Prince William stopped playing polo for a few years, after his brother left the UK. It was also during the pandemic, which was probably more of a factor than Harry leaving, but you never know. Reportedly, William even sold his and Harry’s twelve polo ponies in 2021. Soon after, Harry began playing polo in Santa Barbara and he continued to stage and host polo matches to benefit Sentebale. Suddenly, William was back to playing polo too, take that, Harry! In 2023, the Princess of Wales even presented the trophy at William’s charity polo match, that was the infamous moment where they greeted each other like frigid coworkers and William skedaddled away from Kate in a hurry. Obviously, Kate skipped his polo match last year. Well, William has another polo match scheduled in July, and there’s already a growing scandal. But it’s not about Kate, it’s about a woman who was trying to sell access to William at the polo match.

The Prince of Wales has been forced to cut ties with a donor to his charities after she attempted to sell access to him for £20,000. Minerva Mondejar Steiner, a Filipina-Swiss millionaire whose art gallery was an official sponsor of William’s annual charitable polo event, had offered a private meeting with the prince in exchange for cash. She also offered “VVIP tickets” and “access to royalty” for advertisers prepared to pay £50,000 to feature in a magazine handed out at the fundraiser.

The Royal Charity Polo Cup match, taking place in Windsor next month, is an invitation-only event where millionaire donors can watch the prince play polo. They are expected to give to causes close to his heart, often writing cheques for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mondejar Steiner, who was on the guest list, extended a “strictly private and confidential” invitation to wealthy individuals belonging to a luxury concierge service. They were told that, in exchange for donations to her own philanthropic foundation, they could attend the event or even join her in meeting the future king himself. The email read: “As a patron of the Mondejar Foundation, you are invited to support their philanthropic work through a charitable donation, in return for which you will be welcomed to this prestigious occasion. Patron contributions: £6,000 — admission for one patron. £20,000 — includes full access plus a private audience with Prince William and Princess Catherine.” The invitation was sent to the members of A Small World — a Swiss company once described as “MySpace for millionaires” by the Wall Street Journal.

In another document, Mondejar Steiner’s team offered the opportunity to meet William to potential advertisers in a magazine to be handed to all those at the tournament. For £50,000, she said, she would grant companies a double-page editorial spread and two “VVIP tickets”, securing them seats at the tournament and “access to the royals”.

The disclosures threaten to cast a shadow over the competition, which has granted William an opportunity to play the sport he has enjoyed since childhood among friends, fellow royals, and longstanding supporters. The charity polo event has been operated on the basis of strict confidentiality and the palace tends to publicly announce William’s involvement and publish photographs after it has taken place. This was the case for last year’s event, where William was present but Kate, then undergoing cancer treatment, did not. That event raised £1 million for charity.

The explicit nature of the emails has echoes of the cash-for-access scandals involving the King when he was Prince of Wales. The emails also pose questions of William’s operation, including the due diligence before Mondejar Steiner was granted the status of an official sponsor, or permitted to host an art exhibition and distribute her own magazine at the event.

A Kensington Palace source said William did not “condone” the behaviour outlined in the email and thanked The Sunday Times for bringing the matter to their attention. In the circumstances, they said, they had asked the club to terminate its relationship with the sponsor.

The palace said it had no idea Mondejar Steiner was using the occasion to raise money for her own causes or promising access to William. In an unusually forthright intervention, the source said William did “not condone the type of behaviour” in question and said there would be no “cash for access”.

They added they were only familiar with Mondejar Steiner’s gallery, not her foundation, and did not know she was using the event to raise money for her own, rather than William’s, projects, or that she had shared an invitation with a luxury lifestyle company. It is understood William will still be attending the event and a behind-the-scenes reception to thank “those involved”.

Asked what due diligence was done on sponsors of the cup, the palace source said that a secretariat at Buckingham Palace performed checks. It declined to say how much Mondejar Steiner had paid to become a sponsor or put on her own art exhibition at the event, saying the price charged varied.

[From The Times]

Honestly, as far as royal cash-for-access scandals go, this one is pretty mundane – they can’t prove that William even met this woman, they can only prove that William’s staff are too lazy and incompetent to vet their guests, and they can prove that this woman definitely thought she was going to have intimate access to William and Kate. The bigger question is… who brought this to the Times’ attention? Why is someone pointing out that William surrounds himself with incompetent staff who fail to vet polo guests? And y’all know that the only reason why this came out BEFORE the polo match is because Mondejar Steiner was trying to profit from it herself instead of acting as a facilitator to bring those wealthy donors to William and his coffers.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.