There are honestly so many funny things about the “Statesman Bill” branding that Prince William is attempting these days. First of all, he completely bungled his “first public statement” about the coronavirus when he and Kate were in Ireland. He was on the record and on camera laughing about the virus to emergency responders and making “jokes” about how he and Kate were carriers and that everyone was going to die, har har.
Prince William joked about the deadly coronavirus outbreak during a royal visit to Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse in Ireland on Tuesday https://t.co/chcqqO0OdK pic.twitter.com/ygyELE1ous
— TIME (@TIME) March 4, 2020
After that, their next move was scrambling to throw together a video just hours after the SussexRoyal Instagram posted the royals’ first formal, public statement about the virus. Then came the absolutely ridiculous photo-op at an emergency call center, wherein Will and Kate stood too close to healthcare workers and distracted them from their jobs just so W&K could get a photo-op. Is this Statesman Behavior? Because it seems like an SNL skit.
And here’s another piece of information adding to the SNL skit titled Statesman Bill: buried at the end of a Vanity Fair article about what various royals are doing as they all self-isolate in various countrysides, VF mentions that William joked about how much TV he was going to watch while isolating. Wait until you see to whom William was speaking.
Most of the royals have left London. Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will spend the time at Birkhall, his home in Scotland, while Prince William and Kate Middleton have taken their family to Amner Hall, their house on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. So while the couple is still planning on engaging with first responders and emergency workers—they made the first such “no-touch” visit on Friday—they will also be helping their older children Prince George and Princess Charlotte with virtual lessons until their school begins Easter break this week.
Otherwise, Kate and Will are probably going to pass the time just like the rest of us. “I think we are all going to have a lot of TV to watch in the next few weeks,” he said to a group of responders at Friday’s visit.
Fam, I’m laughing my ass off. Put this on my tombstone: “‘I think we are all going to have a lot of TV to watch in the next few weeks,’ he said to a group of responders at Friday’s visit.” The same overworked first responders who are pulling double shifts, the same first responders who are overworked and tired and literally trying to save lives in a global pandemic. And William chose to go Full Bloke, huh? “Well, at least we’ll catch up on our favorite shows on the telly, amirite?”
PS… I wrote this last night, before the news about Prince Charles testing positive for the coronavirus. William’s “Regency PR” is particularly gross at the moment, but it’s especially noteworthy considering he is SO BAD at it.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.
He’s awful
Bwahahahahaha 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
He’s so out of touch with reality it’s incredible. Moron
Yikes. He is really, really bad at this stuff.
Completely tone deaf and oblivious to the situation and environment around him. My God, such poor taste and lack of thinking to joke about it while “on the job” and then his response to the people working the front line. Good grief.
I think that he just doesn’t have the foggiest idea how to carry out his duties and connect with people. That is a trait that cannot be learned. No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to do it. Just like his wife cannot be a Queen Latizia or Queen Maxima when it comes to her wardrobe.
He’s incapable of empathy, and it shows. He couldn’t really put himself in the place of the first responders and feel how they must be feeling and respond accordingly. He can only feel for himself.
I agree he has no empathy. He just needs to close his mouth. He’s like Trump 👎🏽
Think of other people, William.
Never mind media training. They all need lessons in empathy.
It also shows how immature and out of touch William is. No work from home concerns? Nothing about continuing to stay in touch with his charities? Charles’ charities received letters from him. What will William and Kate’s charities receive?
No contact with or help from their royal patrons. But is that really different from normal?
Charities, what’s a charity? Like I said yesterday, he totally lacks brains and empathy. Their charities are just a bothersome waste of time to both Keens, taking them away from what they really care about, shopping, vacationing and tending to rose bushes. So sick of them!
Or he and his wife could be putting in the time to support their charities from home like other royals are doing at the moment.
See, this is where Meghan could have helped this tone-deaf family. She’s been out in
the real world, worked real jobs, and lived paycheck to paycheck. She would have brought valuable insight into how to engage in a more relatable way. Alas due to jealousy. it was not to be.
Exactly. I made a comment on another story about how the BRF actively work against themselves by sabotaging and freeze out the member who are actually good at engaging with people, who are able to write a new script for the monarchy.
That’s because the ones who are actually good at it aren’t the royals (or aren’t the “right” royals), and it’s not far from that fact to “well what so we need those leeches for?”
@Aurora, well said! I have come to the realisation that, William is not particularly bright, compared to Harry. He is future King because of the order of birth, so arbitrary! Compare his speeches with Harry’s, even before Meghan. The Press has been covering up for him, because he and his wife give them leakes. PC told his sons about his test, and what did we hear, all week; Prince Regent! A leak? We wish Prince Charles, a speedy recovery.
I mean, it doesn’t surprise me at all, why would we think that he would be in touch with ‘normal’ people? It is more surprising when someone from this kind of background seems to have empathy and vision about how average people live!
Except that I remember Diana making a point of taking her boys out to meet disadvantaged people in an effort to teach them about empathy and “real life”. She saw how cosseted the BRF is like – wrapped in cotton wool. Harry obviously learned those lessons but, as the heir to the heir, it didn’t sink into Willnot’s pathetic little head. SMH
I honestly think Diana meant well and really tried but the reason she was so beloved was that she had empathy. Buckets of it. Nobody taught her that, it was just her character and personality and one of her problems was that she didn’t understand how that family had so little of it. She tried to teach her boys but really, she had too little time and I would imagine those trips into the real world must have seemed like trips to the zoo. I doubt that there’s a lot you can do if someone’s born into that world without much empathy. Harry probably just has it, like his mother. William obviously does not and nobody even tried after his mother died. And it’s doubtful anyone could have succeeded.
No, remember as a young man William slept rough. And he was making regular trips to homeless shelters. Diana taught him well.
However, I strongly suspect the chief witch (HM) put a stop to all that. Charles, as the single parent, certainly didn’t help in that regard either.
He did that once and frankly, it doesn’t really count when you have a frickin protection officer. And a few trips to shelters when that is literally your job does not mean her efforts were successful. I’m not shitting on Diana but she was naive to think there was any way to truly show them how the rest of the world lives. She understood because she was that person. You can’t teach emotional intelligence to someone who is the MOST privileged.
I thought they were going to shift their work to the coronavirus and put all other work on the back burner, even if they were staying home? Whats that you say? No? They’re just going to watch lots of TV? they’re not going to continue working behind the scenes?
Sounds about right.
He’s such a prime example of what happens to someone when they are born believing they are superior to others just because. He probably never considers his audience and whether a joke is actually funny bc probably, outside of a very small circle who “may” be honest with him, people always laugh at his jokes.
Joking about watching TV isn’t bad in itself, its the fact that he was joking with first responders that makes it so bad.
He has to stop trying to make joke because that only underlines his disconnection, his stupidity and his arrogance. Most people do not stay at home doing nothing, there are children to take care of, the housekeeping, shopping then people who are telecommuting, and all the students who have to continue studying for they final exams ( my universtity have decide to make final exams to distance if the confinement will continued to May).Then you often forget that not every home has the means to have television or internet. He don’t realised he makes his joke to people who have to continued to work with a greater workload than usual.
It just shows how amazing Harry is.
“Dolt.” Neither Wee Willie nor his Middleton wife can hide their expressions. He appears oblivious, she appears bored.
He’s working very hard at getting into that “let them eat cake” infamous exclusive club.
➕💯 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
He’s done this a good few too many times now. He tries to make a joke and/or come off as relatable. But he doesn’t have the charm to pull it off therefore it comes of as weird and doesn’t make sense at best and tone deaf and stupid at worst
His “joke” are just insults. He thinks he is hysterical but isn’t. He definitely lacks empathy and common sense.
There’s always a passive-aggressive quality to his “jokes”. personally, I find that extremely off-putting. He isn’t funny and he should just stop trying to be.
So much like his dear Grandpappa Phillip
He’s been attending Prince Phillip School of Humour, apparently, and Granny Liz School of Empathy. Great schooling there.
Too true.
I say handle this as if it were any other ‘job’. If you’re faced with employees who work in P.R., but don’t have a natural sense of empathy and charisma that enables them to do their jobs well and consistently dislike being ‘forced’ to be adequate at it, then give the job to somebody who wants it, or eliminate the position.
This isn’t like any other job. They can’t just “fire” William nor can they make someone else be King in his place.
What he needs is PR training. Not everyone has charisma but he needs to be told when and how to say certain things and what things are actually appropriate to say
I’m sure that would go just as well as his pilot training.
In other words, as long as someone else was doing the actual work, he’d be fine.
SNL Statesman Bill. “Oh, noooooooooo”. That’s all i get from these two.
This coupled with his corona joke earlier this month (that are going viral btw)…….it’s not looking too cute for you William. He needs to tighten up. Maybe less talk (honestly try not taking at all) and more listening?
For someone who fetishizes normal so much, he has no idea of what normal people are experiencing now.
Have either of them ever worked a full shift, let alone double shifts for days on end, in an actual job?
They need to do what they’ve been practicing for the past fifteen years – hiding away and doing no work.
Can you imagine training for a job your whole life and being SO BAD at it?
That depends on how much training William has actually done.
Even if he had received training, would he have listened? He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. He can’t read a room or situation to form the proper response.
Remember, this is the guy who boasted about not reading his briefing notes, and was quite proud of that. I doubt he’d take the training too well.
He looks like a thumb. That’s all I’ve got.
I think it was commenter Andrew’s Nemesis who came up with an even more fitting (and hilarious) description. Something to do with male genitalia.
I honestly believe Wills is stunted at the age he was when Diana died. He has the emotional maturity of a spoiled 15-year-old. No work seems to be done on improving Wills’ character after Diana’s death; instead the emphasis was all on allowing him to be as normal as possible within the confines of his role. All the empathy was directed toward him, and they went too soft on him to keep him from cracking. So now we have this perfect example of a Covidiot.
And Kate is no better. She is stunted at whatever age she was when the pressure of avoiding being known as “the girl Prince William dumped” took over her entire existence, cancelling out any other natural curiosities and interests that shape a late teen-early twenty-something. That’s why we get the vacant stare when she’s forced to look empathetic at anything beyond her limited interests.
The next few weeks should prove very interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if others in their circle–any of the Middleton clan or even Wills or Kate tests positive. Then who will be laughing about watching television between coughing fits and chest pains?
Not being in Britain, it feels kind of weird to accuse just him of being such a dumbo. Is the whole of Britain acting this way as well? Either way, he needs an adult to step in a la Trump. Even though Fauci has already been booted I’m sure. These people can’t handle actual diplomacy for such real problems that aren’t wrapped in bows.
I think you mean Cuomo. Some of the US governors have been great.
Sorry, but Trump is a menace. First he tried to spin it as fake news. Then as “not our problem” and “not that bad.” Now he wants businesses to reopen by an arbitrary date deemed way too soon by the medical experts. That is not “leading” (or not leading any place good).
I think David might have meant that Trump needed someone to step in and be the adult (Fauci).
OMG he’s trying to be like Harry in the way of joking and such except he fails at is because he can’t read a freaking room. Harry knows when to joke around and went actually listen and care.
My country has shut down for a week now and quarantine is so hard and this dolt is joking about it. I haven’t seen my family in over a month and God knows when this will end. I worry about my 68 year old parents and my 80 year old grandmother, who lives alone. Or my brother who still has to go work (he’s a doctor) and expose himself and his wife to the virus. Or my sister who will be out of work, and income, for the foreseeable future.
That exchange in Ireland is a result of not having a script or going off script. Now it is clear. It is what it is.
I saw these comments written out and I thought it was a joke – seeing here that he really said them…. so sad…
How two brothers can be so remarkably different never ceases to amaze me. I suspect that William’s way of dealing with the trauma of his parents’ ugly separation and divorce, then his mother’s death, was to create a hard, angry shell around himself where he simply stopped maturing emotionally. It’s like he has arrested development from the time he was a snotty, self-obsessed teenager and stayed permanently in the tunnel. Most of us come out of our teen angst years just fine but not William.
Then there’s Harry, who for so long struggled with the aftermath but went in the other direction – a bit of self-destructive and immature behaviour but then realized he needed to deal with life head on, have a career, do good, and get a handle on his mental/emotional problems and “acting out”. Luckily he found a woman who has been with him lock-step ever since and brings out the best in him.
Too bad jealousy and spite raised its many-tentacled head and their relationship is now pretty much irremediable. The four of them could have been such a force for change. Oh well, Harry and Meghan will continue outshining the Cambridges once this godawful time is over while William and Kate continue digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole.
This man has literally had 15 years (giving him credit for university) to do nothing but prepare to be a “statesman”, during which time he has shown himself to be lazy, workshy and absolutely incompetent at PR. By the time he was William’s age, Prince Charles had established the Princes’ Trust after serving in both the RAF and RN and graduating from university. A few years younger, Prince Harry created two charities and served in the army for 10 years. CP Victoria has a BA, interned at the Swedish Embassy in DC, went through the diplomatic training program in Sweden, the basic military program and studied agriculture and business. King Felipe has a Master’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown, trained with the Spanish navy, army and air force, and was a member of the Spanish sailing team at the Barcelona Olympics. Victoria and Felipe speak multiple languages, including English and French. Charles has authored many books and established Duchy Originals as a profitable enterprise.
Exactly what qualifies William to be a “statesman”, aside from being born first into the right family? Unlike others born in his position, he has done nothing to show he cares one lick about being good at the job he was destined for.
Thank you Paddingtonjr!!
Yes to all of this comment. This is such a thoughtful response. When compared to his peers, William has accomplished very little and has shown no ability to be ambitious within the confines of his royal role. Maybe he felt everything was predetermined so why bother trying to build anything?
He is terrible at this job. His chosen partner is terrible at this job. I don’t know how the monarchy will survive in this era of so much scrutiny when William is in charge.
Paddingtonjr 👏👏👏
Great points, Paddingtonjr!
Sheesh, compared to other heirs his resume is pretty light. William should take a cue from his great-great grandfather and develop a persona of seriousness and austerity because he is just not relatable. That was Harry’s thing.
HELL NO!😖 I pray to god he spares us this man child! The last thing we need in these turbulent times is a unstable petty jealous couple who do nothing but show up for photographs and manic laughs!!
Wait. Wasn’t William a first responder at some point? He piloted a helicopter ambulance, right? Like very early in the Cambridge marriage? Is this lack of empathy? Or was he ever really a first responder?
Might these overall missteps and bungled PR, coupled with Corvid-19, contribute to the ultimate decline of the UK monarchy?
We can always hope.
Of course, I imagine they wouldn’t want to be stuck with Boris instead.
There is an #abolishthemonarchy hash tag on twitter thats trending in the UK and William is being ripped to shreds over his ‘joke’ about the virus in Ireland. Chuck and TQ are not faring well either.
The royal chickens are starting to come home to roost for them.
For Cain and Unable, the people saw with their own eyes live on TV how they treated the Sussex’s and again their tasteless joking over a pandemic that will claim thousands if not millions of lives. They showed their asses again but this time people took notice.
An anecdote here. Some colleagues of mine were in England for work some months ago. A week after their departure the place they were had to attend William for a training of sorts (he was to train about something, personal stuff I think. Don’t have much details) and the guys there were already telling jokes about him and were really disrespectful. And also they were pissed they had to cater to him. It meant more work and the consensus was that he was an idiot. Their words. My colleagues were surprised as they had another image of him in mind. So yeah, this guy doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to people networking.
How can one be a statesman and heir / king in a constitutional monarchy? The heir and/or monarch has to be apolitical. They cannot be seen as a politician, nevertheless a respected one. His aspiration defies logic.
I’m stunned that they are still so bad at this. There is a HUGE opportunity to talk about areas that are (allegedly) very important to Will and Kate – mental health and early childhood development.
My city has been in lockdown for two weeks now, and this is something on everyone’s minds – how to cope with isolation? How to talk to kids about what is going on?
They could be sharing advice from experts. They could be signal boosting resources for people who need help. They could be sharing or supporting educators and entertainers. If they want to be relatable, they could share stories from quarantine – that seems far-fetched, but a lot of politicians are doing that to encourage ppl to stay home. They could be doing any of these helpful, useful things, but somehow they don’t.