I’ve been kind of surprised by how well the royal propaganda has been working on the general public these days. I think people are mostly excited about Prince George and a new generation of royal babies, but I expected more of a backlash against the whole “William and Kate want George to spend his first months in the Middletons’ house, without a nanny” thing. First of all, I don’t really buy the idea that William and Kate are completely on their own. Not only do they have Carole and Michael Middleton helping them, but I’m sure the Middletons’ hired a full staff. Again, Will and Kate have always played fast and loose with their staffing issues, like they don’t really have staffers if the staffers are being paid by Prince Charles or Kate’s parents. Still, the propaganda is working. Us Weekly had a story about Prince George’s “first weeks”:
Prince George may be the future King of England, but Prince William and Kate Middleton are bringing up a thoroughly modern baby. After welcoming their son on July 22, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 31, headed to Middleton’s parents’ home in Bucklebury, England, to live a quiet life while adjusting to parenthood.
The first royal order of business was simple: sleep. What followed at the Middleton house became a blissful routine. Wake up. Tend to George. Eat. Repeat. Dinners might mean a simple Italian meal cooked with help of housekeeper Antonella Fresolone. And even with two future kings of England at the table, “there’s no special treatment,” a family source tells Us Weekly. “William still has to help load the dishwasher after dinner. The same will apply to George when he’s a grown boy.”
The parents are making good on their plans to give Prince George Alexander Louis — or Georgie, as Prince Charles predicts he’ll be nicknamed — a happy, pressure-free childhood.
Now, as the pair spend their weeks in Bucklebury getting to know their bundle of joy, parenthood is as rewarding as they might have imagined. “They’re loving it,” says a source close to the couple. “Every day is bringing new things to learn.”
Though Fresolone has been offering an extra set of hands at diaper and feeding times, the couple have no nanny, nor do they have plans to hire one for some time. “They’re doing as much as they can by themselves,” says the family source. “The baby is always with one of them, or asleep.”
And it sounds like the new parents have been a doing a great job raising a healthy, growing little boy. A mutual pal of the couple tells Us, “He already looks really different from when he was in the hospital!”
The insistence on “no nannies” has disturbed some of the classicists who believe that royal babies have always and should always have nannies. The UK papers have been running stories with royal historians and such, many of whom insist that in the long run, Will and Kate will probably/definitely need a nanny. So why hire someone fresh and new who can run after a growing boy? Why do that when William can just hire his retired nanny?
Prince William and Kate have asked his 71-year-old former nanny to help look after baby George, it was reported today. Jessica Webb is said to be considering the offer of coming out of retirement and being the 20-day-old prince’s first charge.
Young William and Harry were shielded from their parents’ bitter divorce by the nanny who never married or had children of her own. She reportedly tried to ensure the princes did not witnessed the screaming rows between Prince Charles and Diana – caring for the the boys from the age of seven until William went off to prep school five years later.
After she left Kensington Palace, Ms Webb went on to work for Viscount Linley and his wife Serena looking after their son Charles and daughter Margarita. But she kept in touch with the princes and was a guest at William’s 21st birthday and attended the royal wedding two years ago.
One royal courtier told the Sunday People: ‘Jessie would be ideal. Everyone likes her. She’s discreet and she’s of an age when she’s not going to have her picture in the paper every five minutes.’
The paper claimed the ‘granny nanny’ is keen to help because William was a favourite of hers, but she is reluctant about doing the job full-time. Princess Diana chose her to be William’s main nanny overruling Prince Charles who had wanted an old-school royal appointee. She believed Ms Webb would give the boys values of fairness and compassion and bring fun into her sons’ upbringing, according the paper.
William, 31, reportedly wants to recreate the same feeling of security that Jessica gave him and pass it on to his own son. Kate, 31, is caring for George full-time but has been advised she will become exhausted by combining motherhood with her future royal duties. At the moment she is being supported by her mother Carole Middleton while William is back on duty as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot in Angelsey, North Wales.
Royal courtiers have urged them to install a more formal arrangement for looking after the baby once the summer is over. Prince Edward’s wife Sophie Wessex, 48, employs two full-time nannies for her son and daughter.
A source told writer Sian James: ‘They both accept the view that they won’t be able to do it all. There is also a feeling that Kate might lay herself open to criticism if she is seen letting her mother have too much influence. William has very fond memories of Jessie and they’ve put the idea to her that she comes back. I think she’s very flattered.’
Ms Webb, from London’s East End, was traditionally trained and a colleague who worked with her is quoted as saying she had a “’terrific sense of humour’.
The colleague added: ‘She would stand for no nonsense and would want to do things her way.’
William speaks to Kate and his baby son every day via videolink and Kate is supposed to be joining him on the island in four weeks’ time. A Kensington Palace spokesman told MailOnline: ‘It is too early to talk about potential childcare arrangements at this stage.’
Sophie has two nannies for her kids? I didn’t know that. As for Will and Kate… well, we’ll see. It depends on how quickly Kate goes back to her “royal duties”. If she doesn’t return to her royal duties for a while but she is seen keeping up her shopping and hair appointment schedule, there will be some backlash. But if she starts up her royal duties in the next few months, then I think people will just see the hiring of a nanny as necessary. And I agree, Kate has to walk a fine line about her parents – sure, it’s great that she’s close to her parents, but she also needs to avoid looking like she runs home to her mom whenever anything happens. As for re-hiring William’s old nanny… I hope they do not do that. Just hire someone new.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
No, I still on’t care.
Me too.
+1
Haha, the most interesting thing about them is that they care so much and make so much of their decision making about what the public will think. I don’t think I could handle that kind of pressure.
Kcaia
They don’t make their decisions based on how the public will react. Their PR bases their statements about the couple to win favor with the public. They are found doing this that is mildly shameful, but they won’t stop. They just have the right people withholding news stories and not reporting the negative on them to get exclusives later.
With the baby not doing a lot of running around anytime soon, she’d be a good nanny, maybe to help with any transitions. Or help with the inevitable crying jags they’ll be facing soon.
An elderly nanny won’t catch Will’s eye or write a tell all book about what really goes on at Middleton Manor. So, a perfect choice for the perfect couple!
This does seem to be much more of an American – and press – preoccupation. I live in a rural area known to be more pro-Royal (and the associated country pastimes, such as hunting) than the average in the UK, and I haven’t had, or heard, a single conversation about this child, before, during or after the pregnancy. Nobody gossips about the baby or them, least of all their nanny issues. There was a flurry of interest about the wedding, but that was it.
That’s interesting, I wouldn’t have thought that.
It’s plastered all over the gossip mags, brin, but honestly: nobody is talking about it. It’s just not on people’s gossip radar.
That’s refreshing, Sixer…the tabs get crazy so I’m glad people aren’t reacting.
I’m American, and I find the Royal family interesting and was excited about the baby, but I think all of the details about will they or won’t they hire a nanny are pushed by the press. I see how it gives the impression that Americans are obsessed by every detail, but I also have not heard one person mention this baby or this issue since he was born.
That sounds similar to here! Where I live, people tend to love the Royals (although not me particularly). You’re more likely to find anti-Royal sentiment in the cities. So if it was a hot topic, it would be here. And it just isn’t. If anything, people would notice the incessant press – “Oh no, not that again.”
That would be impossible, because Williams’ nanny is dead. He even went to the funeral with his aunts from the spencer side.
You realise they have teams of nannies, don’t you?
The late Olga Powell was one of a team of nannies that looked after the boys.
The boys were nanny free only whilst at school. And those nannies remained in place until they were late teens.
There’s an african saying that goes ” A child is raised by the whole village”. Give that kid integrity, honesty and intelligence, no matter how much people intervened in his life.
I remember seeing a picture of a nanny scolding William at the background of some event, when he was very young.
Of course these children do not have a regular family where they can be taken to their uncles or aunts to be watched over one day or to their grandaddy. These people have to make appointments for everything. And the parents, even if they are not working in front of the public everyday! They are going to be sometimes absent or unable to be with the children everytime.
I think that if the nanny/nannies have certain freedom to help raise the child properly, they they are an asset.
I have children at my job who practically raise themselves with the “help” of the tv, cell phone or computer because their parents are all day working either because they are poor, or because they need to maintain a certain good income for their kids, and they all end up with no responsible person caring for them, rich or poor.
Kaiser, I think people generally do not care. The press & tabloids care. Regular people don’t. They are too concerned with getting their kids ready for back to school.
I could see them bringing on the elder nanny part time to oversee and vet the other nannies.
Re. Living with the Middletons
QEII has given the current tenants of Anmer Hall at Sandringham a lot of $ to move out ASAP, so that Will and Kate can move in. Sounds like she’s concerned about little Georgie becoming too integrated into the Middleton household.
http://www.theroyalbabyblog.com/2013/07/report-queen-pays-anmer-house-tenant-to.html
This is very old news. This all happen more than a year ago and the tenant has already moved the offices of his company to another place and is currently in the process of moving his family. Plus, the tenant denied he was paid off by the Queen.
My bad. She and Georgie probably are going to stay at Midds. however long it takes for KP to be ready.
The Queen basically broke his lease. If he had broken it, the Queen would have been justified in damages, so I have no problem believing a tenant would have the same if the lessor broke a lease. Perhaps it’s all in terminology, as in it was a contractual thing rather than being “paid off”.
EDIT: Plus he ran a business there. Moving a business isn’t cheap so I find it difficult to believe that the Queen didn’t foot expenses.
I think Kate and William always said they would hire a “part-time” nanny. Hiring William’s nanny who is over 70, makes sense if that is the case. Also, when the baby grows into a toddler, this nanny could oversee and possibly train a younger nanny.
I find it hilarious that some commenters are saying they “don’t care” about this couple. Then why are you even reading and commenting about them? Read about the celebrities you do care about. Also, to say that “only Americans” are interested in them is just silly. I just got back from a trip to Europe, including England, and a lot of people are talking about them. Not everyday, all day, but they are a topic of conversation and the papers in England have something about Will and Kate every single day. If no one was reading these articles then they would stop writing them. (Also, it was reported that ALL magazines and tabloids with a story about the baby on the cover sold in record numbers.)
P.S.: Prince Friso of the Netherlands died this morning. He was in a coma for over a year after a skiing accident.
I saw that about the Dutch prince. That must have been an agonizing 18 months for his family.
As for the nanny, I think it says a lot about her (and Olga Powell) that William and Harry stayed in touch and invite her to their events. Makes sense to me he’d want someone he thought was wonderful to look after his baby.
71 is fine for an infant but too old to chase around a pre-schooler. Better for Kate to have a new nanny than someone who may be inclined to compare her with Diana.
There’s more than enough homage to Diana surrounding Kate with the engagement ring and other family mementos. Blogs comments & press frequently compare her to her deceased mil, often unfavorably. It’s tough to compete with the dead. Ask step-parents and second spouses.
I don’t know why celebs think it’s so special to boast about how they don’t use a nanny. If I could afford a nanny, I’d sure as hell hire one. It would be nice to go get my haircut or go to the gym or have someone to take my older toddler to the park while the baby is napping. There’s no shame in that.
I don’t know who is behind these stories but if it’s K/W’s PR team then they should be fired. I have suggested this before.
It’s absolutely ludicrous for them to continually perpetuate the myth that K/W are anything but the .0001%. They operate in a rarefied elite world. Should they parade the crown jewels up and down the street? No. However, they are tripping all over themselves trying to keep the “we can relate” myth alive. It is absolutely expected that they WOULD engage the services of a nanny. Not because they are royal but because of their lifestyle. Heck, who else is going to keep Lil G when they hit the slopes at Cloisters (sp) or the beach in Mystique?
With that said, I can only think of two (possibly three) real reasons for this new kerfuffle:
1. They (K/W) know they need a nanny and are trying to play the sentimental/emotional card to keep criticism at bay. “It’s William’s old dame of a nanny, so it’s not like a nanny but a trusted family member, loved and adored by William, Harry, and Diana.” (Plus they cannot have a young, educated cosmopolitan nanny parading around Big Willy and one who can upstage mom in the intelligence department. So, an old one who knows her place is just fine.)
2. Perhaps the Royal We put her foot down regarding the issue. [Read: I don’t care who you get but Carole Middleton is not an appropriate nanny for a future king.] As a result, William’s old dame of a nanny has been pulled out of the woodworks.
3. The long con: The tug-of-war between the old stodgy bloodless guard that’s strangled by its own traditions and who had the gall not to outwardly love and support a gadfly of woman who came to them beautiful and giving yet damaged and broken versus the modern stony-faced prince whose one goal in life is to rescue the English monarchy from itself by publicly defying it’s edicts yet privately supping from its trough, insisting on having his way, thereby remaking, reshaping the monarchy into one unrecognizable by its forebears but one in which even a “People’s Princess” could thrive (until scrutiny and/or the tabloid press gets too close to said prince and begins to report his actions then, of course, the stalwart young prince would be forced to revert back to the privilege of Kings). Be it on land, by sea, by helicopter (he is a p/t RAF Pilot, after all) or played out as f*cked up PR, the young, valiant prince battles on–ultimately to avenge mommy.
Background, cue the music: Nothing less than Frank Sinatra’s I Did It My Way or its British equivalent.
I vote 2.
I think the Queen (or someone; Charles?) has had enough of all things Middleton and is making sure that Carole doesn’t have “undue influence”. Hence Anmer Hall. And the nanny.
Love it!! ROFL.
don’t forget the violins every so often.
This is the first time their life has seemed at all enviable to me. Like Wills, I romanticize being in a warm family environment that makes you feel safe and loved. Real or not, this description of their life in Buckleberry sounds ideal.
I like them and I think they are trying to not be over the top about anything. Whatever they do in sure it’s for the best!
I have zero issue with them having a nanny. Most people would have help if they could afford it. It doesn’t mean anything.
Oh man what i would have given for a nanny after the first couple weeks home with my son.