Last week, I wrote about a curious exclusive in GB News, all about Prince William and Kate adding to their staff. Well, they haven’t added anyone yet, they’re just looking for a new Assistant Private Secretary, and GB News got the tip before anyone else and seemingly before Kensington Palace posted the listing. From what I can tell, this is a completely new position, it’s not like someone suddenly quit and they’re looking for a replacement. After all of the commotion in Kensington Palace’s office staff in recent years, you’d think they would want to settle down and stop looking so chaotic. They were going to have a CEO, then that was called off. They both lost their private secretaries and they basically had to be assigned military people to come in and assess the damage. They can’t keep staff – KP’s turnover is crazy, because the work sucks, the pay sucks and William and Kate are incredibly lazy. Well, now they’re hiring an Assistant Private Secretary to speak Welsh for them, because they’re too lazy to learn the language.
If you’re jobless and fluent in Welsh, great news: Kate Middleton and Prince William just might be looking for you. The royal couple is currently seeking a new Assistant Private Secretary to help manage some of their duties, with “conversational Welsh” speaking skills an essential part of the gig. And even if you’re not looking for work, there’s still an upside to be found in the job posting, as it suggests the Prince and Princess of Wales are getting ready for a full return to public life.
According to sources close to the family who spoke with Vanity Fair, Middleton, William, and their kids (in addition to Charlotte, who is nine, the couple are parents to six-year-old Prince Louis and 10-year-old Prince George) are now “on summer break,” with few public engagements or travel planned.
But a job posting on the Kensington Palace website—which houses Middleton and William’s offices—suggests their schedule might soon ramp up. In a listing for the “Assistant Private Secretary, Wales & U.K.,” we learn that the job will involve “the planning and delivery for most of [Their Royal Highnesses] public engagements in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.” Would the family hire someone to arrange public appearances for the couple if none were in the works? Hard to imagine why, if so.
In addition to the events planning aspect of the job, whoever accepts the mission will also have public relations and brand management duties, as the new staffer will also be expected to “contribute to the development of the Household’s strategy to maximise impact across the constituent nations of the U.K., with a particular focus on Wales.”
The salary for the job hasn’t been disclosed, unlike the communications assistant job posted by the palace in March. That position offered a salary comparable to $32,000 U.S.
Qualified applicants will have “excellent communication and organisational skills, with a proven ability to build productive relationships with a wide range of individuals and institutions” the listing reads. “You will have a proactive, hands-on approach while operating in a small and agile team, and a strong understanding of Welsh communities, affairs, government, and business.”
To that end, applicants should boast at least conversational facility with the Welsh language, though “fluent Welsh, both written and spoken, is desirable.” It is a rare skill, indeed, as according to the Welsh government, only 28 percent of the population can speak Welsh, only 24 percent can read it, and only 22 percent can write it. Of those who do speak it, only 14 percent of those say they do so daily.
Only 28% of Welsh people can speak Welsh?? Man, the Welsh language really is dying. It would be great to see, you know, the Prince of WALES really embrace Welsh culture and language and hire a tutor to help him and his kids learn the dying language. Once again, I’m just throwing out free ideas. Anyway, I can’t believe how badly they pay these people. They’re basically trying to hire one person to do four jobs (three of which William should do himself) and they’ll pay the person horribly, and they’ll get treated like sh-t in that dysfunctional palace. Good luck to whoever it is.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Royal Twitter.
Great choice of photos. Can they hire people to do all the work for them so they can get more vacation time
Um. They say this person is being hired to organise their public engagements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland only. Not England. Together with William’s statement that he wants to do more “working from home “, how is this even a job? They are going to have like two things a year to do.
I also don’t understand the emphasis on a remit that includes Scotland and N Ireland in addition to Wales, when the hire will only be required to know Welsh? Are they going to speak Welsh and not Gaelic when they visit Scotland or N Ireland? Puzzled…
I think that’s a typical workload in their team.
yeahhhhhh……….its not like they’re always flying off to NI or Scotland for events. I feel like in a typical year they go to NI once and they’ll go to Scotland once or twice (outside of Balmoral). Wales should be a different story considering their titles but we will have to see.
Between the school run, the school holidays, the football matches, the tennis matches and the movie premieres it’s really hard to find an available date. I’m not even sure they go to Scotland once a year (balmoral doesn’t count).
Lol, so basically, they’re looking to hire a unicorn for the price of a cashier at McDonald’s.
Nailed it Eurydice! Guess Michael Sheen WON’T be applying!
A cashier at McDonald’s probably earns more in my country.
They are ultimately worth BILLIONS as a family. HOW do they get away with paying so poorly? Can anyone from the UK explain it to me? Is there something I’m missing? A free castle after your tenure or something? That’s not a living wage at all – they’ll have to work a side gig at McDonalds to pay their electric.
Because once you have that on your CV you become extremely attractive to wealthy people who want to buy in your connections and expertise of ‘how the Royals do it’. Think that episode in The Crown where Mohammed Al- Fayed eagerly hires the former valet of the Duke of Windsor. You may get paid a pittance whilst you gain your palace experience but with it you can command a load more.
I know someone who is currently paid nearly six figures to house sit a luxurious London pad for a Middle Eastern client with the occasional work of getting it ready for the family on the odd times they need it on exactly this basis.
It’s the prestige and cachet. Many of the lower staffers move on to more lucrative jobs. You’re hardly going to fail a security/police check once you’ve worked with the royals.
More senior staff do get a grace and favour accommodation or at peppercorn rent. Nanny Maria obviously had free accommodation, not sure about now.
Of course, Angela Kelly got to write 2 books? She also has a life tenancy in the house that KC conferred after booting her out of the house the late Queen conferred to her.
I think it’s similar to unpaid interns, you guarantee young people from wealthy backgrounds who can work for pennies or nothing just to make contacts and build resumes. Although the turnover makes it sound like the scheme is not working too well.
The staff are not all wealthy. Many are from government and fairly ordinary backgrounds. That’s one reason why the turnover might be rapid – the pay is rubbish and the principals challenging.
Angela Kelly was definitely solid working class, to cite one example.
🎯
This. The Wails are pathetic, and anyone who thinks this is a sign that they will be getting back to full-time work has never paid attention to these lazies.
Sounds like they want someone to do everything for them so they can just coast (more than they already do).
Talk about laziness taking on a whole new level – the bar is now in the void with those 2.
The RF must see how damaging to the institution allowing these 2 twits to continue being lazy twits is. If Chuck wants the Monarchy to continue on after him he needs to do something drastic with his heir his DIL.
These two will be the downfall of the monarchy. Entitled laziness is not a good look, especially when you keep asking for even MORE money that you don’t need every couple of years. They’ll try to throw the blame on Harry and Meghan leaving ( there’s so much work and no one to help!) nope. They are making their beds, they better be prepared to lie in it.
A full return to public life – or fools returning to fool the public
“Prince and Princess of Wales are getting ready for a full return to public life”.
Does this mean Kate has been cured of the cancer of racism too or just the unnamed cancer? Will she apologize to Meghan or will it be a return to the status quo of “I don’t touch brown/black people”? So many questions…
They probably expect to hire a person who will sell stories to the tabloids and get compensated that way – I bet there are other jobs where formal compensation reflects this corrupt ecosystem.
Keeping making the argument the title Prince of WALES should not pass to the heir apparent to the British throne.
I don’t know the full history but the English government effectively tired to wipe out the Welsh language. Now everything official is bilingual but so much damage has been done.
I wonder how many welsh speakers will ALSO want to work for the monarchy?
Fun story, I did my masters in Cardiff in c2002 and at the end of a very intensive week or exams sat down for my last one, looked at my answer booklet front page and discovered I’d forgotten how to read. Nope, double sided so you could use the Welsh front cover or the English one. It just happened that all my answer booklets had been English side up until that point.
Exactly. There were systematic efforts to stop people from speaking Welsh, including punishing school children by saddling them with a punishment to wear around their neck – they actually encouraged them to narc on their classmates because the last one wearing it for the day got a beating.
The English maltreatment of the Welsh has been going on for a very long time, including the theft of the Prince of Wales title. But Will can’t even be bothered to learn the language.
Yes, came here to say welsh isn’t dying, it was systematically beaten out of children. Just like Gaelic, just like First Nation languages in North America.
SARAHCS, that’s hilarious about thinking you’d lost the ability to read 😂. Surprise language change!
I so agree ..any self respecting Welshman ( or lady ) would dig their heels in and absolutely refuse to be their stooge . Would hope that they are greeted by hordes of Welsh people with placards saying Not My Prince wherever they show up.
It’s very common in many countries nowadays to just try to erase local languages. It happened in France with languages like the Occitan or the Corsican language which people are basically forbidden to speak in any official capacity. It’s dreadful.
Welsh is actually doing better than any of the other Celtic languages. 14% daily use is pretty good compared to even Irish, let alone Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Breton, or Manx.
I don’t understand why he wasn’t just given Welsh lessons as a child and forced to learn the language?
And George should have started years ago.
Will still has to learn to speak it. George should spend a semester in a,Welsh school to learn the language
It is bizarre.
I am quite sure they have tried to teach William Welsh all of his life. It wasn’t overlooked. But he is a spoiled brat who was allowed to get away with doing whatever he wished. If Harry had to learn Welsh no one would have let him get away with refusing to do it.
Might be a good idea to send George to boarding school in Whales.
“Good luck to whoever is.” Meh. I think this is going to go the same way as the CEO. The job is going to disappear having never been filled. No one wants to work for them.
They certainly seem to have problems filling these positions. That says a lot.
So interesting that Meghan was criticized soundly for her ambition aka work ethic. All of the above explains it though. Will / Kate and staff must have been horrified by someone who actually wanted to do their job!
I mentioned ages ago, that my now ex’s godmother has been instrumental in the preservation of the Welsh language. She frequently has museums, libraries, and the government asking her to translate for them (despite being retired). She has travelled to communities all over the world including South America with Welsh culture and language. The amount of work she does daily off her own back is staggering. Honestly, it’s just pathetic that William and Kate refuse to learn even basic Welsh. It’s not a surprise to them that they became the prince & princess of Wales and they’ve even lived there when they were younger. I can’t believe how much they get paid to not do their job whatsoever.
$32,000? Is this lucky person going to live in a tent on the grounds? You would think with the raise Charles received, the royal family could squeak out a decent salary. I guess it’s an honor and a privilege to share their exalted air.
Kate spends double that on clothing every single year but they expect this to be a living salary? Ridiculous.
I would put money on Kate having single looks that she spent that much on
The British did their very best to kill Welsh by discouraging it, not allowing students to learn it and (I think) outlawing it at one point. So really, it’s a testament to the resilience of Welsh culture that it still exists at all despite these efforts.
Also, is anyone in the KP office actually able to gage if someone has the right level of “conversational” Welsh?
Yes when they talk about the empire colonizing, the welsh were the first to be under the boot of the English. The use of the title Prince of wales from the 1300s shows how little they respected the Welsh.
This is such a good point. There is no one at KP qualified to hire someone based on their familiarity with the Welsh language.
This tells you exactly how they feel about and treat “staff”.
I’m guessing that finding a replacement for Prince Harry is proving to be very difficult. Hahahahahaha! They would have found a way to have Harry do all the work behind the scenes. Hahahahaha!
That would require something between the ears.
God knows I wouldn’t want to be in the public eye like they are, but I can’t imagine having all the opportunities they do and not taking advantage of them. Trips to Mustique and pawing the crown jewels and all that is lovely, but having accessibility to experts to teach you anything you want whenever is so mindblowing. I would speak 20 languages (including Welsh!). I would play all the instruments. I would learn public speaking, I would develop a stylish wardrobe, I would have people explain to me the political situation in the Middle East. I could do all that in my life now if I truly wanted to prioritize it, but, like most people, I would have to fit it in between a full time job and spending time with my kids and walking my dog. They could have it served to them on a silver platter while someone else scrubs the toilet. I can’t imagine being so uncurious that stuff like that isn’t valued.
This is what annoys me about W&K the most: they literally have access to the best teachers of any subject in the world and the time to do it, yet they do nothing! Kate could have the heads of all the fashion houses giving her advice and she just buys coat dresses and cosplays more successful women. Years ago, William literally had a bespoke agricultural program designed for him and couldn’t be bothered to finish it. Each of them, plus the kids, could be multi-lingual by now, but what evidence do we have they can speak another than mumbled English?
As has been noted numerous times before on this blog, other Royals manage to take advantage of the opportunities offered them, many without the same level of wealth than the Walses. They don’t want to work? That’s between them and those paying their salaries. But for G-dad sake, do something, show interest in something other than blowouts and soccer!
All of this! They are mind-bogglingly incurious, vapid people.
For example Norway’s CP, apparently decided to learn weaving over covid
This is kind of an aside – but does it seem weird that Vanity Fair keeps referring to Kate as Middleton? As in, “Middleton, William, and their kids” and “…which houses Middleton and William’s offices”. Since when has Kate gone from “Kate Middleton” to only “Middleton”?
@Eurydice – I thought exactly the same and managed to cut and copy my post in time to follow yours! 😆
“Which houses Middleton and William’s offices”
Interesting “typo!” I wonder if any of the de-rangers have seen this? They go into a complete melt down if you call her Kate so just addressing her by her surname will cause them to go into seizures.
As for hiring someone to speak Welsh for them, I’ll believe it when I see it. The post will go the same way as Kate’s private secretary, William’s CEO and the much lauded Diversity Tzar.
It’s very weird.
Don’t tell me that neither Jason Knauf or Simon Case haven’t learned Welsh fluently by now just to prop this PWT up and boot lick some more.
Welsh is not dying, it’s on an upswing and it’s the only Celtic language not considered endangered. That said, Huevo actually doing anything to boost Welsh could only help grow interest in the language, but of course he’s incapable of that.
They never hired a CEO, but they did hire a COO, Sean Carney. Assuming he’s still there, I first saw it announced last October. He’s a high powered, well connected finance guy. Originally supposed to work in tandem with the CEO. Plus a layer of private secretaries on top of that? That’s a lot of bureaucracy for two people who do next to nothing.
https://medium.com/@jordanedward357/prince-william-faces-a-dilemma-as-his-private-secretary-quits-amid-new-ceo-announcement-56d1b41fe3f4
Kaiser is right: a campaign to revive and preserve the Welsh language & literature by the Prince of Wales would be not only so culturally valuable but actually demonstrate his commitment to BENEFITTING and SERVING the Welsh nation.
A part-time PR intern could come up with simple, meaningful and effective projects that allow Will and Kate to reduce focus on their rich spongy colonizer image and actually show them preserving valuable culture and heritage that isn’t just stolen wealth, blackamoor statues and stupid-looking traditions where adult men march around in tights and ostrich feathers. It boggles my mind that they can’t do better than what they do.
I wonder if this new position has in fact been imposed on ‘them’ (in reality, just W) by the new left-wing UK government. If that’s the case, the hire will be speedy and W will be forced outside daily to do some work.
I wouldn’t bet against it.
Whenever they hire a person for both Will and Kate, I think they really only work for William. The days of Kate having a large staff are gone.
THIRTY TWO THOUSAND AMERICAN DOLLARS!?!?!?!
All made worse by today’s announcement UK press that W cleared £23m last year – GBP, not US dollars.
£23m !
Can someone work out how much per ‘engagement’ that tallies up to?