I’m not sure if the Duchess of Cambridge was scheduled to do some royal work in Scotland for a while, but it certainly feels like this was a last-minute addition to her schedule. Oh, I also forgot that when she’s in Scotland, we’re supposed to call her the Countess of Strathearn. She’s Countess Kate is Scotland! So, here are photos of Countess Kate arriving at St. Catherine’s Primary school in Edinburgh. Her coat is a repeat, and it’s Max Mara. The skirt is Le Kilt, a Scottish label.
Kate is packing in a few events in Edinburgh today, one of which is a visit to a charity run by Judy Murray, tennis champion Andy Murray’s mom. Judy is now and has been a great tennis coach, especially with youth tennis players. Kate will watch Judy drill some kids on tennis technique, etc. People Magazine’s preview of the visit was inadvertently hilarious – they actually wrote: “Kate, who is seen as an ambassador for the sport…” Not that she’s actually an ambassador for anything tennis related (yet). Not that she actually does anything but spend hundreds of thousands of her father-in-law’s money on tennis court renovations. Not that she just likes going to Wimbledon. She’s “seen as an ambassador for the sport.”
Meanwhile, Kate might be taking the bullet for William today. William has been getting the brunt of the criticism for a week now, and even the normally pro-royal outlets have been forced to cover the drama. You can read People Magazine’s write-up here and the Daily Beast’s coverage here. Hilariously, the Daily Beast had to follow up their reporting when The Sun dropped another exclusive on William’s EAAA job: apparently, William has only worked 100 hours this year. That’s 12 shifts. Twelve days of work in two months. And not only that, but SOMEONE is very disgruntled at EAAA and they’re not going to cover up for William like his coworkers did at the RAF. The anonymous source says:
“We all know it’s a token job for him. In the past we haven’t seen him for weeks at a time. It’s not as exciting as the RAF. There he’d run off and rescue people from the sea. Here he ferries people to hospital and sits outside for an hour. He looks bored out of his skull. He’s not overly liked and people are nervous of him. He’s hardly ever here. We didn’t see him for the whole of December.”
Hahahaha. God, this is amazing. And didn’t we predict this too? The EAAA employees were always going to be more talkative than Kensington Palace expected. I still believe that William pulled this kind of crap at the RAF too, it’s just that his RAF coworkers couldn’t bad-mouth him as easily as a private-sector employee.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Well, her flowers are really pretty 🙂
and she looks as if she’s have a jolly good time of it.
And who wouldn’t? Supporting causes you believe in? Meeting grateful people? Dressing up in fabulous coats and being photographed? Why wouldn’t they WANT to do this regularly.
Bettyrose, I would think at Kate’s stage in life, she would enjoy it. Particularly now, with a ‘prickly’ husband in the mansion………….LOL………
I always make fun of her hair especially the wiglets, BUT it looks really good here. No wiglet, moving naturally, flattering length.
Yeah, I was thinking her hair looked good here. And, as a consequence, her face looks better too.
How can you tell no wiglet?
does she have extensions in? this is still thicker than her normal hair
DarkSparkle: it’s usually poorly blended such that you can see the lines of it. the root as well as along her hair and where her own hair stops and where it starts. In video, the wiglet moves differently from her own hair. It’s quite thick, so it’s more sluggish in movement and you can see that it’s a longer length than her own hair.
Further, it is a different texture and colour.
Finally, when she has the wiglet on, her hair is overwhelming in it’s thickness. It’s twice, thrice the thickness it is here.
I love it when you say “thrice”. Makes me think of the three blind mice. 😀
And the stitching on the coat lapels, and its colour, are gorgeous.
We’re really reaching, aren’t we.
Username checks out 😉
I like the stitching on that coat, the size of the lapels, and the color. I do not care for the high waist, though….that would drive me crazy to wear.
This press calling William on the carpet and spilling the beans on how little Lazy William and Lazy Kate are has been coming or building slowly for awhile. The last straw was the “Huff Psot exclusive day at the Palace with Kate as guest editor” It pissed off the British Press corps who have been playing by Williams rules, keeping tight lip on things per his demands and letters of warnings from His lawyers, but the current press FINALLY rebelled and has come out swinging! YEAH!
It started with William pulling over a Daily Mail reporter and telling her to basically write nice things about Kate or else!
Then came the blocking off Tanna fromRoyal outings by threatening letters to T to stop covering or else lawyers will come down hard.
Then came the NYC visit which REALLY set off a dislike for William in the British press corps, because William basically blocked all the British press except one from getting clear access to photo calls of the couple while in NYC. This resorted to The British Press pack who flew to NYC to cover the duo to get the better photos for their stories, basically from one news AP pool, which was US based and the British papers were not happy about that.
William smoothed things over by inviting the Brit press pack to the Palace months later to see Char and Georgie in person…but then he and Kate do the Huff Post exclusive editor event and it was a slap in the face! The Brit press pack are tired of PW treatment!
Wonder how quickly the engagements were put together and if she took the helicopter? They were announced quite suddenly and quietly.
Re: the coat. She’s going to start repeating her outfits more often, as she should.
The press pile on on Willy is glorious and shows that the press mean business about bringing him down a peg or two. The question is how will he and Chuck/TQ react? Willy has shown that he will ignore them and carry on as he normally does but if pressure is put on him by his father or grandmother will he step up? They are openly calling him a liar and seem to have the receipts to back it up. Kate and her recent hectic flurry of engagements are Willys attempts at distracting attention away from him, not working much.
It looks like it was set up Feb 17 and dollars to doughnuts she took the helicopter.
I wonder what a normal day is like for William and Kate, one where they don’t have to pretend to work.
Yes, she should repeat her clothes more often, especially since the DM article breaking down her clothes cost just to go shopping and to the gym. What’s the point of having to buy her new coats each time she shows up at ‘work?’
I love how The Sun broke it down to William having averaged 1.5 days a week of work at the EAAA (14.5 hours). He only had two official royal engagements this year and the next one, this Friday, is to watch a rugby game in Cardiff.
I’d rather not see her repeat clothes. We all know she’s still buying new, expensive stuff and her repeats are just to hide the fact that she’s wasting taxpayers’ money. She might as well show it off during her events and give us something to look at.
New $650 skirt. At least she didn’t pull her usual trick of carrying her Strathern scarf.
Geez. $650? She’s gotta be bribed somehow just to show up to ‘work.’
I wonder how much she’s cost the taxpayers just in clothes/shoes/bags/jewelry/belts/etc., including her expensive off-work attire. Probably well over $500,000 so far and closer to $750,000.
The DM says that the special designer track pants she wore to this tennis clinic event is worth £220.
It’s a Monreal London ‘tuxedo’ track pants.
Do you think she has to buy those clothes? Aren’t they given to her by designers that are grateful when she’s wearing the clothes? Genuine question. Doesn’t she get that celebrity treatment?
They are not supposed to accept freebies. Sometimes she gets around this by having things given to her sister or mother.
Ivy: As Nota pointed out, the royals aren’t allowed to accept freebies.
Further, anything they wear on official engagement is a tax write off so in a way Kate [and all the other royals] is getting freebies.
The entire outfit she worse to the tennis workshop looked brand new – the trainers in particular. She ALWAYS wears something new to an engagement, particularly if she’s repeating one of her million coats.
PS loved Cams’ outfit and she looked like she was having a great time with those kids in the library.
her father in law finances her clothing expenses, I am unclear on a lot of the ‘royal’ workings but this has been widely reported.
Wendy: her FIL pays for her clothing, BUT he gets a tax write off for all the clothing she wears on official engagement. Ditto any grooming and accessories.
So agree with your comments
William has got away witn his truculant petulant ways for too long this should be stopped.. All the spending these two are getting away with should be stopped. The tennis court at Anmer is disgraceful that they were allowed to be so extravagant in moving it a few feet..
The trouble is Waity has come from a poor family they just social climbed and pretended they had money so now she has control of others money she spends like there is no tomorrow..
The public should vote them out and tell them to go .. The BRF would be so better off withput them and bring in Harry who would do a stirling job of the Royal Duties as he is not bone idle like his brother
I should feel badly for #poorwills, but I don’t. Even the people over at fuggirls are piling up on him. 90% of the comments I’ve read everywhere are disgusted with both of them. People don’t like such privileged people being entitled, especially when the taxpayers are paying the freight.
And the things that employee said are pretty funny!! The British do shade so well!! That employee called him an entitled, lazy jerk without saying that at all!! I have a big chuckle at this. And I can imagine #poorWills is getting more and more angry and frustrated and petulant that he can’t control the narrative. Maybe Kate volunteered to go to Scotland to get away from petulant Bill. I bet he gets going on a tear!
I’ve always thought he was way worse than her, so I’m a bit gleeful about William finally having his feet put to the fire just a little bit.
@ Betti
Yes, Kate did go by helicopter to this Edinburgh visit ‘at a cost of more than £3,000,’ says the UK’s Telegraph.
The article is dated Feb. 24th and written by Gordon Rayner. He writes that she took the copter from Amner to Edinburgh instead of a train or plane which would have cost less than £200.
Her work schedule was from 11:30 to 4:15, so she had plenty of time to board a train or plane beforehand and afterwards.
The KP’s response was basically that they think using the helicopter was the most appropriate solution.
Thanks Anne_000 – i thought she might have. Its all about what is quickest for them and god forbid they have to spend more time than they have to at their duties.
She doesn’t like staying away from Amner and its nothing to do with the kids – she has to be there is Willy comes home. She really is a first class clinger – she clings to her family (mother in particular) just as much as she’s glued to Willy.
Does Kate naturally have a big smile or is she laughing at something? I can never quite tell.
I think she has a big and full smile. But honestly at this point is there anything that she should be unhappy about?:-O
Right. I thought it looked like she’s laughing in the thumbnail picture. I was wondering what was said that cracked her up lol.
An indifferent husband, being under constant scrutiny for everything, inlaws not known for being cuddly… It’s not that she hasn’t got amazing perks, but there’re things to be unhappy about, too.
Yes, I agree with Betsy. I imagine it’s been a very rough week in the Cambridge household. Rougher if William isn’t taking it well. I imagine he isn’t fun to be around when he’s peevish.
That being said, nothing would have been written if he honored his commitments!
^ Carole is on cheese toast duty 24/7 now.
Betsy and Bluhare
Yeah, I haven’t thought about this situation from that point of view. I meant she can’t be sad about ordinary things, like perks etc.
But I have doubts that they take this whole situation to their heart. While I think she is a strong woman, let’s see this whole uproar will change anything.
Under the immense privilege, I get a feeling of sadness from Kate Middleton. Maybe I’m reading too much into her, but she doesn’t seem like a very happy person.
She started doing that wide mouthed grin, bearing all her teeth when she joined the family.
If you see video, she does it regardless of anyone speaking to her, positions herself so that resulting photos looks like she’s part of a group and in jovial conversation. The trick is to look at eye line an faces of the people she’s standing next to/with. More often than not, she’s not part of the conversation, but the pictures and the OTT grin/laugh imply that she is.
Also, look at the expressions of everyone else around her. Plenty of times, people may be slightly smiling or not smiling (but still talking) and she has that trademark grin on her face.
So looks deranged and completely fake when she smiles like that. Is this woman ever authentic when she’s working? Besides the eyerolling, of course. I don’t understand how she can’t see her position as an opportunity to do so much good.
She greatly over-exaggerates for the camera.
This. Somewhere there’s a gif of her reacting to a bicycle crash where she feigns concern in the most overly dramatic way when she sees the camera is focused on her.
Oddly I want to see that GIF 🙂
One of my favorite moments of Kate realizing the cameras were on her was early in the marriage and she switched from her natural hand placement to the left hand and the ring being on top. Although she has broken that habit and left over right has become her default.
Mouth open for at least 5 seconds to make sure the cameras got the shot. As Whittaker said, she is even more aware of the cameras than Diana.
Mark Cavendish crashed 350 metres from the finish line in the opening stage of the Tour de France in Harrogate in 2014. The DM article still shows a photo taken “mid-shock” with Kate’s ring hand up and mouth open. I found the video on YouTube CYCLING: Tour de France begins in Yorkshire: Royal at finish line in Harrogate. It’s at 1:00 or so.
Thanks Deedee!
yes, she does. diana was aware of the cameras, but she behaved naturally & comfortably in front of them. Kate is aware in a self-conscious way and her behavior seems affected for the camera’s sake. the two approaches feel very different.
Camera awareness = “Hungry Eyes”, totally ravenous!
I work with a pitiful brown-noser who laughs at everything as though it’s the best joke he’s ever heard. Even if someone is like “oh, the bathrooms are filthy today.” It’s a gift some people have, I guess, to appear constantly jolly and amused, able to suppress any genuine emotion until they have no genuine emotion left.
A new phrase to learn:
“He looks bored out of his skull.”
Thanks Will!!:-)
I had a good chuckle at that one too. We can add that to the vernacular!!
These two dolts really are their own worst enemies.
She’s so prim and proper the way the Palace likes it. I just read that Freddie Mercury snuck Princess Diana into a gay night club where she was dressed like a man…..supposedly she had a great time and not one person recognized her. Now that was a kick ass, live life to the fullest, hold nothing back kind of a women. Such a tragic end to such a one of a kind Princess never to be had again.
True. Just imagine the secrets she knew!!!
KM wore bunny ears to a party celebrating her favorite bedroom toy and one of her “friends” runs an orgy business. You were saying?
notasugar: You got me, sex toys in the bedroom, what a mad hatter. I do question a friend who runs an orgy business, that’s something I wouldn’t put on my resume as the future queen.
I’m not questioning the toys, whatever they want in the privacy of their bedroom as long as it is legal. Questioning that someone angling to be Queen Consort shows up in playboy bunny ears at a party to celebrate a short film about her favorite bedroom toy. Kate Middleton “prim and proper” is part of the massive post-engagement white washing.
That is one of the best Diana stories ever! I would love to have been part of that group.. what a hoot!
Somehow I can’t believe any coworkers or anyone in a shared professional setting with him would talk about him behind his back. Seems incredibly unwise.
Me too. Not that I believe that he actually works, but these quotes seem made up.
Clearly you aren’t aware of how British tabloids operate or how often people blab about royals to papers, especially royal staff.
That’s not to say that we should believe everything that’s written, BUT royal employees and or people around them are notorious for blabbing.
Even when they’ve signed confidentiality agreements.
And that’s before the royals themselves talking to tabloids to undermine their own family members.
Charles and Diana were notorious for this tactic to each other and other members of the family.
It’s true I am not aware of those things. I do know gossip is like a blood sport in any crowd of Brits tho. I guess the royals are not exempt. Just thought the natives would have more respect for their icons than that but humans are humans at the end of the day.
Very few people in the UK think of them as icons. Most of us make fun of them most of the time. We like the Queen, we have respect for her. The others? Meh.
US tabloids pay for such reveals. I once worked with a lady whose BF was a longtime writer for one of the better known ones. She helped him on occasion with photography for his articles. The better the placement, the more $$ involved for all. This work-shy Willy stuff is front page material.
Do the UK papers offer such enticements to sources?
Christin: they do.
That’s not to say investigative journalism is dead. Tabloids have never shied away from paying their sources.
@LAK – Sounds like both routes are open then. This is really long overdue, to have this nonsense called out.
His co-workers are not under a confidentiality agreement as an employee of his would be. They are free to talk about how a co-worker isn’t pulling their weight and upsetting the team, as you ought to be in a work environment. No one wants a teammate who takes off loads of time, never covers holiday shifts, and gets away with it. The risk here is, the co-worker is the future king and can get you fired. If management refuses to do anything about it, for risk of upsetting Prince Petulant, where else are you supposed to turn?
Oops… Wrong place.
@JFresh
I think the point is now that he works in a public sector job they are a lot less beholden to his whims. In the RAF the top of the chain of command was his grandmother. Plus, speaking to the press (or even social media) out of turn about anything is frowned on and can result in disciplinary action. Now that he works for a private company that doesn’t have such strict confidentiality rules why would a manager a) spend the time figuring out who spoke to the press b) fire someone who actually shows up for work regularly and is part of the team for hurting the delicate feelings of someone who comes by a few times a month and acts above it all? I bet management isn’t thrilled he bought his way in and is so disruptive to both the team environment and their ability to make a fair schedule. I’m sure they would rather pay someone who would work his salary. Unless the employee is lying (slander) or breaking company rules I don’t think they have to do anything.
@Lindsay—my thoughts exactly about the RAF being more of a code-of-silence, band-of-brothers environment where no one was going to narc on Prince William. The R in “RAF” stands for Royal, right?? I don’t know but assume the RAF maybe had less flexibility about shifts, scheduling etc. and now William is delighted to abuse the flexibility he can get at the private company. I could see his current job’s management thinking he is a bit of a feather in their cap as he does raise the profile of the company, but I can see his co-workers seeing it all through a more practical and disgruntled lens.
Bear in mind the UK does not have at will employment. Whoever is talking will have an employment contract and if he/she pre-dates William’s involvement, giving truthful information to the press probably won’t breach it. If dangerous information were given (i.e. he will be in the next helicopter to take off), the source might have a problem under anti-terrorism legislation but there doesn’t appear to be anything like that.
Unless the employee in question IS a member of management. It would not surprise me if the people in charge at EAAA are not exactly overjoyed at workshy Wills showing up now and then to play pilot.
@ Tourmaline
I can see why initially they would have felt that way but he has never used his position to help them. He could have donated appliances form the endless kitchen remodels when they needed them. If he didn’t want to or couldn’t do that he could have had his people link to it on Twitter and it would have gotten so more attention. He doesn’t do any of the community outreach and fundraising and his presence (and using his PR team) could lead to a higher turnout of people willing to donate. If you need airlifted to a hospital I highly doubt where Will works is going to figure into your descion at all.
They now know they have to deal with all the negatives of having a high profile employee (logistics, security concerns, paparazzi problems, his schedule, dealing with a petulant, entitled child that upsets group dynamics in life or death situations where teamwork is key) and he is clearly unwilling to use the status that cause them so much headache to benefit the charity because he doesn’t give a damn. This is just a way to avoid royal duties, hide from the press, and have a cover for spending time away from his wife and children. He isn’t bringing much to the table as an employee or as a high profile figure. At this point it doesn’t seem like there is any reason they would choose him over someone who works hard and is committed but doesn’t have the name recognition.
@ Lindsay
+100
I can see how employees in the private sector would be pissed off if a co-worker flakes off most of the time but still gets paid in full, gets off from all the whole holiday shifts (four weeks of them), and schedules have to be changed or flexible enough to accommodate the Special One whenever he feels like coming into work for a day or two a week.
On top of that, apparently whenever he shows up, he acts like it’s torture (‘bored out of his skull’) rather than being grateful he has a ‘job’ at all, like the other employees who need this job to live on. That’s disrespectful to them, imo. It’s his hobby job, so he needs to show a bit of interest and appreciation for it instead of sulking around like it’s a prison sentence.
Nobody forced him to take the job. Imo, he decided to get it in order to use some twisted, non-factual interpretation of a law that because he’s a (co-) pilot, he can’t do any other outside work.
And then when he does show up, he’s allegedly not trying to be friendly with his co-workers, which is the opposite of what Harry would have done. He’s the Special One and he loves having the lesser beings be deferential to him and it may be him thinking that it’s not necessary to be friendly with those outside of his higher-class social circle. Again, the opposite of what Harry would have done.
And like the others said above, is there a confidentiality agreement in this private sector job which exists specifically to protect William?
My theory: the EAAA hoped their relationship with Will would bring in more donation money and they’re disappointed that he’s doing a crappy job of that aspect, AND he’s making everyone miserable when he actually works. I mean, they hired someone who is famous for not wanting to show up to work, so I’d be surprised if the paltry hours were really the issue at heart.
Yes, his reluctance to do something in favor of the EAAA, like promoting them and helping to get donations, seems to be just another aspect of his ‘me-me’ personality. He probably thinks he’s doing them a favor by just existing and that they should be extremely grateful for that and expect no more of him. He’s there to use them, not vice versa.
Today in the DM, there are photos of him wrangling with the fuel cable as if he’s never done it before. I guess he wanted a photo-op of ‘working’ and so picked out a chore of what he thought would make him look like he’s working and instead it made him look like a novice who’s never done any manual labor before at this job he’s had for 9 months.
It’s not like they would have hired him because he was actually the best person to do the job.
And the battle royal rages between Billy Basher and the Press.
My guess is they have lots of dirt on William.
The stories during his school years were a little slim. I really want to flood gates to open on those.
They have dirt on both of them – her family have just as much to hide as he does. Party Pieces finances for one thing, Uncle Gary’s criminal connections are another. We already know Carole’s brother was involved in dealing drugs and underage prostitutes in Spain.
@Betti, what would be interesting to know is how any sort of shady Middleton family stuff impacted Kate and William, financially or otherwise.
why the sudden opening of floodgates?
usually the press is kinder to Will and Kate?
but i think this is an example of excuses backfiring. i think Will did his “creative descheduling” by banking/hoping that nobody crosschecks with the other party about schedules. he would say to the pilot job that he has some royal but non-courtcircular job (research, etc) so he can skip flying; while at the same time telling his royal handler he has to do something for his piloting job that doesn’t involve flying for example.
as long as neither one checks with the other, or neither one tells (his RAF job is pretty lenient on getting him off the hook)… he’s free!
unfortunately karma exists.
kind of like when he ditched paralympics stating that he has some important stuff to do, when he then got caught redhanded having a vacay instead.
kind of like the EAAA refusing to be his accomplice and cover for him (despte him gifting a huge helicopter to them) and revealed his real schedule.
heh.
haven’t he learned from the Bond movies that the only good accomplice is a dead one?
As Piers Morgan once said, there is always a file in a drawer on everybody famous that media sit on until it becomes profitable to use its contents.
Also, it usually take one person breaking stepping out of line for the others to start coming forward.
In this case, i’d wager that it was BAFTAs. So many members openly and publicly voiced their dismay at his refusal to attend including a very popular radio DJ on his programme syndicated nationally. He didn’t pull any punches.
WK have misused the UK press and pushed them to a corner such that the press has nothing to lose AND is vengeful to boot. And he doesn’t have personal public support except for the often used Diana card which has worn thin at this point.
So out come the contents of the file. One thing after another. And clearly, the heir vs spare thing isn’t going to help him hear because Harry, by comparison hasn’t used up his media favours AND has built up public support which the media can’t ignore.
I wonder why the floodgates have opened as well. This seems more aggressive than previous escalations of their years-long feud.
Yesterday I speculated that this was payback for press being told there was no room for them in the hangar where the search and rescue goodbye was being held last week.
My opinion: the firm is over these two, and cannot cover their laziness anymore. They tried to push them to work without success, so now they are letting the press free.
hopefully it will have an effect. William seems to want a largely private life. Perhaps he feels that the role he has has been imposed on him. He does seem to be more aware of it’s disadvantages than it’s privileges.
William HAS a largely private life. Even now we’re talking about work. He is hardly seen at all outside official engagements.
He also doesn’t fit into the culture there, which is very important. Of course they are nervous around him — they have nothing in common with him! He’s like a freak show. He should just be doing Royal work and that’s it.
I know we shouldn’t compare the brothers due to differences in personalities, BUT all reviews of Harry say that he fits in with everyone. He’s often described as ‘one of the lads’ no matter where he is.
William is often described as polite, but aloof.
It’s all about knowing what lane you belong in. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to get it…maybe he will now.
Some people are not cut out for public roles. If this is the case with William, I think “The Firm” should be direct and discuss his options with him.
I have a feeling William isn’t making an effort to fit in at work. I remember someone saying he was very grand at St. Andrews and largely isolated himself to the toff crowd.
Harry would have made an effort to make his coworkers relax around him.
Oh William, you used to be the golden boy, you had your mother’s looks and a promising future. What happened?
“I developed into a scrounging poltroon…”
Lol!
Hahaha!
The Limey Bomb dropped and he lost all his looks.
It tends to happen to British men, unfortunately.
Didn’t happen to my dad, she says loyally. 😉
I’m really surprised the Queen has let this go on for so long. She has always been a hard worker and very, very big on “one’s duty”, so it seems really odd that Will & Kate are getting away with being such slackers. Will especially, since he’s in line for the throne (someday).
I remember when his coworkers were searching funds for a new kitchen after Will and Kate major (and totally useless) kitchen renovation, and they did not give them nothing. THAT was a hell of a shade, so I perfectly get why peasants are so over him.
And does he get a salary ? The company expenses (insurance and all the stuff) are covered by who ?
He receives a salary which he allegedly donates to another charity, details unknown.
Ps: that would be commendable if his employer wasn’t also a charity that depends on public donations to fund itself.
Plus he was shamed into donating it because when the job was originally announced, he was to draw a salary. After the public shaming – sort of, he backtracked and said it would be donated to a charity.
This go around has me wondering if he is salaried or paid by the shift. I hope it’s the latter. If he’s salaried for 80 hrs per month, more the reason for coworkers to be spiteful.
Maybe he donated it to Tusk Trust…
I’ve always wondered if the powers-that-be donated the funds for William’s salary in the first place.
Not certain and not being cheeky… I thought I had read the charity he intended to donate his salary to was The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry…?
I agree that he should have been donating left and right to that kitchen renovation, especially since he’s made it known that he doesn’t even need his salary and is giving it away.
Maybe he could have tried to ingratiate himself with his co-workers by donating it back to his workplace so they wouldn’t have to wait for donations to get their kitchen up and running.
And for whatever reason, it’s still kept a secret as to who he’s donating his salary to. Go figure.
The request came after they’d destroyed the $50,000 custom kitchen from the high-end designers who used to lease Anmer. Three/four/five/whatever Kitchens Kate and her husband wouldn’t pop for a new microwave and fridge for his co-workers? Of course not, since that would mean using his own money not The Duchy’s.
He’ll lean on the government to get the bigger helo so he can play co-pilot. Do something for his co-workers? Nope.
These two are miserable. I’d kill to have my “work” consist of dressing fancy, smiling, waving and feigning interest. What a waste of flesh and tax payer money.
I agree they should be more active, considering how well compensated they are for their “positions.” I’d just add, however, that, for some people, introverts & people with social anxiety, for example, a public life can be quite difficult. The spotlight isn’t always comfortable, I imagine.
They have the choice to give back all the perks and walk away. They choose to stay so they need to do the work. They have the best resources available to help if they do have social anxiety, although given their behavior when off-duty, social anxiety is unlikely.
If one has social anxiety, then one can do like Princess Anne does. She doesn’t seem to speak much, but she shows up, pulls up her sleeves and gets to work. You don’t have to be charming to be helpful.
I can imagine public life being taxing, and the restrictions that come with it being even more so. That being said, I know many introverts including myself who are involved with charitable work. We find big gatherings draining, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do them – we just need rest (and not a vacation’s worth, generally) after them!
It also seems like there could be other ways of involvement to supplement fewer public appearances. I suspect William would be better-liked if he developed a reputation for quietly showing up at board meetings and learning about the subject matter, even if it took a long time for that to become public. Or he could imitate his father, who seems to be an introverted person but who’s dedicated to his work.
Tanna called it! Big smiles and looking towards the cameras. I’m surprised Emily Andrews was allowed go. Thought she’d be person non grata at this stage.
W&K cannot control which press are allowed to stand outside on a public street. Was Andrews allowed inside?
She’s posted some pics so presume she is. And funnily enough pics of William working today have surfaced!
Emily Andrews has posted pics and video of Kate doing a tennis drill. It’s interesting. But then I scrolled further down the feed to see a photo of 2 children practicing their bow and curtsey which is imo by far the most costly in terms of mental healthand damaging thing about monarchy. If my tax dollars supported that school I’d be up there raising bloody hell that they be forbidden from teaching students to do that.
https://twitter.com/byemilyandrews
The Telegraph is running a story today, more PR excuses, that the Civil Aviation Authority has rules, and that red tape limits poor William from doing royal duties on his off or rest days. But they responded with:
“But the CAA rubbished the excuse, saying pilots could do what they wanted on rest days, even including paid employment, as long as it did not involve flying aircraft.”
hahaha OMG, William is really catching it.
Keep it coming Co-workers!!
If I ever need a medical helicopter in England, I hope to god he wouldn’t be the pilot.
He’s still a co-pilot. If he eventually spends enough personal time training-and-flying to qualify as pilot? Begs the question how much time he chose to spend away from his wife and young kids for this hobby.
Her face seems so disingenuous. I really can’t take her seriously at all.
She’s putting on a big act, but lots of people aren’t buying into it.
I wonder if she got a facial – her skin looks better today. Even in the video, she didn’t look nearly as haggard as she did last week.
It feels quite forced to me, too. I think she feigns interest & concern, but I do think she is genuinely thrilled to have the title. That cheshire grin is gleeful, imo.
I actually don’t have that reaction to her. Unlike William, who often looks bored or cranky at his events, she’s always cheerful. I appreciate that about her. I am sure she’s faking — how fun could these awful things be?? — but at least she’s trying, unlike Will, and I would rather see this kind of personality than a super quiet uppity dignified one. I watched her do a singalong thing with the kids and she looked super happy and into it. I would look so awkward if I were being videotaped doing a singalong.
She’s not always cheerful. Often she is over the top, other videos show her rolling her eyes and shifting around in boredom.
“how fun could these awful things be??” >>>>> Some may not necessarily be a roller coaster of excitement, but they aren’t awful. I certainly hope she doesn’t view them as awful since she’s going to events designed to help the very country that supports her lifestyle. Give me a cushy life in exchange to impact my community and potentially the world?! That’s my ideal job.
Yeah, when she’s the focus of the attention, especially when there’s photographers and videographers around, she’s all smiley and laughy and chirpy.
But when the attention is on someone else, like a speaker, she’s rolling her eyes, shifting around either in her chair or when she’s standing, flipping her hair or running her fingers through it, looking around at anybody but the speaker, sighing and acting like she’s ‘bored out of her skull’ and wants the person to stop speaking, putting on a resting bitch face, etc.
I guess I just haven’t seen much of the stuff you guys have seen. I saw the eye roll at the gift wrapping thing, but it seemed pretty good natured. Far more often, I see photos of her cheerful, and I like that about her. Not everyone has the natural charm of someone like Harry. I like that she tries.
And @HH, I apologize for saying “awful.” I should have said “boring.” I do a lot of charity work; I value it greatly, but the events are boring, and there is a lot of awkward chit chat with strangers. Depends on your personality. I find that hard. I appreciate that she seems to have fun with it, and that she tries to look happy when she’s there. Obviously she should be working more, but I’m perfectly happy with how she looks when she’s working.
The eye rolling and shifting in boredom comes at serious events, when she cannot grin her way through it. Charity fund raiser in California and meeting with homeless women come to mind.
I think she tries to look perky too, Gracie. It does seem forced sometimes, but I do think she tries. Some people can naturally engage; some not. I think she’s on the “not” side.
Interesting, I hadn’t thought about how the RAF search and rescue and this East Anglia helicopter job were different–I can see how its not exciting as what he did in RAF.
Makes it even stranger that he is doing it and makes it even clearer that it is a ploy to 1)hide out in relatively remote Norfolk and 2)have an excuse for not doing the royal duties he despises. It would have seemed a natural transition point when he ended at RAF to go to royal duties–remember that “gap year” when he was learning all about running the Duchy, taking his “bespoke agriculture course” at Cambridge, and of course passionately pursuing his wildlife conservation work (aka, going to a gala or two for his pal Jecca’s Tusk charity). I feel like his decision at the end of that gap year to NOT transition to royal duties and instead to snag this job was really weird, unexpected, and a landmark moment in his truculence.
did he ever finish that Cambridge course?
No, his royal assness did not complete the course.
I think that he was spending his gap year looking for a way out of being a ‘full-time Royal.’ So, I think that when he or his staff found out about this CAA rule, the light bulb turned on and that’s why he got for this EAAA job, hoping to use this rule to excuse himself out of doing royal work.
But happily the CAA publicly called him on his bull crap interpretation of its rule.
anne_000 your theory is probably right, that William needed some time to line up his next escape — Escape to Anmer— and that’s what the gap year was for.
Otherwise he could have just started up royal duties right away. It’s not like you need extensive training to do for goodness sakes, just the proper attitude which of course he utterly lacks.
I just read somewhere the head of the EAAA is being replaced by a man who coordinated Will and Kate’s wedding. He seems well qualified but timing and connection is suspicious.
Did Will get the old head fired for the bad press?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-williams-new-boss-man-7427120
Or does he want a new boss who *thinks* he’s a royal insider so he’ll bend over backwards to pander to Billy’s whims?
Prince William’s new boss is the man who organised his and Kate Middleton’s WEDDING
Mirror, 23 Feb 2016
By Victoria Murphy
“Prince William has a new boss in his job as an air ambulance pilot – and it’s a man who helped organise the royal wedding.
Major General Sir William Cubitt CBE has been announced as the new chairman of the East Anglian Air Ambulance and will oversee the charity that employs William to carry out life-saving missions.”
What a racket.
The timing is pretty close for the old guy to be fired for bad press, I would think? I don’t know; it is odd that someone very pro William is taking over though.
Cubitt’s a pretty old name in the British aristocracy isn’t it?
A distant Camilla relation, iirc. The family tiara she wears carries the name. EDIT: her maternal grandmother was a Cubitt.
Thanks Karen.
And he was ‘made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for personal services to the Sovereign.’
I think that there will now be a crackdown on loose lips among William’s co-workers so gossip about his schedule and attitude towards work and his colleagues will be strictly controlled. Win-Win for William. He’s always really lucky, even when it’s to his detriment.
Racket indeed !! I have been following this story but am just getting in to commenting on it. I think that this is the handiwork of the palace insiders and higher-ups clamping down on EAA. Ugh.
Well the cat’s out of the bag now. I hope if anyone is disciplined or fired for speaking out, it becomes public knowledge. Also, if this happens, the Palace will have egg on its face for interfering. Time to let William sink or swim. Enough with the coddling of 33 year old William already!
“anonymous sources” again. Lol.
based on past form, ‘anonymous sources’ in royal stories are a toss up between the royal staffers or people very close to the royal.
I doubt the source would want his name to be made public for fear of risking being fired. He may need his salary to live on….unlike William ‘I don’t need the money. I’ll just give it away.’ Wales.
Great.
Thanks.
What difference does it make if her coat is a repeat? Is she not supposed to be seen in the same thing more than once?
It’s a point of her PR that she repeats clothing. We are supposed to applaud every time she repeats her clothes.
Yes, it makes us think that she is thrifty and responsible. We admire these qualities. *applauds, dutifully*
Do you notice how the articles often make a point of detailing the previous occasions on which a given outfit has been worn? It’s for the benefit of those of us who weren’t paying attention, I suppose.
To be fair, I do see that the repeats are a smart strategy on their part. I just wish they wouldn’t hype them quite so much. It makes it feel manipulative.
@Anne – she never used to repeat so regularly, it used to be every once in a while but when the press started making a point of adding a price to to each outfit then i think she was ‘told’ to be a bit responsible. For the first few years of marriage she mostly wore new clothes for every engagement.
It’s good that wore one of the 80 expensive coats she already owns.
Expect we’ll see a story any day now of Willy single handedly saving someone’s life when Willy was flying for the EAAAA
There’s a DM article with photos out now of William at his EAAA ‘job’ trying to refuel a copter. He’s wrangling with the fuel cables like an amateur.
He needs to rescue a person. No, a puppy or kitten. . . no, two whole litters of adorable puppies and kittens! Get the photo op! Trying to help #PoorJason here.
Daily Mail has pictures of William today struggling to fill up the fuel tank of his EAAA copter at work. I predict he will punch up his EAAA shifts now–because he sure isn’t going to pump up his royal duties!
Article also quotes unnamed royal aide saying he typically works 20 hours a week at EAAA to leave enough time for royal duties and “private family time.”
Yes and that article also made this claim:
“William’s working hours are in part curtailed by CAA regulations, handed down by Brussels, that require pilots to undertake a 36 hours’ rest that includes two nights at home inbetween shifts.”
I seriously doubt the regulations specifically state these pilots are required to rest AT HOME for two nights. Give me a break.
I didn’t realise Prince Philip was so generous.
Ah, Kaiser, is it just a coincidence that you have that picture of Kate guffawing below your “Hahahaha” in your final paragraph? Perfect.
Tom Sykes, royal butt-kisser.
In his DB article, he’s trying to make William’s next official engagement (attending Friday’s rugby game in Cardiff) sound like a hassle rather than just someone going off to see a game. Poor William has to meet ‘endless’ numbers of officials. Oh OK. Poor guy gets a free trip to Cardiff, gets free admission to see the game in most likely a prime seat, but has to shake a few hands in exchange for this. That’s no more than what a sweepstakes winner would have to do. He’s getting something for free so what’s the big boo-hoo?
Also Sykes says that William has to do uncounted time doing work behind the scenes including going to private meetings, so it’s not like he’s not working at all when he’s not seen in public or at the EAAA. Yeah right. I’m sure it takes many many hours of meetings to do what few engagements he does. If that’s the case, then the Queen and Philip are taking meetings 24/7 in order to do the several hundreds of publicly-seen appearances they do each year.
I predicted on Sunday that he’d be the one to pen the sugar article. After all, who else after all the major Britloids’ royal correspondents called Bill out?
Saw the DM article. Having Kate do a photo op in front of the “Saint Catherine” sign is, erm…a little much. These two are reaching well beyond their grab.
I do sometimes wonder: who’s advising them? Is it true that they have surrounded themselves with “yes” people and that William does only what he wants to do? How can it be that there are no RULES he has to stick to? no MINIMUM number of engagements, for example? The only rule seems to be “AVOID BAD PRESS.”
The problem is that Willy doesn’t listen to advice – he thinks he knows better plus he’s always got away with doing whatever he wanted with no consequences.
Aahh, well I guess that I should track taking my dog Sam out five times a day as “work”.
And in the spirit of keeping up appearances, for my royal duties you are all invited to the Annual Wakefield Australian Shepherd Agility Tournament. My servants will be taking of all the details. You may contact my assistant, Meep. She’s telling me that the email address is entitledroyals@yousuckerspayformyleisure.uk
LOL! Good luck in the competition.
The Daily Beast and People Magazine are so ethical. So much glee on this thread today. Makes me sad for humanity when so many are happy taking down an establishment or a person they perceive as not living up to their expectations and basing those expectations on rags that sell for pure profit and for the most part embellished bs..
THIS makes you sad for humanity? Hmmm.
I think the criticism of Prince William is valid. In the UK for the past 65 or so years, the Queen has set the tone for the duties that the royal family are expected to carry out, in exchange for the place they occupy in national life which involves publically financed and supported palaces, travel, etc. The Queen has kept that up to the extent that her and Philip are closing in on 100 years old and keeping up a pace, when many other monarchs decide (sensibly, I think) to step down and let the heir take over. So when someone who is going to be King of England is blatantly changing the script, it is newsworthy and discussion worthy.
I do have sympathy for William because the idea that someone *must* live a certain life and fulfill a certain role, based upon an accident of birth, is troubling to me. Sure one can say he can relinquish his place in the succession, but the hellstorm that would accompany that is no small thing. But that goes to the overall question of the monarchy, what is it for, and what is the expectation for what they must do in exchange for their countrypeople/”subjects” to support them?
I’ll say something nice, Kate looked in good form at her appearances in Scotland today, and I daresay she probably has a better demeanor and attitude toward her royal role than her husband–if that isn’t damning with faint praise.
I don’t think it is valid. It’s based on fabricated gossip by unethical journalism which the British are really good at. Do you believe everything written in The Daily Beast and People Magazine? They embellish to sell. It’s not rocket science.
People magazine, noted muckrakers.
Telegraph. Very noted muckraker. Their reporter came thisshort of calling William’s office and, by extension, him liars. And proved it.
Tourmaline, I agree with your comment!!
The expectations are pretty simple, not fabricated BS from gossip mags. Work at the job that provides your one percenter life, and work that job at LEAST as hard as your 89-year-old grandmother and 67-year-old father. It isn’t from gossip magazines, it is from 100+ years of royals having a political and charity role to play or losing their taxpayer funding.
Glee because an entitled person who has rooked the system, lied constantly, and refuses to live up to his family’s responsibilities has gotten caught in his lies? Oh the humanity.
Syrian refugees, earthquake victims in Nepal, Sudanese famine, children of the Zika virus. All of these are more worthy of concern than an entitled brat who refuses to man up and walk away from the royal job he doesn’t want.
Well perhaps you should focus on them instead of following William on celebitchy with your obvious and rabid dislike. I think the queen and Charles choose to take on the responsibility and when they no longer can or want to William will take over. Don’t you think they would tell William to step it up if you were correct in your assumptions? People Magazine is so reputable.
Dictating what others are allowed to opine about or spend their time reading?
I don’t dislike him or his wife, I don’t know them personally. I dislike the way they are living their lives off the taxpayers, lying, and making every excuse to avoid spending time doing the very simple job they’re supposed to be doing. Again, the majority of working royals are further down the line and doing more than William, so the argument that he shouldn’t being doing more now because he isn’t the next heir makes no sense.
HM didn’t choose anything. Her beloved Uncle was thrown out / stepped to the side and she was saddled with being the future heir. According to her nanny, she used to pray every night for a little brother so she wouldn’t have to be heir. Her father died when she was 25 and she accepted her royal duty. Charles has embraced his role and done great work with Prince’s Trust and The Duchy.
Both HM and Charles are known for burying their heads in the sand and hoping that things will work out. Waiting until things get to crisis or beyond until stepping in. We’re getting close to the point where maybe, just maybe, they’ll whisper a word or two in William’s direction. For now, both HM and Philip are offloading tasks to Charles. It appears he’s turning to Harry for help since William isn’t stepping up.
p.s. I don’t read People or DB. People is staffed by royal bootlicking sycophants and DB isn’t worth the bandwidth.
p.s. I don’t read People or DB. People is staffed by royal bootlicking sycophants and DB isn’t worth the bandwidth.
Lol True. We agree on something!
By your thinking, maggie, we should discount your opinions too, as you think everything they do is golden.
Case in point: National Enquirer. Very noted muckraker, which also happens to have won a Pulitzer for reporting on the OJ Simpson case. They also busted John Edwards wide open too. Just because its in a tabloid does not make it inherently false. If other outlets pick it up, that duck might actually quack. And outlets have picked this up, including a couple of well respected papers.
I, on the other, get sad for humanity when I see that we still don’t have freedom of the press in 2016 because said press is still largely controlled and manipulated by the wealthy who want to push their agenda via a complete abuse of power. But to each their own.
+1
The Daily Mail is mocking him in the title of the story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3462073/Fill-heir-Prince-William-work-getting-tangled-cables-refuels-Air-Ambulance-helicopter-fuel.html
Getting tangled!!! Yes, I am glad they are finally calling out someone who has gamed the system for far too long. William, be a Prince or go away!!!!