The Duchess of Cambridge continues to get great press from her Five Big Questions survey and from all of the events she’s done around the launch of the survey. For some reason, the British media really prefers struggle-surveys and vague statements about motherhood rather than tangible projects which actually raise money and awareness for those who need it. Or maybe the British media is just behaving like they know they’re stuck with Kate and her keen survey for many years to come. Over the past few days, there’s been another round of fluff PR around Kate because she’s finally, at long last, achieving keenness. Even Omid Scobie is vaguely impressed:
Kate Middleton has ‘quietly picked up steam’ in recent months after going through a period when ‘it felt like she wasn’t doing a lot’, a royal expert has claimed. Royal commentator Omid Scobie said the Duchess of Cambridge’s, 38, has ‘really stepped out into a more confident role’ in The Firm in recent months as she launched her Early Years work which will be a ‘lifelong project’ for the royal.
Speaking on the Heirpod podcast, he said Kate’s voice was getting ‘louder and louder as she gains more confidence’ in her position within the royal family. He said: ‘I think there had been times where it felt like she wasn’t doing a lot…and we’re now at a point where I think she’s really realising the impact that she can have when using her platform wisely…[The survey] has seen Kate really step out into a more confident role, we’ve seen her quietly, over the recent months, pick up a little bit of steam.’
LOL @ “I think there had been times where it felt like she wasn’t doing a lot.” “Times” like 2011-2018? Wonder what changed in 2018? It’s still a mystery! Camilla Tominey also had some stuff to say about Keen Kate’s survey as well:
Royal expert Camilla Tominey today claimed the mum-of-three had “raised her game” in the midst of the turmoil within the Firm. Speaking to This Morning, Ms Tominey said: “This is a picture of the monarchy moving forward, but the pressure is really on the Duchess of Cambridge to make the royals move into the future. Prince William is a star but it’s been all about Kate lately and she’s considerably raised her game. This is her emerging from Prince William’s shadow to carve her own path as a future Princess of Wales.”
And she pointed to Kate’s recent focus on her landmark ‘5 Big Questions on the Under-Fives’ survey that examines how experiences during youth can be at the root of social challenges later in life. Camilla added: “She’s now carved her own path focusing on early years learning. She wants to commit her working life to childhood and how it affects adult life. She’s been doing it in secret for eight years.”
I’m honestly laughing my ass off. “She’s been doing it in secret for eight years,” people!!! So many secret meetings! So many secret meetings… which were counted on as official royal engagements, because they were secret! Of course the basic five-question survey was put together after eight years of grueling secret work! That’s the narrative now, how dare you question it.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Backgrid.
Makes it worse IMO
5 basic questions after 8 years of work? Even if it’s just for PR or whatever it’s pretty sad that a PR survey is the best she can bring out at the moment
Also remember when the royal foundation released a statement saying that a “body of work” would be published late last year? Where is that? Please don’t tell me it’s the survey
Yeah, well, I’m calling this a load of bollocks, purely for PR. This is more likely the start of Catherine’s journey towards Royal Beatification now that that pesky Meghan is safely out of the way.
LOL! You got that right. This is too true, and it’s actually not really funny, but what else is there to do but laugh at the overdone way this Kate ‘project’ is being cossetted and embiggened.
As far as ‘Royal Beautification,’ Kate was already at sainthood level well before Meghan & Harry packed up and left the useless debacle, known as the ‘royal firm.’
Right? Where is the body of work? I keep seeing this referred to as the Early Years Initiative, but what’s the initiative? Just Kate touring the country and visiting kids and talking about how important the early years are?
Of course it is PR. It’s supposed to make us forget Andrew is a pedophile and they bullied Harry and Meghan out of the family.
Exactly, but remember who’s reporting on this: Cameltoe Meanie herself. One of the worst RRs there is. She’s nothing but a kiss-ass who slandered Meghan at every opportunity. Eight years, oh please.
You are kidding???!!! A life long project of five questions?? If those questions were made by someone studying to be a teacher as a project to present in class, I predict it would get 3 or 4 out of 10 points. Who did it, for crying out loud??
How is she not embarrassed?
Exactly.
That’s a question every 16 months on average.
I think that “Is nature or nurture more important?” must have taken two whole years though. That’s the really impressive one.
Edit: For perspective, Kate will have been married 9 years in April. In that time she could have got an undergraduate degree, masters, and a PhD in child development, since we’re told she’s been keenly learning about it all this time.
Well, the Introduction to Child Development textbook where she got these questions took like two weeks to be delivered. Then she had to order the highlighters. Interviewing the Assistant Page Turners took a while too, because Catherine Keen would NOT be expected to turn a page while reading. To be fair, the list of “Review Questions” for chapter one (which she copied and pasted for the survey) were well hidden behind the graphic showing Erickson’s Eight Stages, so that was tricky. It’s a good thing she isn’t expected to cite her sources because APA is transitioning to the 7th Ed. this summer and the formatting would all be off. It’s a miracle these questions came out at all!
Oh God, Noodle. I was a child psychology major and you are spot on as to where those questions were LIFTED: Any child development 101 textbook. That is so KEEN. I love how Kate is so very very good at Duchessing while White. I swear there are two books the royals are using for their game strategy: Orwell’s 1984 and the children’s fable, The Emperor Has No Clothes.
@JA, I’m glad my assessment rang true. I am a college professor and occasionally teach educational psychology courses, so I am very familiar with the lower-div introductory courses. It’s almost insulting that the most basic of any psych101 course is being heralded as the second coming of Duchess.
Noodle, and even then, with those end of the chapter review questions, it’s more like “Nature or nurture? Explain your reasoning using examples from the text.” Or “How does a parent’s mental health affect their parenting? What short and long term effects can it have on a child’s development? Explain with examples from the text.” None of these are good either/or, yes/no survey questions. They’re more like intro to psych class discussion or essay topics. And it doesn’t really matter what people in Britain *think* the answer is to “which years are most important to a child’s development?” because there is an actual scientific answer to that question already. We don’t need to poll people to find out what it is.
Noodle, thanks for your insight. Why aren’t more psych professionals calling her out? Surely they read the news and see all this unwarranted, undeserved praise she’s been receiving for this “work”??
Kate needs to be referring people to professionals not dabble in it herself. I wonder if she took one course in this as an undergraduate and considers herself an expert;.
The smoke that gets blown up royal and celebrity butts is amazing – if all i did in my job (an actual academic research job) was to spend 8 years coming up with a 5 question survey with no methodology I’d get fired…
What I don’t understand is why the public puts up with this? This is the 21st century, do people really believe that a royal family is deserving of titles, money, power, position, respect, etc., just because of happenstance of birth? What educated person believes that? And yet, here we are.
Or, is it the mind playing tricks — that they *know* deep down inside how idiotic it is to have a monarchy, but admitting that would be admitting they’re wrong. So their brains jump through mental hoops to “justify” the institution, to avoid being wrong. Just like the people who continue to support Donald Trump despite the evidence. They cannot ever admit to being wrong?
It’s probably that the British monarchy helps preserve the notion of ‘white superiority.’ That faux man-made notion is hella difficult to dislodge.
And as we have seen, Meghan was way too smart and accomplished, even for a light-skinned WOC. In no uncertain terms, Meghan was informed she had to do the ‘stiff upper lip shtick.’ In other words, ‘dim her light’ and ‘concede her place’ beneath the English Rose, or leave…
By leaving, Meghan & Harry chose to SURVIVE and THRIVE.
I wonder if people are accepting the fact that sometimes, they’re going to end up with stupid, lazy, work shy, inane, and even criminal members of the royal family, but they’re holding out hope that maybe the next monarch will be better? When everyone was mad at Charles they wanted to skip him and get to William, they had hope that William would be better. Now, people aren’t very enamored with Charles or William but are maybe hoping George will be better? Could it be a nation wide case of FOMO?
Cathy and Bill don’t do anything in secret. They do so little, they need all the praise they can get.
If she was so secretive we wouldn’t hear about all her damn Jason meetings…like what is this revisionist crap!?!?
Also, just watched the Mister Rogers documentary and it didn’t take him 8 years to understand what children needed… In short, the extent of Kate’s research is probably some PBS Kids YouTube videos
Kate’s major was in art history. She never studied child psychology or education just the art history and her paper about Lewis Carroll.
Right, but she’s been telling us, during this survey roll-out tour, that she’s been learning & listening from the experts in the field these last few years. I listened to the podcast she was on. She seemed well-prepped, kept saying things like ‘I’ve learned from…’ or ‘I’ve listened to…’ or, er, ‘my research…’. She seemed intelligent and capable, if a bit simplistic in her analysis; e.g., happy childhood = problem-free adult life.
That podcast was a cringeworthy exercise in babble and basic talking points.
Yes, I am surprised she is not more of a mover and shaker on the fine arts scene. Right now we do not really have a royal showing deep interest in this area. It is a field with the rich and famous and Kate could get a lot of fundraising out of it. But someone said that she does appear out of her depth when moving in arts circles, where people quickly pick things up and can be very sharp and bitchy if you are not on your toes.
@Tessa Kate’s real major was chasing after William.
The snark in this article is hilarious – Scobie has basically said she’s been lazy up until now because a certain other Duchess lit a fire under her lazy butt.
Trust me that this pathetic struggle survey is going to be milked for all its worth this year. Just like her garden was last year, it was all the press would talk about for months. This is it folks, we’re going to get at least ONE talking point a year from her – its all such a struggle for the poor over worked sausage who has to do everything in secret.
Scobie was very delicate in his phrasing, wasn’t he.
Unlike Tominey who was blowing so much smoke she must have set of the fire alarm.
LOL ROFL (where are the laughing icons) Ha ha haaa
Yep, I was listening to Scobie’s podcast the other day. OmiScob is very professional. He’s really got his act together and he does a good job of trying to be neutral and objective and inclusive while covering all the bases. He understands that he needs to be professional and not ruffle feathers and play it as middle of the road as possible, while also trying to be journalistic and substantive, and not petty and trivial. That’s a hard task as a royal reporter.
Therefore on this story, I give Omid three-and-a-half stars! But I was almost close to barfing listening to his podcast the other day, as he bent over backwards trying to be neutral and not ruffle any feathers because he understands the predicament of being a royal reporter in the age of post-Sussex step-back. The rest of the British royals simply ain’t all that interesting or relevant.
Omid does an excellent job of fence-straddling, and that’s a compliment. He tries hard to be fair, and even then there are Meghan-haters who call genial, above-board Omid biased toward the Sussexes, which is completely not the case.
I think Omid wants to at least portray a notion of fairness towards both couples. Unlike the rest of the bought and paid for RRs.
^^ For sure @MsIam, I do not fault Omid at all. He’s a very professional journalist. And he also has a diverse background, so I think he can relate to what Meghan has had to deal with. Omid has some insider Sussex sources for realz. At the same time, he’s not biased in favor of the Sussexes, as some Meghan-haters claim.
While Omid is fair and honest, he does have to straddle the line carefully on some stories because if he were to be too scorched-earth honest, it wouldn’t go over well. He can’t afford to burn any bridges as a royal reporter. So Omid gives Kate credit in a fair, reasonable way, but he doesn’t tip over into the English Rose sainthood shtick.
I wonder what Tominey is getting for putting Kate on the front page of The Telegraph, on almost a daily basis. She must feel her ‘political editor’ job depends on her royal contacts, I always wondered how this woman came to get such a position on the Telegraph, when she is nothing more than a royal reporter.
The most interesting thing to me about Scobie’s podcast last week was that he said Harry and Meghan were NOT paid for the JP Morgan speech.
Hmm, now I have not heard THAT quoted in any Daily Fail or Dim stories. In fact, they are still spouting the “backlash over getting paid and taking a private jet” line.
True @windyriver. Omid has insider Sussex sources who trust Omid to put out the truth, without embellishment or bias. So I agree that part of Omid’s podcast was interesting, and I have no problem believing it.
M&H appear to be testing the waters, getting their feet wet and making contacts and connections at this stage, that will benefit their foundation down the road. They will find ways of becoming financially independent once their official ‘royal step-back’ begins after March. And the process of making an income will occur gradually. I’m sure they have income projects in the works. They won’t be relying on funding from Prince Charles for long.
I feel like we’ve heard this exact same interview from royal reporters last year, the year before that, the year before that, forever. Every single year we hear how Kate hasn’t done much yet but this year she’s finally “found her voice” and is accomplishing a lot. And then the next year we hear about how she didn’t do much last year, but this year….
How can it be true every single year?
It’s spooky, isn’t it? Groundhog Kate.
Groundhog Kate? I can’t unsee it.
I don’t understand how Tominey could think that a royal doing something in ‘secret’ is a good thing.
Pssst… The whole ‘in secret’ shtick is simply another way of Kate & her p.r. embiggeners borrowing from Meghan’s practice of working quietly behind-the-scenes before launching successful projects (e.g. Meghan’s cookbook with the women of Hubb Community Kitchen; & guest-editing British Vogue while on maternity leave).
Of course, the big difference is that Meghan has done more in two years of marriage as a member of the royal firm, than Kate will ever get done in a lifetime.
But Shhhh, keep it quiet. We mustn’t lead out loud with the truth.
Well 5 questions equals perhaps another 5 years to skate on reviewing responses and compiling stats on ‘what do you think we should do’. Then she can role out the actual initiative in 2025 or so.
Correction to my earlier post:
Meghan has done more substantive work as a member of the royal firm, in LESS than two years of marriage, than Kate has done in nearly 9 years of marriage.
The only reason it’s necessary to make these comparisons and distinctions is because of the way Meghan has been reviled and trashed for existing. And because Kate began being elevated to English Rose sainthood as soon as Meghan married into the royal firm. Kate’s sainthood status rapidly increased after the Sussexes’ successful South Pacific tour.
I vote the BM is working with what they got. Eight years to get this five question survey up? Nothing in depth. Trust the press will drop Kate’s project the moment the Sussexes announce their foundation but they only get drips and drabs.
Yeah, she hasn’t been working on it for 8 years and I don’t understand why that’s the narrative being pushed. Kate herself has said that she grew to understand the importance of the early years over time while she was learning about addiction and such. She’ll never say it, but I also think William’s mental health was a big influence on her. She likely wants to prevent him passing his issues down the same way Charles and Diana passed down their issues to him. He really is the worst of both his parents.
That’s an interesting point about William and you may be right about that.
I agree with your first sentence completely and just said something similar down below. Insisting that she has been working in secret on this for 8 years just makes everyone involved look bad.
ITA @Becks1.
@Ainsley7 said: “She’ll never say it, but I also think William’s mental health was a big influence on her. She likely wants to prevent him passing his issues down the same way Charles and Diana passed down their issues to him.”
This may be true, but as @Jaded points out below, Kate dated and waited on Wm for a very long time. She knew who she was marrying. As well, Kate and Wm both have bought into pap-ing their young children. IMO, ages 4 and 6 was way too soon for the Christmas at Sandringham walk. But it was done to appease the press and to distract from pedo-Andy, and from the fact that the Sussexes were not there.
I think we will have to wait and see what happens for the Cambridge kids over time. In the beginning, Kate and Wm both protected their kids from the media. Something changed, and that something seems to be Wm’s straying and the RRs having something on him.
Once you go the route of giving into the media, there’s no turning back. Harry knows that, which is a huge reason why Harry took a stand and said, “I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my Mom.”
She knew well the extent of William’s psychological issues, she chased him for a decade and was certain to have realized she was dealing with a dyspeptic, tempermental man-child who couldn’t keep his d*ck in his pants. I’m sure she’s a great mother and protective of her kids, especially when their father is behaving like a spoiled child, but she knew what she was getting into and Wm hasn’t changed just because he got married and had children.
Bingo!
I don’t think Charles and DIana “passed down” anything. I do think that unfortunately direct heirs are treated so special that they believe they are the center of the universe. Unfortunately, William who was called the People’s Prince is getting more and more self entitled and more and more like his father. William is responsible for his own actions and he’s going to be forty in about two years, he’s not a kid anymore and this is his own persona for better or worse. George if he is treated as “more special” than his siblings could be like his father. I think Charles grandmother was the worst influence on him spoiling him and encouraging him to be self centered.
Nobody is taking this struggle survey seriously except the British press.
Kate stop embarrassing yourself. Please just cut ribbons, carry babies and plant trees.
I am so glad that I was not eating or drinking something as I read this as it would have all come spewing out of my mouth and across the room 🤢
This is disgusting.
I’m glad somebody said it.
The latest narrative being put out is that Kate is essentially a shy person. Is this a new story?
OMG!!!!! I’m going to use that one too at my next evaluation with my manager. I can’t wait to see their face!
It really is a fairy tale isn’t it???
I actually don’t think Brits care that much about impactful projects from the royals. That’s why Charles- despite his flaws is quite unpopular despite having more tangible impact than any of the royals. And why Anne is so low profile despite usually being up there as the hardest worker.
Non royal watchers seem to only tune occasionally for gossip, maybe style, weddings& sometimes kiddies and royal watchers seem to be into style, jewellery, hierarchy etc. I don’t think the ‘work’ is of that much interest to many in Britain
Think that’s deliberate too though. Hard to justify their existence otherwise.
This is so sad to me. What are they paying for if it’s not charity work?? A tourist attraction? What’s the point?
People keep saying Anne is the “hardest worker” but does that just mean she goes to ribbon cuttings and baby photo-ops more than the rest of them? Has she actually done something that’s raised money or awareness? That’s not working.
I find it absurd that doing some charity work (whether that is ribbon cutting, gardens,etc) somehow justifies them living off the backs of the country…it’s insane.
I’m not a monarchist so not about to defend their work but not sure e.g. those in the House of Lords have schedules that are any more rigorous than some members of the Royal Family. Britain puts up with a lot with highly paid glorified civil servants but debate for another day…
From what I know of Anne she does more of the bread and butter engagements so her engagements numbers are quite high. In terms of impact – I don’t follow her much but had read some good things in the past on her involvement with her patronage Save the Children. She’s done lots of overseas travel and fundraising with them and apparently the former Zambian president nominated her for a Nobel Peace Prize because of her work with them. She is also on the International Olympic Committee and was part of the London 2012 Olympic bid and involved in its planning – for which she was paid. Funny that didn’t come up when the press was outraged about prospect of the Sussexes earning a living whilst doing royal duties…
“People keep saying Anne is the “hardest worker” but does that just mean she goes to ribbon cuttings and baby photo-ops more than the rest of them? ”
@Helen – YES! The average Brit loves (per my UK friends) the “bread & butter” stuff. They want a Royal at the School Graduations to give give out the perfect attendance awards, hand out flower show prizes at he village fete and cut ribbons at the opening of the newest village “whatever”.
More average people have an official photograph of themselves or a member of their family with the Queen Mum or Princess Anne sitting in a place of pride or on the piano that any other royals.
Anne has been honest about earning money with equestrian and other events held on her 750 acre Gatecombe property. She has been quoted as saying it has to pay its way or she can’t keep it. Seems every member of the royal family, from Charles on down has for-profit schemes. It’s only not allowed if you are a black royal or within one degree of it (ding ding ding — the Sussexes). None of them have had to step back their HRH to do it either.
Apparently, Anne is handing out an award at fashion week. I wonder if this was originally pencilled in for Meghan?
I think so too. I know people say the royals is not really popular in Britian and that it’s all just egged by certain astroturphers, but I have seen countless regular Britians stopped on streets by news reporters and they praise the royal family to high heaven. I think Brits (not all) don’t care so much about charity, if they did why would they let the smearing of Meghan continuse, they clearly knew tarnishing her name would have a negative effect on the her charity and the people it serves. Seems to me they are overly loyal to the RF and don’t mind their low lot in life in camparison. I wonder if the more powerful have a little bit of stokholm syndrome, they don’t mind being enslaved by this stuffy old instituaiton and are content on keeping it that way. And now it’s getting to the point where just like you can’t get far talking crap about the Queen or question her, they are beginning to put Kate up to that level, so you can’t touch her. I wish this was not the case but I am not seeing an end in sight.
I never understood why people would bow and scrape to “royals” just because of accident of birth? Do the average people really believe the royals are somehow better just because they were born (or married) into a certain family? I mean, from what we know about them, they are not very smart or educated, not very nice and will stab each other in the back, they are racist, and they use their positions to amass incredible wealth while showing off in front of a gold piano. Why do people worship them? As an American, it’s hard to comprehend.
@GuestOne said:
“I actually don’t think Brits care that much about impactful projects from the royals. That’s why Charles – despite his flaws – is quite unpopular despite having more tangible impact than any of the royals. And why Anne is so low profile despite usually being up there as the hardest worker.
Non royal watchers seem to only tune [in] occasionally for gossip, maybe style, weddings, … jewelry … I don’t think the ‘work’ is of that much interest to many in Britain. Think that’s deliberate too though. Hard to justify their existence otherwise.”
_________________________________
So true @GuestOne! That’s why Meghan coming in and working like a house on fire brought out all the royal courtiers and royal reporters with fire hoses, secretly presided over by Work-shy Will.
What you are saying is actually getting at one of the reasons why Meghan is so hated by these upperclass snobs and racists. She’s not supposed to work hard while being gorgeous to boot, because it shows up so many of the rest of the royal crew. It’s interesting that at first Prince Charles sorta bonded with Meghan over similar interests and approaches to work. But in the end, weakly back-boned Charles succumbed to his selfish insecurities and to his fearfulness surrounding the need to ‘preserve’ the gnarly future of the monarchy.
IOW, Meghan & Harry standing for something threatens the feckless heir and jealous sibling, Will. The royal firm can’t have that because Will must be protected by any means necessary. Covering for Will supposedly protects the British monarchy’s future. They actually need to be careful that protecting Will and embiggening Kate doesn’t end up unsettling the BM’s future.
Yeah I think the British monarchy’s role is to be stable, bland, non-political, middle-of-the-road, and white. The Queen is a figurehead of this and Charles’ active initiatives have always put him at loggerheads with the press and — I think — his parents. William — with his bland, do nothing attitude actually fits the role more than Charles. Charles PR right now is pressing the point that when he is King, he promises to step back from many of his ongoing initiatives and activities and be more figurehead bland like his mother.
A basic, not even vaguely useful 5 question survey in 8 years……I understand courtiers don’t want them to do but my god. what are they gonna do if they both ascend to the throne? I foresee a lot of charities being dropped.
LMAO sure……
When I was in college we had to study polling and I put together a few little surveys myself. We were given our survey assignment on a syllabus at the start of the semester, but you didnt actually work on the project until maybe at most a month before it was due. Let me tell you, my survey’s were a heck of a lot more extensive than 5 vague af questions and only took me like a week or two tops to formulate, test, and present. It does not take 8 years to do this stuff. Who is actually falling for this? Gah, this family, nothing but con artists.
I pray Charlotte takes after Anne and not Kate
For sure, hopefully so. No nonsense Anne takes after her no-nonsense Dad. Even though they are British upperclass-biased in their thinking and in their sense of entitlement, at least Anne and Philip have both been hardworking and real throughout their lives. Plus, I think Anne has been fair and friendly with Meghan because Anne can tell that Meghan is a smart, no-nonsense pulled together person who has made her nephew Harry very happy.
Charlotte is definitely a feisty character. She may take a bit after Carole too, but hopefully she escapes having a cold, snotty, insecure, selfish attitude.
Anne is no great shakes. She’s as rude and disrespectful as Phillip.
Anne was not in spare and heir game, charlotte will be. That’s why the real shit is going to come. rr and people in brits hate woman, only one exception is queen, anne is way down the line, the upper your are in the line the more trash you will get. Thats why they constantly mock the yorks girls. Charoltte will be compare to george wife and will get dragged to keep heir good image.
I forgot Charlotte is the spare….Lord. Heaven help her. And Louis too even though he’s pretty much forgotten right now. That could change as is he the only other boy.
Then here’s hoping George takes a husband and some royal reporters’ heads can explode. LOL
I’ve already seen a nasty bitter royalist who hangs out in Twitter attacking Meghan all day throw shade at Charlotte. What is she, four years old? Apparently, the child shows too much personality and isn’t shy enough. SMH. If these people think sweet Charlotte is some sort of budding wild child, they’d hate American kids, what with all that confidence and loud talking and whatnot. Royalists are sick with this weird sense of ownership they have over those people.
“Prince William is a star but it’s been all about Kate lately and she’s considerably raised her game. This is her emerging from Prince William’s shadow to carve her own path as a future Princess of Wales.” – lol at this so hard. William’s ego must be appeased even when embiggening Kate. He’s such a star! Is that why he gets “incandescent with rage”? And as if he wants Kate’s out of his shadow. He’s a star whose shadow is so big it can’t be escaped! Big Willie styles, y’all.
And lol even harder at future Princess of Wales. I thought Kate was the future (future) queen (consort). Did Daddy Chuck remind Big Willie of the Rosebushes and Saint Katie of the struggle survey that they have to wait in line? Gasp! But Will is a star, y’all. Maybe the Duchess of Keen buttons just wants the Diana connection?
So transparent.
This! You articulate it all so well. It’s so super-transparent!
What an ick-fest reading this Kate/Will embiggening shizz… These are the two so-called Windsor ‘stars’ who stoop to using their kids. Sadly, W&K give in to papping their kids in part because their three kids have much more interesting and intriguing personalities than they do!
The question is going to be how messed-up will their kids turn out growing up in this royal fcuked-up firm? And this question is major, even despite Kate’s so-called passion for early childhood development.
I found that part from Camilla Tominey *so* interesting. The same RR who basically outed her connection to Carole when she Tweeted that she’d love to hear her opinion on Sussexit. I find the talk about William’s “stardom” vs Kate’s prominence intriguing because it’s quite a blatant ‘pro-Kate and only Kate’ angle, even for the Middletons. There’s long been speculation that Will doesn’t like Kate outshining him, but to have an RR blatantly say that Kate is supposedly thriving *despite* him is…interesting.
It took her eight years to come up with five questions in her quest to create a “generational change” that will be studied in about 15 years?
That’s half a century of doing sweet f*ck all. The Royal Family use hundreds of millions of tax dollars and they give back … a survey? Ok.
I’m getting a kick out of a nearly 40 year old woman being described as “finding her voice” and “gaining confidence” like she’s some young ingenue. Where was her voice the past decade? She had the biggest platform in the world.
The infantalising of Kate is so disgusting. She’s the exact same age as Meghan, but Kate is this tiny baby just now finding her voice and quietly gaining confidence. Taking baby steps to step out from behind her husband’s shadow. Whereas Meghan has apparently spent 100 years honing her manipulative witchcraft in order to blow up the royal family from within. Her “exotic” sexual appeal and years and years of Hollywood schmoozing trained her for storming England and stealing their little prince Harry.
Touche! That’s a very, very apt and true description of the contrast in Kate vs Meghan coverage we have been seeing. Sadly.
All this does is make Kate seem dim. It shouldn’t have taken eight years to say things you would learn in a first year intro to psych course in university.
Brilliant imagery. 😂😂😂
@Aurora said: “I’m getting a kick out of a nearly 40 year old woman being described as ‘finding her voice’ and ‘gaining confidence’ like she’s some young ingenue. Where was her voice the past decade? She had the biggest platform in the world.”
Straight-up! Why all the Kate-coddling? Why all the Meghan trashing, disdaining, and character assassinating?
@Aurora, even her fans make her sound pathetic. This woman in her late 30s has been wandering around trying to find her voice for 9 years. Interestingly enough, she’s had no problem finding the Alexander McQueen boutique.
Oh Kerwood. 😂😂😂👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Thanks for the laugh. I needed that.
Hahaha I’ll tell my boss about all my secret work, see where that gets ME.
Haha, yes, I’m going to tell my boss that I’m actually doing far more work than she thinks I am. She just has to wait 8 years to see it! Low-key crushing it! 😉
Kate has that “braying” laughter. She needs to tone it down.
She does, it’s very brash.
Ah, there’s no need to shade Kate for the way she laughs, now. Hillary Clinton and Duchess Meghan have very characteristic ways of laughing, and they are both badass, accomplished women of substance who are mocked and polarized by the media.
It might be helpful if Kate would stop with the forced, hyena face. But I can’t shame her for the way her laughter sounds.
She’s over the top in many of her expressions, likely because she’s acting an emotion rather than feeling anything personally. A poor performance, like when she laughs hysterically at hospices.
Yes, it’s all forced. Not genuine.
I don’t know what it is with her face lately, but her expressions are way over the top. That last picture is actually a little frightening.
Those questions were so well-thought out that I can totally buy it 1.6 years per question to develop.
Well, you see, Kate never liked that Gutenberg invented the printing press, so she had to carve each letter of the survey and set out the type herself.
🤣🤣
This is wonderful, I needed a good laugh today. Honestly, what a lot of nonsense. They should be embarrassed but clearly enough people are lapping it up. I lost my confidence in people’s basic common sense when Trump/Brexit proved that you can say what you want and no one cares about the lies.
Exactly. We are living in a strange world where faux news is all the rage.
The whole 5 question survey and the way it is being covered as ‘groundbreaking’ is so laughable, it isn’t funny.
Does watching CBeebies (little kid TV for non-Brit Bitchies) count as work or a royal engagement? Hypnobirthing classes? Taking the kids to the swimming pool?
If she were anyone – quite literally anyone – else in the world she’d have had her backside handed to her on a plate for coming up with such desultory, unchallenging, feeble ‘results’ after nearly a DECADE.
You would never see that ridiculous headline referring to Mary or Maxima. That makes Kate look like a lazy lout. Her PR people need to up their game.
It is really sad when you look at the married-ins in the other royal families and compare what they have done in their time to what Kate has done. Daniel, Mary, Letizia, Maxima, etc. Even within the BRF, she looks bad in comparison to Sophie and Meghan.
If Kate did just one engagement per day, 5 days a week, she would have something like 260 engagements per year. Why is that so hard?
I think there’s such hype around this because yes, that’s how KP rolls, but also because there isn’t anything else to talk about with Kate. If you have to talk about the royals, there just isn’t a lot to say about the duchess of Cambridge besides the survey.
And its funny to me that the palace/reporters cant see that emphasizing she has been working on this for 8/9 years just makes it look that much worse. She’s been working in secret for 8 years and all we have is a survey?
It looks awful to pretend she’s worked on it for 8 years. The survey is so basic and looks like it was done in 8 days.
Or 8 hours.
If you pull the questions from a child development 101 textbook, we’re probably talking 15 minutes, not 8 years. But hey, let’s keep that fairytale rolling. 🧚🏼♂️
LOL, omg I’m laughing for days. You guys are so right on the nose about all of this. It’s sad that there’s few places on the Internet or in the public sphere where people have the good sense and the bravery to actually tell the truth. Or make that, ‘few places where people WITH good sense and bravery CAN tell the truth.’ Thank you, celebitchy.com.
As @GuestOne said:
“Meghan brings together brands for capsule collection which has sold out bag on first day& provides her patronage with enough of the set for one year. Very muted reaction& it’s success is attributed to Kate.”
Exactly! Did you see the Twittersphere meme that mocked how this RR gave Katie Keen all the credit for Meghan’s capsule collection project for SmartWorks?! FFQ Kate is given all the credit simply because she was employed for a hot minute by Jigsaw, the British retailer where the capsule collection was sold. Even America’s People magazine wrote about this so-called ‘Kate connection.’ (see the below link). If the tables were turned the other way, Meghan would never have been written up as having any connection to any project of Kate’s! Quite clearly, Kate has zip to do with any of Meghan’s ideas and successful projects!
https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-shares-a-sweet-connection-to-meghan-markles-new-capsule-clothing-collection/
No shade at either woman but U.K. press treatment of Kate & Meghans work is very real representation of how people with black heritage have to work twice as hard for half the praise. Also how malicious they were to Meghan.
Meghan has cookbook that raises £500k for a Grenfell community kitchen, press associate it with funding terrorism. Meghan guest edits best selling British Vogue for a decade& fastest selling ever which raises profile of her patronage& a small bakery, has resulted in Forces for Change recurring theme in the magazine, further events based on the theme including a gala (!!)- press call it woke& divisive& video celebrating its success is mocked. Meghan brings together brands for capsule collection which has sold out bag on first day& provides her patronage with enough of the set for one year. Very muted reaction& it’s success is attributed to Kate.
Yet Kate’s survey& work around it is widely celebrated in the British press.
Twice as hard always applies.
Exactly, exactly! Thank you for articulating this so well!
@GuestOne, so very well said. Black women have been busting their asses for generations with little to no credit or acknowledgement. We’re told we should be grateful for being allowed to work our fingers to the bone. And then some White girl comes in, does half as much work half as well, cries because because we were ‘mean’ to her and we’re out the door. It’s a tale as old as time.
Guestone bravo. And that is work place bias we all experience. We must never stop pointing out the injustice and advocating for ourselves.
Another sad part about this is that generations of royal children were absolutely f*cked by parental negligence during their crucial child development years. Kate’s father-in-law, Prince Charles, is only one example. Princess Anne had her own feisty character and managed to survive her early years of parental neglect. OTOH, Prince Andrew was over-indulged, and look how he turned out. Prince Edward survived, barely. At least he was strong enough to ultimately resist being forced to endure military training when that was not his passion nor his skill-set and he knew it.
The Queen’s father’s generation was a sad mess because Victorianized, stiff, poker-faced Queen Mary (who may have had some softness hidden behind the stark, stiff facade) was unable to display the love she had for her children. Also, the older boys were abused by their nannies as infants and toddlers. That’s why QE-II’s father, Bertie (later King George VI), was sickly and he stuttered as depicted in the movie, The King’s Speech. Even when he became king, kind, soft-hearted Bertie would often fly into frustrated rages, described as ’bouts of temper.’ He was lucky to have met and married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (she had grand, upperclass attitudes, but at least she was raised in a large, loving Scottish family, though her mother was English).
Bertie & Elizabeth lovingly raised their two daughters. But even then, their old-fashioned upper-class attitudes led to them not ensuring that either of their daughters received a good education. The government had to quickly start teaching Princess Elizabeth at age 13, when they discovered her lack of education. Princess Margaret was left hanging because she was the spare and therefore unimportant. Being spoiled by her parents was not a substitute for Margaret not being heir to throne. The disastrous sheltering and lack of education hurt Margaret the most (especially when Margaret was told she had to give up her royal status, i.e., her identity if she wished to marry the man she loved).
Oh well, five survey questions is not going to resolve the problems of the present or the past, as we move into the future.
She prefers to be a stay at home mother and amateur photographer. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Unless she’s being paid by the sovereign grant and tax payers to be a full time senior working royal. Then there’s a problem with that.
Yup. If she wanted to be a SAHM with some side interests/hobbies, then she shouldn’t take any SG money. Or shouldn’t have had two homes renovated at the taxpayers expense. etc.
I sincerely don’t know how it works. Does she get money directly or does it go to her husband since he’s the blood royal? Also, how much are the funds?
I feel some empathy for her, she seems like a genuinely kind person. But I realize she signed up for it all, the money and public scrutiny.
What’s the prevailing opinion about when she and William first got together? Were they in love or was it arranged?
Kate cozied up to people in William’s set to get in, that’s why Emily-the-only-friend is kept in the loop. She knows where the bodies are buried. William’s Uni girlfriend didn’t want to sleep with him prior to marriage, so he slept with Kate for months behind her back. Public confrontation, everyone knew it was happening, girlfriend dumped William.
William cheated with Kate and on her, and Kate hung in for years putting up with it for the ring. Her social climbing Mama and family enable a relationship that should have ended at graduation. They get status, he gets cover to live as a single man.
Ah the romance of it all.
Who said there’s anything wrong with being a SAHM and a photographer?
The problem is the way Kate has to be coddled, overly embiggened and championed for actually doing very little meaningful, substantive work. In contrast, Kate’s SIL, the Duchess of Sussex is dragged through the mud for working hard and actually accomplishing measurable results via beneficial projects that are making a difference in the lives of many people in Britain and around the world.
At the same time, the Duchess of Sussex also manages to be a SAHM who takes care of her husband, her son, and her dogs because she enjoys working and caring for her family, without relying on a lot of regular in-home staff. I don’t say this for the purpose of criticizing Kate. The point is that the British media constantly places Kate on a pedestal, while looking down on Meghan.
That’s exactly part of the problem that we talked about Sunday night, too. If Kate and her paltry level of work is seen as the norm for duchesses and people below her in terms of seniority are not allowed to outwork or her outshine her, then everyone else is forced to do very little. If Kate is the one setting the bar for full time senior working royal women of her generation, then that bar is SOOOOO LOOOOOW and everyone else is also expected to stay under it or be trashed. If she could just be a STAHM/amateur photographer and not be called a full time working royal, then it wouldn’t matter if Meghan or anyone else who was a working royal outworked her. It’s like she’s driving 10 MPH on the highway and no one is allowed to pass her.
What she prefers is to be worshiped and put on a pedestal. Otherwise, she would have been happy for Meghan’s success instead of fearing that it diminished her stature. Insecurity thy name is Kate (and Will too).
So true @MsIam! Before I realized just how insecure Kate and Wm are, I thought for sure they would be happy for Harry and welcoming to Meghan (sorta like how the first Lifetime movie about M&H portrayed Will & Kate).
I guess even the filmmakers didn’t realize how selfish and insecure Wm is, and how lame and insecure Kate is. Kate apparently is also pliant and acquiescent to her mother’s demands and ambitions, which Kate seemingly was taught to adhere to and live up to. This is likely why Kate came off as such a mumbling nonentity during her engagement interview.
Getting Wm to put a ring on her finger (with her mother’s helpful wiles), was Kate’s only adult ambition. That’s probably why once Kate was married she just wanted to relax and have babies, enjoy wearing tiaras and shopping for clothes (particularly after all the years of Wm & Carole triggering her stress & anxiety).
Kate looked her absolute loveliest during her pregnancy with Louis*. It seems that she was cut out to be a mother. She clearly would love to have more children, if she could get Wm to agree. The pressures of royal engagements are not really Kate’s thing. But she doesn’t seem to assert herself away from being under her mother’s thumb.
*Hopefully, Louis won’t become the Mom-favored holy terror.
That is not what her role requires. If she wanted that she should have married some rich businessman or financier like her sister did and called it a day.
Ah @Sid, but Kate couldn’t really have married anyone else, could she? Not with Mommy dearest Carole, breathing down her neck to wait it out for William!
What would poor Kate and calculating Carole have done had Isabella Calthorpe (Cressida’s half-sister) actually returned William’s affections, circa 2004, when Wm precipitously dumped Kate? There are plenty of articles still on the Internet describing how Wm was infatuated with tall, leggy, blond (Diana-like) Isabella.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com.au/culture/prince-william-isabella-calthorpe-17399
But Isabella, fortunately for Kate & Carole, likely saw Wm’s character for what it is. Plus, Isabella apparently had absolutely no interest in Wm. When he came around to see her on several visits, Isabella reportedly humored Wm, because of his royal status. But then she broke it to Wm bluntly, “I can’t date you William. It would damage my career.” Years later, Isabella ended up meeting and marrying Virgin Airways heir, Sam Branson.
Wm’s royal status was a large part of the turnoff for aristocrat, Isabella. I’ve heard that lots of aristocratic ladies steered clear of both Wm and Harry because everyone knew what had happened to Diana (she was swallowed whole by the royal firm and hunted by the media).
In retrospect, Diana on her wedding day walking down the aisle in that huge, puffy-sleeved, petticoat-fluffed dress, looks exactly like a lamb heading to the slaughter.
Then she married the wrong man. She should have married a rich anonymous banker or businessman,like her sister, if she wanted to be a SAHM. Instead she lives supported by British taxpayers who pay for her luxurious lifestyle, private jets, vacations, bespoke everything and her childrens’ expensive educations. In return she needs to be seen as contributing to British society. It’s a travesty that this person has accomplished so little of value after almost 9 years as a royal with all the household help she has.
She married into a family and has a senior role and is expected to pull her weight. She married the wrong person if she wanted to be a “stay at home mom.”
Then hand back the 50 room palace and 10 bedroom country mansion, paid by taxpayers in exchange for being a working royal.
All other working royals manage to raise kids and do their royal job. Why do Kate stans insist she is so incompetent she cannot do both?
There’s nothing wrong with being a SAHM unless you marry into a royal family and are obliged to work for the people you’re supposed to represent and who keep you in a very lavish lifestyle.
I know KP want us to think Kate is some amazing scholar by saying this was something that Kate was working on for 8 years but……
When you hear her talk about early years all she is saying is to take your kids outside and spend time with them and she has a survey with 5 basic questions. That’s it.
Funny story, a few years back (not 8!) my sister-in-law got an OBE (British honour for public service), she’s a social worker who specialises in early years. She had to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her honour and it ended up being Prince William who conferred it. When he saw what it was for he said “oh my wife is really interested in early years” and proceeded to spout a whole lot of nonsense opinions, SIL said it was clear he knew nothing at all about the topic, and he also didn’t ask her opinion on any of it even though she was the expert! So yeah, not surprised the survey is basic AF.
proceeded to spout a whole lot of nonsense opinions, SIL said it was clear he knew nothing at all about the topic
——————————————————————————————————————–
This seems to be the case every time he opens his mouth in public – perhaps the exception being when he is reading a speech someone else wrote for him. Seriously, when he is interacting with people during an engagement, the snippets of conversation that can be heard, well, he just sounds like an ill-informed idiot.
Isn’t just about every woman with little ones ‘interested’ in early years?
‘In secret’? She wasn’t working on the Manhattan Project for heaven’s sake! If Keen Katie had been working on this for eight years, it would have been used as an excuse to counter all the stories about her laziness. Keen Katie started working on this project a few days after Harry and Meghan came back from their tour.
OMG that made me laff – The Manhattan Project! LOL!
Kate is so spoiled, and would rather Her daily schedule looks like: dress up for the Rota, lunch with Carole, tennis with Pippa, photography with James. Swimming with the kids, tea with the queen and cuddling with William. Oh wait. Hahahahaha never gonna happen.
I just took this survey so I could see the questions. Asking me to rank whether nature, nurture or both are most important, rank the age children’s health/support is the most important, or asking me to rank the most important items required for a child’s health, well it was just useless. All of the items listed were important. And if one really had to choose, I’m sure the experts have a great handle on that.
How can these so- called royal reporters not hate themselves when they have to write such crap and BS day in and day out. The only reason she’s doing anything was because the Sussexes showed how useless and ineffective they actually are and they couldn’t stand being shown for their laziness and cosseted privilege. She and William know exactly what they did and I can’t unsee the petty jealousy and racist bully in all of them, no matter how many poor kids they set her on to grin at and hug.
I guess they’ll enjoy the positively Kate train a lot more then trashing the Sussexes. They can cleanse their conscience with this crap.
This embiggening of Kate brings to mind the CNN special the Windsors . That show brings to light the 100 plus year family tradition of tearing down family to build up the others. Looking into the past gives foresight as to why they operate the way they do now. This show is not mentioned in thud British papers because the BRF going back to George V is getting a black eye. It may explain the embiggening.
Can’t we trade her in for the real FFQC Rose Who yet? She might do some work.
The Fail had a story that the queen is so upset about the recent divorces she is banking on the Cambridge marriage to stay together- and the story is no longer on the site.
Interesting, they have done that a few times, write something then delete it. Like the article about William and Kate doing their first engagement TOGETHER IN MONTHS!. Seems like a threat.
Everything comes in 3’s, there will be another royal divorce/separation within the year. Given that it’s been 2 lower ranking couples, the final one has to be a biggie.
It took 8 YEARS to come up with that nonsense survey? I’m glad I’m not a British taxpayer. We have enough of our own moochers here in the White House but at least they should be gone soon. (Hoping and praying, anyway)
8 years for 5 questions? That’s suppose to be a good thing. It sounds rather embarrassing, she could have trained to be a doctor in the same amount of times. The bar is set so low for her. I noticed she’s now ‘exhausted’ apparently cos she worked a whole two weeks all because of big bad Meghan stealing harry away with her.
L M F A O
They make her sound like a spy! 🎼 Secret agent Kate🎼
Blimey Camila is so far up Kate’s a$$ that she cant see how embarrassingly pathetic she sounds🤦♀️How spends 8+yrs to come up with a 5questions survey??!!!
How embarrassing.
She and her equally dimwitted husband really found each other, as much there is love about the UK I hope this family just implodes into oblivion.
Unrelated to this article, what is it with this site insisting that Kate is all over plastic surgery and botox? Nothing plastic or frozen in the pictures above, wrinkles all over like most of us, professional make up and facials can work short term miracles.
She goes through obvious phases of botox use. When she’s planning on getting pregnant, she tapers the botox.
The lines going down her nose are bunny tracks, one of the most obvious signs of botox use. Besides botox and fillers fade and need to be redone every six weeks or so. Because she’s been seen once a week for about four weeks, it’s close to the tail end and we will see a touch up shortly.
Megan Markle was the BEST thing that ever happened to Waity-Katie…you notice how we don’t even call her that anymore? Admittedly, it was beginning to taper down but it completely stopped when Megan showed up. Even around here we stopped calling her that too! Now she’s “Princess Kate, HRH who can’t put a bad foot forward” or whatever the f&ck that phrase is that they now use repeatedly.
We should start calling her “Look the other way-tie Katie” , this isn’t love or commitment to the RF, it’s straight up being a doormat in order to maintain her cushy lazy lifestyle on the backs of UK citizens!
and even “kind” Kate seems to be getting pushed as a narrative. How kind are you when you say nothing while your sil is totally being trashed and you say Nothing.
I don’t know Kate’s personality. Like I think I get Pippa’s, Carole’s, Meghan’s, Camilla’s but when I think about it Kate “the delicate English rose” was officially a social climber and bullet-proof, any offence thrown at her – she survived.
What struck me is that she seems so friendly but she officially doesn’t like the York’s sisters, didn’t get along with Chelsy, Cressida or Meghan.
Was there any woman connected or in the BFF that Kate liked or supported? Because I find it quite telling.
She’s not a woman’s woman. She’s a handmaiden. A literal patriarchal princess. Her decision to sit back while pregnant Meghan was being dehumanized by the media was so darn lowdown, dirty, and shameful. She said not a word and happily basked in her white princess privilege at great cost to Meghan. I have not an ounce of respect for her. But you never win when you’re dirty, to quote Nene Leakes. I increasingly feel that she’ll never grab the brass ring. She’ll never be queen consort. Either because the young generation won’t stand for the royal nonsense and get rid of them. Or, more likely, William will eventually get tired of tired of being in a dead marriage and will drop her.
No. None that I can think of. It is said that she sees all women as competition. She doesn’t really have any female friends. The ones she did have in University were dropped when she started to date William. I have also heard the RF doesn’t really like her.
Kate is literally threatened by her own shadow just in case William tries to have sex with it Lol! But she really sees all women as a threat to her and is so used to taking down anything that threatens her position, she doesn’t know how to co-exist with another women within her orbit.Even if there were no other women left on the planet, it isn’t gonna make William love her more.
There was this story about a woman approaching William in a club and Kate acted like a bodyguard. How sad. If someone wants to cheat he’ll.
You know what they say
When the media puts you on top there is only one way to go from there.
They are under pressure now and the will have to deliver consistently from now.
The Media will turn on her they always do, it’s just a matter of time.
I already see on DF the comments against her and monarchy.
Why does the Duchess of Cambridge needs PR? She has 95% of 20 to 30 percent of the voting population in the UK. This is the exact amount that is needed to win an election in a ideological divided state. She has it hands down – by unnecessary , unfair comparisons to the ‘outsider’.
I am afraid that’s all she will get Being Queen Consort is much more than being a commercial influencer.
As mentioned above the 5 questions were lifted from a child development 101 textbook. This is plagiarism just like the student who lifts the text for a paper due the next day. And then swears they have worked on it all semester. Its obvious, shallow and it will always haunt her.
well.. that is what you get for being stuck up for 8 years! you come out with basic ass questions. should have engaged with the experts on that kate~
Here is the DM story about the queen’s feels about the Cambridge marriage.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8015375/amp/The-Queen-struggles-idea-divorce-royal-expert-claims.html
Yep Will and Kate are under the gun to have the perfect marriage. Wiiiam can have sidepieces allover the UK and Kate can’t say boo.