One of the running themes of nearly all of the coverage about Prince William these days mentions the fact that William is “preparing to be king.” He’s got a long wait, considering his grandmother is still in the top job and his father has been preparing to be king in a very real way. William’s king preparations are like everything else in his life: half-assed. He’s shown time and time again that he won’t even read briefing papers or show much of an interest in the diplomatic side of anything beyond a photo-op. I always feel like the Queen and Prince of Wales understand that William and Kate are lightweights who should be largely shielded from the diplomatic side of things – better to keep them local, you know? But the Queen is back in the Windsor Castle bubble and Charles… God knows. So William and Kate got tasked with something important!
William and Kate formally welcomed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena to Buckingham Palace. No one shook hands, because of the pandemic, and yet no one wore masks, because of course. The formal welcome was held in BP’s Throne Room. Kate could have made more of an effort to coordinate with her surroundings, surely! We know she loves to theme dress, but maybe she didn’t have time. Instead of cosplaying an actual throne, Kate wore an Emilia Wickstead dress in one of her favorite shades, cornflower blue.
There’s not really anything wrong with these photos and William and Kate seem perfectly okay. But all I could think was “wow, they’re such lightweights.”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
They look exhausted. This must be so exhausting for both William and Kate to have to be physically back on the job and put in 2 hours of work talking to a national leader. The UK really get their value with these two.
They look thrilled about this engagement. Lol. Enjoy, FFK and FFQ!
And Kate should ease up on the self tanner. It looks like she would leave smears on the furniture.
Meh. BP Throne Room will forever trigger memories of Guillaume Maxwell & Kevin Spacey yukking it up with their child abusing tainted butts perched on the thrones. Eew!
That’s the royal family they believe they are entitled to everything, it’s their god given right. Get rid of all of them!
They look awkward. Like, it obvious they don’t know much about hosting guests (and they don’t care either).
They set such a poor example.
That color looks really good on her.
But she has such a poor shoe game. (Except for those fall leather boots she’s had since forever. I love those)
Thinking the same thing. Why, when you could wear virtually any shoes on earth, would you go with those?
Meh. Not much to say here. Just don’t like Kate’s dress too much other than the colour lol. It’s not bad in comparison to what she’s worn a few months ago but she’s got better coatdresses IMO
It looks like a regular dress to me. IMO it looks too casual for the meeting and I can’t pinpoint why. But she stands out in it, and not in a good way. It’s like she dressed for a different event.
I think it’s the belt that makes it seem casual. If it wasn’t there, and she was wearing one of the Queen’s fabulous brooches, it would have looked more formal. jmo
Agree. It looks like every other boring dress she has and wears everywhere. Mrs. Ukraine looks lovely, like she made an effort to look a little special for the meeting. Kween Keen made NO effort, and it shows. And I bet Mrs. U noticed, too.
Edited to add: Mrs. Zelenskyy.
It’s a nice basic dress. The color is pretty. I am laughing though bc its new, and she definitely has similar dresses in this color. So apparently the constant repeats WERE only when the black duchess was around.
I think the theme of her dress was to match with the Ukrainian flag which has light blue (and yellow).
Yes, this. And we know one of Keen Kate’s favorite cosplay tricks is to dress like flags (see: Ireland).
I’m just imagining how bored the Ukrainians must be in this meeting. Extra points for Kate for choosing one of the colors of the Ukraine flag. That’s all I’ve got.
Doesn’t she have a dozen of this exact dress in various shades of blue already? Same with those shoes.
In the first pic they look like fidgety toddlers. Has NO ONE EVER taught them to sit up straight? Kate, in particular, has the WORST posture! You’d think with all of her working out with Pilates, and her trainer, SOMEONE would’ve snapped: “Pull back those shoulders, Missy!”
In the 2nd pic, Kate looks like the RCA Dog, same puzzling look, “What dey sayin’?? Did they….SQUIRRELL!!! ”
Ugh… done with these two.
So basically William is the Crown’s version of DJT with better handlers?
Yes.
Weirdly, my first thought when I saw the photos was, “Wow, those chairs would fit right in at Trump Tower.”
I really want to hear what they are talking about. Does they use translator or did they speak in english or did the president and wife understood when kate talks.
yes, I’d also like to know what they talk about. I’ve always wondered what kind of conversation can Kate have with these political people. Or does she just smile and giggle?
I imagine it’s similar to the “conversation” Ivanka had at the G20 Summit with Trudeau, Macron, May and the head of the IMF amongst others. That’s the one where she tried to insert herself into their conversation saying nonsensical things.
I’m guessing that fellow you see in the first photo is the translator.
That thumbnail pic Lol ,he must look at his old pictures and cry. I am not saying Kate is shallow but i wonder if she would have made a bee line for William if he had looked like his uncle Prince Edward(whom he resembles now)in his uni days.
Edward was actually incredibly handsome in his youth – with a full head of thick dark hair. Then the Windsor Curse got him, as it did William.
Oh I just went and googled and damn. Art Historian is right. He was the best looking one of the Windsor boys. Wow. The Windsor genes do NOT age well. The fact that Charles was not as good looking in his youth may be helping him now as he ages.
Young Edward was even better looking that young William, IMO.
Oh man, I had such a crush on him when I was younger (we are the same age). Unbeknownst to him, he was supposed to marry me instead of Sophie. He came to Newfoundland in his early teens and my cousin and I were supposed to meet him at a local yacht club. We were so busy primping we missed him! I did see him sign the club guestbook “Edward Windsor” before his aides ripped out the page. My one and only near brush with royalty.
Yes he was – Peter Phillips looks a lot like him. And yeah he was waaay better looking than Willileaks.
That was my first reaction, Noki, that William looks like Edward in that first photo, especially.
Funny enough, even now with Edward’s baldness and age, he is still more handsome than William is now. Edward at least has a friendly face, where William’s looks appear as if they fell off a moving train and got run over several times.
By most accounts Edward is a nice guy, the best of the bunch.
LOL – yeah, they have no idea what they’re doing.
good event
What an insult to Ukraine.
About time they started doing events like this and I like the dress.
Both look quite tanned – they clash with the red room.
If Won’t and Kant are the future of the monarchy in the UK, it’s not looking good.
Willnot seems to be perpetually angry, and I have no idea why he needs to clench his jaw all the time.
In the close-up of the two of them on the sofa, Kate seems to be keen to count down the time till this is over…
Judging by these pics, it’s too bad they can’t even be bothered to fake any kind of interest.
I have this vision of them making one diplomatic gaffe after another. Talking loud and slowly in English. Asking about their flight from Moscow. Asking about Polish traditions. And also failing to read the brief about issues in Ukraine and, thereby, asking inane questions about the weather for two hours. 😂
You’re indoors, please wear masks. It’s not like COVID has disappeared from the UK. So disappointing how often they do these photo-ops without masks.
My UK friends tell me that it is mandatory to wear masks indoors in public spaces so this looks ridiculous.
Sort of, it is mandatory in public spaces (shops/public transport etc) but not sure BP would qualify as that. They don’t wear masks in parliament, for instance, and my office in London is set up to be socially distanced and it is not mandatory to wear masks. There is no hard and fast rule and, based on my experience in London, what we see here is fairly standard.
Meh.
So, do they think their royal blood will protect them from COVID?
No, because it did not protect Prince Charles.
They can ‘social distance’ for this meeting all they like, but that won’t stop COVID from knocking around. The virus has the ability to spread quite far via air particles in enclosed spaces (office meetings, public transport, supermarkets, etc.) – this is not setting the best of examples, but what else is expected when it comes to these two?
Something about Kate’s dress seems a bit too casual for a formal welcome. She looks out of place compared to the other three. Also echoing other comments about them looking rather tired and wanting to be anywhere but there. Too bad, so sad.
Someone said something on twitter the other day and now I can’t un-see it.
Kate is basically the UK’s version of Melania. Sadly however we can’t vote her out and we’re stuck with her. But she’s just as dull, lazy, entitled and supports her husband in all his sh*tty exploits. She’s also a trophy wife engaged in a transnational narcissistic-codependent relationship with a man who doesn’t value her and whom she allows to cheat openly with side pieces whilst eschewing family values.
Looking at the photos, they just don’t have that star quality. It’s just flat, they look like they are playing a role and badly at it.
I do so wish someone would explain to Kate that fidgeting with her hands in front of her waist/middle is a constant in all her photos where she’s standing and she just looks uncomfortable (which I think she maybe is?). Just let your arms hang naturally by your sides, says this Toastmaster. And posture; I’m constantly checking mine, because a woman I admired in my youth had bad posture, and I lean towards emulating those I admire. So, I emulated her posture (without realizing it at the time)…to my long term detriment, cause now I tend towards slumping, but it’s so not good for my back. Pictures of me as a young woman show me standing tall (well, as tall as I ever got!) but in my middle years you can see how my posture changed. Toastmasters brought it to my attention in my later middle years, and now it’s a constant struggle to check my posture; my doc tells me I’m getting a small humped back; @Celebitchy/Celebitches: has anyone ever researched/used those “back straightening devices” shown on amazon?
I have one of those harnesses but haven’t used it yet – I’m using one of those ProWorks air cushions to sit on while i work at my desk and it have helped a lot with my posture as it forces me to sit upright. Am not getting tension headaches much now since i started using it.
Great idea, Shirley. Kate should join Toastmasters to work on her atrocious public speaking while also getting some much needed help with her posture. Both things have needed her attention for almost a decade but I guess she’s not exactly proactive about anything except chasing the ring.
I like this dress, it doesn’t have a million buttons or a peter pan collar. It IS professional and I could see a lot of women I work with wearing something like this professionally for client meetings etc.
Look, it’s the top CEO of the FFR (Future Future Royals). I would have loved to see Kate in a traditional Ukrainian Folk Dress. And I am so over that nude shoe.
now that granny’s pretty much retired it’s time these lazy ones get off their duff and get to work. chop chop! those year end number counts will come around faster than you can say ‘rose bush’.
I wish we could get a story about how furious William and Kate are at the Queen and at Covid and all the royals for not putting on hazmat suits and doing these engagements. Will and Kate feel like they’ve been thrown under the bus and kept from spending time with their children.
Furious because Catty can only do 2 of the 5 times a week tennis games with Pippa and Cain will have less time for gardening activities as he should be reading up on Ukranian charities.
I bet their children feel they see too much of them.
Lord, that second picture. William looks like he needs to poop and Kate is trying to look like she’s paying attention, but you know there’s not much going on between the ears.
Of course they’re exhausted! Kate had to take a helicopter to Derby yesterday and cosplay a professor. She shouldn’t be expected to meet with a real world leader the very next day! :/
Poor things, a holiday around the corner no doubt for all this ‘work’.
In that second picture Kate looks like she’s thinking about which bikinis to purchase for a her next vacation.
William cannot seem to smile naturally and with warmth. He clenches his teeth and bares them like when we check for spinach stuck in our teeth. The corners don’t stretch and curve up into a soft, less toothy smile.
That there is the basic, human difference between him and his brother….the ability to smile naturally, and with the eyes
Both of them do manic grinning.
Have they been around a scrum of reporters since the Uncle Gary thing? I’ve been curious if they’ll be asked. I wondered if that’s why Kate had an unannounced visit to the university to avoid questions. Or maybe it’s just the new playbook, after Meghan and Harry began doing that so well.
I hate that length of dress Kate loves to wear and how it flares out. Made worse by the nude shoe. Elena looks 100 times better and more stylish.
I prefer this length to those mid-calf grandma dresses she normally wears. Those all remind me of the pictures you would see on the Simplicity pattern package back in the ‘70s.
No mask, more and more I see William is basically Trump in a less disgusting package. To not wear a mask as a so called “leader”, the way he trumpets himself as non-stop constantly, it’s absolutely unacceptable and pure arrogance. All for the ego and the photos, William? Just like vulgar, common, criminal Trump.
No mask, egomaniac, horrible temper, a convenience wife and bunch of kids he just uses as a props for photoshoots, and a right wing reactionary, William is England’s Trump except you guys can’t be rid of him after 8 years. You have my sincere condolences, Brits.
I don’t mind this dress, but I don’t like her jewelry. I think she should have smartened it up with something more modern. That sapphire set is super predictable and old lady looking.
Lately William looks so nice and congenial and innocent, like a complete new person then the one who used to smirk at his sister in law’s presence.
Kate is dressed like a bank teller.
Haha they look tired and bored. Good 🙂
Enjoy Keens, this is your life.
The reason why they both look lightweight when in front of presidents, dignitaries, and diplomats is because they lack experience (for Kate- no experience) and gravitas. There are no intelligent discussions with these two. Together they don’t have the X factor that Meghan and Harry have, Barrack and Michelle have, JFK and Jackie have.
lol you were spot on. They are so dull that even DM users didnt bother click on this none news.
Notice how they ALWAYS release photos of them with dignitaries instead of video. At least her team finally realised that her crazy manic grin is not flattering