Before we start in on Part 2 of People Magazine’s dumb cover story, I’m sure many of you saw that people began posting the Christmas card from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge online. The Cambridges didn’t release the image (as of this writing), but once their Christmas cards go out, it’s just a matter of time before the recipients begin posting the card. This year’s card was an image of the whole family on a motorcycle with a sidecar. It’s actually quite cute:
The Cambridge Household family Christmas card this year features The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their three children, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George on a motorbike and sidecar ❄️🎄 pic.twitter.com/pNg3zPJXqS
— Benjamin Wareing (@BenjaminWareing) December 18, 2019
I feel like Kate chose this because her kids looked so good in it, and it must have been just the right magical moment where they were all looking at the camera. Louis looks like he’s in the middle of saying “VROOM VROOM” and George has posed himself like James Spader in Pretty In Pink and Charlotte is like “I’ll take the sidecar all to myself.”
As for the People cover story – we discussed the first part yesterday, and good lord is it stupid. It’s just more cloying, sugary Future Queen and Future King sh-t, and glory to the Cambridges because they are hanging around, being keen. But did you also know that the Cambridges are the most perfect people alive because they have an old-fashioned marriage? *cough*
Prince William may be the future monarch, but his marriage to Kate Middleton is true partnership. William’s intense side is balanced by Kate’s unwavering poise and calm, making her a strong partner.
“They look after each other but in different ways,” a friend tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “Some people might say it’s an old-fashioned marriage, but it seems to work.” The friend adds, “They have different roles, but they come together as a team.”
The teamwork between William and Kate, both 37, was on full display during the couple’s tour of Pakistan in October.
“They are a great double act,” according to a senior royal source. “People make much of William giving the big speeches, but Kate is there too, asking questions of presidents and their wives. These things are easier when they are side-by-side.”
In many ways, William was given a stronger foundation than his father. Charles grew up distant from his mother and found himself in an unhappy marriage to Diana by the time he was William’s age. By contrast, even in the midst of his parents’ bitter split, William had a nurturing childhood, and years later gained the crucial support of Kate’s family, Carole and Michael Middleton. “He is better set and better grounded than any predecessor one can remember,” says royal historian Robert Lacey.
What’s funny about the Cambridges is that… they ARE old-fashioned, and they have an “old-fashioned” royal marriage. Whenever people used to talk about how Kate helped modernize the monarchy, I was always like “how and where?” Kate is a very old-fashioned kind of royal wife/consort – Diana was the rule-breaker, the one who wanted a modern marriage of equals while still believing in true love, fidelity, romance and the fairytale. Kate… was always more pragmatic. She allows William’s wandering sceptre to plunge itself into rose bushes and she keeps calm and carries on (in this case, “carries on” means “barely working”). As for William being “better set and better grounded”… yeah, I mean, on paper it looks that way, but the reality is that he’s a petulant man-child who throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.
Here are the photos of the Family Cambridge leaving Buckingham Palace together, in one car, yesterday after the luncheon. So… did they just leave the second car at the palace??
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of People.
…this whole situation reminds me of the meme of the dog sitting in house that’s on fire.
Whoever is feeding the tabs these sound bites, clearly doesn’t understand how foolish they sound.
It all just fuels speculation
When TMZ is covering the flinch and the separate car story, then your PR isn’t working. And promoting the image of a 1950s marriage where women were submissive and silent is not going to work for a majority of the people out there either. Using the term “old fashioned” does not evoke anything other than William gets to do what ever he wants and Kate has to take it. That’s not acceptable to most women and hasn’t been for decades. Probably not the best image to project if they want to be seen as the future of the modern monarchy.
@nic919 – yeah, the reference to “old fashioned” is a dog whistle to the sexist part of their base who want a quiet submissive woman – which, taking it to its logical conclusion, is also a slam against Meghan & Harry for their modern equal partnership.
I’ve lost count of how many women I’ve known who have turned a blind eye and dismissed all evidence of their partner or spouse cheating. Women do it everywhere, everyday. It’s easy to judge and say ‘if it were me’ but I’d bet most of these ‘if it were me’ ladies would do exactly the same. She’s built a life with him and maybe she just can’t see beyond that yet.
@Nahema, let’s not discount the fact that breaking up a relationship, especially a long term relationship, is hard. It’s work. It’s exhausting to confront that type of thing, it upends everything, especially if it’s a marriage where the woman is already doing much of the domestic duties and the child-rearing as it is. I don’t think women do this because they’re more permissive of men cheating, even though that’s very much a factor. It’s also because the alternative is a lot of ugliness that is too exhausting for people to confront until it becomes untenable. It’s much easier for some women to just keep acting like it’s nothing. It doesn’t upset the status-quo.
@A I agree. It’s a heavy emotional burden either way and often the fear of the unknown, when breaking up a relationship like this outweighs the turmoil of living with the situation. Better the devil you know.
While I struggle with what all of the Royals stand for, I think on a woman-to-woman level, it’s rather cruel to mock Kate for her situation here.
@nic -You know, I thought the same thing. Just as the rose bush affair settles down, they come in with a piece about “old-fashioned” marriage? Is that supposed to make them look good? I mean, sure if you want to remind everyone that he cheats and she ignores it JUST when people have finally stopped talking about it all the time. Who are their PR people and why haven’t they been fired?
No one is mocking Kate but it’s pretty offensive to suggest that an unequal marriage is one that anyone should emulate, which is was this article is trying to do. It’s an insidious message for many women, and the more that people challenge the misogynist bs, the less acceptable this kind of bargain would be. If William didn’t have money and social status to offer, Kate would not have put up with what she has so the message that women should put up with being treated as second class in exchange for money and status should be excoriated for the demeaning devil’s bargain that it truly is.
Old-fashioned like he gets to cheat and she just smiles next to him for pictures?
Exactly.
It also explains the lack of affection and dead in the eyes look they both have…
Exactly what I thought. And a chill ran through my body. Because even if she knew what she was signing up for, that doesn’t mean when it all happens, she is okay with how it feels. What a depressing future.
And gets rewarded for doing so. All those “the Queen likes how dependable and constant and stoic Kate it” stories, and her getting her Royal Order in the spring? Please, she was rewarded for not flipping out and making a spectacle. For doing “her duty” to her husband and country.
Better her than me!
I know! Feel the same way. Completely obvious that she got all sorts of awards for putting up with infidelity.
(BTW, always thought there was more there. I wondered whether Rose wanted to displace Kate. Traditionally that is the only time she acts out – IMO Carole leaked the affair to Daily Mail – always been her go-to. Prior, there were articles critical of the Middletons, those stopped, too. Those awards and jewelry reassured Kate that no one is going to take her place.)
Kate’s “legacy” will be of a woman in the 21st century who has no thoughts, ideas, ambitions, or self-respect, and who was willing to be her rich husband’s doormat in exchange for a posh life and title. Other than her physical appearance, what is there to praise her for? Being William’s doormat? That is actually insulting to women everywhere, and to Kate specifically but I don’t think she’s bright enough to realize it, or to care.
To be fair, it’s an incredibly luxurious life; we just don’t see it.
The Cambridges put out an image of a perfect marriage and family. Rose says otherwise. That’s why William shut down the stories; he will be seen no better than Charles. Kate sitting back and looking the other way is nothing to strive for. Someone will break the story and bring receipts which will make the hit on KP much harder.
Did Rose say otherwise? I don’t remember Rose saying anything.
Rose being given advice and guided through it all by the KP staffers? That tells you how desperate William was to cover it up. That and the threats of legal filings about ‘right to a private life’ not a libel suit with proof no affair occurred.
That threat fuelled the fire and pretty much confirmed that there was something.
IMHO, Rose not going to be “phased-out” by anyone, let alone Cathy Cambridge. I think when Rose got her point across to Cathy that the “Turnip Toffs” were HER set and HER people, Rose’s mission was accomplished and she was content.
Therefore, Rose (and other Toffs from other sets) simply stopped talking to allow the chatter to abate and shut down.
Off course I want to know the rest so I guess I will have to buy the rights!
That Richard Kay article and William’s human rights letter is what made things worse.
Think Kate got to sit in on the sessions? Sipping tea on the couch, while the PR person they pay for (sort of) strategizes to make sure the woman that slept with her husband has the proper coverage as so not to be embarrassed by this scandal in the press? So who is hubby putting first? That’s not humiliating at all.
Agreed. A covered up story, eventually exposed is uglier because the cover up will also be exposed.
At this point William is worse than Charles.
Charles at least was cheating with the woman who he loved before his disastrous marriage and will live happily ever after with for the rest of his life. (Cheating is terrible but he at least gets points for being heads over heels in love with his mistress for most of his adult life.)
William was cheating because he was bored or something. William is not going to divorce Kate and then spend the rest of his life in wedded bliss with Rose or anyone else.
The idea that Camilla is the love of Charles’s life isn’t strictly true. She wasn’t even his main mistress when he was married to Diana – Dale “Kanga” Tryon was big part of his life and he called her “the only woman who ever understood me”.
I think their Christmas card pic is cute, but I have liked most of them over the years (except for the one super formal one from a few years ago, where Kate is in the blue suit.) Kate’s hair looks nice here too, more natural, which I like. I wonder if this was in Mustique? (its clearly from over the summer, since the kids are in summer clothes, but maybe they went away this fall or something.)
“old-fashioned marriage” – lol. this PR is just so ridiculous and obvious.
I sort of wonder if they even go to Mustique anymore. It’s got to be 5-6+ time zones away and that’s really hard on kids. Doesn’t make a lot of sense when there’s private villas all across the Mediterranean.
It was widely reported they went this year, and while I don’t remember the specific sources, it seemed legitimate? But honestly the more I see how the RRs cover the Sussexes, the more I realize how little they actually know.
I believe they went in July for George’s birthday.
TMR James, Pippa’s husband, has a daddy who owns a huge high end private resort in Mustique. At least I think it’s in Mustique.
Lady D… I believe TMR James’ dad’s resort is in St. Barts. It was pretty hard it by a hurricane. It is most likely still being rebuilt.
He owns Eden Rock in St. Barth’s. It has just 32 rooms and is only “exclusive” when a big name celebrity books the whole place. Otherwise, any old slob can swim up and order a drink.
Thanks (TheOG), I got my luxury resorts mixed up. I thought because they usually go to Mustique that that was where he owned property.
Where are all of the fandom and tabloid complaints about this photo being six months old? Sussex family has been attacked for that in the past, but of course when W&K do it no one blinks.
@Nota – yes, agreed! Which I don’t get, bc the royal family often uses older pictures for the Christmas cards (“older” – being a few months old, from a tour or whatever). I am excited to see the Sussex card, I loved their pic from last year.
@Notasugarhere
Honestly that’s what I came here to comment on. It’s just odd that they have a spring/summer looking picture for their Christmas card.
I live close to the Jersey shore and a lot of friends and family use summer photos for holiday cards. It’s warm, you’re on vacation so there’s less “hurry we have to squeeze in a photo shoot” pressure, and there’s more daylight.
Off the top of my head I can think of 3 cards I’ve gotten this year that have summer pictures on them.
Are those families supported by taxpayers and do they constantly use their kids for PR? It may not be unusual among your friends, but using a sixth month old photo of royal kids for a Christmas card is eyebrow raising.
@nota – It’s a Christmas card, sending it is a nice gesture, and the photo is cute. You are really mining for controversy where none exists.
@Enn
Yeah I can understand that for regular couples who have full time jobs and have to squeeze in a photoshoot when it’s convenient, and often more candid and less planned while on vacay. The Royals can hire any photographer to work around their very light schedules, and many many school breaks where they take months long vacations multiple times a year, so they don’t have the pressure to fit in a Christmas card shoot in like April or July.
I don’t mind the picture being older, but I wish if they were on vacation, it showed more of the vacation (like I don’t need to see their house, but show me a pretty picture on the beach or something, lol.)
But I think @Nota’s initial point was that whenever H&M share a “new to us” pic that is not super recent, they are criticized for “hiding” and “not showing Archie” or whatever.
Yes, Becks1 understood it. My point was how the two couples are treated differently yet again. If this was Meghan and Harry doing this, it would be attacked all over the tabloids.
We don’t know how old it is or where it was taken. It’s a nice family photo. Who cares.
Seriously, who cares? Meghan and Harry used a wedding photo last year and it was phenomenal. I loved that picture. If their card has a picture from the christening or a newborn shoot, it’ll be beautiful.
Deliberately missing the point about the dual standards at work here. The Sussexes have been attacked constantly about Archie and how often they release photos of him. They were attacked for using a wedding photo for their Christmas photo last year, with one of the RRs likening it to a war photo. If they had released a photo of him that was months old, all hell would have broken lose.
@nota So are you saying William and Kate can’t do things the press might attack Harry and Meghan for? And since the press attacks on H+M are generally nonsensical, how do you propose W+K anticipate these attacks?
LOL nice try. Pointing out the dual standards, how W&K are embraced no matter what they do including using their kids for PR.
@nota The kids are photographed in public a few times a year. Not sure how that equates to “constantly” using them for PR, but, sure.
Go back and look at the lengths W&K used to go to, to keep the kids out of the public eye. This year and last, with them bringing them out to be papped at horsing events and all? Blatantly obvious it is now done for PR, especially the ham-fisted attempts at showing them as a happy unit.
There are no resorts on Mustique, so it must be on St. Barts
An old fashioned marriage where he trims the rose bushes and she shops a lot?
And plays tennis.
And diets excessively, works out with her personal trainer, and goes to the salon to keep getting her hair dyed lighter.
Maybe he’ll get her a peloton for Christmas?
@Anners I know people say this all the time but I did just choke on my water at your comment, lol.
Me too!
Ahahahahahaha, peloton! He’s probably already ordered it!
The motorcycle/side car reminds me
Of WWII. I think it’s a strange choice. They are really crediting Diana and the Middletons with giving Will his emotional grounding. He simultaneously says he is more emotionally prepared to be king than anyone ever and dumping on his father. I really don’t care about the Rose thing. It’s really just his and Kate’s business.
A segment of the population keeps insisting Charles is not allowed to be king because of an extra-marital affair.
When an heir to the throne, William, constantly threatens a free press to silence information about his life that could cost him his cushy lifestyle and job? Abusive of power anyone? William having extra marital affairs does end up being public business.
Kate has not been the one who has put the perfect marriage image in question but William. That’s why the human rights letter was sent and the UK media was muzzled to even discuss Rose. That amount of effort clearly suggests that William cheating on Kate would not be positively viewed by a significant portion of the UK public. And William knows just how much his positive image is hinged on not being seen as a cheater like his dad. They are the ones using the “perfect marriage” image to promote themselves which is risky if one of the parties has been known to cheat on the other from the outset of the relationship.
Same. I immediately thought of WWII and associated things.
“They are really crediting Diana and the Middletons with giving Will his emotional grounding.”
This is especially funny, because to anyone who’s bothered to pay attention to what William has said over the years, he places the blame for a lot of his childhood square on the shoulders of Charles and Diana and their ruptured marriage. It’s been stated as the exact reason why William gravitated towards Kate. Because she’s safe, dependable, and promised him the idealized childhood domestic fantasy that he’d been wanting his whole life, without him having to lift a finger to make it happen.
That little Louis looks like he’d be hilarious.
I agree, Louis looks like fun.
If that’s what works for them, more power to them. Better to be pragmatic consenting adults in a mutually agreed arrangement than to be a Barbara Cartland loving teenager with illusions that would be inevitably shattered.
Not everyone finds the super romantic true love experience, after all. The kids look healthy and well adjusted, it can’t be all bad.
As long as it is indeed a mutually agreed arrangement.
Diana wasn’t as wide eyed as some think. She deliberately targeted Charles as the one man who wasn’t legally allowed to divorce her. Lied about how much she loved the country life and shooting, played games with the press (Whittaker, Arthur Edwards) to get them to promote her in the press as the ideal wife for Charles.
Agree. Charles AND Diana were (and in Charles case, still is) deeply flawed human beings and neither of their actions and behaviors around their courtship, marriage, and post marriage reflects well on either of them.
This made me realize something: short of Will getting a real job and Kate staying completely out of the public eye, theirs sound like any other marriage of a well-off couple today. It’s not old fashioned in any shape or form, because it’s also not modern or unusual. He is a rich guy with charities, she is a rich wife with many children and charities. Both are just another white married couple of today.
Patriarchy works for a fair amount of women, especially white rich women. It’s why horrible misogynists like Dump get their support, because these guys really aren’t that different from their husbands. They’ve traded in their self-respect for money and assume that all women want to do the same.
Kind of off topic, but something that I’ve been looking into recently that’s fascinated me is just how much our expectations of gender roles throughout history have actually been heavily influenced by class.
People who were more well off back in the day were also the same people who held more strictly to notions of clearly defined gender roles, purely because they had more of a reason to. They were people who were more likely to have property and assets that they wanted to see passed down. To simplify all of this in a really bad way, that alone made them more invested in the idea of women being purely confined to the domestic sphere because they had more of a need for that type of system.
In contrast, women who were in lower socioeconomic classes didn’t actually have the same type of rules to follow. This isn’t to say they didn’t have gender roles at all. They did. But they were much much more flexible with them. This makes more sense–if you’re poor, of course both parents would work to put food on the table. If you don’t have property to pass down, and you don’t have lines of succession to solidify, you’re not out here having marriages of convenience where the sole purpose of the woman is to procreate on the clock every two years. A lot of our ideas of what constitutes idealized womanhood, especially in recent history (like the 1960s) is actually just a description of one very narrow group of people in society, who happened to be white + middle class to upper middle class.
So yeah. And why would these women ever do anything different? They don’t care. They have their money, their fancy $300 yoga classes, their Peloton bikes and fancy nannies and au pairs for their child rearing. They don’t work because they don’t need to work. But if it ever came down to them having to get a divorce, I’d imagine that a lot of them would immediately become quite egalitarian in their outlook. Funny how rich people are so willing to adopt whatever ideology is most convenient for them at the given moment, right?
@A
That’s very interesting, thanks for sharing. Makes total sense.
That good old fashioned marriage where the husband sleeps around and the wife looks the other way.
Now that the UK has voted overwhelmingly in favour of Bozo… W&K are also signalling that their values are in line with that traditional conservatism.
I guess the emoji’s on Instagram for the ‘cool kids’ is just a facade then…
Yeah, funny how the narrative changed from the most “modern couple” to an old-fashioned one all of the sudden.
Exactly. The Queen and her advisors are not forward thinking people. They hedged their bets with Boris Johnson and his ilk, and they’ll stick with it, because they fully believe that there is more value in being old-fashioned and close-minded than there is in being anything else.
We are entering the “prince and princess of whales” era for the Cambridges. As they are elevated up the chain of succession, they and their marriage will be judged, ridiculed, gossiped about about endlessly. It will only get more intense and ridiculous.
I think you mean “Wales”, not “whales” (the mamal).
I think she’s making a joke about Trump calling Charles the prince of whales (before correcting it lol).
Oops 😬☺️. Of course 🤪
Kate most definitely did not go into this relationship expecting to just let him cheat whenever he wanted – but whenever she broke up with him, her mother would lecture her to forgive him and get back together whatever the issue was. The shoulder shrug indicates to me that maybe she’s not as resigned to this as we thought…
He was seen partying Tuesday night until 12:30 so it’s unlikely that it was the first time he did that. For a parent of young kids to go out like that especially on a weeknight probably suggests he’s not very involved in raising them and while Kate has nanny Maria there still may be some level of resentment for having to do the majority of the parenting on her own. That resentment is going to build and manifest itself in many ways.
William was out partying Tuesday night?
With the latest stories about childcare emergencies, and the leaked story they’re going skiing after Christmas with Carole and Mike babysitting? I wonder about the status of Nanny Maria and her troop of assistants.
Yeah it could be that the resentment and disdain is not over his cheating but the fact that he’s not supporting or helping with raise their family that most of the parenting is done by her, Carole and the nannies.
Chuck was a terrible husband but he was a good father, Diana herself often commented about how involved he was. We’ve seen so many times of the years that he still lives his life as a childless bachelor. He’s too busy partying to spend time with his children.
Huh, interesting theory @DU. Maybe Kate doesn’t care about any cheating – maybe she cares that he ditches her with the kids. Remember that weird comment about finding time to see them?
And out partying Tuesday night….we can tell someone doesn’t have to get up early for work, lol.
@nota There is a comment in yesterday’s separate car post that he was seen by that poster at 5 Hertford Street partying until his security whisked him away at 12:30. It’s a private club so unlikely to be reported by the tabs. It’s unlikely that this was the first time this has happened.
I mean, partying during the holidays! The monster!
I’m not going to begrudge parents from going out occasionally – even to party. Nobody has a child an suddenly hates all the things that they used to enjoy. It’s not like the kids were up at that hour, so it’s not like he’s choosing to spend time away from them where he could have been doing something with them.
Hey, maybe it IS something. But given the time of year, I just don’t think it’s exactly a smoking gun.
A public figure married man, embroiled in a cheating scandal, in the midst of a new PR scandal where his wife flinches away from his touch during a PR exercise? Him out partying til 12:30 solo is something.
Erinn, I think it’s more of a “smoking gun” when it’s only ONE parent that’s going out to party and raise hell… and the other is home with the kids (even with help). Who knows, maybe Kate’s fine with that (after 17 yrs with him, she may *enjoy* the time w/out him!), but …doesn’t pass the smell test.
IF they were out at a party/gathering together, perhaps. Yes, parents NEED time away from their kids as a COUPLE. But for Wandering Willie to ditch his wife at home so he can go out and play? Personally, I’d have his scepter hanging over the fireplace.
If my husband wants to go out at this time of year on a Tuesday with friends, that’s fine. It might be an issue with William, but unless we have evidence that this is a regular occurrence, I don’t think it is a big deal.
And of course we was partying on a Tuesday. Only common people go out partying on the weekends (said to me once by a celebrity).
We do have evidence that he enjoys going out without her and drinking far too much. Dad dancing followed by Kate getting Baby 3 is but one example.
Sounds sad but if that works for them then okay. I still don’t understand why her and carol didn’t scheme to get a non famous rich guy. She could still be in this old fashion marriage but at least it wouldn’t be in front of the world. Dealing with William and the BRF seems like more trouble than it’s worth especially as she doesn’t seem to keen on work part of things. I also wonder if this old fashion marriage spiel is them switch gears from the normal family image? Or is all of this just a tactic to get us talking about them. All of this has been covered by ET Canada, TMZ and other publications..hmm.
I have wondered the same thing myself. She would have had the best of both worlds – the wealth and all it entails, but no royal duties and all the scrutiny that goes along with it.
My understanding is that Carol has always been obsessed with Diana and/or the monarchy. She likely married Michael due to his royal connection. His dad was a pilot with Prince Philip in South America for a month or something. She wasn’t just in it for Kate to be set for life. She wanted to the Royal connection. I think she likes being a mother figure to William more than she cares about Kate. She’s known to always take his side and such.
Yep. Vanity Fair (years ago before it went downhill) even confirmed Carole Middleton’s phone wallpaper was a picture of William.
Ditto @Ainsley – I have gotten the impression that royalty was the goal for Carole, not just wealth/privilege. She wanted to be the grandmother of the future monarch and all of that. I think she wanted Pippa to marry someone titled as well – remember George percy? I don’t know if there was anything romantic ever there, but I bet Carole wanted there to be.
Ugh so gross of her to use her daughter for her own personal gain.
So Carol married Mike for his royal connections for the sole purpose of producing female children that would eventually grow up to be manipulated into catching William so that she could be the Grandmother of a Monarch?
If this were even remotely true she should be Prime Minister.
AllKindsofSugar – Obviously nobody thinks Carole went into marriage with Michael Middleton try to become a royal matriarch. But she was obsessed with Diana, the aristocracy and the rest of it – she made sure her children went to the “right” schools, socialized with the “right” people, and encouraged her daughters to date and pursue titled men. Even her friends agree with this. Unless I am wrong, she also campaigned for the whole family to get a Coat of Arms, and they frequently wear signet rings, both of which are not usual for families of women who marry in (versus the women themselves).
Nothing is particularly wrong with any of this – but she encouraged Kate to stay with William even if he cheated, and sided with him in arguments. That is wrong.
@AllKindsofsugar
Yep Carole sounds badass. I wouldn’t mind her being my manager.
@Maria — I was just piecing together what was said on the thread above me so clearly that is exactly what people think. I’m not the close family confidante that so many here are so I cant really comment on the right and wrong of her parenting.
Eh. Wanting your kid to be nobility (and hopefully royally) adjacent doesn’t mean she planned every detail, just that the details she didn’t plan worked out with the ones that she did.
The Wisteria Sisters were aiming for any wealthy man they could get, aka Terribly Moderately Wealthy James Matthews (TM). By accident Kate ended up getting a chance at William, behind his girlfriend’s back, and she took it. The Middleton family went all-in on landing William, this was a group effort.
Because royalty is more than just the money and the fancy dresses and the palaces. Royalty = prestige. There’s a reason why you can be theoretically poor in terms of your bank balance, but your title alone distinguishes you from the “common riffraff.” Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis stated it plainly when she explained that her parents still expected her to marry someone of the aristocracy, even though she was a broke teenager waitressing at some fancy ski lodge when she met the old dude she eventually married. There is still a clause that states that the head of the former ruling family of Germany has to marry a woman of equal rank, or else he stands to lose his position as the head of the family. All of this for a made up title for a man who works at an ordinary business and goes to work between 9 – 5 every day.
These things matter. Aristocrats and royals would insist that it doesn’t, especially in the 21st century, but it quite clearly does. And it matters even more to the people who are in their orbit who aren’t aristocrats or descended from them. It’s the reason why Princess Beatrice’s fiance likely won’t jump ship. He cares far too much about the clout that he’d get from being married to a bonafide royal. That is something that money can’t buy, and it’s another reason why monarchies and aristocracies should be abolished entirely.
Albert von Thurn und Taxis doesn’t get up every day and work a 9-to-5 job. He’s off trying to be a rally car driver while his mother runs the business and cozies up to Steve Bannon. As Albert is now the head of the household, technically he can change the rules and marry anyone he wants.
I’m not talking about Albert von Thurn und Taxis. I’m talking about Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia (which isn’t even a country that exists any more). As far as I’m aware, I don’t think the Haus of Von Thurn und Taxis has any type of rule that states that one must marry a woman of equal rank. I could be wrong. But with the Hohenzollerns, the rule is such that Georg Friedrich can’t change it by himself, even though he’s the head of the family, iirc.
My point is that titles and styles and lineages and all of the rest of it matter deeply to this crowd, even if they will insist that it doesn’t. If it really didn’t matter, they’d give them all up and live without them, but they don’t. Georg Friedrich is still out here filing lawsuits trying to get his property back from the German state, even though they don’t even recognize him and his titles any more. That takes a special type of entitlement to think that the government owes you the fancy castle that they took after they legally kicked your bitchass great-great-grandfather out of the country. The Greek royals were cash poor decades before Marie-Chantal showed up with her dowry and took them out of the state of genteel poverty they were in, during which they clung steadfastly to their titles that legally do not mean a single thing any more. There are dozens and dozens of examples of this sort of thing.
I thought you were writing about the TNTs as you started off with Gloria.
Is G Friedrich the one who married Sophie, the distant cousin who looks a lot like him? They had twin boys, another boy, then a daughter? AFAIK Sophie doesn’t work but runs the family foundation.
Then there the one connected to the Danish royal family. He won’t marry his long-time girlfriend because he’d lose the family wealth and title if he did. Almost as bad as the Hapburgs running around naming all the grandchildren arch dukes and arch duchesses when those titles have been illegal for a century.
The one who’s connected to the Danish royal family is actually a bad situation that they did try to get changed, but couldn’t. He can’t marry his long term girlfriend because of a stipulation that his Nazi grandfather put in the inheritance, which states that anyone who wants to remain eligible to inherit the properties and whatever else has to be married to an acceptably “Aryan” wife, which means EXACTLY what it says. It’s actually quite sad if you think about it, the one situation out of all of the rest of them that’s truly depressing.
And yes, G Friedrich is the one who married Sophie. All of the German royal/aristocratic families are closely related to each other, so not surprised that she’s a distant cousin who looks a lot like him. Of course she is. Sophie doesn’t work, but G Friedrich does. He also looks a lot like Kaiser Wilhelm without the stache, which is actually not a good look as it turns out.
The Habsburgs are another embarrassing crowd in this seas of embarrassing deposed royals. The Von Bismarcks are yet another group. If I had the misfortune of being descended from Otto f-cking Von Bizmarck, I’d be very eager to get a name change tbh.
That’s what I thought. That must have been an incredibly difficult decision, stay together but unmarried, never have children (if they wanted them) all because of these racist old rules. I could see him waiting until his father passed away to chuck it all, but his father passed two years ago and nothing changed. I admire his girlfriend, Carina, does her own thing with her books for teens instead of relying on him completely.
Those kids are cute! My fav royal pic ever…tiny Prince George in his royal blue pjs and robe shaking hands with Obama at Xmastime. Adorable!
As for the rest of the BRF…..meh.
I really like that picture too, it was so cute. Obama’s later tweet “Last week, Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe. That was a slap in the face. A clear breach of protocol,” was really funny too.
Umm old fashioned as in he keeps cheating and she keeps pretends everything is fine in front of the world? Yeah we already know that.
Yes….that type of Old Fashion. The article never mentioned the world love…interesting
An old fashioned marriage where the husband does whatever he wants to do with the wife’s approval and silence as long as the affair is kept quiet. That kind of old fashion, People? Because that’s what I see in W&K. William is the same guy he was in college. Kate leans into her laziness and desire to be a rich SAHM. The power lies with the crown. The marriage works because Kate won’t rock the boat like Diana.
The second car was probably driven back by one of the RPOs.
Interesting how all of the sudden they are able to travel in the same car together, something many commenters yesterday thought impossible.
It’s been a sh*tty marriage from the start. They’re not fooling anyone. William is a sour, petulant whiner and I can’t imagine what being married to him must be like. They’re both as phony as cardboard cutouts.
@Jaded, I thought they WERE cardboard cutouts, lol!
Ha! Thanks for the chuckle!
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I hear ‘old-fashioned’ and I think not having sex with each other. Twins beds and/or possible separate bedrooms. That’s all I have today, folks.
Goodness me are they now subtlety acknowledging that it’s a marriage of convenience with that “old fashioned marriage”??? I dont care what they do as long as its mutual agreed and not a submissive stepford wife scenario+ baring in mind the kids.
Remember all the opinion articles stating that the Sussexs need a better PR person?!!🙄 the SILENCE from their mouthpieces and painfully obvious DAMAGE CONTROL attempts is amusing to see. If you needed any proof of the cambridges/KP’s COMPLICITY with the smearing campaign against Meghan and that they have a deal with fleet street..
Honestly, I’ve always maintained that even if it was an “old-fashioned marriage” it’s one that they both went into with mutual acceptance, and it’s for this reason they won’t ever divorce and will stick it out for the long term. The other reason is that the people over at Buckingham Palace, especially the Queen don’t want to deal with the idea of another turbulent relationship at the heart of their succession, and the potential for another divorce. The whole embiggening scheme is partly motivated by the fact that William heavily embarrassed Kate when the mere whiff of the Rose stuff came out. Kate didn’t get married to William to be disrespected in such a public manner (emphasis on the public), especially not with a woman who is the well-bred aristocrat descended contrast to the commoner roots that Kate got made fun of for so long (from the very same people who support Rose over Kate in a heartbeat).
This is why a lot of these articles are coming out, talking about how Kate is going to be Queen. It’s why the Queen gave Kate that order or whatever it was last year, and why Kate got that long-standing patronage for that one hospital or whatever it was this year. They’re emphasizing all of this stuff because they desperately want to push the idea of staid tradition and continuity. That is the MO the Queen has for the royal family as long as she is the Queen. And Kate fits the bill perfectly for that.
The embiggening of Kate began before the Rose situation came out, to try desperately to make Kate look better than Meghan. The ‘Kate will be Queen’ came from the Kate stans, or brand new Kate stans aka Meghan haters.
Also most of the PR around ‘poor Kate, middle class commoner’ from the 2007 breakup was from the Middleton’s PR hack not from William’s set. Their PR hacks were the current and most recent editors of the Mail on Sunday.
Do the BRF want it to look like these two have a happy marriage? Sure. But it isn’t like they chose Kate and the Middletons to begin with. If William ever decides to divorce her, the royals won’t stop him.
The Kate stans weren’t writing multitudes of articles about how Kate is “going to be stepping up more and more” as the Queen decreases her responsibilities in the upcoming years. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill Kate will be Queen shtick. It’s worded very carefully and intentionally to underscore the notion of a hand-off, of the future. That’s quite different than the idea that Kate fans harped on for years, which is that Kate will be Queen in some distant future that no one needs to think about right now.
The stuff about poor Kate middle class commoner wasn’t just PR. That is an attitude that a lot of aristocrats and aristo-adjacent in their circle have. Are we going to insist, really, that they didn’t close ranks, that they didn’t view Kate with suspicion for being a social climber, for aspiring to a title and whatever else? There was more than a little whiff of classicism that came from this crowd, and it’s still present in the way they’ve behaved around the Rose scandal. When the chips are down they will protect their own, and Rose is one of their own. Kate isn’t. The Middletons might have exploited that attitude unduly to make Kate seem more sympathetic, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. Plenty of people aside from Kate Middleton can attest to the way the aristocrats & their ilk behave.
The BRF isn’t interested in making it seem like they have a happy marriage. They’re more interested in making it seem like they have a *stable* marriage, that isn’t in danger of being broken up with all of the ugliness that came with the Charles-Diana split. They might not like Kate or the Middletons, and she was definitely not their first choice for William (especially not over the countless other aristocratic, well-bred women they would have far preferred). But they tolerated her anyway because a happy heir matters more to them than not. And William will never find another woman in any set who he’s going to magically find the inclination to be faithful towards, let alone another woman who will be willing to put up with his infidelities like Kate does. And that’s assuming any other woman wants him for anything more than an affair or a fling.
Some aristos are that way, not all. If the Middletons hadn’t been so brash about their attempts to befriend only aristocrats, they wouldn’t have had so many doors slammed in their faces.
Very good point about the BRF wanting this to look like a stable marriage if not a happy one. Neither of these two looks particularly happy in this marriage, so I doubt the royals are that concerned with happiness in the union. They may want someone like Kate who puts up with all the cheating in exchange for status and keeping her mouth shut. A very old fashioned marriage indeed.
If they were honest they would say it’s like the marriage between the Queen and Phillip. But they won’t dare admit it at this point. The only real difference between them is that the Queen and Phillip took duty seriously, something William and Kate have yet to do, despite the PR stating otherwise.
I love the card. Louis looks like he will have William looks of his youth. George and Charlotte are Mike/Carole’s mini mes…all Middleton. Kate looks happy with her hand on William’s shoulder. William looks like the A-hole he is.
They should photoshop William out and just have it be Kate and the kids. They all look good. William looks like a shlump.
Charlotte may end up being her generation’s Princess Anne – a boss bitch in the best sense of the words. I hope she’s as hard working as Anne.
There’s so little we know about Kate as a person. We never hear of any childhood or teenage friends. All we hear is how extra Carole was at school events. Very Hyacinth Bucket. Sounds like the kids were networking at Marlborough even at that young age.
They were networking, even as teens. Kate and William didn’t even meet at St Andrews; she got introduced to him through the circle of friends Carole encouraged her to run with at Marlborough. This little detail makes the story about her withdrawing her college application to Edinburgh and resubmitting to St. Andrews to be in William’s circle (and to try to follow him on his gap year) more plausible.
Will she have extra marital affairs like Anne? Will she have to go to court over her dogs attacking children in public parks like Anne? Will she use taxpayer money to fix up and secure her private estate like Anne? Will she be as rude and abrupt as Anne, who takes after Philip in all the wrong ways?
It isn’t like Anne is a shining example or fab role model.
My God.
Gosh, because I know more about Anne than some people and do not find much to admire in her? Your obvious is showing.
@Enn
Right? Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anne is a kook. Shes one totally strange woman.
She’s certainly nothing to aspire to be like.
@Nota So is yours my dear. But then it usually does.
🙄
I find it amusing when people admire Anne above Charles, as if Anne is any great shakes. Do they know anything about what she gets up to, both in private and in public? Does Mumbles admire Anne because they don’t know these things about her, or admire her in spite of them? Makes me curious.
I have a good friend in an old fashioned marriage. Her husband stays out all night and cheats, while she is a SAHM with three little ones. He makes a lot of money and thus, keeps her in her position so she can be with her kids. Resentment I have seen towards him for his lack of help as well as resignment. I do not wish for that marriage AT ALL. She says her husband does not believe in divorce soo…
Wtf? Divorce isn’t like Santa. It doesn’t disappear because you don’t “believe” in it
Of course he doesn’t believe in divorce. Who would be there waiting for him with a hot meal when he stumbles home after a night of gallivanting out with all of his side pieces? Divorce means this man would have to start feeding himself and doing his own laundry, and probably looking after his own children when it’s his custody time, and we all know that that’s unacceptable for men!
^^ this!
Agreed with all of the above comments. He’d actually have to parent and not be a man-child if he divorces, but conversely my friend would have to work. She has been pretty flippant over the years about working.
“Old fashion marriage”. I guess canonization and sainthood are next.
Evidently, this is the marriage they both wanted. William wanted someone dependable (didn’t he say something like that in the engagement interview) and Kate wanted….jewelry, a nice house, kids maybe? Even with all of the trappings it seems like an awful, empty life in a fishbowl when you figure it’s for 30 years or more. On another topic, are Kate’s parents getting divorced? I thought that was in the press, but I see all of the articles say they are visiting her parents (plural) so did they patch things up?
Kate wanted the title. William wanted a person who would always be there, be quiet, have his children, and keep house for him. He’s talked at length about how his childhood wasn’t the best because of his parents’ divorce, and he’s super attached to this idea of providing the tight-knit family type upbringing that he never had. He gravitated to Kate in large part because her family was so close to each other. In return for that stability, Kate gets the respect and prestige from her HRH title, even though it’s never really gotten her that far with the actual aristos, who still look down on commoners because they’re all arrogant, entitled dipsh-ts who think they’re gods gift to humanity because their great-grandfather was an earl.
The Swedish Royal Family has released their annual Christmas video. Victoria, Daniel, Estelle, and Oscar with a retelling of The Christmas Story. You can find it on the Kungahuset site.
Now, Victoria is the future monarch who seems to have a real supportive partner. I would be both surprised and saddened if they ever got divorced. But the Cambridges? Eh, it was never a true partnership, as I suspect William held his greater power and wealth over Kate’s head and maintained all control/decisions in their marriage. Kate was just a prop that he purchased.
I don’t think Victoria and Daniel will ever divorce. They waited so long only because the King was dead-set against Daniel. No problem with approving the p o r n model for his son however. I worry about Daniel’s health with his donated kidney. Both he and Mette-Marit have serious health issues that may shorten their lives. Two of the happiest royal marriages may end sooner rather than later because of it.
All I see is Keri Russell in that People mag photo.
I have a feeling that old fashioned is probably better for partnership… where have all our dreams of equality gotten us exactly? I considered myself a progressive woman, and I’m divorced with no current prospects (and TBH I’m ok with that… I’m exhausted from my last 4 year relationship). Reinventing the wheel leads to a lot of dissatisfaction and loneliness. That wasn’t my dream… my dream was “a modern marriage of equals while still believing in true love, fidelity, romance and the fairytale.” There’s something about the old paradigm of marriage that doesn’t work anymore, but perhaps at the end we’ll find out we’ve been throwing away the baby with the bathwater.
The old paradigm of marriage was fundamentally based on treating women and children like property. These are the facts. It’s indisputable. Women made do with their circumstances because they had to. But this is what the institution of marriage, especially “old fashioned” marriage, was based on. Women were property. Children were property.
There is nothing salvageable in that institution whatsoever.
@Elena
I don’t think it matter if you follow the rules of an old-fashioned marriage, or go for a modern one striving for equality, if there is no fundamental respect between partners it’s just not gonna work. Sure in more old-fashioned struggling marriages a person wouldn’t divorce and just bottle up their sadness and resentment till they die, but Is that really worth it just so you can stay in a relationship? I personally would rather be alone.
Allows William’s wandering scepter to plunge into rose bushes😂😂😂😂
Old fashion = business arrangement? Kate will stay at home with the kids while will works? They will make appearances together then go their separate ways.?
I’ve been travelling this week, so I’m just getting caught up on the Cambridge coverage. And ooooh, that video of Kate shaking off William’s hand during that Christmas special was ice cold. I wonder if the two of them have been having a major row. A lot of the banter on the show from William felt somewhat bitter and sarcastic if you ask me. Otoh, I don’t think it’s a big deal that they arrived for the Christmas luncheon separately. It happens. I’ve always heard that they largely live separate lives anyway, in the sense that they have fully separate interests and Kate is completely engrossed with her children and being “a mum” and William does whatever William does.
“People make much of William giving the big speeches, but Kate is there too, asking questions of presidents and their wives. These things are easier when they are side-by-side.”
This sounds awful. It sounds awful awful awful. I’ve said this before about the embiggening of Kate, but honestly, EVERY last thing they write about her just sounds awful and does not reflect on her that well at all. I know that People is geared towards the Minivan majority, and there are plenty of people who read the coverage in the US and the UK and elsewhere who think nothing of this type of thing. But the way they’re covering Kate is just so goddamn infantilizing. “Yes, William does the speech making because he’s the MAN but don’t worry your pretty little head, Kate is also there and chitchatting with all the wives and even asking QUESTIONS. Isn’t it all GRAND?” Shudder. Gross. Dislike.
I thought that “presidents and wives” statement was just appalling and incredibly sexist. First of all, there are women presidents and prime ministers. So does William completely clam up around Angela Merkel and Jacinda Arden, or does Kate stay mute around those powerful women since they have no wives? Just have her walk 3 steps behind William the great orator. Why have all these recent articles about these two seem like mockery or satire. The shrug was the most genuine reaction they’ve had all year. And none of this actually spells out how exactly they are preparing for the throne. Do they actually know what’s happening in the world right now beyond charity sound bites? No one expects much in terms of statecraft from any of the Royals, but at least look like you’re actually preparing, instead of sycophants just saying stuff. Ugh, sick of seeing all of them and their hyena grins. Everyone should disappear for Xmas.
Oh please. If traditional marriage includes having a side chick and transfering royal stds? lol.
What is the deal with People Magazine and the 2nd in line To the throne and his family?
I’ve been noticing a lot of these retro-style “They’re preparing for the throne” stories for several weeks – notably, while H&M are apparently hiding out in a bunker somewhere in Nebraska (I kid. Sort of. Americans know what “bunker in Nebraska” means.)
At any rate, sure. They’re “preparing.” So what? I’m also preparing to be super bored seeing these stories drone on and on in the next 15-20 years because Dull Bill has a loooooong wait on his hands, just like his father before him. So, all this jockeying and lame PR spin is… pointless?
The tabloids have also been screaming that Prince Charles has been booted from his place in succession by the Queen. Yeah, right. Fat chance. For that to happen, Parliament would have to change the laws over which the Queen has no power. So. Simmer down, Bill, and wait your turn.
So all the new velvet smoking jackets and Pakistani sherwanis in the world won’t move the needle for Dull Bill and his consort, both of whom will likely be in their 50s, if not 60s, given the stamina and longevity of his father and grandmother, when they succeed Charles and Camilla – who aren’t going anywhere. It is what it is. But the kids are adorable.
Its really an impressive and creative work. I agree that shadowing would have been great. It is nice anyway.