As we know by now, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge share an office with Prince Harry. That doesn’t mean that Will, Kate and Harry (let’s call them WKH) have adjoining cubicles or anything, it means that all of their staffers share an office space, and WKH sometimes “share” staffers. Like their communications guy, (Poor) Jason Knauf. Jason works for all three of them, even though he often throws Harry under the bus to make Will and Kate look better. Still, the royals have dedicated staffers, as in Harry has some people who work just for him, Kate has people who work just for her, and so on.
A few months ago, there was a minor staff scandal in the WKH office – the media advisor, Nick Loughran, who works for all three, split up with Kate’s personal assistant Rebecca Deacon (the brunette in these photos) and began dating Harry’s personal assistant Clara Madden. Deacon is well-known by dedicated Kate-watchers. Some of us even suspect that Deacon and Kate have some sort of symbiotic relationship when it comes to style – they often mirror each other at events and seem to copy each other’s looks. Clara Madden is sometimes described as a “hot blonde,” but in this Daily Mail photo, she just seems like a cute girl-next-door type, and it’s not surprising that she works for Harry, you know? Well, still, it was a scandal because inner-office romance and Kate’s right-hand woman being callously dumped by the media advisor just so he could go out with the cute blonde? That’s gotta suck. The Daily Mail also noted at the time that William had been telling people that Clara “is the star of the office.” And not Rebecca?!
Well, anyway, the situation had gotten so awkward that Nick Loughran has quit his job. So the WKH press office is likely in shambles again, as they’ve lost another high-profile press person. It feels like Loughran is like the sixth press person to leave in the past three years or so, which is odd because for the most part, other royals don’t burn through staffers that quickly. And royal staffers rarely leave for personal reasons either, especially not a torrid love triangle involving divided loyalties from Team Brunette (Team Waity!) and Team Blonde (Team Ginger Snap!).
A source told Sebastian Shakespeare at the Daily Mail that Loughran’s exit “will be better for all concerned. Nick’s relationship with Clara has become increasingly serious and it will give him a fresh start away from the royal hothouse.” Loughran’s already got another job lined up too: he’s becoming associate director of a PR firm founded by Matthew Freud. There’s also a source insisting that Loughran didn’t leave because of the torrid love affair, but because he just wanted to move into the private sector. I believe he probably left for many reasons: Deacon probably used her position as Kate’s favorite to make his life difficult; William and Kate burn through press people because they think they (Will & Kate) are the real PR geniuses and PR professionals get tired of arguing with them; and Will and Kate don’t pay their staffers well.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Pacific Coast News.
“That doesn’t mean that Will, Kate and Harry (let’s call them WKH) have adjoining cubicles or anything”
too bad! how i would love to be a fly on the wall in that office! Kate and Harry gossiping and goofying around while William passive aggressively sighs and shakes his head…
Oh dear – as my mother used to say ‘don’t sh!t in your front garden’. But didn’t he start seeing Deacon when he suddenly ended his engagement 2 months before he was due to get married? I seem to recall a Fail story about that.
I’ve heard and used the expression “don’t shit where you eat” but – same 🙂
So far I see people who all look about the same age. I wonder how much experience they have in this field and if that is one of the reasons why their press office can’t get their act together.
The previous press secretary (the one before Jason) was very experienced – he used to be the deputy Press person for the Queen and press advisor for the Duke of York, he left the Cambridges and Harry suddenly after about 2 years in the job. They have a high turnover of staff for a royal office – that in itselfs raises red flags about how they treat people. Both have reps for not being the nicest people in private – a police protection office was sacked for saying that Chutney treated the staff badly.
It might be less about how W&K treat them and more about the fact that they offer so little for their team to actually publicize. It must be so boring to be stuck in that perpetual slow news day. I’d get restless quickly too.
+1
PR is a young mans game because mediums are changing so rapidly and audiences becoming more savvy. One of the reason we see celebrity media strategies that make you want to rip your hair out is because the big Hollywood PR firms are still managed by hold overs from bygone times. They need to keep that office young but maybe get some craftier staff.
Wow….people have no scruples.
Right? How hard is it to just keep it in the pants?
It could also be because they don’t pay well. I recall seeing some of the royal staff salaries and was shocked by how low they were. Most people seem to do it out of some sort of deference for the BRF. I could see using it strictly as an entry level job if I was in my mid-late twenties.
If he and Clara are moving toward marriage he may simply want a better paying job so they buy a house, etc.
Hahahahaha. Even the staffers are into swinging!
Lol
Matthew Freud? That’s another connection to the BRF.
Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer’s 2nd wife (he’s moved on to wife #3 now) was the ex-wife of Matthew Freud, who himself is a great-grandson of Sigmund Freud.
Ooh! Good catch.
Gosh Charles Spencer has had MANY wives!
And 7 kids!
Five girls, and 2 boys.
Including Lady Charlotte Diana born in 2012. Even if that was a distant cousin, I’d hesitate to name my daughter something so similar. Of course, W&K couldn’t order him not to use that name, like they were said to of Zara (not to use George if she had a boy).
Oh, that is right! Charles Spencer’s youngest is a girl named Charlotte Diana. Apparently, that little 3 year old is the first Spencer born at Althorpe, the family seat, since the 1700’s.
Apparently, she resembles Charles so much that she was described as “Earl Spencer in pigtails”.
What is with the media’s obsession with blonde women? All three are average looking people, yet words like “bombshell” get thrown around for women because they have blonde hair.
And yeah, it’s gotta suck when you get dumped by a coworker, and then see him with his new girlfriend (another coworker) so soon. That’s why people advise not to sh-t where you eat ( so to speak 😛).
Boy! That guy has no lower jaw, does he?
Then he’s a perfect fit for Rebecca Deacon.
She looks to have the same chin situation as Bristol Palin. It’s a look that will always look like you have multiple chins, regardless of body weight.
And boy, did her chin plastic surgery change her looks drastically- for the better, IMO.
More likely it’s Wills way or the highway, they probably felt redundant. Infact I expect the Royal nannies feel a bit redundant too, Kate seems very hands on, that is not a bad thing at all but how many Royal children have you seen get out of a car and demand to be picked up by their parents. I am thinking that Wills and Kate now look like any ordinary everyday couple the Royal magic isn’t there even though they have teams of Publuc relations and helpers to try and keep that magic. Just compare them to Frederick and Mary royalty and their little ones it’s worlds apart.