Princess Charlotte covers this week’s issue of People Magazine, and the cover story is extremely bizarre. While I think Prince William and Kate are wrong to bring their kids out to public events so often, I understand that “providing regular photos of the kids” is a huge part of William and Kate’s arrangement with the press. But I cannot understand why William and Kate would authorize any friendly magazine or outlet to write about one of their kids’ personalities, character and qualities. It’s an institution engaging in narrative-building on little kids who are just trying to figure out their little world. Speaking of narrative-building, everyone is suddenly super-aware of the fact that the Windsors only care about the heirs and they’ve always treated the spares like sh-t. So that historical reality is now being built into how the press writes about Charlotte and Louis.
As Princess Charlotte turns 10, Kate Middleton and Prince William remain mindful of the royal path ahead for their daughter.
There are thorny questions ahead for Charlotte and her parents as they navigate the complexities of her unique position. Being the spare to Prince George, the future heir, is a vulnerable place — one fraught with potential pitfalls that her uncle Prince Harry, who also grew up as the spare, has made all too clear.
“The late Queen [Elizabeth] was always very conscious of that extraordinary and challenging role of the No. 2,” royal biographer Robert Hardman, author of The Making of a King, tells PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story.
“That’s why she had a particular soft spot for [her sister] Margaret, for [her son] Andrew and Harry. She understood being second place in a strictly hierarchical family and institution has its challenges,” he says. “Everyone is conscious of that.”
Especially William, Hardman adds, who regards one of his most important duties as not just “preparing to be King himself but to make the whole royal existence approachable and not scary for all his children.” The Prince and Princess of Wales are parents to Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, who turned 10 on May 2, and Prince Louis, 7.
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry reflects candidly on the pain and identity struggles tied to his role as the “spare” in the royal family. “I was the shadow, the support, the Plan B. I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy,” he wrote.
“She’s the spare, just like Harry” and then “Well, QEII was extra-gentle on her spare” with zero mention of how Charles treated his siblings (he sent Anne out with bruises still on her face and he’s always been jealous of Andrew) or how William treated his spare (with violent malevolence). So, no, I do not think that William and Kate are “conscious” of what they’re doing to their kids or what kind of example they’ve set by how they’ve treated the Sussexes. William and Kate are too busy being incandescent with rage that Archie and Lili aren’t in the UK to be used as scapegoats for their kids. They’re too busy singling out George for special treatment so that Charlotte and Louis understand that they are not as important as the heir!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
