Does anyone remember this odd little gossip item from 2021? During the pandemic, sources close to Prince William claimed that he had given up polo and sold all twelve of his polo ponies. The heavy suggestion was that William had given up polo because Prince Harry had moved to California and William didn’t have anyone to “compete” with anymore. Then, soon after that item appeared, Harry began playing regularly at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club. Not only that, but Harry was regularly playing polo to raise money for Sentebale, back before that woman stole Sentebale. Around that same time, William went back to playing polo once a year for charity too, almost like he was screaming “I can play polo too, Harry!” Well, here’s a new wrinkle. According to Richard Eden’s sources, palace courtiers have been trying to convince William to give up polo entirely.

Polo is a sport so intimately associated with the Royal Family that Prince Philip even founded a club in Windsor Great Park. And King Charles played regularly for 40 years, despite suffering a string of painful injuries.

Now, however, Prince William competes in only one match per year and a very senior figure in the sport tells me that there’s disappointment about a perceived lack of royal interest.

This grandee claims that palace courtiers don’t want the heir to the throne to play because they see the sport as elitist and not ‘woke’. They would prefer him and the Princess of Wales to concentrate on their worthy causes such as the environment, ending homelessness and children’s early years education.

‘It’s not “woke”,’ the polo grandee says, derisively. ‘The people around William tell him he shouldn’t play, but he says, ‘You find me something else where I can raise £1million for charity in one hour and I’ll do it’. This year’s match raised £1.1million. He plays only once a year now. It’s pathetic.’

William and Harry took up polo as children. They were given coaching by Claire Tomlinson, who, with husband Simon, owned Beaufort Polo Club near Highgrove, Charles’s Gloucestershire retreat. The couple’s sons, Luke and Mark, became good friends of the princes and Harry stayed on the Tomlinsons’ ranch in Argentina during his gap year after leaving Eton College. Eton has a polo team so perhaps Prince George, who joined the school last month, will take up the game.

A Kensington Palace spokesman declines to comment. However, royal sources are keen to highlight William’s annual polo match as evidence of his commitment to the sport.

[From The Daily Mail]

My theory is that the palace courtiers do not give a crap about whether William plays polo or not. I think that this is William and his people looking for justifications for why he’s mostly given up polo and why he will eventually quit the sport entirely. He clearly already tried to give it up during the pandemic but then Brother started playing in California, so William begrudgingly had to put ass to saddle. Now William is back to being bored with polo and these are his excuses: um, polo isn’t woke enough! The courtiers want me to stop!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.