Prince William & Kate are hiring a new communications officer, wonder why

People have short memories about this, but so much of the chaos around the “Where Is Kate?” drama was because Kensington Palace was a disorganized mess. I’m sure it still is, but everything fell apart spectacularly late last year when Prince William’s private secretary quit because of William’s big scheme to hire a “CEO.” The Princess of Wales had been without a private secretary since the fall of 2022, and seemingly no one wanted that sorry position. In February of this year, two private secretaries were basically assigned to Kate and William after weeks of terrible comms management. Then in March, William’s big CEO-hunt was called off. I also developed the theory that Buckingham Palace took over KP’s operations in March after so many f–kups, although William has seemingly wrested control back from his father. There will be more dramas and catastrophes to manage in the coming months, and I’m keeping my eye on all of the KP staffing changes. Like this:

The Prince and Princess of Wales ramping up their PR operations at Kensington Palace – in a sign that Kate may be getting ready to take on more royal duties soon. The royal couple, both 42, are currently hiring a new senior communications officer, who will help them work in the UK, along with overseas tours.

Although the job is based at the Palace in central London, Kate and William are ‘open to discussing flexible working at interview stage’, according to the job advertisement, which has received more than 100 applicants, on LinkedIn. It’s unclear from the job advertisement whether the hire will be filling a new role created on the communications team; or replacing a previous senior communications officer who has resigned.

The successful candidate will also be required to work from and travel to other royal residences, such as Buckingham Palace and Balmoral Castle. However, the candidate will also be expected to have good knowledge of creating social media content and be able to write press releases for the media. The job description states that the Palace is looking for someone who can plan and deliver ‘creative’ and ‘integrated’ communications activity that ‘connects the work of The Prince and Princess to a wide external audience’.

It read: ‘This role will be part of a multi-disciplinary team working together to communicate the work of The Prince and Princess. The successful candidate will lead on communications plans for Their Royal Highnesses’ engagements and support on the delivery of communications strategies to promote their key projects. The role will also involve responding to media enquiries on matters related to The Prince and Princess and their family.’

Some of the essential criteria includes ‘handling sensitive information with tact and discretion at all times’ and being able to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

The position is full-time, Monday to Friday, but the applicant will be required to participate in the out-of-hours rota, handling enquiries from the media.

[From The Daily Mail]

“It’s unclear from the job advertisement whether the hire will be filling a new role created on the communications team; or replacing a previous senior communications officer who has resigned.” It’s funny because you know the Mail would be all over it if there was a staffing change at a certain California-based business and foundation. You know that the Mail would have all of the names, dates and royal-expert speculation about the Sussexes’ staff. And yet it’s all vague when it comes to Will and Kate, who have never been able to keep domestic or office staffers. The fact that Kate didn’t have a private secretary for sixteen months spoke volumes about her barely-existent schedule and it spoke volumes about how few qualified people want anything to do with the Waleses. This new job opening sounds like William and Kate lost more of the communications staff. Which isn’t a surprise, because it’s been one comms disaster after another from their office.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

51 Responses to “Prince William & Kate are hiring a new communications officer, wonder why”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Jensa says:

    I think what they are looking for here is someone to give the illusion of activity, i.e. do lots of social media type announcements / campaigns, with a view to freeing W+K up to do what they best – which is absolutely nothing.

  2. Noor says:

    Missing from the ad, a person with low ego

  3. Tennyson says:

    Any tea as to why the Nanny, Maria Borallo left?

  4. jensa says:

    Also, I can see they’re ” open to discussing flexible working” There’s no way this could be a full-time job.

    • BeanieBean says:

      I took this to mean they could WFH, but yeah, I can see it could mean flexible hours.

    • Normal_Islander says:

      Being “open to discussing flexible working” is a basic legal requirement under UK employment law. This is just waffle.

  5. Lau says:

    Does that mean that Kate has been doing her own pie charts ?

  6. Libra says:

    What they are looking for is Harry and his accomplished team.” Come over and do it all for us, “(the school run, you know, keeps us too busy to do it ourselves)

  7. Lady Digby says:

    Can great comms and PR divert from no substantive work and poor service delivery? PS how is Kate?

    • First comment says:

      With the aid of tabloids they probably can. Unfortunately, there are many who believe in Kate, the early years expert and the children’s princess, and in huevo, super environmentalist…

  8. Jais says:

    All I could think about when they said communicate the prince and princess of wales’ work to an external audience was what work? Technically, it’s about taking the small amount of work they do and making it seem like more to an external audience.

    • Nic919 says:

      I am Guessing they make those rewind videos and help William with his I’m angry at Harry again stories.

    • Lady Digby says:

      A@ JaIS can the newbie make fetch happen?

    • Eurydice says:

      Yes, that where the “creative activity” comes in. I worked in a restaurant when I was in college and one of the servers there beefed up his resume by saying he was in charge of “night inventory control” – that meant he took home the leftovers.

    • Becks1 says:

      Yes, exactly. It’s about making it seem they are a lot busier than they actually are.

      I’ve said before that some of Kate’s speeches or writings on IG read to me like what I did in high school – when I had a paper due about “the importance of education” or something I would get to school a half hour early and just use a lot of big important sounding phrases and BS my way to an A.

      They probably want someone with that kind of skill without any expectations of being well paid etc.

    • Eileen Bruce says:

      I thought the Wales were divorced or separated. So Kate will be queen someday?

      • Wagiman says:

        No one has said they’re divorced.. That absolutely can’t be hidden. But if anyone thinks they live together I’ve got a bridge to sell.

        Willy flies back to Kensington palace at night when the rest of the family are at Windsor. According to the neighbours. No way would willy demean himself to sharing a room with Kate.. Even the rota said they don’t.

  9. Laura D says:

    No matter how they try to spin it the pair are lazy and do the absolute bare minimum. They might hire the best Comms Officer on the planet but, they can’t “communicate” if there’s no content. They’re not called “Duchess Dolittle” and “Workshy Willy” for nothing.

  10. Lady Digby says:

    The famous evaluation of Fred Astaire’s screen test: “Can’t act, can’t sing, can dance a little ” makes me wonder how anybody working with FK would rate his abilities? My client is tall with big teeth which he bares at peasants, like to be carried around on ceremonial chairs whilst on foreign tours at someone else’s expense, filthy temper, very much a racist, resents having to show up regularly for work so doesn’t, sulky, only one topic of conversation about hatred of younger brother, entitled, squiffy a lot of the time, never read a book in his life and no interest in anybody or anything apart from himself.

  11. Nic919 says:

    Kate is not returning to doing anything this year. They telegraphed back in January even before the cancer video that she was not going to work this year. And Remembrance Day was the only event put out there so that’s it.

    This comms person is likely to needed because William needs more friends to speak to the media and bitch about Harry.

    Something not mentioned is the total lack of photos about the school start this week.

    • JT says:

      I don’t think she’ll back to royal work at all. Even before her cancer video and her abdominal surgery, they were already telegraphing that Kate’s “work” would be slowing down. She was already being phased out, just happy to be in the country with a stove.

    • Becks1 says:

      Agree with @JT – I think she’s done. Remember that story from a year ago or so, about how she wasn’t going to work “As much” as she had been until her kids were out of school?

      Whatever is going on with her health-wise, its given her the perfect cover for the next….well, the rest of her royal life I guess. “health issues” that no one in the press will question while she does Trooping, Wimbledon and Remembrance Sundays and that will be about it. Maybe Christmas.

      I don’t know if they released pictures last year (I dont think they did) but we definitely usually get some stories about the kids going back to school, their fun summer, etc. It was total silence this year which is very interesting.

    • Jais says:

      Hmmm. I wonder if Kate’s mostly good with that. The busy work and pretending to do important things is probably draining. I mean that for real. She doesn’t work like people with day to day jobs but pretending to be something does take it’s toll. She’s not doing important work and she doesn’t really care that much about others. But she’s been having to pretend she does. I would think it’s a relief to not have to be doing it all the time. But that being said, at the same time, I do think she gets energy from a certain amount of public appearances and fawning. There is an exhibitionist in her that thrives on attention. So I guess, I wonder, health issues aside, is this removal from public life something she wants or something William wants.

      • Becks1 says:

        @Jais I know what you mean on both counts. She clearly doesn’t seem to enjoy the heavier aspects of her job – being knowledgeable about her engagements, caring about other people, and her big projects are clearly just designed to make her look like she’s busy.

        But she also thrives on attention, which is why I think we’ll see her at Wimbledon, Trooping – events that are pretty much just about the attention for her. Same with the Christmas walk. I think she is unlikely to do anything that doesn’t center her presence, if that makes sense, going forward. She wants to be the focus of attention, not to bring focus to others.

      • Jais says:

        Your last sentence is spot-on. It’s just funny bc for the past few years it’s definitely felt like the wales were jealous of how the sussexes could make their own schedules and stay hidden and then make a big impact when they did come out. And now, essentially that’s what William and Kate are kind of doing. William not so much but still more than before. But they’re missing bc of cancer so it’s just all kind of weird, idk.

      • Nic919 says:

        I don’t think they will be able to do this beyond the end of the calendar year. When Charles has been out and about far more and he’s much older, then the good days thing won’t work for Kate much longer.

  12. Amy Bee says:

    Where’s outrage that William and Kate lost another member of staff? It’s clear that somebody resigned.

    • Becks1 says:

      Agreed, the description reads as too basic to be a supplemental figure. It sounds like they don’t have any comms person right now at all.

  13. Zut Alors says:

    What happened to that American pr guy from NBC?

    • Nanea says:

      Maybe there’s so much work to do that Lee Thompson needs a PA or something?

      The KP comms have never looked like they were done by a professional, so I have no idea what LT’s assignment was in terms of palace PR. Or he’s just bad at his job and no one has noticed it yet, because they’re all bad at it — the comms office, the British media, but especially the rota 🐀🐀🐀

    • Jais says:

      Huh. It would be interesting if Lee Thompson has left. He stuck it out for quite a while. I’ll just never forget his stressed out energy from the funeral walkabout. Also when a few papers tried to make it a thing when Meghan refused to hand him the flowers in her hand as if she was being rude. But really she’d told the person that she would personally lay the flowers for them. Did he take over Jason Knauf’s old position? I feel like they’d like to have Knauf back if they could.

    • Eurydice says:

      Whatever ever happened to that very important diplomat guy who wrote William’s “Churchill” speech and was going to make him into a global statesman? I can imagine him on a therapist’s couch somewhere.

  14. beff says:

    Is it normal for royals to post job listings on linkedin and advertise the positions? Seems VERY weird that they have to go to all this effort to hire senior staff.

    • Chrissy says:

      There was probably no interest doing it their usual way. Why would anyone choose to work for these racist, lazy duds?

    • BeanieBean says:

      I thought that odd, too. Also, I’ve reread this sentence over & over & just can’t parse it: “The successful candidate will lead on communications plans for Their Royal Highnesses’ engagements and support on the delivery of communications strategies to promote their key projects.”

      I kinda sorta get the ‘take the lead on comms plans’ but am stumped by the ‘and support on the delivery of strategies’. Whaaaaatt??? If you’re perusing LinkedIn for work, would you really want to apply for something with an unclear set of job duties?

    • Jais says:

      I wonder if they post the job listing to make it seem fair when they already have a friend or someone in mind for the position. At the same time, I can believe they’re struggling for good help.

      • Normal_Islander says:

        Jais- yes, they would have to make this look fair, you’re right. As it’s a public sector job they have no choice but to advertise and at least pretend they care about transparency.

        To be fair the Royal Household is far from the only UK public sector organisation that advertises jobs they’ve already reserved for internal candidates or friends of the recrutiting team. They’re all bound by the same rules and have to advertise.

  15. Harla says:

    What do WandK’s staff do all day long? Neither of them do much even when they’re supposedly working hard, I can’t imagine that there’s enough to fill anyone’s day. But I guess the employees are mostly fellow toffs who don’t expect or want to “work” so this probably suits them to a tee.

  16. BeanieBean says:

    I would think, if they actually had good PR, then the tabs & other press wouldn’t have to read anything as ‘signs’. There’d be actual statements & communications.

  17. BeanieBean says:

    Y’all, I found the announcement on LinkedIn. They had the gall to include a recruitment statement, “The Household believes that the diversity of modern society is its greatest asset. We reflect this in policies to attract, employ and reward the very best talent, regardless of gender, race, ethnic or national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age. Our recruitment process enables us to recruit from the widest available pool with an approach which is fair, open and accessible.”

    Yeah, right. What are we thinking on the person hired? Oxbridge grad, white male, 30-40 is my guess.

  18. Libra says:

    Why not just say it, spit it out, “the Princess of Wales will be a stay at home mother and will have no official duties as of now”. There . Done.