Remember one month ago, when I thought the fun royal story of the summer was going to be “the Sussexes’ reps met with King Charles’s PR guru in London?” Good times. Since then, it’s been nonstop drama from the Prince and Princess of Wales, the latest of which was their announcement that they are in dire need of an isolated and grand emotional-support mansion on the Windsor estate. The royalist press, always restless in the summer months, has not reacted well to the news of a move to Forest Lodge. The Times of London even came close to letting the cat out of the bag that Forest Lodge is likely Kate’s new separation home. Meanwhile, the Mail was the outlet revealing that Will and Kate evicted two families from the cottages on Forest Lodge’s estate. The Mail’s columnists have also been having a field day. Amanda Platell excoriated the Waleses in a Tuesday column, and now it’s Liz Jones’s turn: “Careful, William… I’ve always supported you but now your behaviour’s left me cold and I’m not alone.” Some highlights from another fun piece:
The Wales family vacations too much: We’ve all got the message: the three children of William and Kate lead lives of wholesome, old-fashioned, Enid Blyton ordinariness. When not tagging along at state occasions, George, 12, Charlotte, ten, and Louis, seven, are frolicking in East Anglian haystacks and having swordfights with twigs. Oh, and cruising round the Greek Islands aboard a superyacht. The Waleses’ recent Mediterranean sojourn is just one of the four or five vacations – at least – they’ve taken so far this year. Shame there was no time for the Prince and Princess of Wales to attend last week’s VJ Day ceremonies. William, remember, will be head of the Armed Forces in the not-too-distant future. Yet, all the couple did to mark the moment – the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War – was post a message on social media.
Remember how they skipped the BAFTAs? True, William broke off from his Greek holibobs, accompanied by Charlotte, to cheer on the Lionesses in the final of the Euros. He is president of the Football Association, after all. But it was bad luck for the Bafta awards earlier in the year. William is Bafta president and would surely have been expected to grace its biggest, glitziest night of the year. But a February jolly to the Caribbean island of Mustique meant the Waleses missed the annual ceremony. Maybe they got wind Tom Cruise was a no-show.
Well well: It all raises this rather awkward question: are the Waleses taking the piste? (They were on the slopes last winter, of course, and again at Easter.) It seems to some of us that William and Kate want the privileges of their position – the onboard chef, the freedom of never having to take out a mortgage or apply for a Capital One card – but not the tedium the job so often entails, or the scrutiny.
William refuses to move into Buckingham Palace: King Charles and Camilla have chosen not to live at Buck House, either. Their excuse is it’s currently undergoing a £369million renovation. Dear God! King George VI and his family didn’t budge when it was being bombed! But at least the King and Queen live close by. Their London home, Clarence House, is just a short walk from the palace and is used for official visits and receptions. William and Kate, once in their new digs at the end of a long, private road? The doors will be firmly shut…. Queen Elizabeth and the family moved into a home they disliked. Because that was her job. That was the deal.
Work-shy Waleses: Of course, I have some sympathy for Kate. She has undergone major surgery. She is in remission from cancer. But the Waleses, both 43, are still young. Up until June in 2025, William had performed 71 engagements, Kate nine. They conducted 22 jointly. Yet King Charles, who is 76, carried out 233 engagements in the same period even though he, too, has been having cancer treatment. Charles and Camilla were even shipped off on an exhausting official visit to Australia last year. My goodness, the Gloucesters, in their 70s and 80s, managed to visit Norwich and Suffolk on the same day! Kate and William tend to stick closer to home.
Kate’s balanced life: Kate prioritised being at home with Prince George and Princess Charlotte when they were very young. The late Queen Elizabeth went back to work weeks after giving birth, as do many women in this country. She undertook 201 official engagements at the age of 96. One leading commentator suggested recently that Kate is ‘at that age where you start to see clearly the difference between duty and loyalty and pointless b******s’ foisted on you in the name of good form, etiquette and keeping other people happy. She will care less and care more about having a balanced life.’ If that is true, it does not augur well.
It’s actually sort of amazing that at least someone at the Mail is willing to point out all of the vacations taken by William and Kate this year. I don’t even think this is a full accounting of the vacations, but it’s a good start. Multiple ski holidays, the trip to Mustique during the BAFTAs, skipping VJ Day for no reason, the Greek vacation on a yacht. Insane. Here’s my question: at some point, will there be an acknowledgement that some kind of deal was struck in 2024? It wasn’t just a deal between William and Kate, it involved King Charles and the Middletons too. There’s been a pretty obvious deal which ensured certain things for Kate, including the fact that she’ll barely work anymore. The media was adhering to the deal for much of the past year… but something about the Forest Lodge news has changed things.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Kensington Palace.
