Robert Hardman has added new chapters to his royal biography Charles III: New King, New Court, The Inside Story, which came out in January. Hardman has basically provided those new chapters to the Mail to publish, and we can clearly see that King Charles and Camilla’s minions were doing a lot of talking. But it looks like Prince William and Kate’s minions wanted in on the royal rewrite too. Hardman devotes a good chunk of time to trying to reimagine what the past year has been for William and Kate, given all of the extremely weird sh-t that we saw with our own eyes. Remember the Mother’s Day frankenphoto? Remember how William didn’t bother to go his godfather’s memorial service in Windsor? Remember how the Sun completely fabricated a fake-Kate sighting? Hardman has explanations and complaints! Some highlights:
On Charles and Kate’s back-to-back health announcements in January: Royal aides now smile at some of the more outlandish theories, pointing out that the two medical conditions had, simply, been a coincidence. ‘It was not an issue of, ‘Let’s all make sure it’s on the same day’,’ says one of those involved. ‘There just happened to be a certain time limit in which announcements had to be made for logistical reasons.’
William also refused to go to a funeral in South Africa: At the last minute, however, the King had asked [Princess Anne] to fly to Namibia to represent him at the funeral of the former president, Hage Geingob. Traditionally it would have been the job of the heir to the throne to attend an occasion like this (monarchs do not, as a rule, attend funerals). But the new Prince of Wales, William, was otherwise preoccupied. Barely noticed by the media, the Princess Royal flew via South Africa on commercial flights to the Namibian capital Windhoek, returned to London overnight and was back in action for an engagement in Berkshire on the Monday.
William missed his godfather’s memorial service: The next day, however, the Prince of Wales was absent again. He had been due to attend a memorial service for his godfather, ex-King Constantine of the Hellenes, at Windsor Castle. With next to no notice, it was announced he would not be attending for ‘personal’ reasons. On social media and in mainstream media, patience was wearing thin. Given that he lived a short walk from St George’s Chapel, what could possibly have prevented him from spending an hour commemorating his godfather?
William’s bizarre behavior: It was well known that, like his father before him, the Prince was determined not to be dictated to by the monarch’s office. ‘William and his team like to police their own lanes. His father did exactly the same when he was Prince of Wales,’ points out one former member of staff. Even so, the Prince’s behaviour seemed hard to explain. And no explanation was forthcoming, from his office or the King’s team. In spite of the increasingly deranged speculation about the Princess’s whereabouts, the Waleses were sticking to their original strategy. The Prince continued to go about his official engagements while the Princess recovered in private.
Kate has no constitutional role: ‘No constitutional responsibility sits on the Princess of Wales and never will,’ says a senior aide to the King. ‘She is not in the line of succession. She plays an absolutely vital supporting role to the Prince of Wales and in bringing up their children who are in the line of succession. But she herself is not. Her situation is different and it can be treated differently.’
The Mother’s Day frankenphoto: This was not, aides insist, a response to noises off. It was something she had planned all along to mark Mothering Sunday. Rather than calm down the commentariat and the cyber-trolls, however, the image only set them off all over again. Some had spotted small inconsistencies with the photograph – a missing section of a child’s sleeve or blurring of a knee, for example. Clearly, the photo had undergone minor editing prior to release. The Waleses and their staff were astonished by what happened next. On the same Sunday, the world’s four main international photographic agencies issued a ‘kill notice’, industry jargon for retracting a photograph. ‘At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image,’ Associated Press announced, declaring that the photograph had thus fallen short of its standards. Getty, AFP and Reuters said much the same.
The palace thought the outcry was exaggerated: While the industry’s concerns about the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to the integrity of mainstream photography were well known, this seemed an oddly exaggerated, almost performative, response. ‘There were several factors,’ says one of the Waleses’ team. ‘Anything written or said about the Princess of Wales at that point was at fever pitch and front page news. It also spoke to the nervousness of the photography industry around AI and their future. Even so, the reaction seemed extremely disproportionate.’ As far as the Princess was concerned, says the aide, ‘this had just been a mother deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation. That’s all’.
Will & Kate weren’t worried about the dramas they caused: Within Kensington Palace and Adelaide Cottage, the Waleses’ home at Windsor, there was no great soul-searching the next day. ‘The Prince and Princess have agency in everything,’ says the Kensington Palace staffer. ‘They are the final decision-makers.’ If there was frustration that the media should be making quite such a meal of a well-intentioned, homespun gesture, there was no time to dwell on it.
Why Kate released a message before Trooping: The last-minute nature of her appearance was a reflection of that. ‘We wanted to give the green light that she was going to the parade when we knew, rather than to dangle the possibility,’ says one aide. ‘So it was very late in the day. But she was very keen on sharing an update on her progress.’
Months ago, Robert Jobson revealed the fact that Kate had to take credit for the frankenphoto because William and his staff tossed her right under the bus and refused to take any part of the blame for releasing an extremely manipulated photo. Now Hardman is pulling some kind of “the media overreacted, this was performative outrage!” The media did not overreact – agencies like Reuters and AFP went to Kensington Palace and asked for clarification or the original image, and KP refused. That’s why the Mother’s Day photo was killed on Oscar night. It wasn’t just some minor edits either.
The emphasis on Kate’s lack of constitutional role is fascinating too, because that really is William’s perspective and Charles’s perspective too. The Princess of Wales is expendable, unimportant, not constitutionally relevant. That’s why they bungled everything so badly throughout the year too – it never occurred to them that people might want a health update on Kate simply because they were worried about her as a person. It never would have occurred to them that a “simple, homespun gesture” like providing a health update through a completely manipulated photo would actually destroy their credibility and cause more confusion.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
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- Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales said she has finished chemotherapy and is “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Steaming pile of doo-doo, and plenty will fall for this so that they don’t have to think for themselves. The protection of the monarchy-racket is amazing considering how the monarchy is a stain and a drain on the UK.
So these books are just being written to clarify issues for the Windsors. I haven’t heard the term working royal in a while. I guess now that Kate is not working they are approaching it at a different angle, she doesn’t have to 🙄
They can’t keep kicking the can further along forever, so this is probably the point where they start sending out messages to the public about not expecting to see Kate in a public facing role.
Kat does what she wants. Money, money and more money. Multiple luxury holidays every year, spends hundreds of thousands of pounds on her bad fashion choices, attacks anyone she sees as her competition. She has never wasted a moment learning how to do her royal role, nor bothered to learn how to speak clearly with her very stilted fake aristo accent. Apparently renovating Amner House, and more new kitchens are being installed as well for K , who stated she had never learned to cook. Beginning to notice the BRF have no respect for any of the commonwealth, with their mottos always being gimme, gimme, gimme and more gimme.
She doesn’t, though. Everyone is used to THE QUEEN.. Phillip didn’t have a constitutional roles. Neither does Cow.. Only as sides. I guess UNLESS the monarch is incapacitated
Camomile, Technically, ITA that she has absolutely no constitutional role as queen consort (presumably in the future?). However, culturally, royal women have usually been more visible, especially if they’re mildly interesting. Here’s a list of historic British queens, several of whom are consorts: https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/best-english-british-queens-history-victoria-elizabeth-consort-wife/#
Great read ML, thanks for sharing!
If the monarch is incapacitated then there would be a regent appointed. The spouse of the monarch never steps in to run anything. At best they have a place on the committee to decide the regent, which gets chosen from the next adults in the line of succession.
No constitutional responsibility doesn’t mean no responsibility at all. She won’t be meeting with Prime Ministers or opening Parliament, but there are implied responsibilities as Queen and supporter of the King. Plus, she’s Patron of this and that, Colonel of Whozits, plus whatever other titles they’ve festooned on her.
Eurydice, one must not forget that she is the Companion to the Companions!
ITA about no responsibility, but that is different to a constitutional role. She doesn’t have one. Except (and this is what I meant about incapacity) as a counsellor of state which the monarch’s spouse is. I’d call that a constitutional role, of sorts.
Of course she is lazy as xyz*
This is a tricky road to go down though for the royals. If she doesn’t have a constitutional role, and has no actual official duties because she’s not in the line of succession, why does she receive millions a year in duchy funding and money from the SG?
If she doesn’t have an official role to play in the royal family, then she can find an official job outside of it.
What! Kate do work!
She is scared stiff of it.Never done any in her life, even before she was part of the Royal family.It would kill her.
In the past consorts did a ton of engagements, like Philip did, so they didn’t question his role even if he wasn’t officially doing anything constitutional.
Kate is just so lazy that it’s obviously she’s doing nothing.
She doesn’t get anything, William gets it all and what he does with it is up to him.
I mean yes it goes to the Duke of Cornwall but come on, she’s benefiting from those millions. Her coatdresses, wiglets and vacations aren’t cheap. Acting like she’s not getting the money is just playing into the royal family’s hands.
So nothing is expected or required from this Princess and never will be, but that American mixed race Princess had everything expected of her and still does. This woman is one of the royals that the 1/2 a billion pounds pays for.. but how dare anyone expect her to do anything to earn it.
Exactly @hypocrisy. This statement allows kkkhate to absolutely do nothing, as it already is, as she has no responsibility and could also be an excellent argument once they throw her away because egg willie wants another and took the ring back. They say it’s a supporting role to have his children and have an heir. She has done her job, she’s on overtime since yeeeeears!
These people are just so dumb and arrogant. So completely insulated from everything by their bubble of extreme privilege that they are completely unable to understand and empathize with ordinary people. It is giving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in their bubble at Versailles.
I agree completely and I think 2Camomile has a very salient point: we are used to @E2. Could it be that the fear that QE2 grew up with (having to keep up duty or they may the next royals booted out)?? These royals have no fear of that (like Louis XVI and MA) so they are the way they are. Question is, how long with the public tax payer put up with it.
Yeah, if this line:
“…says the aide, ‘this had just been a mother deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation. That’s all’.”
is indicative of how they genuinely think, it screams Marie Antoinette. How many people derive actual joy from photos of the royal family, my goodness.
It’s completely Marie Antoinette, especially because her shampoo video announcement was so poorly received just recently. And instead of trying to be more visible and look more useful, she/they double down saying well don’t expect anything more from her, not working is her prerogative. I wonder why. Why does she/they insist on her retiring completely??
Wow her role is “not constitutional “ is that code for she and Peg will finally be divorced? So very interesting all the excuses for them all being lazy leftovers sucking the tax payers dry and not doing their “jobs”. Abolish the monarchy.
I know several commenters here have said the same thing, but can you imagine? Imagine having a newspaper reminding everyone what a nobody you really are? How unimportant you really are? Raise the kids, lady, and support your husband, that’s it.
BeanieBean, I can’t see how that became a surprise. That’s what Diana was, so Bone Idle should have had a clue.
“Clearly, the photo had undergone minor editing prior to release.”
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
O.K.
Ah yes. Minor editing. That old chestnut.
We have eyes Robert.
Right. Their supporters have been beating this drum for a long time, hoping that we will all agree that it was just a few minor edits. But every single part of that photo was edited. This photo, along with the flower shop stroll and the 2023 black-and-white Christmas card with all the photoshop, have never been explained at all. None of this makes any sense, and it’s not the fault of the public that they got caught.
Trying to gaslight the serious actions taken by Reuters and Associated Press for what they determined to be a significant altered photograph is right from the North Korea playbook.
This wasn’t just a photo with a bit of photoshop on Kate. It was far more and the palace could have provided information as to what was altered but they refused to do it, hence the kill order.
KP is a joke. No one needed to see a photo of kate and the kids. It was known she had surgery and so an older photo would have sufficed. The fake photo is what kicked off the kate is missing talk exponentially because neither can be forthright with media that mostly protects them. Plus the weird market video and car photo only added to the mess.
That part was absolutely insulting. At the very least, Kate herself was not in that picture. (or if she was, they put a completely different head on her from another picture.) I forget all the other inconsistencies but they weren’t minor.
The other issue wasn’t just the editing, it was WHY the picture was being offered up. It was literally put out there to show what good health Kate was in, how well she was recovering*, all that jazz – so the fact that it was a fake was a HUGE deal. And that’s what really sparked the international interest in “where’s Kate?”
And finally – if we accept KP’s storyline as true (go with me here), then by the time of that picture, her cancer was already discovered and she was starting chemo. So why put out a picture designed to make her look fully recovered and healthy? (I think that’s actually a really good picture of Kate that they used in the frankenphoto, LOL.) It tells us that (again, if KP’s storyline is to be believed) that they were never planning on announcing her cancer. They really thought the Princess of Wales could just hide away for months and no one would notice.
She doesn’t even look like that photo now, especially in the non photoshop versions.
The first thing I noticed was she looked far too healthy for a woman pleading ill health, in the first video she at least looked unwell, although there is no way of knowing if it was just make-up.
They are making a big PR mistake by sidelining Kate like that. She was a good distraction and now they have no clothes horse to hide behind. I’ve been wondering since yesterday if the whole info dump about their financial exploitations is released now because an even bigger distraction is coming. Like a divorce. That would surely distract from the exposé happening right now. And just like KC’s bags of cash from the bin ladens and the like, it would be yesterday’s news.
William got back together with Kate in his mid-twenties apparently knowing he could never break up with her again without looking “like a cad.” He cannot divorce a cancer patient. Men don’t divorce unless there’s someone to move onto. I think William is deeply compartmentalized and rather likes the current situation, where he still gets babied and coddled and cheese on toast and plays family man and then can disappear to his mistress. I suspect he’s also the kind of man that sees their children as his only, not theirs.
Agree. No divorce, officially, but separated in private. “It’s cheaper to keep her” is an old adage but true here. Charles is still smarting from the financial settlement with Diana and it would not surprise me if William is very adverse to parting with a dime which is why I think you’re right, he will maintain the status quo.
As long as they stay married, William controls Kate through his control of the duchy money. Their divorce will mean she gets her share (if she has good lawyers and PR machine) and is financially independent from him to do whatever she wants. William would never be willing to give up his money or control.
Actually it’s better for Kate to stay married. She would likely have no access to Duchy money–Charles had to take a loan from his mother to pay off Diana because the terms of the Duchy are so strict. Kate isn’t entitled to any of it. As she has no money of her own, she’s completely dependent on William for her future. He could starve her out–send her to a brokedown palace with no heat with a miniscule allowance. She’ll be dependent on him for the rest of her life, and completely at his mercy. English kings have starved out their unwanted wives before–see Katherine of Aragon. He can deny her access to her kids if she doesn’t do what he wants. He has all the power and she has none. At least Diana made connections in her role, plus she came from family money, unlike Kate. Even still, Diana was seeking out a rich man who could give her the protection she needed–she said that openly. Kate minus William is screwed.
Men can, and do, divorce their wives with cancer. William doesn’t give two sh*ts about what the public thinks. Most recent Exhibit A: his documentary about ‘solving’ homelessness in the wake of the investigative reporting showing him to be a slumlord.
William settled for Kate since the women he wanted to date turned him down.
Anything to protect the keens. And it was embarrassing also the person frolicking through farmers market was not Kate. She was not as tall and had different facial features
And people clocked it IMMEDIATELY, that story went around the world and the video remains unretracted even though it clearly was not her and specifically organized by The Sun newspaper. Fraud in broad daylight and they still pretend there was no issue with that video and play dumb as to why that BRF sanctioned gaslighting encouraged the general public to worry about her welfare.
The BIG question here is why have the British media suddenly turned on the royals. Is it the change of government, or something deeper?
This isn’t about Kate. The media have always been gently gently towards the BRF, and all of a sudden we’re seeing a huge flood of articles and coverage ripping them apart and exposing them.
Why? Why have the gloves come off now, after so many years of the media toeing the party line?
Perhaps they pissed of Murdoch? Stepped on someone’s financial interests? There are many other money grabbers out there exploiting public funds, maybe the BRF were grabbing too much of the pie.
I think the simplest explanation is that the media is simply bored. They have very little to cove. William only cooperates with them to make Harry look bad. They agreed years ago to William and Kate’s demands to not report on their children or their travel or anything about the family that Kate and Will didn’t approve, but the exchange for that was the family would parade around publicly at polo, etc. Kate’s cancer has given William the chance to rewrite the terms and just give them nothing instead.
I don’t think the media has turned on the Royal Family at all. The media still has to pretend that they report without fear or favour.
Good question, Samuel Whiskers. Will this new shift in reporting last, or is this just a temporary move in order to encourage the royals to behave differently?
1. The royal coverage has been an important factor in earnings, and these have decreased.
2. Most of the comments (possibly not published) are dissatisfied with the royals, and the media is shifting to their viewpoint.
3. The media has been cut off from quid pro quo.
4. The “sources” are giving them inaccurate information, and they are leery of the potential consequences.
5. No Queen Elizabeth. Simply QE2 is not replaceable no matter how hard the RR tried to continue that tradition of reporting and they need to change their stance.
6. They’re angry about something.
This investigation took 15 months according to either the mirror or the Times so this has been in the works for a long time. This would have started even before the mess with Kate this year, so something else triggered them to finally start acting like journalists.
Kate is superfluous basically. But we always knew that. She was only the subject of discussion on the fake photo mess started. Prior to that people were not questioning the surgery. At least not the general public.
@Nic919 – The Sunday Times article (in cooperation with Channel 4) from whence this information emanates states that the investigation took 5 months, not 15. So that puts it within the timeframe of “Kategate”. I’ve also read elsewhere that the Channel 4 documentary had been shelved twice before it was eventually shown last Saturday night. So, 15 months or 5 months? Who knows what the truth is. Also, there must be a reason for releasing the information now.
@Deborah1 the Mirror said their investigation took 15 months. I think theirs was trickier because they were trying to find tenants to speak about the conditions in the duchy housing and it was hard to find anyone out of fear of retaliation.
William put out his homelessness video last week and has the earthshot prize this week. The reports do make Charles look bad but imo they make William look worse. He’s supposed to be modern. So to me this all seems like a deliberate hit on William more than anything else. And honestly I don’t think it’s coming from Camilla this time. Maybe it is? But idk. I think some of the media is deeply unimpressed by William. I just wonder what the endgame is. Do they think this might actually get him to stop charging the nhs and charities for rent? Like I doubt that’s gonna happen. Is it just about punishing William for lying nonstop for the past year? It’s not like he’s going to stop lying.
@Jais I think the reason this makes William look bad is because like you said, he’s supposed to be modern so hearing that he’s charging the military to dock their ships on his coastline is a little….medieval. And I think people are genuinely surprised to hear that duchy tenants live in such horrible conditions and are afraid to speak out about it. That’s on William at this point, because we haven’t heard anything about plans to update the houses or fix the living conditions. If there were such plans you can bet your @ss that KP would have released that information after this came out.
But also like you said….I’m not sure what the endgame is here. Just more transparency around royal finances? More transparency around government finances? (I’m assuming the MoD payments to the duchy are listed somewhere in an official budget, right?)
I think this was targeting William but not from Camilla because the poor condition of the duchy of Cornwall homes started well before William took over. But the articles tend to focus much more on William than Charles.
Hardman is rewriting history and lied when he downplayed the reaction to the manipulated Mother’s Day photo .
The monarchy as well as Kate and William’s reputation were tarnished when the photo was served with
Kill notice from reputable international agencies.
Not relevant at all – now that she’s produced the required heirs. She and her fraudulent parents can just fade away
It’s alarming that the Lazy Prince and Keen can’t do the simplest things. Going to funerals, checking on patronages and raising money for them. Why don’t they have a schedule, and goals like any other person tasked with these responsibilities?
This is level of laziness is so disgusting and shameful.
So, basically, he’s saying Charles, William and the rest of the RF can do whatever the hell they want and it’s nobody’s business to ask why.
Yes. And it’s always been like that, just that they phrased it differently. Never complain, NEVER EXPLAIN.
Kate has spent a decade placing herself as a replacement for the Queen Mother and “the mother of the country.” And apparently thinks it’s her role to release photos of her and her children to “bring some joy to the nation.” Acting as if she doesn’t owe the public a transparent explanation and unadulterated truthful photos when that’s how they’ve fought to position her is an absurdity. We see them do this all the time, like by setting security by rank rather than threat. All they had to say was something akin to what was said about Charles. They could have even been more mealy mouthed about it, and the mainstream media would never have piled on her. They lied repeatedly to people and kept their own staff in the dark. They do not now laugh about it.
‘No constitutional responsibility sits on the Princess of Wales and never will,’
John Major practically tripped over himself to make a point of saying, “their constitutional positions are unaffected” when Charles and Diana separated so that is interesting.
During the early period of ‘Where’s Kate’ some commenters would argue that point as a reason people should not keep wondering and speculating about where she is, even in the face of so many KP sanctioned lies. I don’t think it occurs even now to KP people were speculating over why William couldn’t just produce her in public rather than all the ornate contortions pretending she was ‘out and about’ and the blatantly fake farm shop video.
Will anyone in the media pin down WTF is going on with these two? The reckoning for faking photos that predate the death of QEII has barely had its surface scratched, let alone the cancer video and the kids birthday photos. If Kate is not William’s wife anymore why is that allowed to remain secret?
Kate will have a role when (or if) William becomes king: counsellor of state. CofS are those in the line of sussession and the sovereign’s spouse. I noticed Camilla became a member of the Privy Council before she became the consort and received her Garter orders too. Kate received her order after the Rose story broke (looking like it was a bribe to keep her from bolting from William). From then Kate has not done anything to deserve it. Tin foil tiara: I think something will come out that William used the duchy’s ill-gotten gains to pay off the Middleton debts and that will be too much. Kate make the prime directive of birthing heirs so she is more longer needed.
Kate will try to cling to being future queen no matter what
Of course she will, that is the only reason she married him.
None of them have ANY.
They are figureheads, with no power at all.
It is all for show.
Please acquaint yourself with Queens Consent, now probably named Kings Consent, before thinking that these people have no real power.
They are pure figureheads in terms of passing legislation. They are ceremonial figures representing the nation— only.
If nothing’s expected of Kate why she doing the Early Year’s project and why was Meghan attacked at every turn?
“..deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation….”
My God, they really do feel they are divine don’t they, and that their subjects worship them. How the heck does a picture of a welfare mother and her entitled offspring bring joy to people who can’t afford heating or food, can’t get medical treatment, or don’t have a roof over their heads?
Because the fawning media really wants us to think she is the world’s most perfect mother.
The tone of the referenced article is precisely why so many people do not like Will and Kate (despite all the media lies about their so-called popularity). These pieces are a reflection of the Wales’ attitude towards the general public. It is just this side of rude, dismissive and reeking of elitism and privilege. To dismiss the extremely bizarre behaviors of both Will and Kate towards the end of 2023 to early 2024 as just the work of “internet trolls” and overreacting news organizations is a terrible PR strategy. They would have been better off saying nothing because now guess what, if that woman does ever disappear into the night, very few people will care. Hmm maybe that is what they want.
🎯🎯🎯
This is the general sentiment of all the British Royals. After all, these the people who give pictures of themselves to their hosts in the countries the visit. That is standard practice of any British Royal. Visit a place, meet the PM/President and gift them with a picture of yourself like it is a deep honour you are bestowing upon them.
The photo gift was a tradition started by people long dead, so it’s not fair to blame the current royals. Harry had to do that too and was embarrassed by it. The others may well be embarrassed by it.
On the other hand the bring joy to the nation comment is reminiscent of princess Beatrice saying she would have a big wedding to cheer up the people during covid and lockdown.
Well, they continue with this tradition that is frankly quite insulating and I will absolutely drag them for it.
Royal gaslighting at it’s finest – the Frankenphoto had “clearly” undergone “some editing”? It was just “a mother deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation”. It makes it sound like she just tweaked the contrast a little. No, Robert, it was a shambolic collage of badly done photoshop, with an obvious copy and pasted Kate head stuck right in the middle and weirdly symmetrical hands photoshopped on either side of the children in an unnatural way. There’s no proof (because the refuse to provide the original) that she was ever originally in the thing at all, so it’s hardly a “personal” photo.
Reuters is not exactly a Republican organization either (in the British sense). They are a news agency with standards for photos and what KP sent didn’t meet them at all.
It is shameful to downplay this deception.
The royalist writers rewrite to truth to a degree that matches the propaganda of an authoritarian state. North Korean standards indeed.
@Jay – She doesn’t appear to be wearing a wedding ring (never mind the Big Blue engagement ring) in that Frankenphoto either.
In other news, water is wet!
None of this is surprising. Charles and William even more so are so stuffed on their position and entitlement that they would expect the public to buy anything. I’m sure William has been petulant that Kate’s received so much press because if her cancer, if she has/had it. Historically speaking, William is one of the worse PoW’s ever…Edward VIII and Prinny give him some competition.
They are certainly laying th groundwork to ditch and humiliate Kate as well.
Edward VIII at least worked a lot including a lot of overseas tours that his increasingly infirm father couldn’t undertake. He was phenomenally popular.
This is just to remind us that Kate has zero intentions of ever working so don’t question when we don’t see her for months. William is so over her but she will remain his wife for appearances sake because it works for both of them. She gets to fulfill her mother and herself life goals of being queen and her mom queen mom and willy gets to do whatever he does in the bushes and she can’t say a word about it because she has been bought and paid for. Her parents debts have been erased and they have been bought back into the Royal and aristo society with no questions asked by the media. I still say whatever happened over that December/January period, was enough to get willy to do whatever the Middletons want
Princess Melania.
The problem is that the monarchy has a great deal of power and they are not accountable to anyone. Someone has already mentioned King/Queen’s Consent.
It’s really insulting and borderline dishonest how he is presenting the Frankenphoto debacle. It was clearly intended to mislead the public and was incredibly manipulative. The fact that the Waleses don’t see it as a big deal shows how arrogant and put of touch they are. The vanity to think they were doing the public a favor in releasing that jacked up picture.
Anyone notice 2 separate comments made by different people in the DM? Kate has a fantastic sense of humor, and she and William are just a regular family. Mike Tindall says that Kate is quite relaxed and funny in private. This totally is not the Kate in Spare. Why the move now to humanize this woman who has made the life of another woman a nightmare?
This is not true that she will have no constitutional duties as Queen consort, IF she is ever Queen consort. Consorts are now listed as those that can serve as Counselors of State.
I completely forgot about that picture of William and the kids leaping to a ridiculous height lol. Of all the Photoshopped photos in the history of photoshopped photos, you can’t tell me that one is NOT edited. If Kate took that one (I don’t feel like looking it up), I don’t think she’s a good enough photographer to take a non blurry jumping picture. Everything about that photo looks unnatural.
Kate’s diagnosis has been incredibly convenient to not only sideline her but also make it sound like we’ll never really see her again apart from big events like Trooping. Almost like she’s the next Empress Masako of Japan who does have documented mental health issues and why we don’t see her much. Had she not gotten cancer and chemo, would she have been eventually phased out of royal life? It’s hard to tell. William had been seen looking increasingly irritated and annoyed at her in public and you could see the tension on both but… I dunno.