Around the Princess of Wales’s birthday, we usually get these “state of Kate” pieces, where “sources” embiggen her meager accomplishments and make promises to be especially keen in the year to come. One year ago, there were promises to be keen in 2024, buzz of a trip to Italy and a general tamping down of expectations beyond that. Then came Kate’s abdominal surgery, then her months-long disappearance, and you know the rest. The lesson has been learned – no more keen promises for the year to come. Over the weekend, the Mail’s Rebecca English got a comprehensive briefing about how poor Kate will simply never go back to “work” in the same way – no more 90 events in a year, no more briefings about how Kate is a credible expert on the Early Years, no more expectations to see Kate more than once a month, if that. Well, do you need Ingrid Seward to lay it on thick?
It’s set to be a special week for the Princess of Wales, who turns 43 on Thursday. After spending the festive period with her family in Norfolk, her children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – are preparing to return to school. This year’s birthday carries a deeper significance following the health challenges Kate has faced in what her husband the Prince of Wales recently described as a “brutal” year.
The royal couple will be keen to make the most of their family time while they can before William becomes King. However, with this change on the horizon, both William and Kate will be making sure they make the transition smooth for the sake of their young family.
“Kate knows there is a looming, massive responsibility coming, but she can’t do anything about that, so she just needs to make sure that the family she’s bringing up are able to deal with it,” says Ingrid Seward, whose book My Mother and I examines the relationship between the King and his mother.
“It must have been very difficult for her to deal with her family and her illness at the same time, and she obviously realises that the children have been through a hard time too. I think the illness has made her keen to prioritise her family even more, because they are the future. Obviously, she wants to support her husband and the monarchy, but she’s going to make sure that she does it in such a way that it doesn’t take her away from the family too much.
“She is very embedded in the future now, and the things that are really important in life, like her children and her charity work, really resonate and become even more important. Being so ill teaches you to enjoy each day as it comes, so I think she has a new appreciation of What’s going on around her, and what she can do to make life better for other people as well.”
Because I’ve been writing about Kate and the Keen Machine around her for so many years, I feel I’m qualified to say that Kate has always had a bizarre perspective about her future roles. When she was the Duchess of Cambridge, she always positioned herself as “future queen” rather than “future Princess of Wales,” almost like she expected to leap-frog over Camilla when the time came. Alongside that positioning, the consistent message from Kate was that she would only “step up” when Queen Elizabeth died. QEII has been dead and buried for nearly two-and-a-half years and it’s been nothing but wheel-spinning and clownery. Now that she’s Princess of Wales and one gin-soaked mishap away from being queen, Kate still can’t commit to doing anything. Now it’s “She is very embedded in the future now” – meaning what? She sees her role as Princess of Wales and eventually queen consort as nothing more than child-rearing?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
-
- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, reacts at Westminster Abbey on the day of the “Together At Christmas” carol service, in London, Britain, December 6, 2024.,Image: 943747763, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Isabel Infantes/Avalon/Avalon
-
- Prince Louis and the Princess of Wales during the Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey in London.,Image: 943982708, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
-
- The Princess of Wales during the Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey in London.,Image: 949280819, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
-
- Royals walking to Sandringham Chrush on Christmas Day,Image: 950026419, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Malcolm Clarke/Avalon/Avalon
-
- Royals walking to Sandringham Chrush on Christmas Day,Image: 950026426, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Malcolm Clarke/Avalon/Avalon
-
- Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey Featuring: Prince William, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 Dec 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 Dec 2024 Credit: Cover Images
-
- Members of the British Royal Family attend a Christmas service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Sandringham, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2024 Credit: Cover Images
-
- Members of the British Royal Family attend a Christmas service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Sandringham, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2024 Credit: Cover Images
-
- Members of the British Royal Family attend a Christmas service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Sandringham, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2024 Credit: Cover Images
-
- The Princess of Wales speaks to members of the public following the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham Where: Sandringham, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Members of the British Royal Family attend a Christmas service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales Where: Sandringham, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2024 Credit: Cover Images
Just the way we always dreamed a new queen would be: terrified about the work ahead
LOL.
What work? Nothing changes when she becomes queen consort. She’ll be expected to do the exact same things she’s been doing since she married in. Which is visiting charities. The only “upgrade” is in the title and jewelry collection.
100% Chloe. She isn’t a monarch, she is a consort and will do the exact same thing as before. She loves to act like she is valued more than she is.
Yep. She could matter if she wanted to. She doesn’t, so she won’t.
100% this and not much more for William either. What responsibility are we talking about? We were hearing about the great responsibility of being Prince and Princess of Wales for years around the death of QE2. And the crushing responsibility made them work even less. There is no real job description, not even for the monarch. Read some papers no one is going to ask you about, sign bills that you can’t change or veto, meet other heads of state, but other family members can do that in your stead. I predict George will be a very busy Prince of Wales.
Exactly! All these articles from when she was DoC & got the ‘promotion’ to PoW; it’s the same damn ‘job’!!! 🤦♀️🙄
On behalf of all Britons, it’s infuriating that she expects to live in the lap of luxury with multiple mansions and not even try to fulfill her duties.
@dee I think that’s kinda the point. Outside of bearing the heir and spare she has no defined duties. She had G and P everything else is what she wants it to be. And she wants it to be nothing.
@dee Couldn’t agree more. Just add ‘while in receipt of a multi-million £ salary’.
I read somehwhere that charles was gonna step down and give his top spot to william because of …his health
Issues. So when I see that kate is not coming to work in the same way, it might be the hint that she coming back but not as POW. Anyway, whatever. I can’t believe it has been that long and again still, she has nothing to show for all the years of “work” she has done.
Good lord I’m sick of the word keen.
You and me, both…🤮🤮
+1 and I raise with “the difficult year she had balancing family and illness (?)” because she didn’t have to balance shit compared to regular people who fall chronically ill. “a new appreciation of how she can help others and do charity stuff” because we all know she does not do a minute of charity work and hasn’t for a long time. “Dedication to serve their country” is the cherry on top, because I feel like the rota thinks that they should repeat it enough times and people will be programmed to agree. And they are.
I literally saw red when I read the part about focusing on “important” things like her children and charity work. WHAT effing charity work??? She’s done nothing, and it’s sickening how the rota lies about it.
So is this because she’s unwilling or because she’s been benched?
Is benched the new fetch?
So beating cancer is like beating flu?
‘but she can’t do anything about that”
She can prepare! But like William I feel she is allergic to that.
They’re called Can’t (Cannot) and Won’t (Will not) for a reason.
I don’t understand why they always frame it like there’s something intense to prepare for? They’re not expected to give in depth academic speeches for 30 minutes every single day, they have to make small talk and not say anything super offensive. I could have done this job at 15. It’s not like she spent the last 20 years ” preparing to be Queen”, by taking classes to learn multiple languages, getting advance degrees in diplomacy, international relations, or political science. She wears fancy dresses, jewelry, waves at people, and had to have children. She’s not down the mine.
Judging by the times Kate showed her legs and panties during state visits, I can understand the need to prepare her..
Or not panties.
Yes. The Brit heirs seem fragile or something. Other monarchies don’t seem to have this problem with unprepared heirs or family illness throwing them for such a loop.
Other monarchies are in nations with an actual written constitution that is one discrete document, so it wouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult for the government to give the royal family the boot if the public got a bit too ‘off with their heads’…or, like Spain, the monarchy hasn’t been in power for too many generations so everybody is involved is quite well aware of just how precarious their position is.
Or on the third hand, it’s a monarchy that is still actually governing their nation, like Monaco or the UAE, so incompetence or lack of preparedness would actually screw the government over in ways that might see the revival of that illustrious political tradition, assassinating the idiot and installing somebody actually capable…also alarming governmental control of the press.
And then there’s the FOURTH hand, nations like Japan and Thailand and possibly Bhutan, where cultural ideals tend to exert overwhelming pressure on members of the royal family to obey and conform and on members of the press to keep their mouths shut about anything that is even potentially embarrassing.
While Kate doesn’t have to do anything more than you’ve said, the Monarch gets government papers (the ‘red boxes’) every day. QEII and Charles both go through them in detail. William is expected / supposed to do the same when his time comes.
Even this is super-exaggerated. They just have to be vaguely on top of current news (and possibly some security stuff that isn’t general knowledge) so that they can make conversation with the Prime Minister once a week and with any visiting foreign leaders. That’s it: it’s basically reading very carefully prepared briefing notes. Charles probably quite enjoys it as he’s always liked interfering in government business, but the late queen just read them and did nothing, as she was constitutionally supposed to. They say she advised the PMs but in effect that was probably just saying things like, “Hm, we must be very careful how we handle this” occasionally.
Well, somebody read them enough to get the monarchy exempted from employment laws and environmental laws.
@Meme 10000% this! Red Boxes of information OMG what crushing responsibility. No one is ever going to ask Burger King to give a lecture about those notes. He will probably read the first two pages and pretend to read the rest. And I bet the meeting with the PM entails zero substantial discussions. The PM has no obligation to listen to the monarch’s advice who is not supposed to interfere with politics either. The Opening of Parliament speech is written for him with no input from the king. Yeah, the hosting duties can’t be shirked but I’m sure small r royal William will find a way.
And, as someone else pointed out, that’s basically just a mechanism for insider trading, not much more. The monarch isn’t constitutionally required to display knowledge of the contents of the box.
Many of the documents require the monarch’s signature. During the reign of Edward VII PM Baldwin tried to limit the documents delivered to just those given the king’s loosey goosey attitude towards intelligence secrets.
Multiple countries have Charles as head of state and they don’t send him red boxes. That’s a make work project for the monarch. They do need to sign them to provide royal assent, but the governor generals do that in each country and it’s not like parliament is in session 24/7.
The red boxes also contain their financial statements and notes about bills, rulings or laws that affect their financial and real estate holdings. As well as private correspondence. The box contents have more to do with them chatting with friends and family and counting their doubloons than managing affairs of state
Hear, hear! @Dee(2)
@somebody says
Absolutely, there will be lawyers and accountants and all the rest of the royal household completely on top of looking out any possible loopholes, which will then be aggressively shoved through. Likely the royals are either briefly informed or not even consulted, because everyone knows their jobs are to protect the institution and its money, it doesn’t even need to be said out loud.
Given what they know about him, I assume his red box will contain one sheet of paper with three bullet points in large font. If that. They know he doesn’t read and the staff will keep the wheels of protocol turning.
Assuming he continues the tradition of meeting the prime minister these are likely to be ten minutes of him occasionally saying “how interesting”. And repeat the next week.
Any idea why they’re still doing the paper thing? Anything beyond tradition? It’s so wasteful of resources & time, all those printouts. And then what? Does all this paper have to be archived? I think about these things because I’m a federal employee (US) & we have laws & policies about being paper free. The National Archives told us they’ll no longer accept paper documents; that went into effect in 2022, 2023, can’t remember (we got extra time due to the pandemic). Just musing.
Future role? The way she and her beloved husband act towards one another doesn’t say to me that she has a future role other than being the mother of an heir. There are lots of people out there who have to handle real illness and every day life! To say it was difficult for her is just a joke. If she was truly ill she had nannies and cooks and cleaning people to help and she still has those people. She is not like everyone else so they need to stop that bit of bullshit. My opinion is at some point Peg will move on out loud and all will know.
Let’s be honest. All these articles are pointing to the same thing. Kate wants to be a SAHM that goes to occasional tiara events and the men’s Wimbledon final. The end.
Yup. Interesting how they pivoted away from “she’s so keen to make a difference!” to “she wont do anything that takes away from ‘family time'” pretty much as soon as she became Princess of Wales. I mean W&K have always used “the children” as an excuse to get out of work but I feel like it really ramped up in a different way after the Queen died – like KP was much more open about how Kate just wasn’t going to work until the kids were grown.
And even now we’re hearing “well when she’s queen she still has to be with her kids all the time.” First off – do they think she’s going to be queen next week? Because let’s say she has 3-5 years. Even at 3 years Lous is 10, Charlotte is 13 (and in boarding school) and George is close to 15. Those aren’t kids who need their mom around 24/7. I get that its important to be involved as kids grow up and i’m not saying parenting stops at age 10, but it certainly takes on a different form and your relationship with your kids changes.
So, I also think it’s just a whole redefining of the consort. Diana set the bar high but some people really do just want to be SAHMs. Now in this case we’re talking about a whole family being tax-payer supported so there’s an expectation that the consort works. SAHM is not really something the consort is seen as being allowed to do as the country is paying for her upkeep. But what if they could redefine it to saying that just being a mom is enough work for the consort to do and the country owes her that money for bringing up the heir? Just saying if they could redefine it and get away with it they will. And what are the press and people going to do about it beyond making digs in the press and writing negative comments on the DM? And would this then pave the way for George’s future wife not to have to worry about really doing much either?
I partially agree with you but I think this is about redefining the role of Queen Consort for KATE. I don’t think she cares a lot George’s future wife, she probably hopes she picks up some of the slack. I also think this is about redefining the role of king for WILLIAM – again not so much George.
I think those two have been laying the groundwork for years to be lazy monarch/consort and I think we’re seeing that come to fruition now. And like you said what can anyone do about it?
But Phillip wasn’t lazy. the Queen Mother was many things but not lazy.
And while camilla is lazy I kind of feel like she’s better at it than Kate? Like she could just announce she’s going to focus on her grandkids and only show up once in a while but she doesn’t. We hear about her being sick (which I tend to think is genuine) and she did announce that 2 week vacation last winter (which I think was aimed at William) but overall while her numbers are low, there’s a perception that she is out there regularly enough. Kate is just like “sorry can’t bye.”
I dont know. I’m not British so its not for me to decide lol but it will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
Nothing wrong at all about wanting to be a SAHM but if that was her goal in life then she should have gone the Pippa route and married some terribly wealthy banker and lived a quiet life in the country with her AGA and her tennis lessons. Not the future king.
@Louisa – I’ve always pictured Kitty envying Pippa for marrying a millionaire and not having the constant pressure of ‘work’ looming over her head. You’re right, if she wants to be a SAHM so badly, she should’ve gone the route her sister went. However, it’s evident Kitty wants the best of both worlds. She’s had plenty of chances to bow out the royal life, but she craves the attention more. Whether she likes it or not, she’s stuck now.
There’s no exclusive SAHM role for PoW or Queen Consort. That is a part of the assignment but not the entire deal. I agree with others – if she didn’t want to work, she should have chosen a different spouse. Working comes with the territory and you’d think a British citizen would know that. These stories in contrast to the attack pieces on Meghan are disgusting too. Meghan is a private citizen married to a prince. She’s a duchess who lives in America and she and her husband were willing to do royal work in addition to their own ventures. They were told no and essentially run out. Meghan will not become queen so if she wanted to be exclusively a SAHM, she could be. Can’t supporters are always covering up her obvious laziness though. She’s a SAHM with staff. Even if she does the school runs and cooks a dinner here and there, what’s going on during the day that precludes her from doing anything? She’s not cleaning the house and she probably doesn’t even do the laundry.
Yah, I mean let’s be real. Kate is not a typical SAHM. In my head sometimes, in an embarrassingly hallmark way, I wonder what if George vibed w a person who genuinely didn’t want to be in the public eye and wanted to be a SAHP. Can we create space for that? As far as Kate, well I have always strongly believed she has an exhibitionist streak so she’s not at all afraid of cameras. It’s more a wonderment of what would happen to an heir if he met someone who wanted nothing to do with the firm and monarchical bs. That said, my answer would of course be abolish the dang thing or abdicate.
“She is very embedded in the future now”
She’s very much embedded with laziness. I still don’t get why it’s so difficult to get dressed, slap on some mascara and lipgloss and head out to meet and greet with your patronages. It’s not just lazy, she is so selfish. She gets clothes, fed with room and board and doesn’t give back at all.
So gross.
And the worst part of it all is she constantly makes excuses to cover up her own laziness. It’s become so shameless, especially within the last year. She puts more work into lying than she does actually working. I mean, she really couldn’t visit a single cancer charity within the last year? Ice cold behaviour.
She will never just throw on some mascara and lip gloss. I can imagine that her hair, with all the extensions and the updos takes at least an hour. Makeup takes at least another half hour.
at least an hour? Maybe she needs to spend *more* time then, b/c that partial wig she slapped on for the Church Walk at Sandringham this past Xmas was screaming horsehair that needed brushing out. Badly. And that’s not even addressing it was entirely the wrong color.
So she’s raising the future of the monarchy so she can retire when they come of age in 10-15 years.
(as an aside, I’d lol if one day when she was preening her hair like she always does, the wiglet came loose.)
The focus on the children and not on her role now makes it seem like either she thinks the next monarch will be George or the plan is to put all the work on the children when Will is king.
All these articles prepare the public for Kate’s limited presence and role in the future. The emphasis on the family is ridiculous. You can prioritise your family and still work. Especially since all her children are at school during the day.. I believe that she suffers from some of mental health issues that’s why she’s been seen during some great events (remembrance day, Christmas, trooping) with her children and that’s it.
Yep. It has to be something like that at this point. That’s the only explanation for her lack of work and the lack of anything resembling honest journalism from the rr on this subject. There’s something here that they’re tip-toeing around, but it’s hard to figure out what it is.
This. As a parent in a household with two working parents, it burns me up when they repeatedly trot out the “prioritizing family” excuse. My husband and I both “prioritize family” every single day- whether we are at work or at home. There is a much more tactful and respectful way of stating that Kate (1) does not want to work outside of the home while the children are young and (2) is privileged enough to be able to make that choice.
Yes the narrative of Kate reprioritising her family life after illness is being laid on thick. However Kate really lapped up the standing ovation at Wimbledon and the crowds giving her flowers at Christmas. Her choice would be family life plus her Superbowl events. She DID attend the Southport visit with Will which was a serious and important private visit with three sets of bereaved parents plus a public meeting with first responders who dealt with multiple stabbings. So someone decided that last year she had to do a substantial visit not just fun stuff?
Agreed, especially since she’s not ‘reprioritizing’ anything. This has been her MO throughout her married life.
A helluva lot more is going be expect3d of Kate when she becomes queen consort. Opening of Parliament for one, but being in charge of the household of Buckingham Palace with William is the big one. Even if they bring over people from KP, BP operations are a whole different level. Neither Kate or William are ready for that job; and they both have many years to get ready for it. The Firm is definitely not going let Carole infiltrate and try to let her run it.
Kate is so odd…what sort of future did she expect when she got married to Prince William? And, as we’ve all said, why are they behaving as if being Queen Consort is anything other than chit-chat and coat dresses? You could maybe make a convincing argument that William and Charles have to “work” with their duchies and on diplomatic things and blah blah blah red boxes and Christmas speeches etc, but this is ridiculous. They’re not Bevin Boys.
Mediocre Middleton has been giving excuses to not work her entire life. Her face has to be next to the word keen in the dictionary because that is all she has ever been, is keen to eventually do something, yet somehow it still hasn’t happened to a woman who is 43 years old. My son finds ways to procrastinate but she is the ultimate of getting out of doing things. Whether she really had cancer or not, there is no reason she couldn’t have done phone or video calls during the time she hadn’t been diagnosed or since the end of chemo which ended a considerable time before the release of that ridiculous Summer’s Eve commercial. She has managed to only go to events that all of us knew she would never miss because they are her chance to still the spotlight. Her children have been in school through most of this and they are there for long enough time for her to actually do some of the work she is paid to do. The work she reminds us each year she is keen to do. So if she is so keen to do it, there is no reason she can’t do it. There are people providing for her who have much harder lives who are dealing with cancer but still working.
It’s curious that recent DM articles about Kate often take little swipes. For example, today’s article about how she got a blow dry (give me strength) before the engagement announcement points out, quite unnecessarily but entertainingly, that her posh accent is completely fake. The DM even included quotes from former classmates saying she never talked like that in school. Is the DM as tired of her laziness as others are? Is this Camilla trying to kick Kate into gear? Are they signaling they’ll take William’s side in the coming separation? Are they simply sick of her giving them nothing substantive to write about?
As sugary as these articles seem, I think you’re right in that there are often hidden barbs. A little bit closer to how it was before Meghan came on the scene and Kate was exalted in comparison.
Wait, they’re running an article about their engagement? How many years ago was that, 14 or so? This is all they’ve got? 🙄
Remember when Hilary Mantel said in 2013 that Kate’s job was “shop-window mannequin” whose only purpose was to breed? At the time I was pretty taken aback, but now I have huge respect for her insight. And apparently Kate took it as her mission statement.
A review of Waiting for Godo described it as a play where nothing happens twice, once in the first half and then again in the second half. I feel the same about Waiting for Kate; nada as Duchess Doolittle, nothing as PoW nothing to look forward to as Queen just promising to be keen, about doing something, eventually, one day, maybe……
Waiting for Godot! Lol
Reminds me of what my daughter said about her soon to be ex-husband; it be had spent as much effort working as the years avoiding work he’d be company president by now.
Had Kate actually wanted to do anything worthwhile, she could have started preparing for her role as the wife of the future head of state decades ago.
Like learning how to properly deliver a speech, how to do small talk without gurning, how to actually, substantially help charities instead of watching them go under.
But her work was done once she got Big Blue. That set off a chain of events beyond her control, like becoming PoW.
Hence there’s nothing more to be done for Fakey Mumblina McButtons, besides looking forward to pick out tiaras that go well with her wiglets and be lazy. What a huge responsibility to have looming over her head!
She also should have learned a second, or even third language since she’ll be dealing with diplomats from other countries. Instead we struggle to understand her English pronunciation, her native tongue, as she tries to sound posh. She generally comes across as a shallow, lazy dolt with wiglets!
I think of women like Queen Mary of Denmark, who had to learn a new language when she married King Frederick. Maxima, Letizia, and Mary all had careers before they married into royalty, and all three of them hit the ground running before they became Queens. Even Princess Sofia of Sweden started a foundation before she married Prince Carl-Philip. But Lazy McButtons couldn’t even commit to doing a charity race once she and William reconciled.
A lot of times people (here and elsewhere) say that her primary role is similar to being a hostess- but being a good hostess is HARD. having something to talk about to all the guests at a large dinner party is HARD. being a good hostess involves always thinking one step ahead of your guests’ needs, and do we think Kate ever thinks about anyone else’s needs but her own?
Learning a few key phrases in other languages would be part of this IMO, as would learning geography and history (so when someone says, I am from X town in france that isn’t Paris, she knows where it is at the very least.)
This is yet another area where Meghan would have outshone Kate so wasn’t acceptable. I’m sure some of the “boots on the ground” at meghan’s events (especially in the beginning and on the tours) were reporting back to W&K about how well Meghan was doing at interacting with different people.
We say “its just small talk” but small talk can be hard. You need kind of a mental list of things in your head to go through to keep the conversation moving. Kate’s list seems to be “talk about the kids” and that doesnt really work at state dinners when you’re PoW or Queen.
Iirc, wasn’t it the Moroccan trip when Meghan was heavily pregnant that they were invited to an additional dinner or event bc she was found to be so impressive and lovely? Her whole show is going to be about showing thoughtfulness and care as a host. And listen, it’s not Kate’s forte. At this point, I don’t care if she gets better or never tried to get better. I’m not a uk citizen paying for it. My issue has always been that the jealousy towards Meghan drove Kate and others to treat her horribly. There was an alternate scenario where Megan could have been embraced for what she was good at but other people’s insecurities had them making up full on crying stories to cut her down. It was insane.
Yes, she was invited to meet the king!! they weren’t scheduled to have that final dinner with him, that was added on when (I’m assuming) it was reported back to him how lovely and interesting etc she was. We have NEVER heard anything like that about Kate!!
And yeah, I agree – this is not Kate’s strength. She doesn’t work at it at all but she doesn’t work at anything besides well….avoiding work….so whatever. But Meghan could have been used to support Kate in these situations and to support the monarchy overall and instead she was driven out because how dare she be better at this than Kate (among other reasons.)
All the left-behinds had to do was not harass Meghan to the point of SI. Harry and Meghan could have been sent wherever and done the heavy lifting for W&K as Harry was already doing. But, no, they got jealous and instead of stepping up, badmouthed someone who was naturally better at the job and willing to do it.
That’s the thing. Kate would not be on our radars if she hadn’t been nasty and playing games when Meghan arrived. I’d be wishing her the absolute best in dealing with freaking William if she had been capable of being supportive to Meghan. It’s crazy bc Meghan has so many true supporters and they will support Meghan’s friends. And Kate could’ve had that. Except she acted like a mean girl racist fr. I mean cuz she is one. And yeah it’s crazy all these positive stories like the president of Morocco wanting to meet Meghan. She was so good at the job and they buried that. How many many more positive details and stories of Meghan’s time in the uk are there that we don’t know about? The fact that she was just starting out in the uk but also going to visit Guy for months on end while also doing the work during the day! All while these insecure assholes were having dinners and manipulating how to take her down a few pegs in the press. Fuck them. Seriously, I had no huge thoughts towards the British monarchy before Meghan. Like I was ambivalent fr. And now I truly think they’re horrible. Oh well. Consequences of their own actions.
I recall when kate gave her first speech and the media covered it with fanfare. It was a year or so after the marriage. I still recall when she spoke she had a smirk but was mumbling words like she had done something significant. It was so basic for a university educated woman that it was shocking. But of course the rota praised her to the skies and she was basking in it.
So I think kate truly believes she is something instead of the reality of being basic and mediocre. And she kept getting praised for so little until Meghan arrived, actually confident and competent and Kate knew that she wasn’t so special anymore because she was faced with someone truly talented and charismatic.
The future queen couldn’t be more pathetic if she tried. She has been preparing for life her entire life, and at 43 needs more time to “prepare”.. what a joke
Yep. That was just another word salad article stating the obvious. Kate does not want to work and has no intention of doing any.
As somebody else said up post, Hilary Mantel was right.
Time only runs one way in our universe, so we’re all embedded in the future. Are we supposed to admire that she’s not embedded in the past?
Charles’ illness must have been a real shock to W&K – they must have planned their lives thinking they had another 20 years before the responsibilities would loom.
Sometimes I feel stupid bc I can’t understand these RRs and then I remember the problem is them not me, LOL. Am I “embedded in the future” because I’m planning my summer vacation?
🤣🤣
She’d be better off living in the here & now; this future keenery has not served her well.
Is Ingrid seriously putting Kate in heir to the throne situation. She compares it with Charles as heir to the throne in her book my mother and I. Also Kate is lazy as all get out. Ingrid is rather insulting to Charles talking about Kate moving up. Ingrid s late husband was friends with charles.
What always surprises me is how they act as though they didn’t know that being the heir and then PoW might lead to being king. They act like the whole thing is such a surprise.
The fact that they are totally unprepared is not just down to them and their laziness, ineptness, and selfishness, it’s a total failure of the RF and the men in grey. Charles should’ve been slapping William down. What is it about William that makes other people, even those more powerful than him, not want to do anything about him?
@Teagirl just how impossible and scary is Will that the Suits haven’t read him the riot act years ago? Is it true that Will regularly threatens to quit so everybody treats him with kid gloves to keep him onside? Will screamed in anger at Harry in front of the Queen and co at the 2020 meeting and nobody turned a hair, like it was just Will being Will. All this BS about Meg being a bully when Will shoved his mum, assaulted Harry and shouted at papa Infront of Cam, throws pillows at Kate? Isn’t it more likely that Will is a bully at work and shouts and rages when he’s at fault?
“Is it true that Will regularly threatens to quit so everybody treats him with kid gloves to keep him onside?”
His “friends” gave quotes to the media after H&M left that he doesn’t care if the monarchy ends, he is fine with it. He was basically threatening media, he can get his family and all the money and go away if they don’t treat him.
Ambitious woman makes choices she is not so sure about now.
Framing everything as preparation for the future gives her an excuse for not doing anything now.
Someone ought to tell her, the future is now, Kate.
I read “embedded in the future” as a warning, to charles, camilla and william as in: Kate isn’t going anywhere.
Yes, it almost reads as if “can’t get rid of me, I’m the mother to a future King”
It’s worse for Kate she thinks she has power but really hasn’t.
Diana was mother to the future king too. Nothing is a guarantee.
“Kate knows there is a looming, massive responsibility coming, but she can’t do anything about that…”
Here Ingrid…lemme correct that for you: “Kate knows there is a looming, massive responsibility coming, but she WON’T do anything about that..”
This is all mind-numbingly repetitive, Kate will continue to dodge and weave around doing ANY kind of meaningful work, her marriage is dead in the water, and it’s time the tabloids started spilling the truth. She and the fawning gutter press will continue to use the ‘cancer and kids’ excuses to avoid work until she’s 90. On behalf of myself and all the other cancer sufferers who actually HAVE the cursed disease and are fighting tooth and nail through chemo, surgeries, sickness and fear, a big FU to Kate, Slumlord Bill and all the sycophantic media who are covering up what appears to be a case of a busted up marriage in the literal sense of the word.
It’s so insulting, isn’t it? And unfathomable, because you know darned well the people who churn out this rot actually know someone–friend, family member, self, co-worker–currently dealing with cancer, as you are. How can they look themselves in the mirror after writing these excuses for her? 🤮 Anyway, I hope you have a peaceful day, Jaded. 🌺
I feel like the earlier article about Kate wanting to bury the hatchet and reach out to Meghan has nothing to do with fuzzy feelings, and everything to do, as always, with HER. One, I don’t think that came from Kate, and two, it probably is only wanting to piggy-back on all the attention Meghan gets and Kate is a talentless smuck. But burying the hatchet means burying it, and it is not buried. What Kate and Will set in motion continues on. I hope Kate is kicked to the curb, I’ll be amazed if she makes it to a coronation, and she could use a friend like Meghan. She shouda realized that sooner. But you can’t just put a headline out like that, you really have to put the work behind an amends, and that is what she owes Meghan.
Frankly, I think Kate spends most of her time maintaining her looks. And I don’t totally blame her: that sounds pretty shallow, but if she went out somewhere with chipped nail polish it would be international news. I imagine she spends hours every day with a trainer. She hits up saunas and cold plunges. She has facials, manicures, massages. She goes to fittings for her various coat dresses. She eats extremely clean, healthy meals. Add in a couple of school runs and a daily meeting with her secretary or staff, and her days are full.
But there’s no way the British tabloid media is going to admit: look, this woman spends her days making sure her extensions are shiny and her figure is whippet-thin. They’re committed to the value of the monarchy, and that includes pretending that the royals serve a higher purpose than just being photographed in fancy outfits.
Hollywood actresses have the same beautification but can still do a full day of filming. If Kate Middleton has the same routine as, say, supermodel Cindy Crawford, that’s only twenty minutes of cardio in the morning, an hour for hair and makeup, and gel nails once a week. Maybe she has a private chef, but her secret to thinness is probably just being one of those people who loses her appetite when stressed. While Kate could fill her days with spa treatments, the ROI for them drops after the first hour.
Maybe she just spends all day browsing social media?
Yeah, but actresses need to actually produce something, and usually on someone else’s schedule. Kate doesn’t. She can drift through her days, going from gym to spa to fitting, and argue—with some justification!—that she’s doing what passes for her job: being the (comparatively) young and glamorous member of the royal family.
I’m not saying that she’s hard-working. I’m saying that it’s hard to establish what passes for efficiency and effectiveness when the expectations of her “work” are mostly what she can convince the British public (and her spouse and father-in-law, who are, in effect, her employers) is a Very Important Future Queen Duty.
It must really hurt the Walesses to see the Sussexes free, happy and living on their own terms in the Sunny California while they are stuck in the royal family life with fake protocols and thousands of rules to follow, for years to come. They didn’t plan on the Sussexes leaving the limelight for them, but instead of the light shining on them it’s burning them.
William and Kate drove the Sussexes out so that they could have the limelight to themselves because the Sussexes were outshining and out working them, but instead of the light shining on Will and Kate, it’s burning them and has exposed their weaknesses and shortcomings.