Something curious: no one in the UK is really talking about how weird it is that the Duchess of Cambridge is suddenly working “a lot.” Kate has made a half-dozen public appearances in two weeks. For her, that’s working “non-stop.” Meanwhile, Prince William continues to be in the wind. He hasn’t been seen since a solo event on January 27th. Curious. Anyway, I wanted to highlight how bonkers it was that Kate showed up at the PACT support group yesterday in London. From People Magazine coverage:
The royal stepped out on Tuesday to see how the community in Southwark south London helps parents and their young children at PACT (Parents and Children Together). The group started after parents, community and faith leaders identified mental health issues and isolation as the biggest challenges impacting their ability to parent and give their children the best start in life. The project has since expanded to Leeds and Newcastle.
Kate, 40, met with volunteers and attendees during their weekly MumSpace group, which provides support for local parents to discuss any challenges they are currently facing.
“One of the key takeaways was how local support networks are such a core principle in giving parents the confidence and resilience to support their children,” Kate’s office at Kensington Palace said of the visit. “It’s such a great example of best practice in leveraging the power of communities for support of one another.”
Kate supports a number of charitable causes, many of which are focused on providing children with the best possible start in life. Last year, she launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to “raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes, and what we can do as a society to embrace this golden opportunity to create a happier, more mentally healthy, more nurturing society.”
I’m sorry but this is embarrassing for Kate. PACT was started “after parents, community and faith leaders identified mental health issues and isolation as the biggest challenges impacting their ability to parent.” As in, members of the community – not academics, not button-covered royals – started a very successful community-based program to support working class parents and children. And Kate showed up there to gawp at children and freeze-pose and basically say “well, I’m working on the same thing with my Keen Institute!” Why didn’t she highlight their work by, you know, encouraging people to donate to PACT? Or even giving PACT a grant from the Royal Foundation? This should not be this f–king hard!!!
Note the statement from Kate’s office too – her office was not sending out information to the media about where and how to donate to PACT or support PACT. Her office’s statement was just a word salad, like Keen Academic Kate has already “proven” that support groups like PACT work and she was double-checking on a fact-finding mission. The messaging is bonkers!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, interacts with a child named Joy during a cooking workshop at PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552014, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge arrives for an official visit to PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552049, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge speaks with a representative as she arrives for an official visit to PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552061, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, is greeted by organiser Mena Amnour during an official visit to PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552100, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, center, interacts with a child named Joy during a cooking workshop at PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552115, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, left, interacts with a child named Joy during a cooking workshop at PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552119, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, center, interacts with a child named Joy during a cooking workshop at PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552125, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, interacts with children during a cooking workshop on an official visit to PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552161, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, interacts with a small child during an official visit to PACT (Parents and Children Together) in Southwark, London, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The Duchess will meet volunteers and attendees of PACT Southwark’s weekly MumSpace group, which provides a welcoming space for local parents to discuss relevant issues and work through any challenges they are facing.,Image: 660552174, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: PHOTO, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
It’s so funny to me how any quotes from her never actyally come from her own mouth but from her office. The RR liked that aspect of covering Meghan being able to hear directly from her I can see why they would feel personally offended by her refusal to meet them behind closed doors to kiss their ass for more positive coverage.
Back to Kate she seems determined to not have any tangible impact beyond raising awareness and even that she does the bare minimum.
I agree that granting them a donation from the royal foundation paired with this visit would have been more functional. Why don’t they put this charity under their “umbrella” so to speak? It sounds right on course with what kate wants to do with her whole early years work. So why not collaborate?
And as for william, isn’t he in the middle east right now? He’s going on tour right? Something tells me he’s trying to make a lads holiday out of it.
I think he’s scheduled to be there for the 10th – even if we assume he is arriving early to adjust to jet lag or do some pre- meetings, that doesn’t mean weeks!
My suspicion is that he’s stopped off somewhere that would be somewhat controversial (like Saudi Arabia), but maybe he’s squeezing in a little vacay.
I’m not so sure they’d want to be under their “umbrella”. They’d hardly get anything FROM the royal foundation. It’s better to get money directly from supporters and use it however they want, than have donation thinned down with “admin costs” in the royal foundation.
As for Willnot; I’m sure he’s been in Dubai for a while already, enjoying himself at a luxury resort with a side piece.
He (or really his staffer) has sent a tweet saying he’s on his way to Dubai for tomorrow.
Kate is useless. She has no business visiting any more organizations or charities unless she has a check in hand for them or a plan on how she can help them bring in more money. Clearly, she thinks her boring-ass presence should be enough for them and that she deigned to visit for a half-hour and pull crazy faces at them. The nerve and gall,
It’s the vaguely defined goals of The Keen Center that gets me:
“ Last year, she launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to “raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes, and what we can do as a society to embrace this golden opportunity to create a happier, more mentally healthy, more nurturing society”
Like what is this? I can’t imagine approaching people to fund my charity and giving the above as the goal.
The answer to all of her questions is poverty. Solving poverty would do major things for children’s development and their parents mental health
This right here – what’s overlooked in most discussion about mental health and child development is poverty. When it comes to celebs discussing mental health it’s nearly never ever mentioned and the focus is put on the individual instead. My BFF is a psychologist and gets so mad that poverty is so rarely discussed when we talk about these issues, since it’s a known driver.
Not only is poverty the problem but kate and her in laws get millions from the country that could be spent to help alleviate some of that poverty. Instead kate can spend hundreds of thousands of pounds per year on shitty outfits and pretend she cares about the peasants while doing absolutely nothing concrete for them.
^^ Right, poverty, discrimination, and hunger are the bottomline issues which need to be alleviated. Many children grow up in homeless and/or poverty-stricken circumstances, without enough to eat. This calamitous set of circumstances is largely due to systemic racism, and the the class system (especially in Britain).
Kate likes to “raise awareness” and that’s it–doing more would require actual work. Pointing at something and saying “look at this!” is all that Kate is willing to do.
She set up a foundation just to raise awareness???!! And indeed, what is ONE thing that could be done? Can we name ONE thing? And why doesn’t some RR ask if they can visit the foundation? Or see some document the foundation has put out about its goals or initiatives?
Poverty is a political issue. Obviously, they haven’t thought through this very well in their eagerness to find an “issue” for Kate.
Well “what Else” is new?. Kate only knows how to cosplay. Even this outfit was a little bit cosplay.
When it comes to actually working, lol please
When we saw Meghan in the capacity of a full time working royal, it wasn’t just her outfits we were interested in. In fact more than that, it was the work she did. Her projects really showed and defined what it was truly like to be a “princess” because I don’t know about you guys, but whenever I saw Meghan, (especially when she was supporting and launching her own projects and on tours) i would think “now that’s a princess”. She (and QUEEN Diana) really changed the image and perception of being a royal “princess” I don’t think that whenever I see Kate and Camilla. With these wet sponges (and the rest of the wet sponges in the circus), it’s evident that it’s just below average people playing dress up.
What we are seeing at this time is called exposure therapy. Wraith has to be around black people during March on her much lauded jolly to the Carribean.
Hence the endless photos with black children…
It’s really gross the way black children are simply props to them.
Notice how EVERY pic of them now has a POC in it. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. It’s truly sickening to think they believe THIS will help them 🤢
Have you ever noticed that Kate never touched these black children? Sure she uses them for the photo pops, but she never touches them
Look at the facial expression of the little boy. He seems to be looking at someone out of the frame and asking “why is this woman tampering with my food”.
Why is this woman tampering with my food and freezing in place with a smile while she does it?
How awkward. Does she pose and just hold it?
Reminds me of Florida’s First Lady, who consistently puts Black kids, educators, parents, and social workers in promotional materials for her vacuous “First Lady initiatives” to compensate for or downplay her husband’s intentionally racist policies. Kate really is the UK equivalent of a MAGA politician’s wife.
“leveraging the power of communities” – haha, someone is now all about community, surprised they didn’t talk about compassion in there as well. We see you Keen.
@Becks1 I had the same thought about them throwing the use of communities in there like that! The copying (or attempting to copy) is really next level
My first thought too.
I’m really wondering how long she’s going to keep this pace up! I know people have said she always does more in February compared to the rest of the year, but this seems like even more than usual (although it’s not like I went back and counted, maybe it’s just an illusion and this is just the February Strategy working on me lol)
It wasn’t that long ago that we had sources telling us her focus would stay on the kids for the next 10 to 15 years… maybe someone (Charles?) didn’t like that??
Its just strange since for the longest time we had william and kate joining in on each other’s engagement. Just for kate to do a flurry of solo engagements followed by a solo tour later this month. Where as william has been radio silent. And then all the stories about them moving. It just doesn’t add up.
According to the paper they would move to windsor because they are “preparing to be king and queen” but Charles is the next king (and in my opinion it won’t be long until he is king) and he is going to be stationed at Buckingham Palace. So if w&k are serious about taking a more central role in the institution shouldn’t they be near the power? Which will then reside in London?
It’s propably her response to the Queen’s announcement regarding camilla.. she makes herself visible in order to stay relevant and to gain positive support and report from the public and the press while camilla faces criticism for the title.
She’s still on an adrenaline rush in light of the Queen Camilla news. She wants to be seen everywhere to prove to everybody that she’s indispensable and that she can bring in the star quality factor. This act will run out after her Keen Qween Denmark tour. She’s too transparent to not do this.
She’s going to disappear for a bit and it will be called “prep” for the trip to Jamaica which is supposed to be in March. And then there will be the half term break and things will slow down a lot until the jubilee events.
@NIC919: so the keens are going on tour to the Caribbean in march and Andrew’s deposition is in march? Hhhmmm…
Mmm, reads like the “No, Really, I’m Valuable!” Tour that Carole Middleton has arranged in a last ditch attempt to persuade people that Waity is important to the future of the monarchy.
Yep.
Bla bla, ok
You know what else is also terrible about this? Kate only knew about building communities once Meghan started talking about it. Kate never said what her and her button institute actually ever accomplish. They just as Kaiser said only throw out word salad. F——ing useless the whole lot of them KP
Why didn’t she encourage people to donate? Or give them a grant from the RF? You’re right, Kaiser, it not that F-ing hard. So now, I’m thinking they purposely don’t do that. I’m not sure exactly why they don’t, but it’s deliberate and they’re really squirrely about money. Maybe if they did it once, they’d have to do it at every place they visit. Maybe they don’t want it to be measured how many donations their visit actually inspired bc it would be truly sad. Maybe they don’t want to ask others to give money bc it’s a reminder of how much money their family takes and doesn’t give back. They literally copy everything Meghan and Harry do except for this one thing, which is a deliberate choice.
I’ve often wondered the same. I think if she encouraged people to donate without offering a donation herself, that opens a door for “Why aren’t you giving any money?” The whole premise of a Royal visit is for their social pixie dust to “raise awareness” and passively inspire others to learn about them (and thus donate). But showing up to these charities and organizations without a gesture “to listen and learn” seems so empty-handed.
Frankly, I’m wondering why she doesn’t donate herself, and I think the reasons relate to the Royal Foundation being a disorganized financial mess compared to The Prince’s Trust and Archewell, and it also would not survive calls for transparency. The irony is that actually giving money (rather than fundraising it for “their own projects”- which sounds hella dodgy) would make them look like tangible givers doing some good. That Kate does not even go somewhere without bringing an amount as simple as £1,000 nor encourage people to donate makes me wonder of why the idea is not in action, and I think there’s something shady with the RF/ TOB/ Jason Knauf.
She wore a mask this weekend to shop indoors but here she is maskless around people’s children. What is the current rule in the UK regarding mask?
This trip is a refresher to help her remember what the earlier childhood challenges are about before her trip to Denmark. She can go there and say , “I was recently at PACT….”
+100 on the masks
+100 wanting to say she was at PACT when in Denmark
That statement made no sense and only sought to promote Kate’s “work”.
Sound like it was all about her again.. sure there is more reported about her flawless hair than actually facts reported on the charity or the help they offer, which is the Cambridge’s normal.
I will say this she wants that third home without W awfully bad and it looks like her FIL is making her work for it.. I’m sure she will get Her choice of Frogmore house or Fort Belvedere.
I’m so tired of the whole “raising awareness”. It’s been nearly 11 years since she got married. At this point, it’s like do something substantial or stick to going to museum openings instead of projects
Sofia, I agree with you. It’s well past time to raise awareness. We all know childhood is important. No one debates this. No one.
She needs to be implementing programs to bring about tangible results for children. Hey, what about starting by addressing food insecurity? Oh, that’s right, that would require real effort. 🙄
I think Kate’s exposure now and the announcement of Queen Camilla are to distract attention from Andy.
The kids are cute, that’s all I got. Also the UK recently dropped covid restrictions so masks are out now I guess? As an American in a masked up state I’m kind of jealous (god I’m sick of masks!) but also seems weird!
This whole Early Years thing continues to be just jaw dropping: in some sort of attempt to get Kate involved with a controversy-free, low-effort issue, she’s somehow 1. chosen a cause that’s actually political, in that long term systemic reduction of poverty is the only real solution, and 2. promoting herself as some sort of expert or academic, instead of just showing up to existing organizations and saying “isn’t this nice?” Honestly, the clownery! Jaw dropping from beginning to end!
Something curious: no one in the UK is really talking about how weird it is that the Duchess of Cambridge is suddenly working “a lot.”
Because it isn’t an obsession – Americans are FAR more captivated with creating narratives involving the BRF.
The daily fail does their fair share of “creating narratives” for the royal family.
Maybe more British people should be paying attention at how little the BRF does. They give them millions for it annually.
I know, right? @Wendy says that like it’s far more elegant to say to the royals, “Just take my tax money” and not care what they do for it. What can I say but “Long may the royals continue to take such people’s tax money.”
As always, everything is a photoshoot for Keen to ham it up. As so many have pointed out she did nothing to really help this group when she so easily could have.
Confidence. Keen’s has been growing every year we are told and now that’s what parents need to.
She has such a limited world view and it shows. Giving parents confidence is great but most parents would rather have cheaper childcare, better access to doctors etc. Most of us struggle because we don’t have millions and 1 nanny per child and have to work full time and logistics and tiredness is what is usually a killer. Add to that ilness, disability, special needs…. She has no idea how most people live and is sincerely not interested to find out or use her imagination. It’s not rocket science to imagine how working parents’ days and problems look like.
As with everything kate can only think of herself so for her confidence as a parent mattered. She has no clue of worrying about money or being so tired because she doesn’t have any help. She has tons of help and doesn’t have the ability to empathize with regular people.
They should send her on shallow events only because she only comes off looking foolish.
She isn’t raising awareness of anything that anyone hasn’t already been aware of. She has no experience or education in early years, apart from playing with her own children. The Princes Trust talks about poverty and works really well with deprived communities, so there is no reason why Kate can’t but she doesn’t, because she and William want to say ‘ I’m just like you’ and cant if they point out the effect of poverty on child development. They care more about their own image than any cause, so they can earn their 3cmonth holidays and daily helicopter trips
“Kate’s office at Kensington Palace said of the visit.”
We have never seen this language before. Peace out, Billy and Kathy’s marriage, they are now dividing KP, among themselves.