It’s so funny when Tom Sykes writes a 1100-word Substack post which could be efficiently summarized in a sentence. He did this soon after the Duchess of Sussex posted The Instagram Carousel Which Brought Down The Monarchy. Sykes raged out about the photos for several pages, and I summarized his argument as: “how dare Meghan show off her happy summer vacation when we did everything we could to humiliate her and target her!” That’s it. That’s all it was – he was mad that the Instagram carousel was full of lovely family pics even though there was so many high-level attempts to disrupt the family’s visit. Well, Sykes’ latest Royalist Substack can also be boiled down to one sentence: “Prince William and Kate allow people to see their kids’ faces, which makes W&K better people than the Sussexes!” If you’re so happy to see the entire Wales/Rothesay family outside at the Commonwealth Games, why are you even dragging the Sussexes into the conversation at all? An excerpt from “Joyous Prince Louis’ Photo Shows Exactly Where Harry and Meghan Went Wrong.” LMAO.
The pictures of Prince Louis grinning ear to ear in the stands of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome on Saturday, watching the track cycling at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in a bucket hat emblazoned with the words “Beicio Cymru” (Welsh Cycling, in Welsh), have understandably grabbed the headlines. But look at the wider set of images from Glasgow (the five members of the Wales family sitting together in the stands… and what you are actually looking at is the most successful media strategy in modern royal history operating at the very top of its game.
The choreography was classic Kensington Palace. William and Catherine’s attendance (as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, their Scottish titles) was announced in advance; the presence of all three children was kept under wraps until they arrived. It was, remarkably, the children’s first public appearance in Scotland, a country with which the family has deep ties through Balmoral. It was also Louis’ first major international sporting fixture, a milestone his older siblings passed years ago at Wimbledon and the Euros.
… The natural point of contrast, of course, is Montecito. Harry and Meghan’s approach to their children (concealment, or rather partial, strategic concealment) has created a very strange atmosphere around pictures of Archie and Lilibet. The implicit message of hiding your children suggests that anyone who might want to see a picture of them is suspicious, that the interest itself is somehow unhealthy. And yet the images come, whether it is Lilibet taking flowers to Diana’s grave, or the classic shiny montage of the Instagram era (the child thrown laughing through the air into the pool, the dancing, the cookie-baking, the little hand reaching into the jam), there always seems to be an ulterior motive attached: a commercial launch, a controversy stoked, a point scored. It never seems possible for it to be just a nice, straightforward picture of the kids.
The emotional grammar of the two photo streams is entirely different. Harry and Meghan’s images invite envy. Look at the pool, the gardens, the closet reportedly containing a quarter of a million dollars of Chloé before a trip to Geneva. Isn’t our life amazing? The Wales images, by contrast, are anchored in public service. Saturday’s outing was, essentially, a plug for the Commonwealth Games, an event so neglected in the UK that it no longer commands mainstream terrestrial coverage. The message to the children is legible in the pictures themselves: this is what we do: put on your best bib and tucker, show up, behave, wave. It is public service being instilled in the next generation in real time, and the public can see it happening.
Again, if William and Kate’s strategy around letting the public see their kids is so “successful,” then why bring up the Sussexes at all? If people are so happy to see George, Charlotte and Louis, why does every glimpse of the backs of Archie and Lili’s heads become global news? Incidentally, I have two points I’d like to make about William and Kate’s strategy around the kids. One, I would argue that Will and Kate have been “successful” in normalizing the public seeing the kids on a regular basis, to the point where it’s not huge, breaking news whenever we do see them. And that’s the way it should be for the heir’s children, you know? That’s what British taxpayers are paying for, to see how the future-future king is being raised alongside his siblings. Which brings me to my second point – Sykes is making it seem like this was all brilliant strategy by William and Kate, when really, they had no choice in the matter. They were always going to put their kids on exhibit. And the truth is, they’ve had to do it for personal reasons too, reasons involving their own pitiful, work-shy schedules and the state of their marital union.
It’s still incredible that Kensington Palace posted that photo of the family from behind too. Again, if the Wales strategy is so “successful,” then why are they copying the Sussexes again?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
