already saying 48 hours ago. Now the Daily Mail has a big ass special edition with Kate’snon the cover with the copy “Caribbean Queen”. They’re leaning into colonialism and they’re refusing to acknowledge that anything was wring here. I love it. Neither William nor Kate can handle the truth. They want their bubble sealed tighter than ever, not burst. There will be no reflection and they’ll continue to make fools of themselves on the world stage. Hopefully, they’ll visit Australia and Canada as soon as possible LOL.
Please not Canada.
They wouldn’t get the reception they’re anticipating. Not anymore.
Canada doesn’t want them. They’re probably not aware of it but we have lots of Canadians who came from the Caribbean. They won’t forget this mess.
They would also have to address their silence on the issues relating to the mass graves of indigenous children, many of them started before 1867. The queen has said nothing on this.
@Nyro, that kind of how I was expecting/fearing it will go. Back to business as usual, pretending this shitshow never happened. Just like William did after his offensive remarks about Ukraine earlier this month. Just like the week after the Oprah interview aired.
They’ll take some time off immediately because of course they will, but after that, I feel like they’ll show up to their usual engagements for 45 minutes, smiling and leaving all of this bad press in the past. Nothing negative seems to stick to these two, especially with the ROTA working 24/7 to cover their asses. Even most who admitted the tour was problematic were quick to say it wasn’t W&K’s fault and they were still amazing. It’s gross but idk when we’ll really see any change with the Cambridges.
I think they will trot out the children again. And maybe take “the heir” to a Rugby game.
Cue more compassion shots of Kate with cute black children.
This instruction to the press sounds like something out of Russia, China or North Korea.
To the “CRACKERS” from Belize and Jamaica
YOU’RE FIRED
The PR spin for this royal “tour” is the worst I’ve seen. It’s about endless pictures of Kate and her dresses. Today she is compared to Princess Grace. And then there is a story of her maybe having another BABY. It is so shallow and lots of money apparently spent on it. I wonder if there will be more of a backlash. Kate plays dress up .
But I thought the world was over populated oh silly me that only applies to black and brown people
Even over at What Kate Wore there are rumblings about the unnecessary expense and hypocrisy of this tour. The regulars tried to justify it with, “But it would be disrespectful to their hosts if she wore a repeat!” Huh? There are plenty of disrespectful things she does, but wearing an expensive designer dress for a second time (the horror!) is not one of them.
She could have chosen a local designer.
Creepy.
The daily fail comments are the best, right now
Loving it
If, it is true that a picture is the equivalent to a thousand words, there is an image in the Jamacian Gleaner that described this imposed visit as such especially with the disrespect shown in Trenchtown leg of visit and leaked story of deportation.
It is of the wee ones dressed in their little pinafore uniforms with their little Peter Pan collars waving the St George Cross, England’s flag, not the Union Jack.
That image triumphed, along with this quote in the Gleaner from PM Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda –
” cutting ties with the Queen, is an aspiration of all independent countries.”
It was duly noted by the future King of England in subsequent speeches in the Bahamas.
Karma planned the perfect tour.