I’m actually not mad about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge this week. In the first 48-hour whirlwind of the Sussexes’ African tour, William and Kate have been out of the public eye. That’s how it’s supposed to be in general – when a popular royal couple is on tour and getting a lot of attention, the rest of the royals tend to be more lowkey. Considering some of the passive-aggressive announcements and photo-ops from Kensington Palace this summer, I thought we were in store for William and Kate making big announcements during the Sussexes’ tour. So far so good though – all we’ve gotten is this Hello Magazine piece about Kate being “hard at work” with her “private meetings.”
The Duchess of Cambridge has been hard at work, undertaking a series of secret engagements in recent days. Court Circular confirmed that Kate held an Early Years Initiatives meeting at Kensington Palace on Tuesday morning, most likely after doing the school run. Experts gathered at the palace to discuss Kate’s project, the Early Years initiative. She also held another meeting with the panel on Friday after receiving Jason Knauf, who will soon become the Chief Executive of the Royal Foundation.
Jason, who has worked with Prince William and Kate for the past couple of years, is the Senior Adviser to the royal couple and his responsibilities include advising Their Royal Highnesses on their charitable initiatives – including work on the environment, mental health, and early childhood – and supporting a review of the charitable structures that underpin their work.
So basically Kate has had three meetings in five days and both meetings have been at her home and that means she’s hard at work! Word. As I said, I’m glad that the Cambridges are not trying it this week, although it’s only Wednesday and God knows. This Hello piece wasn’t even something pushed by the palace – Hello just wrote up a story based on the Court Circular updates, because Kate’s “private meetings” are always added to the circular.
Meanwhile, Tatler ran a piece about whether Kate will actually go by “Princess of Wales” whenever the Queen dies and Charles becomes king. It’s well known that Camilla didn’t want to go by the Princess of Wales title when she married Charles, out of respect for Diana’s memory (and the British public would have hated it). But Kate will absolutely want to be called the Princess of Wales. Tatler says it’s Kate’s “choice” but really… Camilla being styled as the Duchess of Cornwall was the outlier-choice. Of course Kate will be PoW.
Photos courtesy of WENN/Avalon.
Man, sometimes I have 4 or 5 meetings in a day. Any other eligible royals up for marrying? I gotta get in on this game.
Ditto. But I’d rather have a rich husband with no publicity. So I’m like Pippa!
So true. None of the royals work like regular people. It’s really frustrating to hear about their work ethic.
It makes sense that Kate would be called Princess of Wales. Camilla was Charles second marriage and it was respectful that she wasn’t PoW but it doesn’t make sense that there shouldn’t ever be another PoW because of Diana.
She’d want it, but first King Charles would have to formally invest Prince William as the PoW…and who knows if he will. I think that’s how this works, anyway. It’s not necessarily a done deal.
Yeah I agree that does make the most sense @wishingitwas, Camilla was the “other woman” for years and the public did not favour her. Due to the role she played in C&D’s marriage It would have been awkward for both herself and the public for her to be PoW. But sooner or later there’s got to be a PoW. It doesn’t need to wait yet another 30-50 years till when it’s George’s (and his future wife’s) turn just because Kate apparently shouldn’t use it because of Diana.
Yes, Charles would have to formally make William Prince of Wales. Elizabeth II did not make Charles PoW until 5 years after she became Queen and he was not formally invested for another 12 years after that when he was 21. William is an adult now though…
Kate will only become Princess of Wales if William is PoW…and she is his wife.
I was thinking the same thing. And we have to leave our houses to attend meetings. And a visit could be styled as a meeting. I believe the word meeting is used very loosely here.
I actually held a very high level meeting with my pups yesterday evening. We were on my bed and we discussed important issues like dinner, their favorites toys, and the best music with which to nap. I put it on my circular.
LOL. That was exactly my feeling. 5 meetings in one day and trying to actually DO WORK as well afterwards.
I know, that’s the hard part. I have at least five meetings a week, every week, AND I still have my actual work work to do.
I’ve just had my third since yesterday afternoon lol.
Honestly though, I’d be more stressed out if I was hosting them at my place. But I just hate meetings, and tend to worry if everyone is taken care of.
That is what your staff of 50 is for 😜
Yes, I know they don’t have that many. Yet.
I hereby declare you all princesses 😉💐👑
LOL
This series of articles is bothering on being embarrassing at this point! Kate’s “work” should speak for itself if there was any…..why the huge amount of articles trying to convince us that she is working?
Questions to all: What are Kate’s genuine interests? she doesn’t seem passionate about anything. I am sure (well I hope) privately she has opinions but in he public, she appears as someone with absolutely no interests whatsoever in the world around her.
The courtiers really did a terrible job with Kate………courtiers or William?
I have three meetings this morning, why is there no Hello Magazine story about my amazing work ethic ? lol
So busy! Hope the poor dear didn’t need to take to her fainting couch.
ETA: there’s no way Kate won’t want to be stylized as PoW. Puhleeze!
Snowballs chance in hell that she won’t be called PoW-she waited for this,big time!
Exactly. She has not spent the last 17 years or so putting up with William in order to NOT become Princess of Wales.
To me Diana will always be the true PoW,but if Kate ever worked for anything it’s this title.
No kidding – she hasn’t spent her entire adult life cosplaying her late MIL for nothing!
Wow, 3 meetings in 5 days – i wish my calendar was that ‘busy’. I’ve had 3 in 2 hours today so far! Am sure she went on a shopping spree down Kings Road to recover from ALL. THAT. WORK.
Of course she’s going to use Princess of Wales – its the title she spent 10 years chasing. Not to mention all the Diana cosplaying she does.
100% she is going to be called Princess of Wales, even before Charles grants William the title. (obviously not officially, but People and Hello et al are going to start with the title as soon as they can.)
I don’t even judge her for that – when William is PoW, Kate will be Princess of Wales, and she should go by that title. The idea that no one can ever be Princess of Wales bc of Diana is a little silly.
But, I’m laughing at the idea that there is a chance Kate would choose to NOT use the title. Kate, who has Diana’s ring; Kate, who cosplays Diana every chance she gets? Of course she’s going to choose Princess of Wales.
Wow – who writes this stuff??! It’s a pretty obvious pr move on her part – afraid people are going to forget about her with all the attention Meghan is receiving?
Did i miscount, isn’t that just two “meetings?” One on Tuesday and one on Friday?
She met with the EYI people twice and Jason once (well, it says she “received him,” so that sounds more like a formal “you are now officially CEO” than a meeting, but I dunno.)
Wow, loll, okayyy. Thanks for clarifying @Becks1
Yeah Kate will definitely make sure she is called POW. Also not sure what these meetings are supposed to lead up to in terms of any help to her patronages or anything else but to look like she is doing something.
Wowee I’ve had three already today!
Does meeting with Poor Jason really count as an engagement though?
The Hello magazine cover was incredibly gushy. The making of a queen, extraordinary at her job… With all this hype, in 20 years when she does eventually become Queen consort she’d better have something unbelievable to deliver… William too.
In five days, at her house?? I hope she gets a chance to sit down!
She worked her whole life to become Princess of Wales, she didn’t want to be called Duchess at her marriage but that was the title she and William got, of course she will use the PoW title every chance she can, the same way she wears that big blue ring at every occasion appropriate or not.
I mean, it’s her engagement ring?! I feel like most women wear their engagement rings “at every occasion”.
Not camping or making food! Not with that ring anyway. A stone that size can easily be dislodged.
Furthermore taking Diana’s priceless ring to flash in the faces of street kids in Mumbai was ill-advised.
She’s worn it making dough with the campers and ziplining in the jungle. That’s why I’ve said she’s wearing a duplicate and Diana’s is safely locked away.
Unfortunately for Catherine, Meghan has proved inside of a year that her discreet meetings and prep give good solid results. Only with the reveal of a project do we get glimpses of the secret meetings that went into it. So now the Cambridge strategy no longer has any oomph. People are waiting for the results of all this “work”. Well some people
That’s a good point. We’ve been told that Kate’s had “secret meetings” for years now and that’s why her engagement numbers are so low, but where’s the evidence? Where are the results? The bar is higher now.
Wooooow. Three meetings in five days. How does she manage? She must be exhausted – bless her heart.
Aha! My first thought was ‘bless her heart’ & I can’t believe it isn’t til comment #13 that I see one!
in fairness, meetings are not as much a part of the work day as they once were…so much work is done at the computer, on slack, phone, face time etc. I am not sure how they might define a ‘meeting’ in Royal terms but yes, I think the days of big meetings have changed.
All of their private meetings are in the court circular. The Queen approved all entries. It’s not just Cambridge PR push. The Sussexs board meetings are also listed.
I wish they had a website like the Swedish royals. The calendar is up to date. And even private meetings have a single photograph taken with the royal and the attendee(s). Granted there’s less approval for royalty over there, so they’re smart to show their work.
Wow. Three meetings in five days? However does she manage. The workload must be so stressful. I have three appts on my calendar just for today. Do I get a Hello! shout out for my work ethic or nah?
Shoutout to Valiantly Varnished for being amazing!
Thank you, thank you. It’s hard but I get through it. I will be taking a few more meetings before heading off to Mustique for six weeks on a private jet.
VV, you may hereby borrow my tinfoil tiara (AKA Swedish Steel Cut) for the weekend as a prize.
Why, thank you. I shall wear it with aplomb.
Sit out on the veranda with a cocktail – you deserve it.
She reminds me of “Business Barbie” I had as a kid. Look this is me working hard! Lots of important meetings!
I am just tired of the “after the school run.” Yo, she is not the first working mother to ever grace this world. I don’t come rushing into work telling my boss “I did the drop off this morning!” Mostly because she already knows that.
She does not even have a pen to take notes in the photo. Seriously hard at work 🙄
Carol…. uh, I mean Kate….. did not work and wait as hard as they… I mean she…. did to not be called the Princess of Wales.
Kate nearly always looks like a stock photo of ‘woman looking engaged’. And often smiling emptily while person being interacted with is not smiling or at least not at the same level. That’s why she feels like a prop and we talk outfit and hair, because there’s little else going on
You hit the nail on the head!! I always wondered what it was that bothered me about it, that really is it – it’s so unnatural, it looks like a stock photo!
I laughed out loud at “stock photo”!
Yeah you are right; the talk about clothes and hair is really because there is nothing else to talk about………
What a disappointment!!!! Such a huge platform going to WASTE!
She is the right choice for William but I sometimes wonder if he could have done better; perhaps he couldn’t because it looks he unfortunately inherited the ‘jealousy/envy’ gene from his father…..what is her legacy after 8 years? what is she known for? Is she really like that or is she forced to be that way?
Perhaps, she will work more when she becomes PoW
I think it was hard for him growing up and dating in a goldfish bowl. She was reliable and consistent which says a lot for someone in his position.. And she clearly has a jealous and possessive side also (I’ve flaunted this before; I was at University with them and this was pretty well-known and it was obvious from her demeanor particularly where outsider females were concerned.). personally I think it’s her very ordinary middle-class roots which made her easily threatened.
But I have seen him look very embarassed every time she attempts public speaking or has to answer an intelligent interview question on world affairs. He has natural charm and suave because he doesn’t have to try and I feel as though there are moments where she cramps his style. But oh well, he chose her at the end of the day !!
So much of that reads as excuses for William settling for the woman (and her family) willing to put up with his cheating and dismissive behavior.
William had an extra four years of protection from the press, because the press ban only covered Wm and Harry if they went to university. Harry was thrown to the wolves at 18.
The heir vs. spare mentality extended to their dates. How Kate was treated with kid gloves by the media for 10 years vs. Chelsy vs. Meghan.
Social media was barely a thing when W&K starting dating.
Harry was one of the highest-profile bachelors in the world, in the era of social media, and still managed to meet, court, and marry Meghan. The person right for him and right for the job.
Chelsy completed a law degree and became a solicitor. That’s is a hell of a lot more than a part time job at jigsaw yet the media always portrayed her as the one drinking all the time and going clubbing.
So many meetings yet no tangible output after all these years. Don’t get me started with the garden “she designed”. Yeah right.
The thing about meetings is… they intrude on the time I have to do my real work. (After the school run, yes.) Now, if those meetings WERE my real work? Sounds delightful!
I’m retired now but I ran monthly board meetings, two annual conferences and an entire office move/renovation project all the while doing my normal work as EA to the CEO. My entire LIFE was going to f*cking meetings. I have PTMD (post-traumatic meeting disorder) and start to shake uncontrollably when someone says “meeting”. Meetings my ass…she sits there with her empty eyes and frozen smile, nodding and agreeing in her faux-upper class accent, then immediately forgets what the meeting was about and goes to play with her kids or to the gym or to the hairdresser or shopping.
I clearly haven’t had enough coffee this morning. Grrrrrr…..
Agree, She can have absolutely no real appreciation or engagement with these meetings because as a ‘modern’ girl who did not even come from an aristocratic family or born society girl, she had the choice to work and develop something of her own before marriage to Wills, but she did not. People praise their parents for their self-made work ethic bit she and her sister are examples of people who really do seem to think that hard work is beneath them. Sorry that you suffer from PTMD!
Kate will become Princess of Wales automatically when William is made Prince of Wales by Charles (she gets no formal investure AFAIK, her position changes according to when her husband’s does). That would then be her original title – it is also Camilla’s but she chose to go by Duchess of Cornwall. That’s 1 exception in thousands of years of monarchy. The Princess of Wales is the Princess of Wales – I’ve previously read up on other historical women who came to be in that position and they weren’t styled anything different when they were PoW. Diana made that an exception for Camilla though. Which has no connection to Kate – the title is not unuseable for everyone else years later due to Diana.
Actually she won’t be able to go by the Princess of Wales until William becomes The Prince of Wales which he won’t automatically be when the Queen dies. It’ll be up to Charles to give the title when he feels Will is ready.
^ Which is what I said in the above comment, she will go by it when William is invested as the Prince of Wales. She doesn’t get her own ceremony, nor is she granted it by her own wishes/gets to choose it seperately – as her titles move up according to her husband’s and when he is granted them. Camilla being Duchess of Cornwall whilst her husband is PoW is highly unusual and not the norm historically, was my point in general. So any other women in her position in the future won’t be expected to do so like Camilla, but to go by what has been the tradition since the 14th century (the year 1361 to be exact – Joan, the Countess of Kent was the first Princess of Wales when the title was created).
I can’t get over the fact that this woman could get help from the very best hair dressers in the world and somehow still ended up with a colour tone completely wrong to her complexion!
She does not av the complexion of warm tones, and look way older because of it.
She’s needs a colour for cool complexion and her face, eyes, bone structure will pop.
Hate this hair colour on her. HATE it.
+1! Her natural tone is cool but she is warming herself last couple of years and warm hair and makeup do not suit her at all.
Why is the PoW thing even a question? Of course she will be PoW… there’s no reason for her not to be.
There is if Charles does not make Wm Prince of Wales. It is not automatic.
Interestingly the court circular has started listing their meetings with Jason as engagements. Meeting with your staff is apparently now considered public work, talk about padding those engagement numbers.