Duchess Kate and Prince William have a new housekeeper! Sort of. People Magazine reports that Kate and William have hired one of the Queen’s long-time housekeepers to look after them at Nottingham Cottage, and then she’ll move over to the Kensington Palace apartment when the renovations are done:
Nothing like getting a helping hand – and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have more than one. But the couple have hired one of Queen Elizabeth’s long-standing housekeepers for their new home, Apartment 1a in Kensington Palace, which they plan to occupy early this fall.
She is Antonella Fresolone, 42, who is said to be unmarried, Italian, and already on the job – helping at the two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage where William and Kate are living until their larger family home is ready.
Fresolone apparently has worked at Buckingham Palace for 13 years as one of three housekeepers for the Queen, who has now given her blessing for Fresolone to help her grandson, his wife and their upcoming baby – as well as cocker spaniel Lupo.
The employee is “renowned for being very hard working,” an insider told the Sunday Express. “She is extremely dedicated and fully intends for this job to become her whole life.”
William and Kate’s office, which generally does not discuss staffing issues, would not comment on the appointment.
Again, I have no problem with William and Kate having personal and household staffers. What bugs me is the “they’re just like us” propaganda in which “royal sources” claim that Will and Kate do everything on their own. And I like how People notes that this housekeeper is “already on the job”. Meaning she was hired a while ago and Will and Kate didn’t want anyone to know.
Meanwhile, if you have five minutes today, you should really read this fascinating story about Duchess Kate in The Telegraph. It’s from a few days ago, and it’s all about how Kate is amazing and how she’s just crushing it as a duchess. It’s a royal propaganda piece, of course, but it’s just fascinating. Some highlights that I found interesting:
The secret of her success, say those closest to her, is that it is the Duchess herself who is always in the driving seat, whether it be choosing the charities she supports, deciding where she should visit or even what she is going to wear.
“She is an incredibly keen learner,” said one insider. “We have seen that in the diligence with which she has researched the causes she wants to support, and the preparation she does before each visit. The rest is down to how she is with people; she is very confident and she enjoys listening. She has also been able to watch the Queen at close quarters and learn from her the art of the 30-second conversation.”
Ask palace aides whether the Duchess has taken to solo engagements more quickly than they expected, and they will insist there was never a “time frame” in mind, but one well-placed source conceded: “You don’t know how well someone is going to cope until they start doing it. She has proved to be a natural.”
The Duchess’s choice of the seven charities of which she is Patron (as well as being a Scout volunteer) has been entirely her own. Before putting her name to any good cause, she spends months researching it and carrying out secret visits. Even the decision to visit Naomi House children’s hospice in Hampshire (with which she has no formal link) at the start of Children’s Hospice Week on Monday was her own idea; she had been there before because her family’s Berkshire-based firm, Party Pieces, donates party ware to the hospice.
The eventual plan is for the Duchess to have formal links with perhaps 20 or 30 causes at a time (by contrast the Duke of Edinburgh has more than 800) and to take many of them on a fixed-term basis. The younger generation of the Royal family believe that rationing their support will have more impact for each cause.
Royal duties will, of course, have to take a back seat when the new third in line to the throne is born, but once again it is the Duchess, rather than the Royal Household, who will be calling the shots. Unlike with previous royal generations, the Duchess will have no maternity nurse to help her out, and no nanny, for now at least; she will instead rely on the help of her mother Carole, on whose advice she depends. The Duchess intends to spend a lot of time during the first few weeks of her baby’s life staying at her parents’ Georgian manor house in Bucklebury, Berks.
Despite the added pressures of a new baby, the Duchess has no intention of increasing the size of her staff. In fact, the number of courtiers at St James’s Palace is about to be reduced after Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the ex-SAS officer who has been a steady presence at William and Harry’s side for the past eight years and principal private secretary to William, Kate and Harry, told them he has decided to step down…. His role will be divided between three individual private secretaries: Miguel Head, 35, for the Duke, Rebecca Deacon, 30, for the Duchess, and Edward Lane Fox, 36, for Prince Harry.
So, Will and Kate won’t be adding any more staff. Except for the housekeeper that was just revealed. And they’ll get their individual secretaries. And of course, there will be no nanny or nurse except that I’m sure we will find out, months from now, that Kate hired both. I also don’t get the idea of “rationing support” for charities for “impact”. Are they preparing us for Kate to barely do any work at all as a royal for years and years? Probably.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Hahahaha the pictures of Kate you pick are awesome. LMAO!
Yes, they are! They always make me either laugh or cringe because she always looks sorta nuts.
I’m enjoying the one of her in blue with the Royal Boob Overspill out the sleeve.
Some interesting Sarah observations on working Royals
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/top-stories/item/447647-prince-charles-plays-queen-for-the-day-kate-middleton-william-must-waity
Love the Harry Potter wand photo. Amazing!
Of course they need a housekeeper. They are royal, they are blue blood, they are so much better than the rest of us.
They have a very extensive staff already. I mean it’s huge! They’re just not listed as part of W&K’s staff because Prince Charles picks up the tab for them. This is one that they may have to pay for themselves. And what I mean by that is someone will give them money and their accountant will pay them on behalf of W&K. That’s what I got from this anyways.
I know, and don’t really care. The mere existence of royalty in the 21st century is appalling.
Royalty that gets paid to exist by taxpayers… yes that is appalling.
@ FLORC. Yes, I agree, extensive and well-hidden staff. When she was “too ill to work” from the “HG diagnosis” she was still well-enough to attend the office Christmas party – for 27 of their office staff in London.
Add to that the 4 full-time staff for the Welsh cottage (5 bedroom mansion on private beach with separate building for staff housing). Then all the protection officers 24/7/365.
My2Pence
And those were just the 27 staffers at that 1 house that showed up to that party!
They have many residences. They have a lot of stuff! They should have staffers. It’s just silly and insulting that they lie about it or that the PR department feels they have to lie.
I wish there were more details on why Their head of security stepped down. The most interesting story is often buried at the bottom in DM fanfiction/articles.
FLORC: I got this info second-hand from relatives in England, but he got a much better offer from a private security firm, one that paid well, allowed him to use his expertise for actual security issues, and had more normal hours. Also, apparently he was tired of having to do things like chase people away from them at the beach on their vacations, and was getting annoyed at having to run interference at times for the Midds as well (being asked to chase paps away from James’s car at some function where the whole family was present, I think).
There are all sorts of stories about The Middletons using the security for themselves and not necessarily to guard their persons.
Ah. He got a better deal and really sick of having to cover the Midds when they should have hired private security.
Now i’m understanding why the Middletons are being called RF 2.0. They’re over reaching.
Very amusing that he would rather head up security at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital than continue to work around William and Kate Middleton.
Rationing support, imo, is a good idea. With 800 charities, they must get hardly any personal attention
I’d rather see a deep involvement with 20-30 than a name attached to 800
Speaking generally rather than saying kate is actually deeply involved with hers. I don’t pay too much attention to the royals.
I totally got that, too. You can focus more on those if there aren’t so many to spread the focus.
It is a good idea. It’s a great strategy too, but she barely focuses on what she has. an hour visit twice a year to a charity not including galas and premieres isn’t enough. And each time she visits her speech isn’t well rehearsed and she seems to know little about her charity. They’ve stopped letting her answer questions too since she fumbled terribly during the unicef visit.
Maybe if she showed she was passionate about her causes her few charities would seem like more.
Agree with you about the rationing of support. If you have 800 charities, you simply cannot be doing much of substance for the majority of them.
If I could afford a housekeeper I would. But of course I have a full time job and several part time jobs as well as kids that are into sports.
Why stop at housekeeper? I would have a full time nanny and one on standby as well.
The problem is not that they are hiring staff but as said in the post itself the problem is they lie about it and try to sell a false, dishonest public image that they are just like you and me who do all their work all by themselves which is simply not true.
Angelic 20 is correct. The image is fading away for even the hardcore W&K fans. As i stated above the staff that works only in their many homes, and that only clean up after them are paid for by Prince Charles. Because of that reason they are not W&K’s staff, but Prince Charle’s staff.
I see nothing wrong with needing a staff when you have several homes. I see nothing wrong with hiring a nanny or 2 or 3. I have a huge issue with claiming you’re doing it all on your own and these several dozen or so people that clean your house and make your meals and burp your baby aren’t you staff that help you because you aren’t paying their salary.
I have a housekeeper and a gardener, even though it’s just my husband and me, unfortunately. I’m not ashamed of it. We pay them well and purchased a good family health care plan for our housekeeper. However, we both work at busy careers full-time, volunteer extensively, and attend a lot of charity and social functions, unlike Kate who does nothing. More importantly, we don’t pretend not to have “staff.” I am an OCD neat freak and I sing the praises of my housekeeper for helping to keep me sane by doing her job so thoroughly. I think people would respect Will and Kate more if they gave credit to all the people who work for them, instead of this “We’re so independent and modern” crap.
“Diligent”? She’s a slug of the first order.
As for the housekeeper- she’s ‘helping’? No, she’s doing it all. Such bushwa.
I love it when these articles make someone sound so extraordinary because they do somehting (ANYTHING) for themselves. They do realize that we, the lowly masses, do this on the regular, right?
“Despite the added pressures of a new baby, the Duchess has no intention of increasing the size of her staff.”
You know, I didn’t hire additional staff after any of my three children were born, and in retrospect, I regret it.
^^^^Gold
Lol
I don’t see how Prince Phillip can pay any attention to any of his charities if there are 800 of them. I know he works/worked hard but that’s an awful lot of charities to visit. It makes much more sense to have 20 or 30, especially if the “younger generation” (as the article said) all do it. Everybody gets attention. I’ve heard that William has taken over one of Phillip’s most important charities.
I know nothing about housekeepers or staff but I’m sure there will be a nanny and housekeepers in that 20 room apartment. Cleaning that two-bedroom apartment is easy but 20 rooms is a whole other thing.
@mslewis. From old articles about it during Princess Margaret’s tenure, I think it is 57 rooms with 20 bedrooms.
I know the DM has said there were 57 rooms and 20 bedrooms but I read in another British paper that there were 20 rooms on four floors. I have no clue but 57 rooms sounds like a lot, even for Kensington Palace. I don’t think Diana had that many rooms at KP.
Just found the article, in case anybody thinks I’m making up the number of rooms 🙂 www(.)dailymail(.)co(.)uk/home/you/article-2303446/Behind-doors-Duke-Duchess-Cambridges-apartment-Kensington-Palace(.)html
@my2pence – i didn’t really appreciate how big the apartment was until the scaffolding went up.
Travelling between Nottinghill/Bayswater and Kensington is easiest done if you walk through the park. The public footpath which passes very close to the building right by their apartment about 10metres from the building. The scaffolding covers an entire wing!!!! ground to roof. You can’t miss it even if you were a disinterested member of the public.
The odd thing is they chose a wing that is directly accessible to the park ie no high walls, and one can look directly into myriad rooms if they have the light on. Also, many people exercise in the park near that part of KP.
If they don’t put up high walls or ban people from using that entire portion of the park, there will be lots of twitter pics and cries of privacy invasion.
@ LAK. Odds on how quickly William will try to shut down that entire portion of the park the first time someone takes a picture of the partially-closed drapes with their camera phone?
I have a cousin who spends and hour or two in the park everyday reading and taking her dog for a walk and not once during all the time they have lived there has she ever seen hide nor hair of William or Kate. However on many occasions she has seen other members of the royal family coming and going even those that don’t live there such as princess Anne which makes her think that the photos of Kate and the dog in the park and reports of her getting coffee at the local shops are probably PR Flim Flam and that they rarely spend time there at all.
“She is an incredibly keen learner”… and is yet to read a speech in a proper manner.
Of course she is a diligent learner – we all saw how quickly she picks up on things when she was learning about tea before her wedding, right? Goes without saying.
Oh don’t forget are Faberge eggs are still made question, I know arts history don’t teach about this particular piece of art but still she should have done some research beforehand on the event she was attending and the things that will be displayed especially since she is do hard working and a keen learner behind the scenes.
She seriously asked if Faberge eggs were still being made? Oh my, that is ignorance bordering on the embarassing. How can a freaking art history major not know about Faberge eggs? They’re hardly an unusual, obscure item in the art world!
Not entirely an absurd question (for a 12year old)…..because expensive Faberge eggs ARE still made by the company just not the one off ‘Imperial Style Eggs’.
Carl Fabergé’s granddaughter and great niece worked for the company for most of their lives and it has been taken over many times in its history , Unilever they used the name to sell all sorts of odd things including Brut and Babe cologne/perfumes. The new owners have gone back into the high end jewellery trade and do produce expensive limited edition eggs.
……but Kate must have missed this fact during her ‘in the diligence with which she has researched’ after all it is buried all the way down in 2nd place on google.
Her mother will be taking over and William will as usual, do nothing and be a boring fart like his father !!!!
I’m kind of surprised that this more detailed spin about her work habits is happening now- wonder what’s going on behind closed doors? Somebody somewhere has started caring more about what’s written in the gossip rags. This also appears to be a somewhat glossing over/mending of the living apart scenario.
Isn’t this article coming out because we see Kate doing more than she’s ever done? And people are surprised by this and need an explanation.
It’s been tossed around she’s only working now for a few reasons..
1. The France/photog/topless scandal had an arrest and the mag that printed is going under. It isn’t good pr to hear how William is putting many people out of jobs because his wife can’t keep her clothes on.
2. Once she gives birth we will only see her at galas and premieres because she can’t bare to be away from her new baby.
3. The upcoming years will bring many vacations and her work now will create a lot of pr goodwill.
What does William have to do with a magazine going under? I seriously doubt his being angry about the photos would cause it to go under. It takes many years for a magazine to first, lose advertisers and then enough readers to cause them to go under. It must have been pretty weak for a long time.
@ MsLewis.
bigstory(.)ap(.)org/article/publisher-photographer-probed-over-kate-photos
“If convicted, Closer magazine could face closure for up to five years;”
MsLewis
William has bratty entitlement issues. This is no secret. He enjoys the control he has in the press and when the photos were taken of Kate he blew a fuse and went for blood. I’m not saying this as an insult, but his wife is an exhibitionist. She showed us nothing we hadn’t seen before in better quality photos. I pity Kate in that William must be horrible to live with.
It’s so hard to “learn” how to get dressed by ten stylists and a hairdresser and attend an event.
What a keen learner.
I like her, she seems kind and sympathetic.
But I would have had more respect for her if she had actually worked worked.
Of all the people in the world you find an over privileged woman who never worked a day in her entire adult life sympathetic. I don’t get it, do you mind if I ask why? I get why a lot of people like her but sympathetic?
Look at the number of incredibly harsh comments about her in this single post. She seems harmless enough to me and I do feel some sympathy for anybody who is under constant scrutiny and constantly criticized. She’s not a Lohan, she’s a normal human being learning a very odd new job and dealing with centuries of traditions that mean she is constantly second guessed. I have some sympathy for that. The fact that you wanted the job doesn’t change the fact that living it is an entirely different deal.
RobN,
Now you are making her sound like a victim with no control over the choices she made in her life. Most of the criticism she gets is because of her own doing, her PR is lying about the life style she is living, about her life before engagement, about the work she does and most importantly representing her as a perfect woman that every one of us should look up to and try to emulate. So anyone who isn’t like Lindsay Lohan or Kim K shouldn’t be criticised because that’s all we can expect from a woman now? To be not like them and you are great and gets a free pass for everything else? Its been more then 2 years how much long will this new job excuse will go on? She is not quizzed about those centuries long traditions on her visits(by the way no centuries long traditions exist any more). you make her job sound so difficult. All she and other royals does is show up, smile, wave, shake hands with people that already adore them, look interested, and go home after an hour. I am sorry but you are just inventing too much to her royal role in order to feel sympathy. Comments here might be harsh but on a whole media worship her and no she is not constantly under scrutiny only when she is working. Other times she is left alone by the media. Go put on a news channel and find a genuine person to feel sympathy for, someone for whom you don’t have to invent reasons to feel sympathetic for IMO.
I don’t think she’s a victim at all, in fact I mentioned specifically that she wanted the job and worked pretty hard to get it, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with a downside. I do think to say that she isn’t constantly criticized is a misstatement of fact; she’s certainly criticized here on pretty much a daily basis.
As for saving my sympathy for a “genuine” person goes, Kate is just as much a genuine person as anybody else. She shows the world what she wants them to see, just like the rest of us do. I also don’t have a set reserve of sympathy; I can feel sympathy for Kate for being constantly criticized and still have plenty left over for people like the women in Cleveland.
RobN
You can feel sorry for her and feel we are being harsh because she’s so harmless. We’re not out to get her and many of us want to see her turn it around.
She didn’t want the job. She wanted the Prince, titles, and financial security. Not that this is a bad thing, but with those perks she took a position to accomplish good things and she wastes it.
And Kate doesn’t care about us. She’s said this already. She doesn’t read the tabs. She cares only of what her family and William think of her. And they are the only friends and people she talks to socially.
To break it down, She chased William down for years. He treated her poorly and she took it and never left. She never dared to build a career or life for herself because if William called for her and she couldn’t be there it would be done. Her boss at jogsaw went into detail about how she only took the job if she could leave to be with William at a moments notice.
As far as tradition goes she doesn’t follow it. Her hemlines and dress protocol is often ignored. She never got the proper times to curtsey. Her public speaking is stunted by her straining to hold her unnatural fake accent.
She made her world. It’s just living to please William and turning a blind eye to his spending much time not with her. She lives for him and is too dependent on her parents for an adult. If her parents should pass and William divorced her what would she do? I can’t admire a person that can’t stand on their own 2 feet.
Maybe it’s the pictures used, but I’ve never found this woman to be as beautiful as she’s hyped up to be…
Agreed. Though I do like the wizard’s wand or riding crop or whatever she’s holding in pic 3.
Makes her more interesting.
God is she bland.
She isn’t. She’s plain.
“…the Duchess herself…[decides] where she should visit OR EVEN WHAT SHE IS GOING TO WEAR.”
Get out! She deices what to wear each day?!?
That makes her simultaneously JUST LIKE ME and yet so amazingly special!
Great writing Telegraph.
LOl!
Your comment made my day!
Out of everything else in this shameless piece of kowtowing, this too floored me – she even decides what she is gong to wear! Oh, Waity, life is just so tough for you! Imagine!
If you say something long enough , it will become truth.
This is the theme of William and Kate’s PR IMO. They think if they just keep saying oh she is so natural, so hard working, so charitable, a children’s princess, the most stylish, beautiful, kind hearted woman to walk on earth enough times people will start believing it.
I have no problem with her choosing a handful of charities if she really concentrates and visits them. She have mere 7 or 8 charities and she has taken more vacations then visits to her charities. How exactly is visiting your charity twice in a year and plus is concentrating or working for them? While she was on 1 of her many vacations, one of her charities that treats terminally sick children have to cancel their find raiser because they weren’t able to raise the profile of the event. What’s the point of her being their patron then? I am not saying she should do 300 plus engagements in a year but at least she can make sure most of her engagements are for her charities or she visits her charities more then she takes vacations.
Also she doesn’t come across as a people person to me. She doesn’t look comfortable or natural among people in general. Most of the time she comes off awkward, insecure, nervous, not sure of herself, hence the compensating over the top mannerism she displays to compensate or hide this. That’s why I start feeling pity and sorry for her whenever I see videos of her while working but then I remind myself that I am along with people she is visiting are paying for her
3 mansions and stop feeling sorry for her and feel better.
I think media is trying hard as hell to make her into another money making figure like Diana but they are failing terribly as she is not giving them anything substantial to work with. Now we are supposed to admire her because she choose her clothes all by herself or she applies that clown makeup by herself (which is horrible by the way) or that she still goes to Starbucks etc. Is this is all to her? This is as far as her potential goes? There is nothing more substantial then this?
With Diana we had stigma to AIDS gone, with her we have high street frock sells put. Whatever one may think about Diana, no one can say she was just a ballgown with a tiara.
Kate’s cousin and her former boss at Jigsaw have said she has a hard time holding interest in other people or in conversations. She has a great list of charities so far and some really need her help and some are just their that pad her portfolio. To lend her name or attend 1 of those charity fund raisers seems to be too much to ask.
Soon she’ll have the baby and what charities she does have will probably not even see her twice a year as it is now. But the Daily Mail will post stories of W&K so sad to leave their baby for a gala to attend. Ugh. I hope she actually turns into the person these articles boast about.
“Kate’s cousin and her former boss at Jigsaw have said she has a hard time holding interest in other people or in conversations.” That is just pathetic really. She cannot fake interest in someone for the 30 seconds she has to pretend to be interested in them before moving on to the next person? No wonder there are at least two videos of her rolling her eyes in boredom in the middle of her engagements.
My2Pence
The big part of her Cousin and her old Jigsaw boss was they were trying to defend Kate and speak of her in a positive light. She’s always been very sheltered and self involved. To think about something that doesn’t effect her and to have interest in people that she will not see again is difficult for her. There was also a reporter at a polo event pre engagement that caught Kate not socializing and just quietly watching the game. She only told the reporter when asked why she wasn’t talking to anyone that she had to focus. She would need to recall the game and it’s highlights in “minute by minute detail” later on. She made herself perfect for William, but shows no sincere interest in having friends or a life independent of William.
My2Pence
LAK corrected me below. I think It was in the same article or 2 articles I read back to back, but it was a coworker at Jigsaw that said she had difficulty being social and showing interest. All is right with the cousin bit though. The cousin through they were explaining away an excuse for Kate.
Her old boss was just giving a nice interview not meaning to insult, but when you’re honest about a persons behavior it really pulled away the veil on her cold personality.
I agree with you considering Kate in public. She’s just not natural.
I’ve seen 2 speeches for two different charities and your paragraph sums it up perfectly.
How does it make sense to hire a secretary- one for each of them, but no nanny or nurse- right before they are about to become parents and neither does any work that is office work.
I mean, she does not work and he is a pilot, no?
If anything, they will need a nanny/ nurse to help out with the baby.
I bet my house on the fact that they will hire not only one nanny but nannies, mark my word. We will only know about it later like all of their other PR lies.
For all the work that she supposedly does, there’s very, very little to show for it.
IMO the Palace and pro-monarchy media can repeatedly claim that Kate is hardworking, but there is no obvious progress or proof that she does a lot, especially when all we have to go on are reports from William and Kate’s PR team and royalist propaganda.
So what exactly is Kate learning aside from dressing herself and putting her own makeup and making small talk? They make her sound so special and extraordinary, doing things that most adults should be able to do.
No more “Can you test the smell of the tea by smelling it” wisdom from Kate?!
I don’t see anything in that article that says Kate does more than just visiting her charities. What exactly does she do in each visit? How often does she visit? Does she sit in meetings and brainstorm ideas for future projects and fundraisers? Does she volunteer more than 1 hour per month? It would be helpful if they provide actual details of Kate’s visits and the work that she does.
It’s all the same stuff that Richard Palmer wrote in his ‘Kate’s critics are just jealous haters’ article in which he said a lot of positive things about Kate, but none of them actually impressive or specific. He just prattled on and on about vague “Kate is busy and does a lot in private that people don’t know about!!!” stuff but couldn’t specify any.
Agreed! Here is something specific:
According to the Telegraph, Queen Elizabeth attended 425 events last year. Four hundred and twenty-five.
That’s over 35 events a month, and the Queen is 87.
Sooo…how many appearances has Duchess Kate made this year so far?
She had a PLANNED visit to a tea shop. She had all the time in the world to prepare and think of something half-way intelligent to say. Yet all her feeble brain could come up with is, “Can you . . . um . . . test the . . . um . . . smell . . . of the tea . . . by smelling it?”
She’s an idiot. That’s why she is forced to read Every. Single. Word. that is scripted for her, without deviating. Which is why she looks down at the script every two words — she can’t risk getting a single word wrong or risk the wrath of the palace.
Also, I don’t buy that Kate is in control. She’s obviously a doormat who is ordered around. That’s why she has no friends, that’s why she has an eating disorder, and that’s why she’s so nervous all the time even around her own husband. I think she might just have a breakdown one day, like Crown Princess Masako (except that Masako was an intelligent woman with a budding career as a diplomat which she had to give up, contributing to her unhappiness with palace life — whereas Kate is a simpleton with no ambition, so maybe it’s not as stressful for her).
But, she has money and a title. So it’s all good.
It doesn’t appear to me that she has an eating disorder. She looks fairly healthy and robust.
I’m not a great public speaker either. Some are just naturally good at it.
Hahahaha! Paige you are too funny. Robust?? Are you kidding me? Sure she’s gained weight because of the pregnancy, but she is still bone thin and a shadow of her former healthy self. Do you have amnesia, or do you remember how she looked before the engagement? Here’s a refresher: lean, athletic and healthy.
caitlin, no I’m not kidding! She has a fabulous figure. I’ve seen pics of her in a white bikini. She’s perfection! I’m her size and don’t consider myself too skinny. If she had an eating disorder her hair wouldn’t be so healthy looking either. And no she does not wear hair extensions!
the white bikini-pics are YEARS OLD. Once upon a time….
@Paige – I won’t argue the body thing with you, except to say the white bikini pics were taken pre-weight loss. You can argue about whether her post-engagement pre-pregnancy weight was healthy, but it is undeniable that she lost significant weight from adulthood to the pre-marriage period.
And yes, she does wear hair extensions. Not only have we caught glimpses of the bonding areas in pics where she had her hair pulled back, but I know someone who goes to her salon in Knightsbridge, and it’s common knowledge she has them. And what’s the big deal if she does? There’s no shame in it. I wear them and I think they make my hair look great. I don’t get why her fans have to make every positive thing about her seem natural and unassisted.
She does too wear extensions. Google images of before and after on her hair. There’s videos out there where she can be seen adjusting one of her extensions.
She might not have them now (due to pregnancy), but she has had them.
As for healthy– she looked downright skeletal at her wedding. She’s gained weight during her pregnancy, but that will be coming off rapidly in July.
Paige – ever think of applying for a job at the Telegraph? You’d be perfect for the Royals section.
Noodles, Paige
Kate barely wears extensions anymore. She’s changed hair dressers and has been weened off of that. Her hair has naturally filled out more from the pregnancy hormones.
Paige
She did have a great and fit figure, but prewedding her frame withered away. She planned it and her mother and pippa went on the same diet. The moment where William put the ring on her finger and it was a slight struggle to fit it on had to be explained by press release. Kate thought she would lose so much weight she had the ring made 2 sizes smaller to fit, but she didn’t lose weight on her fingers so it didn’t fit well.
Kate is fine as she is. She’s a bit self involved. She doesn’t want to work. She wants to live for her husband. This is her life! She shouldn’t have taken such a public role though.
I’m curious – are the Royals required to do a certain amount of charity work/volunteer work in order to receive funding from tax payers? Or how does that work? Is it basically, once you’re a royal or part of the royal family, you get funding no matter what and don’t have to do charity work etc if you don’t want to?
I guess I’m thinking that in 2013, if they want to remain on the tax payers coffers, they are going to have to put in a certain amount of work. As in, it’s a JOB – because in all honesty, I can’t see a reason to keep supporting the Royal family except for tourism dollars.
It depends how far up the succession foodchain you are.
It used to be that payment was direct or indirect, but now is mostly indirect. Direct because any expenses incurred in the service of the crown are reimbursed and or tax deductable.
Indirect because many of them live rent free in buildings supported by the tax payer, security provided by the tax payer and they enjoy favoured tax status on certain things by their status which also allows them privileges regular people wouldn’t be allowed to enjoy eg William being in the RAF despite being myopic.
The monarch and their immediate heirs currently also have a legal veto on parliamentary bills. It’s not something that is widely advertised, so most people think she’s only ceremonial figurehead. So in another 30yrs, assuming we still have a monarchy, William will be veto-ing bills which is a very scary thought. The Queen’s PR tends to advertise the less harmful cosy figurehead image, and I guess we’ve been lucky that she is quite passive in her decisions, but Charles is not, and has exercised his veto several times.
The charity work is purposefully to distract the peasants so they never remember that the concept of royalty in modern times is an anachronism. George V saw this conundrum presenting itself and took it upon himself to re-fashion the royal family this way.
I did not know the Queen could veto bills. Very interesting! And I’m glad she doesn’t exercise that power either. But when and on what did Charles use his veto power?
The Queen HAS used this power – and on issues as serious as whether or not the country could go to war. Charles is also regularly asked to consent on legislation and has private meetings with Ministers to push his interests. And they definitely have approval power over ANYTHING that effects their private income.
People who think this family is strictly ceremonial are 100% wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/14/secret-papers-royals-veto-bills
@Littlestar – here are afew articles about the veto and which ones have been used.
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/01/15/still-powerful-still-unaccountable-full-extent-of-royal-veto
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/15/ministers-exploited-royal-veto-legislation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21024828
This article gives an actual list of bills that required HM or Charles consent to go ahead.
It ranges from Housing to Olympics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/14/secret-papers-royals-veto-bills
Don’t forget that she’s not just Queen of England.
I was surprised to learn that her power of veto is limited in the UK. Here in Australia, the Governor-General approves every single bill on the Queen’s behalf. Canada is the same. (And I’m too lazy to research the rest of the Commonwealth Realms, but I bet most of them give her full power of veto … it’s a hold-over from colonial times.)
Generally, the various governor-generals pass legislation without consultation with the Queen. However, some issues they still pass up the chain for full Royal Assent.
Even if she rarely exercises her power, the fact that she has it and must decide when/where to use it means she’s heavily involved in the politics of several countries.
If you compare the Queen of England the President of the US, the President is more powerful. But if you compare the Queen of the Commonwealth Realms to the PotUS, she wins … hands down.
There is no set requirement but the standard set by the Queen is very high. The Official Website of the British Monarchy has great descriptions of how they see their role.
http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/HowtheMonarchyworks/TheroleoftheRoyalFamily.aspx
There are a lot of privileges beyond the straightforward amounts they get from the government. If a person in the Duchy of Cornwall dies without a will or immediate family, for example, Charles inherits their estate. Over the years, he has netted more than $5m from this. His private income as the Duke of Cornwall was more than $28m last year. Despite the fact that his holdings function like a corporation, he does not pay corporate tax or capital gains tax.
Being a royal is a SWEET deal despite having to smile and shake a lot of hands.
$28 million tax free? That sounds like heaven to me! 😉
He pays private income tax but with a lot of exemptions not available to us peasants 🙂
These PR articles are always entertaining to read. The gap between the PR image and the reality…..she’s not even trying to give any impression that she is or can bridge the gap.
Her own relatives say she is a plodder who can’t connect with people, Her teachers say she was unremarkable and forgetable, her one legit boss said she was completely dominated by her relationship to extent she couldn’t dictate any aspect of her life and needed a lot of time off….
….But the Palace and Media really want a People’s princess2.0 and so we will be getting more of these articles.
LAK
I tried to find the link to the article where Kate’s old boss at Jigsaw was stating in detail how Kate needed to have time off at any moment for William and could only work 2 half days a week as a personal shopper, but I can’t! In fact all I could find was a lot of articles on how her former boss was wrongfully displayed as a mean woman in a lifetime movie about W&K and how she was refused a job as a CFO because it’s full time and she has 2 children.
This article was amazing because Kate’s former boss was trying to be nice to Kate, but instead made Kate look like she only lived for William and was too dependent on him. Also, how she never socialised with coworkers at lunch or in the break room because she didn’t seem interested getting to know anyone.
http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/kates-not-precious-she-mucked-in-at-jigsaw-6922185.html
The boss doesn’t say Kate was unsociable. That came from a co-worker who gave a separate interview. Will try to dig out that article.
Separate interview probably read back to back by me. Your memory and ability to absorb info is something I envy in people.
I have to laugh at all the contradictions in these kiss-assy articles, especially the ones they reveal inadvertantly. They have hardly any staff, except for the new housekeeper and the secretaries and the umpteen dozen staff members they have already. Kate is so good with people, but she’s great at speaking to them for only 30 seconds (probably because she’s too empty-headed to come up with more to say)! Kate and Wills aren’t hiring a nanny, but they’re staying at her parents’ house for the first few weeks! Because I’m so sure Carole’s getting up in the middle of the night to change diapers and do feedings. Come on.
I think their PR people and the press don’t realize how much better they would serve Will and Kate if they just backed off for a while. You don’t have to agree with Margaret Thatcher’s politics, but I believe she was dead on with her “If you have to tell people you’re a lady, you’re not” comment — only in this case, it’s hardworking, independent, smart, etc. The more they spin this nonsense, the more desperate it looks, since the facts just don’t bear out what the press is saying. If they just shut up for a while, at least there would be a certain air of mystery surrounding Will and Kate.
Faye
But if they shut up Harry would get more attention because he’s always working! And If Kate hadn’t been paraded out this past week we would have heard about people losing their jobs and going to jail over Boobgate. They need to keep themselves in the news telling us they’re working and having “secret meetings with charities”. Otherwise, we might have to use common sense and see that they are doing nothing.
No nanny? Yeah, right.
Posh Totty Makes Great Content!
Hahahahahaha! *wipes tears* Hahahahahahaha!
Whoo…they weren’t serious with that piece, were they? I mean…we’ve heard her speak. We kinda know there’s not a whole helluva lot going on under that mass of hair.
The Telegraph has pretty low standards for its writers judging from this god-awful article. It’s nothing more than a fawning, pr puff piece. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply a re-print of something kate’s pr people sent him.
I have this absurd image of Kate working with her PR people on whatever is behind this article.
“Make sure it mentions that I pick out my own clothes. That’s really important for people to know!”
She has a great education and despite stupid statements when feeling awkward, she definitely isn’t stupid.
I do a lot of PR/comms consulting and the situation reminds me of some particularly naive clients I’ve dealt with. If I had done what they wanted, this is the type of transparent, backfiring crap they would ended up with.
Kate had an expensive education, not a great education.
There was an article about how wonderful Kate was about sending a handwritten note to a charity she had visited. They printed a photo of the note – and it had grammatical errors! She mixed up their and they’re…how embarassing.
Her parents shelled out big time to send her to private schools and this is the result.
@ Cazzie. I remember seeing a picture of a handwritten note she wrote to Wimbledon, thanking them for the free tickets which included multiple errors. I do not recall seeing hand-written notes to charities, merely typed notes with an electronic signature. I’d be interested to learn if she HAD actually sent any hand-written notes to charities.
Cazzie/My2Pence
Ah the notes! This was big press because she spoke with a sick boy in a hospital as part of a photo op/hour long charity visit. It’s believed her office sent a typed letter to him with an electronic pen for her signature. The letter was generic in content and most of the words used would not be understood by a small child. Just a complete disconnect. The parents framed the letter and then a reporter came to them for the story about receiving the letter. They didn’t find the reporter. The reporter found them…
The note for the free tickets was written not too long after the hospital visit. Kate did write in her own hand and it was a terrible note.
The Key bit we took away from all of this was Kate didn’t have the time to write to a sick chilld, but did to thank Wimbledon for some free stuff.
It doesn’t bother me that she doesn’t “work”. Comes with the territory, IMO…moms who don’t “work” get a bad rap…even with working staff, but what do we really expect; that she’ll get a job…? She’s done her job so far – getting knocked up!
Well you don’t have to pay for her and courtesy her, so of course you don’t mind.
Also I don’t mind women who don’t work and are house wife but she isn’t one of them. She have a job for which she is receiving a huge salary, peeks, privilege s, status but she is not doing that job. She is a public servant so yes citizens of England have every right to criticise her if they don’t think she is doing a good job.
Well you don’t have to pay for her and courtesy her, so of course you don’t mind.
It may be easier for you to think that way, seeing as you are not paying for her extravagant lifestyle. And again, the Duchy does count as taxpayer funding. They are paid to serve and William and Kate Middleton refuse to live up to their responsibilities.
If she had worked full-time for the past two years, taxpayers would probably give her a little slack now. Seeing as she has “worked” less than 200 hours in the past two years, she will continue to be criticized.
I’m rooting for the Duchess but I have to say she doesn’t have the outward appearance of a fast learner.
She may well have the desire to learn but the results haven’t been spectacular – that said, maybe the future will bring something to change my mind.
The whole article is hilarious, though. It’s an apparent distraction from the fact that yes, they do have a large staff, which will get even larger as time goes by. Because they will hire a nanny, probably several nannies, actually.
And they have every right to hire household help and childcare help – just don’t be disingenuous about it, please.
I just re-read the article and they do say she is a “keen” learner, not a fast learner. So maybe she is enthusiastic about it.
“The employee is ‘renowned for being very hard working,’ an insider told the Sunday Express. ‘She is extremely dedicated and fully intends for this job to become her whole life.'”
Is the Queen hoping that the housekeeper will have some of her work ethic rub off on The Duchess?
Will and Kate remind me of my cousin. My cousin who recently turned 29 has a 2 year daughter and is working on her masters degree. She quit her job to focus on her degree and daughter. She keeps asking me and everyone else she knows to write her papers for her – not help, but actually do the research and write the papers for her – saying that she has to spend all day raising her daughter cause she doesn’t have a housekeeper or nanny. So I wrote the papers for her because I felt sorry for her. Not once in the years that I wrote the papers for her did I get paid or any acknowledgement that I helped her out in anyway – even though once I stayed up three days straight research and writing a paper. So one day my parents and my sister went to visit my uncle (my cousin and her husband lives next door) and my cousin was there, which was strange cause she was suppose to be at her in-laws that day. So I asked her why she was there and she told me that the nanny at her in-laws was sick so she didn’t want her daughter to get sick. In my head I was like wtf dude, I thought u didn’t have a nanny. Then I see another nanny taking care of my cousin’s daughter. Then I spy multiple housekeepers and drivers, yeah, my cousin certainly has it rough, no wonder she has no time to work on her homework. Eye roll. On another trip to visit, she was complaining about not having a housekeeper, while her housekeeper was doing the dishes. Seriously? I don’t get people like my cousin and Will and Kate. Having or needing help isn’t something to be ashamed of. Just don’t lie and pretend you’re doing everything yourself when you’re not.
Oh and when I suggested to my cousin that she should pay me for all the work I’ve done for her, she called me ungrateful because of all the things she’s done for me, such as have her maid wash my clothes for me. Lol.
TOL
Wow!
I suppose if you wanted to get even you could expose her to her professors or Dean. There’s a generation gap of hard workers that saw war. The next generation saw hard times and more war.Tn the next generation saw no significant war and easy times. They got everything from their hard working parents wanting to give their children everything they didn’t have. Ugh. I have many cousins like yours. Sorry:(
Yeah I though about forwarding all the emails and text to h university. The only thing that is holding me back is that I don’t want to cause problems between my dad and his brother. But it’s so tempting to think that with just with a couple click of the mouse I could expose her.
I’m going to echo FLORC: Wow!
I definitely vote to expose her. To be honest, I’m confused as to how you’d have the brains to write her papers, but not have the sense to realise it’s completely unethical to do so.
You don’t even sound like you realise academic fraud is wrong. So I’m sitting here like you just blithely announced “my cousin couldn’t afford to pay her rent, so I mugged an old lady”. Just – ack! No! You don’t do that, and if you have done it, you certainly don’t admit it so casually.
Okay, I’m exaggerating … cheating isn’t quite the same as mugging an old lady. But it’s still wrong. What were you thinking?
She doesn’t deserve the degree. Her potential clients/employers deserve to have someone who’s actually earned their qualifications. (Seriously – how happy would YOU be if you found out your lawyer/nurse/accountant/whatever had cheated their way through their degree? I’d be furious, feel ripped-off and be worried that my case had been mishandled.) And someone else deserves her spot in the program.
Dob her in.
Man the royals are lucky. They have all the newspapers in London working as their mouthpieces. They even have “special” laws that give them extraordinary powers over what’s printed. They decide whatever level of media intrusion is allowed at all of their public (and private) functions. Meanwhile, the tax payer foots the bill.
England is a very strange place indeed.
If the British so dislike supporting the royals, they’ll eventually get rid of them. In the meantime, why expect William to behave & perform as if he were next in line to succeed?
How much did Chas do at age 30? William may be 20+ years away from becoming the monarch. Maybe he’ll never have to do that job if it’s done away with.
CHARLES did 3x times work then William and this is excluding his naval career. Please use your friend Google before making such ignorant and uneducated remarks, it looks really bad.
To answer your question why we should expect William to work and behave like he is next in. line, well because he is living like a bloody king through being paid from tax payers like 57 rooms mansion which is being paid by us. Before you say everyone else in rf lives like this, I like to inform you no none of them live as lavishly as him except Charles and Queen, not even his brother. So I hope you got your answer.
Ok, but Chas has been next-in-line all along & still is. Will isn’t there yet.
We know from your comments how much you dislike Kate, but you may want to do a little research too. The company Faberge still exists, and they do occasionally make an egg that isn’t merely a jeweled pendant. What’s not been made for nearly 100 years are the Faberge
Imperial Eggs, commissioned specifically as Easter gifts.
This is a gossip blog. Maybe you can direct some of your frustrations & comments to editorial publications which have a better chance of swaying public opinion to precipitate changes in the system which so upsets you?
@ Taxi. Different economic times, new vision for the royal family – as determined by their own Way Ahead group. A few things that work against the idea of the heir to the heir and his wife not having to step up:
1) We have the decision from Prince Charles to decrease the size of the working royal family from roughly 20 people (now) down to 6 in the near future.
2) The majority of working royals are currently at or beyond retirement age.
3) Just this week we are seeing increasing evidence of Charles being “moved up” to perform more of the work of his 86-year-old mother (attending the Commonwealth meeting).
As Charles increasingly takes on more of HM’s work, William is needed to take on Charles’ work and Kate Middleton is needed to take on more of the charity work currently handled by other (past-retirement age) royals.
4) While the younger royals may want to take on fewer charities and (pretend) to give them more individual attention, it isn’t actually up to them. If the taxpayers want them attached to 800 charities each, that is what they have to do to keep their royal jobs. The royals (employees) aren’t in charge here, the taxpayers (employers) are.
@ Taxi. Prince Charles founded The Prince’s Trust when he was 28.
www(.)princes-trust(.)org(.)uk/about_the_trust/our_history(.)aspx
Prince Charles on William’s opinion of his work with The Prince’s Trust: “The prince replied: “As so often happens, they can’t believe their fathers do anything at all. I just hope that bit by bit he may take an interest in some of these things.” “
@ My2Pence.
Thank you. Your information is clear & helpful to those of us who aren’t UK citizens.
How do you taxpayers let your royal employees know which & how many charities you want them to support?
I’ve read that Andrew is worried about keeping his paid royal job(s) & he has more than 1 shady friend or business associate. Who pays for Fergie? Does Andy reimburse the taxpayers for the cost of her upkeep in his palace? If not, now that their 2 girls are adults, is there any reason to keep Fergie on the payroll?
Is income the royals get from income-producing landholdings considered taxpayers’ money?
Thanks.
www(.)royal(.)gov(.)uk/charitiesandpatronages/overview(.)aspx
www(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk/news/uk-16414839
Andrew and Fergie? No idea. From what I understand he pays rent for his home out of the money he gets from HM in exchange for royal work, and apparently lets his ex live with him. Neither she nor their children are “on the payroll” and yet Beatrice has the same number of charities as Kate Middleton who IS on the payroll.
Many debates about whether the Duchy is taxpayer-owned or not, along with taxation issues. Many think it is, Prince Charles would probably disagree. He HAS turned it into a profitable, organic-friendly example of what can be done in the UK.
Taxi
To add on the Beatrice part. She and her sister are both employed full time, university educated (and I think Eugenie has a masters or a double degree), and both work many charities and pay for travel clothes and security out of their own pocket.
To work full time and put your money into helping others is very admirable. William and Kate do this too, but no where near as often and their charity visits may last an hour for 1 event and all expenses are paid for. Clothes, helicopter travel, security. If a charity visit lasts more than an hour it’s likely a gala or premiere aka a party.
William blew off many of his RAF duties and has always been reluctant to become a full time royal. He just doesn’t want to work and it shows. He may be 2nd in line to the throne, but he’s 30 and if he hasn’t learned his sense of duty (like Harry) it may never sink in.
please, like this b*ch married a royal so she could clean her own house or do anything like that for herself…
The only thing this woman is fast at learning is eternal procrastination and terminal laziness.
‘rationing support’ well we all know what that means – rationing is not redistribution is it? what will transpire is less charities but also less man hours overall spent actually WORKING for the charities they have left not an increase.
Oh, so she makes seeeeeeecret visits to charities to research them for a loooooooooooooong time before making decisions about which to support. Um, yeah, that’s a really, really great way to pretend to do stuff without actually doing anything at all.
She’s new to this role. I think hagging on her at every opportunity is unfair. She’s newly married and pregnant. We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. How does anyone know she had her ring made two sizes smaller? So petty!