We expected to see some highly critical commentary of the Prince and Princess of Wales following King Charles and Camilla’s US state visit, and here it is. Basically, as soon as Charles and Camilla decamped (separately) from the US, all of the royal reporters and commentators were like… wow, that went better than expected, thank god Work-shy William isn’t king. It was perfectly obvious to everyone, even casual royal-watchers, that William and Kate would not have been able to handle that kind of important state visit, and that they constantly look like colonialist horse’s asses whenever they travel, which is rare because they’re so lazy. Well, now Richard Palmer has written about all of this and more – how “the pressure is on” William and Kate to get off their asses and represent the UK abroad. Don’t hold your breath, royalists.
A working-royal shortage: The King’s diplomacy masterclass in the US has boosted the monarchy but highlighted the shortage of family members undertaking similar blockbuster tours supporting British foreign policy. It has prompted calls for the Prince and Princes of Wales in particular to start travelling more to make the most of their own soft power on the world stage.
The Waleses are also under pressure from the Sussexes: But the apparent success of the US trip, coupled with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s high-profile quasi-royal visit to Australia last month, and Harry’s speech in Ukraine in which he challenged the US to uphold its historic security guarantees, has also highlighted the shortage of other royals with sufficient clout and star power to go on these missions. “It’s just the King supported by the Queen, and William and Kate,” said Richard Fitzwilliams. “They are the real stars.”
The 2022 Caribbean Flop Tour: The heir to the throne and his wife, who celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, have not been on a major overseas tour together since their ill-fated trip to the Caribbean in 2022 to mark the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, when they faced protests and critics accused them of looking like out-of-touch relics of a bygone imperial age.
Work-shy Willy: They remain Britain’s most popular royals but William, 43, has struggled at times to shed criticism that he is workshy, despite explaining that the couple want to work in a different way, focusing on a campaigning style of engagements designed to have “impact” and bring change rather than the more traditional type of ribbon-cutting duties.
The laziest Prince of Wales in history?? However, William – who went on five foreign trips last year, three the year before, and five in 2023 – has travelled nowhere near as much as his father did at a similar age. When Charles was in his early to mid-40s, he visited up to 16 countries per year. Last year, the Prince of Wales’s foreign duties accounted for just 7.2 per cent of the family’s engagements abroad. It was similar in 2024 at 7.3 per cent. Before Kate’s illness, the couple accounted for 9.2 per cent of the total in 2023, and 18.7 per cent in 2022 when they completed 97 overseas royal duties including their Caribbean tour. Some royal watchers argue that in future they will have to step up at home and abroad, especially as they are the only working royals under 60.
Unease among diplomats: According to Patricia Treble, whose Write Royalty website measures royal workload by compiling a tally of official engagements each day, William undertook only 36 of 499 foreign engagements by members of the Royal Family last year. Treble’s figures are calculated using publicly available information from the Court Circular, the official record of the Royal Family’s activities. “That we don’t know whether he wants to increase that share in years to come, or when his wife will again return to foreign travel, must be of concern for not only the realms that require regular visits to keep their close bonds with their head of state and his heir,” Treble added. “But it also must provoke unease among diplomats who cannot be sure that they will be able to call on the soft power of royalty to help with their efforts.”
Missing the Sussexes: Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, believes Harry and Meghan’s trips have shown what the monarchy has been missing, adding to the pressure on William and Kate to travel more to the Commonwealth and on other big overseas tours. “The couple are not as visible as they need to be and they are certainly less visible than the previous Prince and Princess of Wales in their early days when they were firing on all cylinders,” he said. “They handle royal duties in a very different way…They can’t rely on their popularity forever.”
Kate will continue to focus on family: She and William have no regrets about focusing on family and quality, not quantity, of official engagements. “That will continue,” a royal source said. The couple, who take every school holiday off with their three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, are firmly settled in their new eight-bedroom Georgian Grade II listed home, Forest Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, which is expected to remain their main residence even when William becomes King. It will be handy for Eton, the favourite to be Prince George’s new school in September, although the family are keeping their choice under wraps for now. Other possible destinations are reported to be Marlborough or Wellington, a 20-minute drive from their home. “My gut feeling is that it will be Eton for George and Wellington or possibly Marlborough for Charlotte, and one of those for Louis,” said Melanie Sanderson, managing editor of The Good Schools Guide, who has been taking regular soundings.
So many funny quotes and asides – “The couple, who take every school holiday off with their three children….” Yep. Will and Kate think they deserve to take off for “school holidays” too, and that “good parenting” is “never working during your kids’ five months’ worth of school holidays.” The thing about the 2022 Flop Tour – “critics accused them of looking like out-of-touch relics of a bygone imperial age” – is really funny too, because anyone with sense would have told them “okay, you actually have to modernize your whole vibe and energy, you can’t just wander around these tours in your colonizer cosplay.” William and Kate really decided that if they couldn’t play colonizers abroad, then they weren’t going to travel anymore! And here we are, four years later, and they just look like they’re too lazy and close-minded to actually DO THE WORK. Anyway, Palmer suggests that Kate will probably skip the trip to the US in July, but she might go to India in the fall, for Earthshot. The last time she was in India, she flashed everyone at a war memorial. Sigh…
Photos courtesy of Instar, Cover Images.
