Historically, the Duchess of Cambridge has never enjoyed doing events with a full media scrum. I genuinely think that she gets really nervous as soon as she sees the phalanx of photographers, videographers and royal reporters. Which is why Kensington Palace has always taken extraordinary steps to stage-manage Kate’s events in particular – if they can get her to do something, anything in public (which usually involves bribery of new coatdresses and jewelry), she prefers to just be photographed by an in-palace photographer or some friendly Getty photojournalist, and then the palace releases carefully selected photos. So it is with Kate’s pandemic events – the palace has used the pandemic and a public health crisis to “manage” Kate’s handful of public events thus far. Events are embargoed for media for days, and then the royal reporters can only cover the events using palace-selected photos and using a palace-endorsed narrative.
So it is with Kate’s “endorsement” of the BBC’s Tiny Happy People platform – the photos were released by the palace and the event was closed to the media except for Kate’s (rehearsed) interview with the BBC. The headlines are all palace-approved – stuff about Kate’s “golden bronde” highlights, her “chic” £1,565 Emilia Wickstead dress, and of course the quotes from Kate’s BBC interview are entirely written by some palace speechwriter.
On her kids as bottomless pits: ‘My children have bottomless pits. I feel like a constant feeding machine for them. Louis doesn’t understand social distancing, he goes out wanting to cuddle everything, particularly any babies younger than him.’ She later added that Prince Louis has taken to running everywhere, saying: ‘If you put Louis down, he’s off’.
The BBC’s Tiny Happy People initiative: ‘So much focus, particularly during pregnancy and when you have a newborn baby, is the physical development. But what I found was missing was the support on how to further their emotional and mental development… And it’s that bit that I think you really need the support.’
Stressful lockdown: ‘It’s been challenging. Some parts have been really positive, spending extra time with the kids, everything like that, but it is equally stressful. You are in confined spaces… And having to home school, that was a challenge. I always had a respect for teachers before, but now I have a newfound respect for them.’
The stress of getting back to work: ‘How do you extend that umbilical cord from having had that precious time together? I know from a personal perspective, having all that extra time together as a family, but then being able to step back again and go back to how things were. It’s really hard for lots of families.’
I feel like two theories can be true at once. One theory is that Kate actually did spend so much time with the kids and she found it really stressful to home-school and entertain them and feed them constantly, day after day, with William not really helping out that much. The second theory is that this is just more “normal middle class” cosplay from the Cambridges, trying to show us that they’re Just Like Us.
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.
I think rich people often don’t really understand what “stressful” means.
@gr, right?!?! As if she’s the one constantly prepping meals and snacks for her kids, or entertaining them with the 150th round of hide and seek. Then again, I imagine hide and seek is a lot more fun in Anmer with all the unnecessary rooms. So many new places to hide.
She has no clue what normal folks facing economic uncertainty and community/racial conflict are going through. So many of us are in survival mode right now, and the trauma is so deep and widespread.
When she talked about “confined spaces” I rolled my eyes. Sorry, were you super confined in your country mansion with your pool and tennis court and acres of land? Was it hard with the nanny and the cook and the housekeeper etc?
I get that even for rich people, the pandemic/shutdown was hard. But there is a lack of self-awareness here. For example, Reese Witherspoon makes some comments about it being hard but I feel like its always very carefully worded. She knows being confined in her Beverly Hills mansion with her pool etc is very different from the average person.
I would like her to bring her family and live in my 3 bedroom bungalow for a few weeks. We are lucky enough to have a good sized yard, but no pool or tennis court. No cooks, nannies or housekeepers. She can also try and plan her grocery shops around her husband’s schedule (oh, he’s a health care provider with the homeless/addicted/mental health problems and has no schedule other than work 10-12 hours a day) and when the shops are open since many of them have shortened hours now. Sure Kate, you and William are just like us! I too will be getting my hair done for the first time in 5 months tomorrow – but no fancy golden blonde highlights for me – just a cut as that isn’t worth it for my health or my hairdressers’.
My first thought at reading “confined spaces” was basically bitch sit down you live in a mansion on an estate. And there is no acknowledgement of all the space she and her family does have. That’s how out of touch the palace speech writers are here.
I still can’t believe the palace releases those open mouth braying photos thinking they are good to use. She looks foolish and there are so many of them like that. I have to wonder what the bad photos look like.
“When she talked about “confined spaces” I rolled my eyes. Sorry, were you super confined in your country mansion with your pool and tennis court and acres.”
YES!!! What is she talking about?
I honestly thought Kaiser picked out those photos because they were the worst ones available of Kate, the Braying Princess. To find out that the palace released them on purpose is a head-scratcher.
Correction : she lives in a sprawling mansion/estate WITHIN an actual palace. #confinedspaces
@Harper. These pics of Catherine are the greatest we’ve had in a while, actually. She might have been ordered by mamma Carole to practice in front of the mirror. So it appears that the contrived plastic smile that would emerge through her threateningly carnivorous set of clenched teeth, has given way to some imperfectly compassionate Meghan-inspired opening of the mouth and gentle baring of the choppers. Let’s be fair here and acknowledge it when top CEO efforts pay off, okay.
Kate always made those exaggerated expressions from the time she started dating william.
Some families have issues affording to buy food. She’s totally clueless and out of touch. And full of herself.
I don’t think this is quite fair. I am also over rich people telling me about their stress because their stress is definitely a different stress than survival stress. However, Meghan is a rich person and we still acknowledged her stress. ..especially when she cried in her interview about her postpartum experience. Rich people still have familial and work relationships and their relationship with the public that may be stressful but i understand the eye-rolling when they’re like, “Its so hard to figure out if i should let the maid in to clean the house because she’s one of the poors who might be infected.”
That was how I interpreted the comment – not that in general, rich people don’t understand “stress,” but that in THIS particular situation, Kate’s idea of “stressful” is probably not the same as most of ours.
Which is just one more thing that shows she’s utterly out of touch. Her concept of stress is not what most people are dealing with and her speech writers can’t articulate a way for her to look like she even understands a tenth of what the peasants have to deal with in on a daily basis right now n
Quoting Escondista:
“I don’t think this is quite fair. I am also over rich people telling me about their stress because their stress is definitely a different stress than survival stress. However, Meghan is a rich person and we still acknowledged her stress. ..especially when she cried in her interview about her postpartum experience.”
Let’s be honest, Meghan wasn’t ‘crying’ about just any postpartum experience. She spoke about the challenges involved in being a new Mom while at the same time being trashed from here to kingdom come 24/7 by the British tabloids. To boot, Meghan was in a new country while her mother and many of her friends were thousands of miles and an ocean away.
Meghan & Harry spoke out about their tabloid and ‘gray men’ struggles in their own words, with due caution, and as forewarning to the royal firm that something would have to give. Harry threw down the gauntlet, saying in no uncertain terms that he refused to play games with the media. M&H drawing a line in the sand, and speaking up with courage and grace is totally different from Kate carrying on about her pandemic challenges, and not even in her own words.
As well, Meghan did not complain about all that she went through being dragged through the mud and having her character misrepresented throughout her pregnancy. Nor did Meghan beef about her baby son being depicted as a chimp after his birth. Talk about stress. Plus, we really don’t know about those final weeks when Meghan was overdue, and finally she had to be admitted to the hospital. They will keep the details to themselves, as they should. The tabloids would love to have a field day with the details.
Meanwhile, everyone has always shown Kate respect during each of her pregnancies, particularly in the early stages when she suffers from the gravidarum complication.
Did you know that wealthy, self made people have the highest suicide rate of any profession? No stress – really? You are so presumptuous.
Statistics, please. And notations of research, please. Because your statement @Clarissa is ungoogle-able as it stands. Too general. What profession, exactly is “wealthy, self made”….yeah, no Darlin’ please sit down. Your statement is pure bull-pucky …….. unless/until you show receipts. Thanks!
I just can’t with this woman. All the talk about pregnancy and early childhood development well being and yet she and her other half put her sister in law through so much stress. For someone who is being pushed onto the front pages so often, she is just so forgettable.
Yes, kids, kids, kids, kids … and more kids. Again, it’s the only “talent” she has.
I was just going to say the same thing Elizabeth. The complete lack of support for her sister-in-law during her pregnancy and after birth, no one from the family denounced that sickening photo of Archie as a chimp, really undermines any thing she has to say about maternal support or maternal mental/emotional health.
I think she plays her strength well. She seems like a good mother who genuinely loves children.
I wish she had shown compassion to Little Archie. If she genuinely loves children she would not have excluded Archie.
I’ll never understand why they saddled their poor child with Louis Mountbatten’s name. Surely they knew.
Also, the Cambridge shtick is all about not working so they can be with their children
Kate won’t work during their school breaks so spending so much time with them should have been exactly what they wanted. If not, then they should work more while the kids are in school.
Right?! That’s such a weird choice to name a child after. Theoretically, it’s a nod to how much he meant to Charles as a mentor, but especially considering that Charles & William aren’t that close, it’s odd. God forbid they have another son & name him after Jimmy Savile.
@Lizzie Bathory
I know who Louis Mountbatten was, but who is Jimmy Seville and what did he do?
(American here)
@MerlinsMom1018 Jimmy Savile was a prominent radio & TV personality who was good friends with Prince Charles (as well as many other prominent people) & was well known for charity fundraising in the UK. His “eccentricities” were mostly overlooked during his life, but after his death in 2011, many allegations of sexual abuse came out. Apparently, he had sexually abused hundreds people over decades. The NHS (for which he did charitable work) determined that he had abused staff & patients between ages 7 & 75. And then there was the necrophilia…. It is seriously dark stuff & Savile’s friendliness with the BRF looks especially weird in light of the more recent Andrew/Maxwell/Epstein connections.
@Lizzie Bathory
Judasfrigginpriest!!!!!!!!!! I mean…wow.
Those poor people. And Necrophilia????
That’s some twisted stuff right there.
I couldn’t agree more with you about the Andrew/Epstein/Maxwell
connection. It just takes me down a thinking road I would rather not go, but…
Pardon me. Need to go bleach my brain…
William was not even around when Mountbatten was still alive. It seems odd he and Kate would choose Louis as the name. Also Mountbatten wanted Charles to marry Amanda Knatchbull (Mountbatten’s granddaughter) and not Diana, it’s not as if he played matchmaker for William’s parents.
William was not even around when Mountbatten was still alive. It seems odd he and Kate would choose Louis as the name. Also Mountbatten wanted Charles to marry Amanda Knatchbull (Mountbatten’s granddaughter) and not Diana, it’s not as if he played matchmaker for William’s parents.
It’s not a coincidence that Charles just happened to also be friends with a peado too. Apparently everyone knew what jimmy saville was like. One of the queens advisers supported that the age of consent be reduced to just 4 years old, seriously this guy wanted to abuse 4 year olds and he worked for the queen. I feel like the monarchy is just a front for something much darker. The ribbon cuttings is just for show. It’s no place for people with a conscience or have-a-go hero’s. I think Meghan took one look and saw what it was really all about and ran the other way, so did Diana. So the fact kate is still there and still desperate to stay there says everything about her. They are basically the royal mafia.
Good points @Tessa & @February-Pisces. The whole thing is deeply weird. And I’m reminded of that cursed picture of Epstein, Maxwell & Harvey Weinstein hanging out at Princess Beatrice’s 18th(!) birthday party. The Royals seem to surround themselves with abusers. Birds of a feather, I guess.
@MerlinsMom1018 Hope it didn’t put you off your lunch. I assure you it would’ve been worse to google it!
Im also convinced that prince Andrew is exactly what they wanted him to be. He’s very much a product of his environment. Harry isn’t, if you have a heart or empathy for others then you’ve basically gone rogue. Wasn’t it said that the firm were worried that Diana would have too much influence on Willie and harry? They didn’t want her telling them that whatever the royal mafia gets up to was wrong.
@February-Pisces That’s a chilling thought, but it makes so much sense.
Regarding little Louis, it seems that W&K like that name since it’s also one of George’s names. Louis Montbatten definitely has scary, hidden secrets that are known by some but never discussed openly, so it’s unlikely that even Charles, much less the younger royals are fully aware of Mountbatten’s personal secrets. If they are somewhat aware, it’s surely scoffed off and treated as if ‘not true,’ like the York daughters probably deal with their Dad’s current scandal.
So, they probably just like the name. Historically, it’s from the German, Ludwig, and there are a number of Ludwig and Louis ancestors going back to Victoria’s reign.
If they have another daughter, they could name her after Edwina Mountbatten.
Everything about this privileged royal woman is so uninspiring….from her inability to carry out a thoughtful conversation and her ridiculously expensive non-chic wardrobe to her constant gape-mouthed reactions for the camera and sporting that Melaniaesque wig!
#abolishthemonarchy reason no. 1892345873500022
And here I thought she was copying Meghan’s hair.
Well…KatieKeen’s ponytails and minor attempts at a messy bun are Meghan inspired. That ugly fur-piece atop her head is pure Melania down to the awful colour.
In Kate’s defence I think Melania is wearing a ‘Kate’ wig
I don’t care for the new color and surely she does not have THAT much hair, right?
The hair curtains have been reattached.
She wears another dowdy dress and makes those exaggerated faces.
This is definitely just middle-class cosplay from them. It’s like they have been reading twitter accounts or FB statuses to figure out what “normal” parents are saying and just regurgitate it.
Kate has always used the kids as an excuse not to work, so what was probably the worst part of the pandemic for her was being expected to do two zoom meetings a week.
ITA. You can almost see the wheels turning her head: “have to say something relatable to the middle class.”
I only understood half of what she said with the marbles in her mouth. I just can’t with her phony smiles and performative enthusiasm.
That was exactly my reaction. It sounds like she has marbles in her mouth!
Just burn those darn shoes!!!!
Wow. Here we have some faux humblebragging. Your second theory is bang on, Kaiser.
I’ll go with Option B, cosplay.
When you feed them nothing but chutney and mild curry, they’ll be hungry all the time.
(Yes I know the cook has a more developed menu but she’s so hands on y’all)
This is an underrated comment.
lolll it’s true probably having to ‘feast’ on cucumber sandwhiches and carrot stick as well, since i heavily doubt she can cook 😭😭😭
Their middle-class cosplay is getting really tiresome…
Constrained space ha! I think the speechwriter forgot they were writing for Kate.
“You’re in a confined space”? Honey you were isolating on a country estate, with miles worth of land.
Kate, you mean apart from the nannies, housekeeper, cooks etc. Apart from them, you’re doing it all. And some people fall for that!
Why would someone as young as Louis understand social distancing?
Some parenting issues are universal – there’s no denying that. But Kate has one full time nanny at least, works a few hours a day (if that), has a massive garden, her paycheck/livelihood was barely affected during the pandemic and she never has to worry about cleaning the house or putting food on the table.
How many other households can admit to having that kind of help? Now, I’m sure there are some universal pandemic experiences like the kids missing their friends, missing school or not being able to see grandparents. I won’t deny that. But rich people need to stop acting like they had the same pandemic experience as the rest of us. No we didn’t.
Rant over.
If she (and William, where is he?) were such busy parents, they would have better stories to tell.
To be fair, in her position, I would also be very controlling over how I want to be portrayed or seen, including some liberal Photoshopping if I could swing it! It’s a privilege that most people do not enjoy.
However, given that extreme privilege, access to the best stylists and advisors, and years of preparation, it’s pretty tone-deaf to spotlight her struggles, rather than those if the parents she supposedly wants to help. Even if her anecdotes are true, they come across as fake!
I admire her hair game and am a bit jealous. And I have really good hair so that’s new for me. Hers is great though.
She wears hair pieces so it’s not too hard to achieve.
It’s so hard to tell whether it’s real or cosplay because everything they say is so generic! Without any specific details it’s equally plausible that it’s true or total bs.
She needs a new PR team. This message of “look at my highlights and new dress while I pretend to know struggle” just makes her look like a complete phony and so out of touch with what’s going on in the lives of the non-wealthy.
How refreshing would it be if a Celeb/royal came out and said something like “it’s truly hard for me to empathize with what most people are struggling with because we are a more fortunate family than most. We feel for those who are having trouble putting food on the table and are working with _______ organization to give to those who really need it during this time.” I’m just SO over her schtick.
Matt Damon did that in a radio interview when he and his family were locked down in Ireland. He was supposed to be working for a few months so they had tutors with them. He acknowledged that they were so lucky.
I agree, the first news reports I saw of this event only spoke about her new hair color, new hair cut and her (way overpriced) dress, nothing about the actual event. If this was me I would be so embarrassed that my hair and clothes were all that people noticed about me and yes, I would be doing what I could to immediately change that perception.
Oh. Hmmmm. Maybe she should turn that feeding machine on herself. That’s all I got.
@Jaded
A bit of empathy for someone who may be struggling with an eating disorder would be nice particularly as you have witnessed this first hand from someone you love.
Sorry if I came across as too harsh. I do have empathy, but it also makes me angry when I see someone who needs help. You’d think William would be more concerned, given what his mother went through in her struggles with eating disorders. I mean it when I say Kate should turn the feeding machine on herself. It’s very apparent that she is struggling and unable to cope with the pressures of being under the spotlight of the media and BRF, not to mention being married to an utter jerk.
Wearing a new $3000 dress for stepping out of the house while so many are struggling to survive is just wasteful and tone deaf.
Total cosplay. 100%
My only thing that gives her allowance is that even though she’s a Royal now she does come from a middle-class upbringing so she can legitimately talk like this. She knows how her parents raised her and what it is to come from a middle class home. And some of that she is emulating, rather than cosplay. Now, if you told me William was cosplaying middle-class – that I could believe more. But not so much Kate. That’s part of what she brings and why Wills fell in love and married her. I wonder if she can look at it from the outside in and see that too?
Her mother wanted all her children to advance socially. I think William settled for her, and Kate had the advantage of her mother having “little talks” with William about Kate’s “future” and how “Devoted” Kate is to him and so on and so forth. William also during the wait to decide to marry Kate or not was exploring other marital options for himself. Apparently he was turned down by other prospects. I don’t see this as the stuff of Great Love.
Considering she came from a less affluent background she shows a remarkable inability to actually understand regular folk because she would not be making dumb statements about confined spaces if she had a clue. The Middletons certainly had access to money and while probably not as rich as they claim to be, they were not on food stamps. All the kids went to fancy schools and just happened to be not as rich as the richest kids, but Kate was never poor or even working class. And Carole’s struggle for the tiara also made Kate work on erasing any connection to not being posh, including her accent.
Maybe she is William’s idea of middle class, but she was never actually middle class. She’s been a basic rich girl all along. No one else could afford to not work in their entire 20s.
I’m more bothered that Kate cosplays the middle class lifestyle when she has spent her whole life trying to be anything but middle class. She has all the benefits of being a spoilt rich girl never working a day in her life whilst her family paid funded her for ten years whilst she partied and holidayed. She basically no different to Paris Hilton but no where near as rich. Yet they play the ‘were just life you’ card when it suits them. Don’t even get me started on how the middletons managed to fund their rich lifestyle.
If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d think she was raised by game show hosts.
Really? At this point Kate’s lived a privileged lifestyle longer than a middle class one. She was already living it up in her college days. And like February Pisces said, this is a woman who actively tries to distance herself from the middle class designation. It’s clear that the digs at her not-so-posh background in Tatler were extremely humiliating for her and her family. I think she truly is just cosplaying at this point.
Royal children consume food! Radical confession shocks the world!
lol it’s funny because you know keen stans are gonna be jumping all over this talking about how inspirational this was 🙄
Not everyone has to be a star but she should be so much better.
Instead, she’s spent ten years of drifting along on a sea of buttons content with her own incompetence.
“Instead, she’s spent ten years of drifting along on a sea of buttons content with her own incompetence.” Exactly this!!!
She looks like she’s drowning in that sea of hair.
WTF is that new pet on her head? The wiglet looks like it’s back, and it’s a literal fur crown on top of new highlights and a very bad attempt to copy both Melania and Meghan in one go.
I just watched the episode of Season 3 of the Crown (yeah, I’m way behind!) wherein Prince Philip is universally savaged for whining about having to sell the royal yacht and that is what this interview reminded me off.
The new hair alone is controversial during these times, lets alone how out of touch she is.
The women has no clue about how to read the room!! This self pity nonsense is nauseating and her always talking about taking care of the kids (implying its only HER responsibility) makes her seem so subservient. She talks as if she doesnt have a live in nanny+housekeeper and other staff🙄
The whole thing is a joke. Afte a decade as a royal, she still cant do a quick interview without rehearsals+heavily edited footage. Even their stan max foster barely managed to get a random full sentence (he loves using it for his cnn promo)🤦♀️
Always talking about herself, this is subliminal showing off. Britian has made her think everyone wants to know about HER life. Why not ask questions to other people. Does she even care about anyone but herself and her family, smh. Embarrassing to be 38 and behave like this, embarrassmetn for young girls to see woman behave like this. She thinks it’s cute.
The comment about confined spaces landed with a thud, but what really annoyed me were the remarks about so much focus being put on children’s physical development, and that Kate thinks the bit that really needs support is the emotional and mental development, and complaints about how much her children eat. This when latest UK figures reveal that children under 16 admitted to hospital for malnutrition have risen to 2500, more than double last year, in just 6 months, (see the Guardian) and the government had to be shamed by a young footballer into extending emergency lunches throughout the holidays to feed starving children at risk. I feel angry when I read this sort of thing. Kate is not responsible for feeding all the kids in Broken Britain, but she could be doing something more than this. Meghan would, and has. The disparity between who gets to eat and who doesn’t due to accident of birth is just ….I have no words.
It seems to me that Kate is making a great effort to be more animated in speaking. I have found her so dull, and as Kaiser said, her accent can cut glass. I can’t understand her half the time. They are working on her. Should have done so a long time ago. Every day on my phone, I find the most petty derogatory articles about Harry and Meagan, and every day scores of tidbits about Kate…..all glowing.
You can’t fake charisma and genuineness. People are drawn to that. Many times I am mesmerized by a picture of Kate, her face frozen in a rector of glee. Did I use the word correctly? Rector. Spell check said rector…I thought it was rictor. Anyway, you get the point. Not genuine.
The Kate sugars express true anger and wrath when someone does not say Kate is perfect or down to earth or stunning yet they are the same ones who name call Meghan.