This is too funny. We’ve been waiting all week for Prince William and Kate to release their Christmas card. The British outlets have been especially needy about it, and those outlets have been doing the most to analyze and insult the Sussexes’ card. Now it looks like Kate and William couldn’t even make it to the Olan Mills mall studio this year. Instead, they used a screen-grab from that commercial they made over the summer, which they released in September.
Something really funny and weird is going on with this family. They spent multiple days filming that “cancer-free” announcement video in Norfolk, and no one thought to do some costume changes and take some “new photos” which could be endlessly recycled? No one thought to organize a simple photoshoot in Windsor, where they all allegedly live? Will and Kate thought they would reuse a shot from a massively criticized video? Fascinating. Anyway, merry Christmas from the Wales family. It’s also pretty funny that they timed the release to coincide with the pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace. You know, the lunch they skipped, and their staff briefed reporters about their absence.
Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas 🎄 pic.twitter.com/pL3t13sTlu
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) December 19, 2024
Screencaps from Kensington Palace’s video, Cover Images.
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales with the Prince of Wales and Princess Charlotte. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales with the Prince of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
If that was the best screen grab that I could come up with, I wouldn’t!
Same. I like that the screen grab makes it seem more candid but Kate is not looking at the camera!
And her eyes are wonky. This is William giving both his father and the Middletons the middle finger.
He thinks he’s being subtle.
Huh. So u think William picked this pic and not Kate? Or at least okayed it. Hmm, I can a staff member saying this one and him saying sure. The main thing I notice is that it’s giving S-P-A-C-E bw Kate and William .
That’s the bit that leapt out at me, they couldn’t even find a point where everyone was looking at the camera? Yikes.
I get a strong ‘Kate is no longer with us start forgetting her’ vibe from the choice. Maybe she was going with the whole ‘look at me I’m so fragile and shy’ (HA!) vibe if she picked it. I on’t know. It’s more weirdness to close out their super weird year.
She is looking at the camera actually. People Mag had a screen grab where she is looking at it and she looking at it in the Christmas card too. She looks exhausted in the pic and her eyes are in shadow but she’s definitely looking at it. In the pic above here on this website she’s not and looking down but it’s not the correct screen grab they used for the photo. There’s no way Kate would allow a photo of her looking down for a Christmas card!
@VilleRose you’re right – that’s not the right screengrab. It’s almost 100% the same but the one they used has Kate looking at the camera. but still a weird choice because her eyes and George’s are in shadow.
my exact thought as well. If a screengrab was the best they could do, then whatever – but that was the best screengrab they could come up with?!?!
This was a screen grab from when the video first came out so they didn’t even make the effort to find a new one.
The rota are trying hard to cover for the, being late about releasing it too, although it’s likely they waited to cover for the fact they were skipping the lunch.
This is what WanK are good at: holding grudges, blanking family, and phoning it in when it comes to observing social niceties and family obligations.
I think if this was strategically released to focus pull from Fred & Glady’s Sad Time Lunchtime, it would be hilarious. Unfortunately, we can’t give WanK or their courtiers credit for that much intelligence…QED all of 2024.
They searched for a shot wherein they were all smiling, I guess.
The ”overshadowing” argument doesn’t apply anymore, right?
Willy has been overshadowing his father, Camella, his wife, all the time this year.
I don’t want to hear one tabloid, RR, or commentator running their mouths screaming “overshadowing”, when Harry or Meghan (or both of them) have events/activities on the same day as any of the left-behind royals.
Harry and/or Meghan doing something on the same week and on a different continent gets them all up in arms. So ridiculous!
Even the BM side-eyed that summer eve’s commercial so using a screen-grab from that very commercial is certainly a choice. Are they stubbornly doubling down and just not having any f-cks left to give? Maybe idk? Anyways, the kids look cute bc they are cute kids.
Still trying to sell we are a happy family crap I see. So happy they could not even go to lunch together.
No one’s buying it. Charlotte’s disgusted face when her parents kissed like she’s never seen it before gave it all away and the fact that during this day of production, no one could stand still a few seconds for a family shot it. This tells me, this was shot by a family member who was just told to do a video, and they did a video without thinking twice. These 2 Lazies could never act, the only reason why they felt comfortable enough to kiss and hug each other on camera was because the cameraperson was someone they knew well enough. So last timr they were all together was this spring/summer??
Or the photographer was a professional and told them “hey guys, you know how bad it will look without any PDA, please fake it” and they respected his/her professional opinion. William looks like a hostage in many of the shots.
On a separate note, does anybody think the photo of William and the kid taken jumping over a grassy dune, and attributed to Kate, was taken on the same day by whoever?
the kids are cute….
It’s going to be interesting when the grow up and start talking about their childhoods.
I think the treatment of Harry is supposed to be a warning and scare tactict.
I agree with Jais. Both the media and the BRF are making an example of Harry, so no one would dare to do the same thing again.
I think by the time the Kids grow up, it won’t matter some much hope fully the old guard rota will be out to pasture.
When i left home my dad threatened to tear up my passport, now the rest are out, so in Essence Harry has paved the way
Actually @sevenblue, I do believe H is gonna keep talking about how freeing it is to remove yourself from the “control-by-fear” which the british media (with surreptitious help from the courtiers and private secretaries) has held over the head of the weak-willed Windsors since they stupidly made that contract with the Rota about 50 years ago.
I believe it will have an impact on the upcoming generation of windsors. Not that theyll necessarily leave as H did…………H had to leave because the Machiavellians were planning to Diana his wife and son. But imagine the schadenfreude if the new generation of windsors remain and stage their mutiny from within!
There’s no world Charlotte and/or Louis arent given the Harry treatment when they are teenagers onwards.
That’s probably one reason Will is so angry at Harry for leaving. If they were still in the UK, Archie and Lili would have been the sacrificial lamb.
The BM has already started giving Louis the Harry treatment, with various articles side-eyeing his behavior at public events. And the nasty sheeple in the comments section are jumping right on it.
Luckily Archie and Lili live far away in a land called montecito bc yeah they’re still meant to be the sacrificial lambs, even moreso than charlotte and Louis. Luckily they don’t live in the uk or get photographed often. But just look at all these stories created from the back of their heads. The Sussexes taking them somewhere else was the best thing they could have done bc the Rota are still gonna try it even without any access
They are adorable! They are really lucky too that they have non-royal, non-aristocratic grandparents, aunt and uncle in the Middletons. Harry didn’t have that as a kid.
Why does Willie always look like he’s been sucking on a lemon? He’s so sour-faced, stiff, and unnatural in front of the camera.
Maybe its that small R energy.
I think that pharmaceutical ad that they made really pissed off KC so they used it as their card photo to piss him off even more.
Reminding people of the “shampoo commercial” not a good thing.
There is something like..’I am no longer competing because I am competing’ This is what is going with this Wales release. The Sussex holiday card and the worldwide reaction to it threw them off their game. In Nigeria we call this ‘I NO PLAY AGAIN’..and you then walk away crying.
The other pictures of william gritting his teeth and frowning as Kate comes on to him–priceless. . There was an “agreement” imo to show they were still a loving couple but William clearly does not like it.
Something something blindsided, stepping on media cycles, etc etc? This is downright hilarious. Why don’t they just write “SUCK IT CHARLES” on the card and be done with it?
This gave me a hearty chortle. A bemused harumph, if you will.
Can you IMAGINE?! Lmao
I’m laughing cuz you’re so right. Releasing it during the luncheon he skipped is a vibe so yeah it’s an FU Christmas card with swirly letters reading SUCK IT CHARLES!
And releasing something that screams LOW EFFORT to boot. Adding insult to injury.
This makes me think of the stories from my parent friends when they find out at 9pm that some massive creative endeavour is due at school the next morning.
LOL! You nailed it.
And are we now going to get articles minutely critiquing the clothing choices? And how they need to send Charles a more personal photo?
Hmmmm. What adjective could the rota bestow? Surely not suburban😂
It isn’t super shocking they used something from the video. The last photo shoot they did was used for 4 different events. The Mother’s Day photo is going to come from this video shoot too.
I completely understand capturing a lot of content when everyone is dressed up and in prince/princess-mode and then using it in several places. I’m not demanding something new with new clothes in a new location.
HOWEVER. Have one of the dozen cameras in attendance shoot some stills! Or at least capture something documentary-style during an outtake. But at least offer up something fresh. This “screen grab” business is so lazy. Especially for people whos entire job is being photographed.
“So you wanna a xmas card? There’s your darn xmas card!” – the Wales’es
😂
LMAO! They really middle fingered this entire effort.
It’s a pleasant enough picture and perfectly represents their lack of effort about pretty much everything.
Low effort + weird vibes = WanK 2024
It’s too funny they picked this awful sepia “we’re such a happy loving family, seriously, we just are, really, truly” screenshot because *so many* people said they’d use something out of this badly made commercial.
Way to remind everyone that nothing is as it seems.
And Mumblina McKeen is still FakeyKatie Missington, and Harry’s brother Bulliam the Incandescent is still a Slumlord billionaire who skims off “his” part of donations to charities.
Willy hates tampon Chuck so much to drop this in the middle of his Christmas lunch.
Kate’s hand is practically in her husband’s crotch, for crying out loud.
And Louis is showing the camera that, unlike in the Frankenphoto, his fingers are intact.
To my eye, it IS another frankenphoto. It does not look right – Kate looks like she’s in a photo that was cut out and glued next to the photo of William and Louis, and she doesn’t look like she’s actually sitting down like everybody else, either. She looks like she’s standing. And the whole family looks superimposed on a fake background, although for no apparent reason. I’d say it’s another composite. She probably can’t help herself!
She’s trying to spare the public yet another unadulterated view of the Royal Moose Knuckle.
First time she’s done a true service in aid of the public good in yonks
I think this is a weird choice. If they were going to choose a photo from that day, have an actual photograph taken, not a screen grab. This just screams laziness.
I wonder if they weren’t going to put out a christmas card as an eff you after the mothers day debacle and put this out at the last minute.
Do you think this is their take on being ‘cool’? Like hey look we’re chill, we don’t try to hard or do stiff formal photos, we’re just a casual family?
Or maybe I’m giving them way too much credit and they just DNGAF.
It’s the latter isn’t it?
I don’t think it’s trying to be cool. I think it’s the best they could do this year. They’re aware the Rota and even the public would like to see a cute new photo. So it’s either stubbornness to not give one or an inability to give a new one for whatever reason. The whatever reason is doing a lot though.
LOL @SarahCS yes I think you are giving them too much credit.
For whatever reason, as @Jais said, they were unable to put out a new photo, even a new photo from this same video session. Is it because they are never together? Is it because due to Kate’s health, theres no way to predict when she might have a good day for a picture? I have no idea. But there is something weird about this. It almost feels like they forgot they should release a card until the last minute.
*health – referring to mental, not cancer.
@SarahCS A little of column A, a little of column B?
It’s a dual case of them, yet again, trying to Copykeen “California Casual Chic” (and failing utterly at it)… while also being the laziest human beings on the planet.
Two things can be true at once.
What’s most interesting to me about this choice is that Wills and Louis look back burner and Kate and the older 2 are featured. That doesn’t seem like William’s style!
That pose reminds me of the way Scamantha Markle leans as far away as possible from Meghan in that wonky graduation pic.
LMFAO
Anyhooooo………..I’ll never forget (and things like this latest sleight-of-hand by the WAILS remind me) that after the usual shit-stirrers in the british shitmedia failed to get the results they wanted, following their most recent avalanche of “separation” stories about H&M, I saw a bunch of them on a #SSquad twitter feed, sitting around on a podcast, expressing their utter perplexity that H&M had not used the opportunity to be seen out and about as a couple, looking lovey-dovey to show the world that they were not “separated.”
That in fact, they seemed to have doubled-down, with H going solo to NY for the DealBook thingy and M going solo to her friend’s baby shower.
They were really flummoxed that H&M werent playing that game, saying its what the royals have always done: i:e when rumors spread about them, they come out to be seen doing the opposite.
Do you recall that soon after Spare came out and the accusation of racism in the RF was rampant, Bully and kitty went on an engagement (with 2 black people) and a skillfully positioned “person in the crowd” shouted out to Bully: “Is the royal family a racist family, sir?” And Bully said: “We’re very much not a racist family.”
And then we had the very blatant example this past summer of the shampoo commercial with the WAILS family frolicking in the woods, cosplaying scenes from Twilight, to “prove” that they were very happy and in love, after the internet was flooded with rumors of their separation/divorce.
And so, here we are. Happy families on display again. Altho they (i:e the courtiers who posted this) couldnt be arsed to do something new or to have come to this conclusion within the time-frame that they usually posted their xmas card……..which goes to show how dire things are behind the scenes.
My conclusion:………….Bully is chomping at the bits to get back to the status quo ante of the end of 2023 when the plan was to begin phasing her out. Then the Middlebums made their counter-move, which bought them a whole 12 months.
Now……….its time to pay the piper….and the Middlebums have run out of credit.
That was after the Oprah interview but I agree, the RRs are trying to force H&M into joint appearances to “dispel” the divorce rumors (rumors that the RRs put out there) and then we see the same thing for the Waleses. They’re putting out these happy family videos and photos (that end up looking completely awkward) but time is running out IMO.
William could always have taken the chopper to lunch and returned that afternoon. That would have generated a few “poor, frail Catherine” articles and still upstaged the luncheon (presumably the goal here), just in a different way. And only a few embittered BM commenters would have noticed the environmental hypocrisy.
Cringe. 😳
That whole video looked like a family day visit to mummy at the asylum.
Yes, I see everyone treating her with kid gloves and even William letting her grope him. I’m sure that must have pained him to do that.
Well, at least no one will accuse them of photoshopping this one LOL.
A Christmas card? Really?
Kate looks drugged.
It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen George though so I guess that is something.
No doubt this was released today because they skipped the luncheon.
Tomorrow’s Daily Fail headline: “Will & Kate’s sweet Christmas card photo a reminder that they are better tv producers than Harry & Megan.”
She is actually looking at the camera in the photo they used, the above screen grab is not the correct one.
This is definitely an improvement over last year’s sepia mall photo shoot but it’s not great either. I don’t care that it’s from the video but could they use one where everyone is in frame? The kids all look happy and cute though I don’t love how Louis was relegated to the very edge of the frame and is cut off in an awkward way due to his blurred arm (again not in the photo above, we see his whole arm in the above pic but they cut it off in the actual photo they used). And it may not be intentional but Charlotte and George are very prominently featured and Louis almost looks like an afterthought here. Kate’s eyes are cast deep in shadow and she looks exhausted as she looks at the camera. They’ve definitely had better Christmas photos.
Lazy to the bitter end . Too damn lazy to take a picture? I guess Kate and wank couldn’t fake it for a staged photo.
This is such a FU from the Wales to Charles and Camilla by releasing it DURING the lunch. And a total FU to the media by releasing a video still from months ago. Honestly this pleases me greatly lol.
So I’ve definitely considered whether it’s a stubborn F-U to the media but why? The rota has truly covered their asses so many times this year. And it’s the roar that cares about these Christmas picks so why give them an F-U when they’re the ones actually explaining away the frankenphoto as sweet light editing from a mom?
The rota that cares about these Christmas pictures not the roar🙄
It’s not an FU to the rota for the reasons you state. William dropped his lawsuit in order to ingratiate himself to the rota, he wouldn’t plan a dinky Christmas card about annoying them. Harry to his credit is doing the right thing by continuing the lawsuit, and the BM is sending a message by sh!t-posting Harry and Meghan that William certainly hasn’t missed. If this is an FU to anybody, it’s an FU to Charles and Camilla. Although, Occam’s razor suggests that W and K are just lazy and selfish.
Its an eff you to the rota, FOR SURE. They wanted a new picture they could splash on the front page and use as an eff you in its own way to H&M.
William is working with the press but also hates the press, so its an interesting back and forth.
Here, they were obviously under pressure to release SOMETHING, so released this, and even a new picture from that same session would have been better. This is literally just a screengrab. There is nothing there that warrants front page coverage or really any kind of coverage.
this is also an eff you to the general media, especially AP and Reuters, who raised the alarm about the Frankenphoto. “You dont like our photos?? well okay say THIS was photoshopped!”
The timing is an eff you to cHarles and camilla.
Its totally a FU to the media. Yes William has played their games and worked with them but he loathes them as much as Harry does. He’s basically like ‘FU here are some crumbs you dumb peasants and you should be grateful for them.’ Who is going to complain and criticize? He’s going to be King sooner rather than later and the rota want whatever access (especially as the Wales kids age). So they will put up with it.
Is no one going to talk about how Louis appears to be taller than Charlotte in the picture of them walking on the woodland path? LOL
Nothing screams Christmas like a Harlequin Romance Summer’s Eve screenshot.
Enjoy wherever you’re having your Christmas lunches…Waity at AC or Anmer and Slumlord Bill with his mistress. I think 2025 is going to be the year of the separation announcement, it couldn’t be more clear that they’ve both completely given up even a modicum of effort at continuing the sham, and C&C couldn’t give a toss.
C&C are revelling in this, more specifically Camilla. That woman loves nothing more than a broken family. However, the Wails have been broken for a very long time and you’re right in saying W&K just can’t be bothered continuing this sham of a marriage.
Surprised Willnot didn’t want his sexy sexy hunky beard on display.
Good freakin luck next year, Kate. You’re gonna need it.
It’s not like the whole family wasn’t at a decorated church for a Christmas concert. They couldn’t take a few seconds for photos. They were all dressed up, kinda matchy matchy. Kate was wearing a huge bow. What’s not to like?
@Dee I watched some video of kids arriving at the concert, and Louis looked extremely uncomfortable. They probably wouldn’t have gotten a good snap of him if they tried. Here he looks genuinely happy.
This card is straight up laziness on the part of the Waleses. A screen grab from the Hallmark video, reminding everyone that Kate is “recovering” from cancer and to quell questions about their marriage (no such luck).