In the chaos of the Princess of Wales’s health crisis and disappearance, not to mention King Charles’s cancer battle, it’s quickly being forgotten that Prince William’s behavior in the first half of the year was really odd. William’s people have been trying to convince everyone for months that Huevo’s behavior can be explained by his wife and father facing cancer battles, but I don’t see it that way. He’s centered himself at every turn, all while throwing his sick/missing wife under the bus at every inconvenience. He’s looked unprepared, shaky, contemptuous of his role and eager to take credit for doing the barest f–king minimum. I keep thinking back to the tea spilled by Tina Brown back in April, that William and Kate are basically frozen from fear and profoundly unready. Well, one royal expert is at least admitting that William has been unsteady this year.

While Prince William has long been trained to lead the royal family, no one could’ve anticipated he’d need to step in for King Charles III so soon into the monarch’s reign.

“Maybe he wasn’t emotionally prepared for it,” royal historian Gareth Russell exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing William stepping up amid Charles and Princess Kate Middleton’s cancer battles. “[Charles] — yes, is elderly — but his father was famously quite healthy and lives well, eats well, and according to his wife, Queen Camilla, just never stops walking.”

Russell noted that there’s “a lot” on the Prince of Wales’ plate, including the D-Day remembrance.

“I think they were very keen that as senior a royal as possible would go … I think the hope was the king would go,” he said. “Whilst that is — it’s a huge event, it’s a huge commemoration, there’ll be many eyes on him — that is the heir to the throne’s job, and it certainly should be something that he is prepared to do.”

Russell added that “so far” William has shown himself to be “more than competent and capable” in doing so.

“Certainly when it comes to something of the emotional significance of the D-Day commemorations to many people in Britain and in America, you do want someone there who is prepared and capable to fulfill the ceremonial role,” he said.

[From Us Weekly]

I think it’s correct that William wasn’t “emotionally prepared” for whatever has gone down in the past six months. I would argue that he wasn’t prepared at any level – structurally, emotionally, intellectually or physically. The man looked like he crawled out of a bottle for his events for months. His office staff was in flux for months because of his harebrained scheme to appoint a low-ego “keen CEO.” He’s always been coddled and babied by the press and his family, and now that it’s crunch time, he doesn’t know how to behave like a capable 40-something heir to the throne.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.