Since that cringefest “cancer free” video and subsequent backlash, the Princess of Wales has been trying out different talking points. In the immediate wake of the video and statement, the talking point was: f–k the haters, f–k the media, I’m going to do what I want. Then it was: of course I’ll eventually be back, I just need more time to rest and recover, but don’t hold your breath. There was an undercurrent to the backlash too, something about “Kate can grope ferns in the woods but she can’t do some Zooms for charity?” Well, Kate heard the criticism and she organized a “private meeting” at Windsor Castle, something about the fakakta Early Years.
Kate Middleton has officially returned to work, just a week after announcing she was cancer-free and had finished chemotherapy in an unprecedentedly personal video. Wednesday’s Court Circular, a bulletin published by Buckingham Palace every day detailing the official activities of the royals, said that the princess convened a meeting for her signature ‘Early Years’ project on Tuesday. She has previously described the cause, which focuses on raising awareness about the importance the first five years of life for children’s development, as her life’s work.
The statement read simply: “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this afternoon held an Early Years Meeting at Windsor.” It marked Kate’s first appearance in the Court Circular since December last year and will be seen as a huge milestone on her path to recovery.
The meeting was conducted behind closed doors and no images have been released.
Kate is only expected to make two public, official appearances this year, with attendance at the national Remembrance Day service in November pencilled into her diary, along with an appearance at an annual carol service which she sponsors in December.
I’m glad she’s well enough to do this. What’s slightly funny to me is that “sources” have previously insisted that Kate was doing some work from home, that she was reading emails or briefing papers or what have you. But I guess none of that counted – it only counts when it’s on the Court Circular, right? The Daily Beast also referred to this meeting as a “special project.” Meaning what, exactly? Is she going to commission another ridiculous claymation video? Another survey? Another relaunch of “Kate is keen about Early Years, no follow-up questions needed.”
The photos in this post are from January 2023, when Kate wore a McQueen tuxedo jacket to a big Early Years meeting at Windsor Castle. She met with her “Early Years advisors” and carried a small notebook, to doodle pie charts.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talks with experts from across academia, science and the early years sector, including Professor Peter Fonagy, Professor Eamon McCrory, Dr Alain Gregoire, Dr Trudi Seneviratne, Ed Vainker, Carey Oppenheim, Imran Hussain and Beverley Barnett-Jones, at Windsor Castle in Windsor on January 25, 2023. – The Advisory Group has been created to offer strategic advice to The Princess of Wales and provide oversight of the work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.,Image: 751670522, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talks with experts from across academia, science and the early years sector, at Windsor Castle in Windsor on January 25, 2023. – The Advisory Group has been created to offer strategic advice to The Princess of Wales and provide oversight of the work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.,Image: 751670525, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talks with experts from across academia, science and the early years sector, at Windsor Castle in Windsor on January 25, 2023. – The Advisory Group has been created to offer strategic advice to The Princess of Wales and provide oversight of the work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.,Image: 751670526, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talks with experts from across academia, science and the early years sector, at Windsor Castle in Windsor on January 25, 2023. – The Advisory Group has been created to offer strategic advice to The Princess of Wales and provide oversight of the work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.,Image: 751680733, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talks with experts from across academia, science and the early years sector, at Windsor Castle in Windsor on January 25, 2023. – The Advisory Group has been created to offer strategic advice to The Princess of Wales and provide oversight of the work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.,Image: 751680735, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
What a waste of time…. Anyway, I don’t pay for them so none of my business!
I honest to God do not understand the main idea behind her “signature” work. “raising awareness about the importance the first five years of life for children’s development”. Everyone already knows that so now what?
Look! Awareness raised! Her groundbreaking work here is done /s.
Everytime when the Early Years comes up I wonder what they do besides surveys. I don’t live in England but how are they raising awareness?
She’s probably going to do a survey to see if there are any children under 5 in the U.K. anymore. I think she pays attention to exactly 3 children.
Dear V S, We don’t pay for them either, except when they show up in my country (Canada). However if they show up again I think we should organize La Tomatina as a welcome party. Dump the RF!
How much awareness can she raise if the meetings are always closed off to the public and reporters.
Kate must be tuckered out after a 10 minute meeting. Especially after recording a bs video that needed multiple takes. BUT YAY! Kate did something for a few minutes.
Maybe she is going to do another creepy video but for her “Early Years Project” whatever that is. Creepy video seems to be her thing these day. She can control it and she doesn’t have to be in public to do it.
Why not? She can make some more charts.
Other people can make some more charts and she can present them as her own.
The Wales are grifters who are allowed to pick and choose when they show their faces because what they are doing is not work
The way the British press is reacting to this it’s like a great feat that Kate has gone back to work after chemo. Most cancer patients don’t have the privilege of not working while undergoing chemo. The messaging surrounding Kate’s condition is just bad PR and is very annoying.
This!👆👆👆. Do we actually have to give her a cookie for doing the bare minimum? ( and I seriously doubt she even did that !!)
She isn’t even doing the bare fecking minimum. Did she show her face? Did she have any meaningful interaction with the public who PAYS for her lifestyle, her security, et al? Did she bollocks…
I’m old enough to remember when the British press ripped Meghan for “being in hiding” (read: feeling suicidal b/c of their behaviour and that of the BRF and the courtiers).
To paraphrase the article in The Times:
“Kate is trying to break the royal social contract: we pay, you pose”
If she’s well enough to hang all over Huevo like wilted lettuce and cavort in the woods in a dodgy video, she’s well enough to attend a conference via Zoom, and she’s well enough to visit a cancer wing like Horsey McHorseface did. If she’s worried about contagion, she can embrace her Cosplay Nature and wear a lovely patterned N95 grade mask, just like other royals in other countries do!
BRF has two choices: 1. Own up to what *really* happened to Huesa this past year, AND Huevo’s potential part in it… up to and including addressing unceasing divorce rumors, OR 2. Put the Heir and his wife to WORK. No more half duty, no more long vacations.
Her Late Maj said she “had to be seen to be believed”. They all do. And not via AI generated content concocted by beefwitted courtiers.
Sorry to hear that, but in many European countries, cancer patients who undergo treatment do not have to work. Working rights are very different outside the US.
Unfortunately in the U.S. our healthcare is tied to employment so even if we *could not work during a major illness you – and your whole family – could lose your healthcare at the exact moment you need it most. It’s a very effective tool for keeping people too terrified to leave or lose their jobs so workers are less likely to speak up for better working conditions and higher pay, etc. I hate it here.
yeah the US sucks, but I dont get the impression from other British posters that you can just say “I have cancer” and take unlimited time off which is what is happening here.
But they still have to return to work after treatments finish, right? I read that article linked in Kaiser’s other Kate article. The woman who works for the Guardian wrote about what her return to work after chemo was like & how she cannot relate to Kate’s version.
I’d bet good money this was last min to combat the backlash from the Temu Boden ad from last week and the narrative from KP that she’s not going to be doing anything much for the rest of the year at least. Even if they released a photo of it would anyone believe it.
Temu Boden!!!! 😂😂😂😂 that’s totally what it was!
Temu Boden
😂😂😂
I agree completely. Someone at KP told Kate to get her butt over to the castle in a hurry. (I can’t remember where I saw it, I dont think it was in the CC, but at some point I saw a record of Early Years meetings and the actual center/foundation “she” started has more regular meetings than the ones she attends. It seems like she attends 10%.)
Temu Boden is perfect. I was thinking wish.com Ralph Lauren, but there wasn’t enough polo playing/sailing for that.
This Shein Cialis commercial was gross mostly because it makes Kate look far too healthy to be not even doing Zooms. This is absolutely a response to that. But pics or didn’t happen.
Was it another meeting with staff which counts for her court circular?
Also someone on twitter said that if you add up her engagements last year it only amounts to about 3 weeks full.
Their standard is abysmal…
Such an important meeting and of course behind closed doors .
Do we really believe that? That she actually held a meeting? OK…she probably just said hi to the staff of the arly years project who came to visit 😉
Nope. We do not believe any of this. Either Kate is much worse off than they are saying (and I’ve always had a hunch that this is more about a mental breakdown than a physical breakdown) or Will and Kate are the laziest people in the world.
If I were one of her handlers/“staff”, I would schedule ongoing meetings of this advisory group at KP and she could stop by for a couple minutes whenever she felt like tallying a work event in the Court Circular. KP clearly can’t schedule anything long-term that relies on Kate or William because they are so erratic and weird.
honestly, I think this is exactly what happens.
Given how easy it is to game the system (yes Anne has always done big numbers, she also packs events in on her working days and has plenty of time to hang out with her horses – at this point I wouldn’t begrudge her a retirement but that’s not the point here) I still can’t understand how they are so bad at this.
And did she actually go to an office? Or to the zoom room in whichever of her many residences is set up for that?
The rotting initiative with “work” that takes to nowhere. Do something and bring it to fruition fgs.
Big corp getting involved? Nothing
Big 5 questions? Couldn’t even follow up correctly with that
That sounds so fake? It doesn’t make sense that it’s real. Kate’s fake illness, fake wor. It’s funny but it’s offensive
People in England are dealing with the terrible after-effects of Brexit and years of Tory economic policy such as the high costs of food and energy, cold weather is coming, more children and elderly people will be hungry and dealing with the high costs of heating, the NHS is still underfunded despite the big red bus promises, and this twit schedules another meeting in the Early Years closet (I mean, office) to announce that early childhood is important. 🙄
She had a meeting at Windsor but “it was behind closed doors and there weren’t any pictures”
Sure Jan.
More pie charts and pretending to be an expert
At least Tom Sykes is being truthful here about her “Early Years” project: “She has previously described the cause, which focuses on raising awareness about the importance the first five years of life for children’s development, as her life’s work.”
That’s all there is. Raising awareness. About the importance of the first five years of life. Period. I guess if you didn’t get the right sort of…something in the first five years, you’re doomed. Maybe she’ll plan a yougov poll to ask people if they know the first five years is important.
Yup. At this point she could just release a statement on Instagram saying that the early years are important and we should remember that each year and it would have a similar impact. By now, who on earth doesn’t believe that a good start to life helps??
And good grief, relating to cancer patients is Right There! Presuming that she can relate.
It’s so offensive. In California, we have “First 5 California”, and have since 1998. 1998!!!! For the rota and royals who think Little Britain invented everything, that was the YEAR AFTER DIANA DIED. Harry was 13 years old when California started their early childhood intervention program.
And that’s just California! I am sure this is replicated world-wide.
It’s sad that no one believes her. The Wails have zero credibility. No one believes she actually put the effort into a meeting nor does anyone believe a meeting took place bc there is nothing to meet about. Her projects aren’t real.
What has she actually achieved with this early years project, who has she helped, how many children have actually benefited from these meetings and pie charts.
OK we got that the early years are important ..so what is Madam doing about it . No focus at all . Will she push for any change in child care, nutrition and paediatric check ups, funding for longer maternity leave , good day care for struggling families , aid for children who need hospital care, reading programmes in libraries ..it’s good to focus on a vulnerable segment but what is she doing or planning to do that will make an actual difference . All I can see is her playing CEO in a suit , flapping a notebook and trying to look professional, though the manic grin , jazz hands and mad eyes don’t help . Somebody keep that woman out of sight please .
I thought of those back to school drives for school supplies. Imagine the donations she could solicit
Probably a lot fewer children than those who have benefited from Harry flying in to support programs like the WellChild awards and Scotty’s Little Soldiers.
It’s maddening to see stuff like this meeting getting treated so seriously. Even IF anyone actually needs to be reminded that the Early Years are IMPORTANT, has Kate —or anyone in her office — actively partnered with any early childhood initiatives or programs to do fundraising or research on effective interventions? I think Sure Start might be similar to the Head Start programs that I’m more familiar with in the US, and programs like these can almost always benefit from additional funding, training and support for staff, as well as stronger integration with other successful family and community support programs. Perhaps these things are already being done successfully — but wouldn’t specific programs benefit more from Royal attention more than general pie charts about the importance of “awareness “?
More to the point though, at least three children have probably (hopefully?) benefitted from the meetings and the pie charts. I imagine that life in the Wales households is calmer and more peaceful when Kate has a project that she can use to highlight her importance to the Firm. (Although maybe “impotence” is closer to the truth.)
LOL, these people…
How did that old, overused phrase go?
Pics or it didn’t happen.
So, yeah. It’s not like no one couldn’t even take one pic on their phone.
And we didn’t get any names, or anything.
In other words — paper doesn’t blush.
I for one am not looking forward to seeing those jazz hands again.
Now is this the re-launch of the re-launch or just getting back to “work?” Just curious. Why doesn’t she have any other staff of the Early Years briefing the public about this “groundbreaking” work? What a scam and waste of time.
I think we’re up to the fourth re-launch, closing in on the fifth. Which means we’ll be hitting the fifth anniversary of the Early Years. In the last five years, Kate dear, resulting from your initiative, what has changed in the lives of children who are now five? How are their lives better, safer, happier, healthier?
The Tories, much like the magats in America, are awful and don’t want to fund the government to benefit the working and middle class. Keener is really limited in what she can say or do with the ‘arly years because the constitutional role of the Windsors is so limited (and the Windsors are heavily aligned with the Tory trash). This will always be a nothing burger project because: 1. Kenner is lazy and doesn’t really want to do anything significant. And. 2. Her constitutional role is to not interfere means this will never accomplish much. This is just such a cyclical project because it is all about busy work and pr and not beneficial.
I thought the Tories were ousted from government? I imagine under Labour they’d be pleased to have the royal cooperation to fundraise for a specific cause. Obvs she can’t fundraise for government, but she could a specific charity. Just keep your money away from The Royal Foundation, cause then it disappears into the abyss, never to be seen again.
This is why I dont get it with cancer and KP weird message. I also dont get people saying her retirement etc. Most of the backlash from BP and the press. Because BP courtiers are different bred and they dont like future queen hiding. I dont think KP courtiers are transition into king william but BP people will remind and this is their way of pulling strings. They will not allow kate to retired with full taxpayer money. You guys giving kate and mama Middleton too much power. There is something going on and piers said in one of his video kate have problem with her lady parts and piers sources are from camilla herself.
If Piers Morgan said that, he’s wrong.
She’s done jack shit all year and next to nothing since she was married. She’s already “retired” on the taxpayers’ pound sterling. W&K do as they please.
I don’t need pictures – I’ll just assume that if it’s in the Court Circular, it actually happened. But this meeting could mean anything. I don’t imagine that she suddenly invited a boatload of experts to Windsor – maybe she was able to schedule them on zoom, just maybe. My guess is that she met with whomever is still left on her staff to ask them “what’s happening”?
I think there has been an Early Years committee set up and they meet periodically. I am not sure if they meet monthly or quarterly, but this committee seems to go on without her for the most part.
The one thing this did show is that there was no working behind the scenes since December because it would have been in the Court Circular as this was.
Also we have no idea if she attended the entire meeting. We never will.
I can’t how little substance Princess Doolittle Kate has. How lazy can you be over so many years? All on the taxpayer’s dime. It’s so laughable…
It takes a lot of chutzpah to take so much and give so very little.
Photos that included other members in the meeting or short video of said meeting as proof, otherwise I consider this meeting did not happen at all.
CC is not reliable souce. CC just records what every palaces send them. That’s why H&M did not have fluff activities on CC & the Wails had “Plan ride from Boston back to Heathrow” on CC.
Just to add, WanK & KP have always inflate their work count on CC. During COVID lockdown, they counted every phone call to an individual in the same events as one work count. If it’s H&M, it would just be ONE work count even if they spent 1or 2 hours talking to people. Not the Doolittle couple. They counted it as 5 or 6 CC entries. The recipes were in the CC records if anyone is interested in verifying it.
Kate probably wanted a transfusion of fawning praise about her bravery in dealing with cancer, so her aides pulled together a group of people who could provide it.
I imagine she stayed a few minutes to drink in the praise … mumbled a few inanities … and then returned to her chaise longue to watch “Love Island” on the public dime.
Honestly, it’s infuriating how even U.S. media outlets fall for this “return-to-work” nonsense.
Them trying out all of these different talking points to see which ones will stick is honestly making me dizzy. It’s such a stupid strategy.
C’mon give us the truth
Bollocks. It’s only to make her look busy as usual.
I notice that the notebook is lying on the table closed. Usually you need a pen to make use of a notebook. Kate is carrying a notebook, but no pen attached. Surely she doesn’t always have a pen in her pocket? I would believe it if there is even one picture of her scribbling furiously into that notebook.
There’s a pen with it as she walks in, I think its one of those notebooks that comes with a loop for a pen. We know its an important notebook because it says “NOTEBOOK” on the cover as all important notebooks do.
Exactly my thought, but if you look at the smaller photos included at the end of the article, there is one in which Kate has a pen. She doesn’t appear to keep it in the spiral part of the notebook, or attached to the pages. I usually do this & carry multiple pens, since I always seem to be misplacing mine. Then again, lots of people these days take notes on their phones or iPads, so I don’t know why Kate bothers with her little notebooks labeled ‘NOTEBOOK’.
“It marked Kate’s first appearance in the Court Circular since December last year…” How can this be true if she attended Trooping & Wimbledon, both considered ‘work’. As was that congratulatory tweet/Insta post for the Olympic team. Not sure about her own bench video and this recent shampoo ad.
This is why William looks so scruffy and rough. He knows the jig is up, they both have to get back to duties (I refuse to call it work).