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.
“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.