One of funniest side-stories this week is royal reporters being flat-out MAD at Prince William. Like, William and his team clearly thought they were doing a thing by giving that leak to the Sun about how William had coronavirus in April. They thought they were making him sound brave and resilient and like he was prepared to Zoom his fingers to the bone, even on his deathbed. But the reaction has been “why did you cover this up for six months” and “this timeline makes no sense” and “this isn’t the way an heir to the throne should behave.” Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast has yet another takedown of Work-Shy CoronaBill. Some highlights:
Palace officials wouldn’t comment: Mystery surrounded the detail of Prince William’s diagnosis with coronavirus Monday, as royal officials pulled down the shutters and refused to comment on the extraordinary revelation that the second-in-line to the throne was diagnosed with the virus at the beginning of the pandemic, but did not make it public. William’s office at Kensington Palace flatly refused to comment to The Daily Beast on a series of questions sent via email. After confirming the Sun’s initial report to the BBC, the palace went into its well-worn “no comment” mode on Monday, declining even to answer basic questions such as when Prince William was diagnosed with the virus, what treatment he had, whether other senior royals were informed, whether William isolated from his own family at all during his illness, and whether they had contracted the virus.
No one can even figure out when William had the virus: On April 8, William and Kate were together as they carried out their first royal engagement via video call to school children whose parents were frontline workers. From April 9, William took a seven-day break from any public video messages. Although the Sun, which broke the story of William’s infection, did not provide an exact date for when he was diagnosed, it said that William caught the virus “days after” his father, Prince Charles, got it. The media were told of Charles’ diagnosis on April 7. However, by April 23, having made several solo video appearances in the meantime, William was pictured with his family clapping for NHS carers.
Why did the Sun get this exclusive? Confusion also surrounds exactly how the news leaked out. The Sun says that William apparently mentioned his infection in an off the cuff remark at “an engagement.” Again, details of what engagement, or who he spoke to, are opaque.
Jealously guarding their privacy: However, William and Kate are also well known for jealously guarding their privacy and for considering some things “private” and off-limits to the media that royals in the past have had no problem revealing. The author and royal biographer Penny Junor, who has chronicled the lives of all the senior royals (and even their dogs) told The Daily Beast, “It’s obviously very unusual for the royals to keep an illness like this private…I suspect this is William—who jealousy guards his privacy and likes to do thing his own way and likes being control—feeling this was a private matter, a family matter. William will one day be king, that time will come, but at the moment I think he should be allowed to live as normal a life as possible.”
Quoting royal writer Christopher Andersen: “It really defies imagination that the powers-that-be at Buckingham Palace would allow William to keep his COVID-19 diagnosis from the British people at a time when figures like Prince Charles and Boris Johnson were very public about coping with the virus.” Andersen said the “secrecy” risked fueling “all sorts of fantasies and conspiracy theories,” such as that the queen had also been infected. “Had they been smart, palace operatives would have made William’s diagnosis public, which would have further emphasized the fact that this virus is no respecter of class or position,” Andersen said.
Reader, I laughed. I chuckled my way through this. The seething from the royal reporters is truly a thing to behold. Sykes is always good for a pointed comment about which palace is stonewalling, and when he can’t get his sources to talk, he gets other royal commentators to do the heavy lifting. I also like that Sykes zeroed in on the weirdness around WHY and HOW the Sun got this story, supposedly based on an off-the-cuff remark William made at an event, a remark that no one heard but the Sun, and using sources with intimate knowledge of how sick William was six months ago.
As many have said in comments and on Twitter, it does feel like Kensington Palace HAD to release this information, perhaps as a tit-for-tat to avoid the Sun breaking an even bigger story. I’ve said that for months now, that Dan Wootton and the royal beat reporters at the Sun have Bill’s nuts in a vice, especially since it was Wootton who really made the Rose Hanbury story fly. Willileaks has been leaking sh-t to the Sun for a year and a half to avoid the Sun breaking bigger stories. So… was the corona story part of a coverup for something else entirely?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Avalon Red.
PWT leaked it in hopes that the Sussexes would say or do something election related and his new would be lost in the british media losing its shit that the Sussexes dare to meddle in politics.
I agree that his covid test result was given to the media for a reason but not necessarily with the hope that the Sussexes distract from the news. I believe there is a much larger scandal concerning Willileaks someone threatened to expose or maybe a close contact who may have been infected threatened to go to the papers. Heaven knows what it is but it has to be big for KP to offer this bit of information. The fact that the news was broken at around 11pm in the evening, the night before the US elections definitely makes it suspect. The fact that he dragged the queen and the other palaces into it for shared blame is also VERY suspect. Luckily for him most people are indifferent to him and those that do care about the RF know he is not what they would love him to be.
What date did William first begin experiencing symptoms?
When did he get tested and receive his positive result?
When and where did he isolate from his wife and children?
How did he cope with the virus and what treatment, if any, did he require?
When did he start to feel better and when did he get tested again for a negative result?
Did Kate and the children contract the virus too?
Were those he was in contact with informed so they could take the necessary measures?
Simple questions that need answers, yet the palace are refusing to comment any further and Penny thinks Normal Bill is owned as normal a life as possible, despite claiming other members owe their lives to the public on a silver platter. Why mention that he had the virus but not provide even basic details as Charles, the next king, did before? Something stinks. I bet Andrew is happy for a distraction and I hope the Bad Bitches of Montecito keep quiet this week. Let Will have the floor all to himself.
The Daily Mail sidelined the story when comments were not favourable. People were questioning when he isolated and what measures were taken to inform people he was in contact with. It was claimed that he had followed government guidlines but he couldn’t have. He was filmed alongside his wife on two occasions just seven days apart. He should have isolated for 10 days and Kate for 14 days. They would have stayed apart for 14 days if they had followed the rules. With a large house and staff there is no excuse for not isolating.
There’s so much to unpack here. Just like when The Sun broke the news of Kate falling out with her best friend out of the blue for no good reason (seemingly). There is definitely something bigger afoot and I for one can’t wait to hear what it is.
So glad Meg is not there to be their sacrificial lamb anymore. ❤️
was it checked if Rosebush was COVID infected and had some medical assistance – around the same time as willie was infected? It is bizarre that while this leak is happening, he happens to be out of town on on secluded land owned by charles… I think everything possibly revolves around Rosebush.
I wonder if he sneaked off on holiday, either for one of his ‘lads’ weekends’ or for a family trip, perhaps with the Middletons, to Mustique. That would cause a huge outcry when the country had been in lockdown. So maybe there is a threat of this being exposed and the covid story is a cover. The official statement points out that he had a break from engagements via telephone and video for a week (actually 6 days) because of the infection. But a holiday would also be a reason.
It really does defy the imagination that the QE and Charles would allow this to be kept a secret. Which is why I’m convinced William kept this a secret from them too.
Robert Jobson actually knew about this very quickly. He is Charles’ biographer so I think Clarence House leaked it. Charles knows William will throw him under the bus to hide his own dirt and Charles would do the same to his sons.
Ever since Dan Wooton showed up, William has been trying harder to seem close to the Firm and Charles. Using Wotton to keep William in line helps Charles.
I don’t think CH leaked this at all. Jobson only knew because in March/April he (and probably at least another RR) asked KP if William was positive and they told him no. That’s why he was especially angry when the news broke, because he was lied to and could’ve had a story in play at the claimed time of infection. Wootton doesn’t work with Charles, he’s pretty exclusively been linking up with William. I believe William/KP sanctioned this “leak” in order to head off a bigger and more damaging story. I also think it was a last minute hail mary of sorts, given the timing of the news (almost midnight in the UK and conveniently close to the US election).
I think Wooton will work with anyone who gives him access. He even interviewed the Sussex charities to get some information on Meghan and Harry. If he gets close to Charles, he gets a little access back for the Sussexes and now he gets more access to William’s dirt.
Jobson in his tweet stated he had a tip which is why he asked KP and they lied to him. It is possible that staff members caught it and word of that spread.
I still don’t understand why the RR’s are so mad that he lied to them. They have been helping the Cambridges spread lies for three years straight. How did the RR’s think they would be exempt from his lies?
i had the same thought. i dont imagine charles was happy to take all the slack for his diagnosis, while Will got to play future monarch.
With the Sussexes not coming back for the trial we all knew someone was going to be thrown under the bus and I guess Charles decided William could take one for the team.
Yes is the answer to your question, Kaiser. That could be the only reason for releasing his covid diagnosis. And the fact William can’t throw Meghan and Harry under bus anymore when he needs to a distraction. Makes me wonder if he really had covid. I think there will more private revelations in the future because he has no information on them. I think KP’s decision to announce that the Diana statue will be unveiled next year was a signal to press that they will get some Harry and Meghan stories in the run up to the event which is why I’m hoping they don’t attend if the unveiling is public.
I think Charles/Clarence House leaked it. Charles comes out looking good with all of this and he out ranks Bill. Since this dysfunctional family communicates with each other via the media, perhaps he is issuing a warning to Bill.
Charles should have helped Harry, to me he won’t look good until he helps Harry and Meghan.
“William will one day be king, that time will come, but at the moment I think he should be allowed to live as normal a life as possible.”
All I can do is laugh. He’s making a complete fool outta these RRs, denying them content to talk about and they just take it cause they have no choice. He’s making them look so stupid and hypocritical it’s comical.
Wonder if Rose had Covid in early April as well.
I believe William had it so the question becomes why the coverup? They could have told people in May after William was better.
1. They didn’t follow guidelines or wanted to avoid scrutiny.
2. William got the virus in a dodgy way.
3. William would be a more effective puppet for the Tories if they covered up that he had it as well.
If it’s 1: they may have infected healthcare workers during their engagement when Kate wore the pink pantsuit. They didn’t quarantine properly. They didn’t want to talk about the large staff they had in explaining how they could quarantine and still take care of the kids. They didn’t want to disclose their privileges in access to tests and doctors.
If it’s 2: The Cambridges snuck out of the country for a vacation or multiple vacations or William was partying in private members clubs or at a house party and the Sun knows about it. And the Cambridges lead separate enough lives that Kate and the children didn’t get it.
A combination of 1 and 2. They didn’t follow guidelines and William got sick in a dodgy way.
At some point William will realize that all this gives other people like Dan Wooton control over him. We’re going to watch William struggle through learning a new way for coping with reporters rather than hide his stuff and leak about others.
I think it’s one and two together but probably mostly two. It’s really the only thing that makes sense of this – that they are trying to cover up how he got the virus.
Yes, that is THE ONLY thing that makes sense at this point.
Remember how the Rose story broke – I think this is a ham fisted attempt to get ahead of another story around an affair. and am not sure he was trimming the rose bushes this time. It could be he’s went off on another ‘lads boozing’ weekend and had some fun with the ladies and thats how he got it and said fling has gone to the media to sell her story.
@Digital Unicorn – that’s exactly what I think. Someone caught it from Wm at another “dad dancing” weekend and now expects a payday from the tabloids (or KP to keep schtum).
Probably he didn’t want people talking about Harry. If he and his father were with the virus at the same time, who’d be next in line ? If George is a minor who is the Regent?
And to answer the question of why they admitted it now rather than when Jobson knew about it is because the Sun has a worse story that is being shelved.
Maybe it’s not even Rose Hanbury or another affair. Maybe after all these years, the Sun wants to publish William’s lion/leopard costume from the Colonials and Natives party or any other story that has been covered up for William all these years.
Carrying over some speculation from yesterdays’s post about Billy and his potential drug habit that has exposed him to Russians because of kompromat, I suspect he went to a drug filled house party and caught covid there. Kate and the kids were not at this party. I don’t think Rose is involved with him at this point, but I am sure there are other women at these parties.
As for how it got to the Sun? Well Christian Jones still works for him and his bf likely still leaks to them.
Yeah, am beginning to think the press are sitting on something more explosive than affairs – something Uncle Andrew level type scandal.
I haven’t heard of a drug habit but there have been rumours about financial ‘mis-management’ of Royal Foundation money. He’s the Donald Trump of the RF and in some ways I think he could be worse than Uncle Andrew and Uncle Gary combined.
What are they trying to cover up for willie? Was he caught some place, he shouldn’t have been, i.e. orgies, is he in love with another woman or man, another andrew 3.0, does he have a love child, etc., etc.?
Maybe he did it to be more relatable and it backfired, only he can be so stupid and arrogant. He’s lucky he looks like Diana because otherwise people wouldn’t have the patience.
He used to look like her, now he is all the worst of the Windsor genes topped off with a bumpy, extraordinarily large head.
He looks nothing like Diana now, just the shape of his head like Uncle Charles Spencer, but he looks like a Windsor now.
This just keeps getting weirder. Why all the secrecy? At this point the secrecy really does seem to be covering up something bigger, bc there’s no other reason for it. The privacy element doesn’t apply at this point because it was months ago.
I would love for an investigative journalist to dig into this.
Breaking news! Rose Hanbury announces she is joyously expecting a child with her Wonderful husband. The couple known for their love of horticulture are excited to welcome the new addition. Hanbury is close friends with the Cambridge’s and it is expected Kate will throw her baby shower.
There done.
I think Rose, a housekeeper or some mistress is pregnant. I also think the queen and Phillip had covid. All of a sudden the queen wasn’t coming back, which was highly unusual and she and Philip were quarantining together. Seemed suspect at the time but now it makes sense. The queen was sick and they hid it. I also think William didn’t want to be criticized for his flippant comments a few weeks earlier about covid. What a joke!
Clearly he has to protect his privacy, while Meghan has to provide an update on her contraction every 3-5 minutes and resumes of the godparents have to be provided to the media?? What’s the saying? Rules for thee…
That’s what I don’t get. The future king, and current “global statesman “, gets to have as normal of a life as possible with privacy, but the sixth in line and his family don’t. Isn’t Will going through “king training” now? That doesn’t even make sense. So Harry, as the spare, is more important than the heir and therefore the public has the right to know when a baby escapes Meghan’s birth canal?
The hypocrite royal reporters continue to prove Meghan and Harry’s point for them. They swore blind that they wanted special treatment and to never be criticised for anything, when all they wanted was fairness and the same standards for all. Meghan should have invited the Daily Mail journalists into the hospital suite for a live viewing, streamed the birth on ITV, have Camilla Tominey cut the umbilical cord, name the baby Piers and then let them all toast with a shot of her breast milk. How very unreasonable of her to give birth like a normal mom.
LOL!
LOL! Thank you Pearl, that was great.
Lmao, she still would have been critised….
lol
LMBO!!!!!!
That’s right, Meghan didn’t mind being the one to get the short end of the stick and playing second fiddle, but the lies and rumors became just too viscous. I think maybe in a year or two all this nastiness towards her would die down, not completely but enough to make her haters look like complete lunatics when they speak of her.
Wouldn’t it be kind of funny if Rose were the leak? Prince William infected her and then maybe tried to break it off, so she went and revealed his COVID-19 diagnosis. It would be just so basic, a leak from a spurned lover lol.
Or David Rocksavage really didn’t appreciate having his living arrangement in Paris with the guy who scammed the L’Oreal heiress exposed in the tabloids.
It was wrong for William to cheat on Kate but Kate’s attempts to ostracize and punish the Chomondoleys was not the smart way to deal with it. These are not people who are going to accept the disapproval of a Middleton.
I’m imagining Charles is reading this morning’s headlines is quietly chuckling and shaking his head while telling Camilla with a shrug “William wanted to learn the hard way.”
If Charles felt that way he would have helped Harry. Charles was MIA and it seemed William got to call the shots.
An article that asks all the right questions. At least I’m comforted in knowing that Sykes, he of the “I learned that Prince William was having an affair while dining at an aristo’s house” (not an exact quote despite the quotation marks) has sources that know William’s business and I expect he’ll be dialing them all up and making some investigative rounds. So, more to come, I hope.
Could be that in that week in April when he didn’t do any appearances, he and Kate were out of the country sunbathing, and they are both nervous that somehow that is the news that will leak. So Will, stupid as he is, said “I”ll just tell everyone I had covid to explain why I was MIA.” And maybe he still did get covid in June or whatever. Half-truths all around to cover up the vacay.
It was the daughter of an Earl who told Sykes about the affair. We need to keep that tidbit around because it’s just so specific especially since stans are still trying to blame Nicole Cliffe for it.
To be clear, he specifically says that’s where he FIRST heard about the affair.
He then casually mentions in the same article that he doesn’t bother with a story until three people have told him the same thing.
I think it’s a clumsy cover up story thrown to The Sun to stop them from releasing something bigger. I also think William never had Covid and this is why they can’t provide any details. If he had it, William of all people would have made a really big deal about it. It’s all he would have talked about. Getting Covid improved the “sympathy factor” for both Prince Charles and Boris Johnson. William would not pass that up.
It’s just like when Trump caught Covid & the White House wouldn’t say when his last negative test was. They couldn’t say because Trump wasn’t being tested. Everyone around him was. He started to feel sick & have symptoms & that’s the first test he took. If he had been tested regularly, I guarantee that would be all he would talk about. Same with William. He would have made sure everyone knew that he was quite sick but because he’s far healthier than his “old, morally bankrupt decrepit father”, he recovered quickly & thereby is the “King” Britain needs.
Yup, this was clearly a very last minute scramble by William and KP to shield something (more) damning from coming out. I highly doubt CH or BP are involved and I also doubt they even knew about Will’s supposed case.
It’s interesting how William had it spun that he did SO MUCH work in April. Why? Was there a period of time also in April when he was doing something that wasn’t work and he wasn’t on lockdown at Anmer with Kate and the kids? I think he violated the lockdown and that’s why he is protesting so much about how many calls and zooms he has to his credit. He’s very transparent that way.
Interesting thought. The fact that no one can agree about how badly he experienced it would lend credence to this. At first it was said that he had trouble breathing and then later staff members said his symptoms were mild. But the fact that how bad it was can’t be agreed on, could also point to him being away somewhere when he should not have been, and his staff not being there with him to see his symptoms.
I think William leaked this arrogantly thinking he would look heroic to the people and win over those with a soft spot for his grandmother.
I think the muted outrage compared to if it had been Harry is people just don’t care about William. He just exists. He is there. He may look like Diana but by now people see he has none of her qualities.
I do think it is likely that PR Winner William leaked it to the Scum himself because why can’t they simply say which so called engagement Will was at where he told someone he had the virus? The engagements are public knowledge so there’s no earthly reason why they need to be vague on which one it was. So clearly that never happened and the story came straight from Leaky Willy direct to his favourite mouthpiece Dan. He wanted this information out there but the question is why and why now.
I don’t think he even looks like Diana anymore, He has the Spencer shaped face but he looks more a Windsor now.
Everything about this is so sketchy!!!
“William—who jealousy guards his privacy and likes to do thing his own way and likes being control:”
All of that sounds like it’s against royal protocol. Is William incandescent with rage at himself?
Wow, taking all that taxpayer money and then shutting the taxpayers out. So stubborn and spoiled and ungrateful of William.
Have you ever considered the possibility that the Cover Up is not about Rose but her husband?
Yes! believe you are onto something
So the affair would have been with her husband & not Rose herself? The cover up is that Willie is not really into women, but with men, & always has been. Kate was the only woman willing to be his beard? Hmm.
Warning, this is pure speculation!
I wondered about this when the allegations came out in June that The Sun‘s executive editor Dan Wootton had payed cash for leaks about the Sussexes to freelance publicist Callum Stephens, with possible help from his boyfriend Kensington Palace’s communications secretary Christian Jones, who is still employed by the Cambridges. (See Byline report)
Now the Sun has this exclusive leak about William’s covid coverup…if William has an inner circle of gay media friends, they could begin to leak more secret private stories. Dan’s relationship with KP is suspiciously close.
William being gay is definitely a reach here. We know from various sources that Rose is involved. At the end of the day she’s a woman who just wants to mind her own business so I doubt she would be okay with being the bad woman for two gay men.
The possibility of William experimenting and that coming to bite him in the ass is always there, but not big enough to speculate with as this would be a narrative that’s literally crafted from our imagination.
It’s simply more realistic that William has a roaming eye (narrative that has been going for for a whiile), and seems to be pro lgbt so there’s no desire to avoid such men.
If William was gay it would be very interesting to see how the monarchy handles this, but this is something we should not speculate about imho.
As mentioned above, I think the scandal is more about being associated with the money scam against the L’Oreal heiress.
The lamebriddges are officially a sh!t show. That is all.
Thank you all for your idea’s of what is truly going on because nothing is adding up.
William used to be so cute and that is my only comment on this story.
Even with this he’s still so boring and dim.The most interesting thing about this are the royal reporters being complete hypocrites and twisting themselves saying royals are entitled to privacy even while funded by taxpayers, or them just being mad and calling KP liars.
The Cambridge stans defend this guy and say it was the “right thing to do.” I think that even if he spread the virus to others, they would still say he’s “wonderful.” Weird.
“William will one day be king, that time will come, but at the moment I think he should be allowed to live as normal a life as possible.” – He’s not 10 years old, stop treating him like a child.
I found an interesting editorial at the Washington Post that I think you’ll find interesting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/03/revealing-prince-williams-coronavirus-illness-would-have-been-public-service/
It not only calls out Prince William’s silence (which they’re not impressed with), but it also gives the stats for the UK currently for Covid. I’m soooooo sorry, I had no idea that this is how bad it had gotten for you there. I’ve been checking the status of hot spots here in the U.S. I hope your NHS can keep up, but I can’t even imagine the number of people who are hospitalized right now. Sending positive thoughts and prayers you way.