Were Prince William & Kate banned from doing events during the king’s tour?

During the Invictus Games, the Prince and Princess of Wales tried to “steal focus” and make asses out of themselves on consecutive days. It was as obvious as can be, and they were so clearly seething with jealousy. Then, this time last week, Prince William flew to New York for a whirlwind 36-hour trip in which he tried and failed to copy his brother. At the same time, Kate was making an ass out of herself in the UK, doing events on Monday and Tuesday, the same days as William’s NYC trip. William and Kate haven’t been seen since then – William was flying back to the UK just as Charles and Camilla were leaving for France. This was done on purpose – Charles must have put the fear of God into Peg and Buttons, because they were silent as the grave during the king’s big French tour.

While King Charles and Queen Camilla headed to France for a three-day state visit this week, Kate Middleton and Prince William largely stayed out of the public eye – and there’s a reason for the royal strategy.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, both 41, both had busy starts to their week. Prince William traveled to New York City for a two-day trip where he highlighted his Earthshot Prize environmental project and visited an FDNY firehouse to highlight the importance of first responders prioritizing their mental health. Meanwhile, Princess Kate made two outings in the U.K.: her debut as the Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm at the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Yeovilton. The following day, she stepped out in London to visit Streets of Growth, a charity that works to transform the lives of young people.

King Charles, 74, and Queen Camilla, 76, began their visit to France on Wednesday, arriving in Paris before traveling to Bordeaux for the final leg of their tour on Friday. In those days, Prince William and Princess Kate have been out of the royal spotlight – likely a thought-out strategy to keep the focus on the work of the King and Queen during their tour.

While it is possible to avoid clashes in their schedules during short tours like the King and Queen’s three-day visit to France, Prince William and Princess Kate will likely have engagements scheduled if the monarch’s tour lasts a week or more.

[From People]

I guess the point is that the royals can and will overshadow each other constantly, but it’s different when it’s Charles and Camilla. That’s the new rule and one which Kate has already broken. Remember Kate’s thunder-stealing at the Chelsea Flower Show several months back? Buckingham Palace punished Kate for that messy scheduling for WEEKS. Besides, it’s not like William and Kate need an excuse to be lazy – the poor sausages were already dreadfully overworked trying to “compete” with the Sussexes.

Speaking of William’s New York Flop Tour, I hadn’t seen this clip until last night and I can’t stop watching it. I hope William knows that people are laughing at him and no one buys his stupid f–king “I went jogging in Central Park” story.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

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74 Responses to “Were Prince William & Kate banned from doing events during the king’s tour?”

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  1. girl_ninja says:

    I still think she was drunk during those engagements. She was acting a fool.

  2. Chloe says:

    I wonder what Charles had to bribe them with because we all we all know they didn’t stay put out of respect for the hierarchy

    • Steph says:

      @Chloe, I agree with you that it had nothing to do with respect but not about bribing. I agree with @Kaiser that they’re last and were happy to sit on their asses for several days. But I also think they were crying into their cups and licking their ego wounds. They made asses of themselves for those two days.

    • Libra says:

      I would think it doesn’t take much of a bribe to get Kate to do nothing.

    • Lemons says:

      Charles probably just did a side-by-side newspaper layout of Kate and the beaver on her head and Meghan just being Meghan then Harry with veterans and a possible shot of William in Central Park that was most likely just a random bald due with a gut.

      That would make the front page if Charles willed it. Just showing the Wales’ their non-impact whenever they leave their homes for photo ops.

    • Becks1 says:

      I think they were probably happy to take days off after their busy busy week of trying (and failing) to upstage the Sussexes.

      however, I think had they known H&m were going to be at that fundraiser, they would have made sure to have been spotted out and about.

      • JT says:

        @ Becks1 I think your theory is more likely. When was the last time W&K did back to back engagements for nearly a week? They barely do 1 event every 2 weeks. They’re probably exhausted. I don’t think the needed to bribed to return to normal programming.

    • DK says:

      I know they think this sounds like a power move, but do they not realize to the general, working public, the thought that if one family member is “working” other family members can’t be, is utterly absurd, lazy, and a giant waste of taxpayer money?

      They get paid millions to…take turns working?!

      They are just making themselves explicitly redundant. Certainly sounds like just one royal couple is needed to fulfill their BS job.

      Not the flex they think it is.

      • Lorelei says:

        Did every other royal disappear whenever the Queen had an engagement? It’s only been a year, but I genuinely can’t remember.

      • Cairidh says:

        Exactly what I was thinking. They should all be working 40hrs a week regardless of whatever else is being done by whoever.

  3. Amy Bee says:

    The Royal Family is doomed and for People Magazine to be wŕiting this nonsense just shows how far the magazine has fallen over the last decade.

  4. Pajala says:

    I’m a New Yorker and I used to rollerblade every morning on the Central Park runners’ loop. There is no way in h*ll that Bill ran in Central Park. It is never a mob scene and runners are aware of the people around them. Anyone who thinks that not a single New Yorker would take a photo or video or run alongside him, chatting, has never been to New York. Plus, security guards always make people stand out in crowds. Once on a very crowded Fifth Avenue, I spotted JFK JR. Why? Because he was surrounded by Secret Service agents! Security always calls attention to a celebrity! What idiots to think they could pull off this ridiculous story.

    • Steph says:

      @pajala, NYer as well and completely agree.

      • Pajala says:

        👌

      • Harper says:

        Was scrolling through DeuxMoi’s Sunday spottings last night and, sure enough, there was a Prince William spotted jogging in Central Park submission. I laughed. The last time Burger King and the Side Fry were in the states KP tried the same thing- sent in a tip in that they were spotted snogging/kissing backstage at the EarthShot ceremony. Well we know for sure that never happened, so the jogging story gets filed similarly.

        Besides, Burger King is so hungry for acknowledgment that he would have immediately stopped for selfies in CP to show Harry that he is still very very popular despite his secret assaults being revealed in SPARE.

    • VilleRose says:

      I don’t think JFK Jr. got secret service protection? He was never a politician so wouldn’t have been entitled to it, despite his father’s assassination. I was reading recently how Jackie Kennedy purposely moved out of the US to get away when she married Onassis because she feared her kids and herself being targets. It was probably just regular VIP bodyguards/security.

      • Steph says:

        I’m pretty sure the children of presidents get security for life. Wasn’t that a big debate with Trump’s kids? Ppl were pissed bc taxpayers would be funding their security forever?

      • Becks1 says:

        No, Trump’s kids don’t get security for life. They got SS protection for 6 months after he left office, Barron gets it until he’s 16, and Trump and Melania get it for life.

        I remember reading a biography about Jackie years ago and RFK was apparently instrumental in ensuring that she and her kids had protection after JFK was assassinated. After he was shot, that was when getting out of the country became of utmost importance to her – the quote I remember is something like “if they’re killing Kennedys, then my children are next” or something.

      • Steph says:

        Thanks @becks1

      • Sunnee says:

        Agree, I saw John Jr many times and never saw SS or really any bodyguards nearby. He worked at 100 Center (courts) where my mom worked. I’d pick her up almost every day and see him leaving through the side entrance of the building walking his bicycle. I also saw him one morning on 8th Street in the Village with Darryl Hannah, his gf at the time. No secret service around.

      • samipup says:

        I used to see Caroline Kennedy in Brighams ice cream shop in Concord, Mass in the 70’s. The SS guys were impossible to miss. She went to Concord Academy, in Concord.

      • Concern Fae says:

        The rules were changed to let minor children of former presidents get SS protection until 18 or 21 after JFK was killed. Don’t remember if it has been changed since.

      • Elizabeth says:

        Another New Yorker here. I once saw JFK Jr. riding his bike to work at 100 Center, and there were no bodyguards around.

      • Lorelei says:

        @Sunnee I’m so jealous. My father worked in the same building as JFK Jr., after he started George magazine, but my dad never bothered to mention this to me (!) until after he died in the plane crash. I was furious! Had I known this, I would have been “visiting” my dad at work every damn day. He casually mentioned that he’d been in the elevator with him a few times, and again, *never told me* at the time. Sigh. If it had been me I would have immediately called everyone I knew if I’d been in an elevator with him.

      • VilleRose says:

        @Steph: The children of presidents are not entitled to lifetime Secret Service protection, but former presidents and their spouses are. Pretty sure it’s one of the reasons Malia Obama delayed her start at Harvard and took a gap year. She graduated high school in spring 2016 while her dad was still in office. Had she started at Harvard that fall, she would have had Secret Service trailing her around the first few months on campus while her father finished out his second term. Guessing she really didn’t want that and I can’t blame her for it. She smartly took a gap year and it’s just as well she did because imagine her being at Harvard when Trump got elected! That would have been excruciating for her (probably another reason she also took a gap year with the upcoming election). She started the following year and got to do college sans Secret Service which is probably what she and her parents wanted.

  5. MrsCope says:

    Every time I hear or read “hordes of New Yorkers” it just sounds like some sort of zombie apocalypse. “Look, I’m a man of the people, I ran among the unwashed masses like a common peasant!”

    • BeanieBean says:

      It’s such an odd word to choose & I agree, for William, it’s a choice. That man will. insult anybody & everybody, and think he’s being funny.
      I also noticed the article’s use of the word ‘likely’, as in, I have no idea but what they hey, I’m gonna speculate.

      • MrsCope says:

        You’re right BeanieBean. He has one mode for humor and it punch down. No one would ever say “hordes of royals and dignitaries attended the King’s coronation.” The imagery of New York runners is instantly out of touch. I’m sure he watched the hordes from his hotel room LOL.

  6. MaryContrary says:

    I have second hand embarrassment over the fact that he was trying to copy Crown Prince Frederick’s run with the actual UN running club (along with CP Fred actually attending meetings at the UN.)

    • Steph says:

      I’m still cackling at other European royalty getting seats at the table but not Pegs. 😂 Let’s see if he now starts a one sided competition with CP Frederick.
      @Kaiser please try to slip in some coverage of CP Frederick so we can compare and contrast.

  7. Yes what was offered to these two to not step on daddy’s news cycle? I just think they were exhausted from making complete asses out of themselves and slunk to their separate homes to sleep it off and then get back to the copy keening boards to see how they can try to one up Harry. Must of hurt that Peg got stabbed by American news show with “ nobody knew who he was”. Poor Peg his cut and paste didn’t work.

  8. TarteAuCitron says:

    William may as well have used the hotel gym. It’s not like he is known for running around local parks in the UK. It is so strange that they’re still trying to make this A Thing.

  9. Brits says:

    Wait, isn’t there literally a rule (maybe unspoken) that royals generally can’t work the same day as other major royals, so wouldn’t this make sense that wills and kate don’t work during Chuck’s French trip? And that’s why Kate upstaging at the flower show was such a big deal, because it was technically a faux pas / against the rules? I’m not sure why we would be surprised when it’s been established.

    • Becks1 says:

      It’s only a rule when it’s used as a weapon, lol. They can and do overlap all the time. For example, I’m looking at the court circular and Charles, William, Kate, Edward and Sophie all did events on 9/13. (Kate’s was a secret Early Years meeting, lol, so not public, but still listed.)

      The issue with the Flower Show apparently was that usually the monarch is the first member of the royal family to visit it, and Kate went before Charles and on the same day, clearly trying to upstage him.

      So basically its only a rule when it ticks off whoever feels they are being upstaged. If the rule was that no royal could work the same day as Charles, that would narrow the field considerably seeing as he works so much more than the Waleses etc.

  10. Jais says:

    You’d think someone on his team would have taken a picture or a video if this had actually happened.

    • Mary Pester says:

      @Jais, of course they would have, only they would have tried some Ai magic to make it seem like the running scene from Rocky with a crowd running behind him and bully shouting catherineeee lol

  11. Feeshalori says:

    “Hordes of New Yorkers running in CP,” claims Willie. What, did he suddenly find himself in the midst of a marathon? What a joke, no way on earth did that happen especially on a weekday when people work. And as others have said, he would’ve been noticeably surrounded by his own hordes of security. Run along now.

  12. VilleRose says:

    Kate and William have definitely stepped on Charles and Camilla’s news cycle before but I don’t think it mattered much when QEII was Queen because Charles was just the heir? Elizabeth was the boss and she definitely was not paying attention to all that the last few years. I’m guessing Charles threw down his weight and told them he expected them to be invisible for three days while he was in France. This was a rescheduled tour and I know Charles did not want his big Versailles gala moment overshadowed by Kate’s maniacal facial expressions or William’s sneer, especially when it had to be delayed for months.

    • Lorelei says:

      Considering how much grief Charles is getting over his egregious hypocrisy for flying everywhere during this visit, I wonder if he’s regretting that decision at all, lol.

  13. Steph says:

    I just thought of this. Him running in CP doesn’t make sense from a security stand point at all. He put himself in a place where there are “hoards” of by standers that could get hurt if something happened? I mean he is selfish enough but … Also, that means his security would have to run along with him. Who intentionally wears out (bc I’m sure they already have their own fitness routine they stick to) and distracts the people charged with keeping you alive?

    • Cairidh says:

      When he was at St. Andrews he used to sneak out without his bodyguards very early in the morning and go for a run along the beach. But I don’t believe he’d do that in the middle of a city.

  14. Barney says:

    I live in Washington DC and there was very little coverage of (and even less interest in) Will’s visit. Not even bottom-feeder TMZ bothered to post a story about the Sexiest Statesman Alive. H&M may generate a lot of hate but W&K are simply too boring for most people to care. As for his Central Park jog, it’s like the unseen tree falling in a forest.

    • Paddingtonjr says:

      I live in DC as well and only knew William visited NYC from this site. No one cares about him and he’s done f-all to make people care.

  15. Well Wisher says:

    A good excuse as any to not ‘work’, I suppose..

  16. ambel says:

    “and nobody noticed it was him” – god bless, Nora O’Donnell!

    • Feeshalori says:

      Skepticism was really oozing from her, and even the other reporter agreed with her too. That was glorious to see.

      • Lorelei says:

        I feel like you can pretty reliably tell which media personalities are Team Sussex just by little things like this, even when they’re not allowed to outright say anything. The fact that they both look so unimpressed in that clip says it all.

    • one of the marys says:

      This clip was wonderful!!

    • Debbie says:

      Well, just the fact that the reporter stated, “William told us that he was jogging in Central Park.” Huh? What a way for such a “humble” and “low profile” person (isn’t that what the BM called him?) to make himself the news. If his only interest was in exercise, then he would have happily jogged and been done with it. The fact that he then reports it himself (Lord love him) like a toddler who wants to show his mummy what he’s done in the bathroom is just… just precious. I think he was trying to manufacture a viral moment, but alas no one cared. God bless those hordes.

  17. L4Frimaire says:

    I think they were definitely forbidden from doing events during Charles’ trip. I seriously doubt he went for a run in Central Park and no one saw him. He’s really tall so hard to just blend in. There were images on Twitter of the crown prince of Denmark with the UN run club, with a whole group of people. He had the UN/NYC trip William wished he had.

    • SueBarbri33 says:

      I saw the coverage of Fred’s NYC trip and agree. The Danish SM team has always low-key killed it with their coverage of the Danish royal family. Fred always photographs well, too.

  18. kelleybelle says:

    Oh my! Look at that shiny face, tight as a drum!!

  19. QuiteContrary says:

    I’m sure it was a real hardship for Kate not to work for a few days while the crypt keepers were in France. She probably poured herself a few crack babies — along with a single olive for lunch — and studied her Meghan vision boards all day.

  20. heygingersnaps says:

    It’s so funny that on top of that, the video is labeled as “the following media includes potentially sensitive content” my gosh! The level of onion skin that bulliam has really checks out.

  21. slippers4life says:

    I do think he went to central Park wearing jogging clothes with security and i bet he thought he’d get papped, but nobody cared. I can totally see him looking for people with cameras and running past them trying to hit angles. Then, when photos didn’t immediately appear online, he soft launched it hoping anyone who took a photo he didn’t know about would come forward, but he just can’t make fetch happen. But he’s a global statesman and irrelevant Meghan can’t buy a market baguette without ending up on global front page news.

  22. tamsin says:

    Am I wrong in thinking that no matter the nature of the event, at least picture of Kate laughing maniacal ly inevitably appears?

  23. Lorelei says:

    For some reason I’d missed Kate’s trip to the flower show when it happened, so I clicked on Kaiser’s link, and the expressions of the two little boys in the top photo is priceless. The pictures of kids looking at W&K like that never get old, they are so funny every single time.

    Also, I was curious about the photographer that Kaiser mentioned in the original post, who wrote about what the experience was like for the photogs that day, and it was an entertaining read. His name is Richard Pohle. And when I was looking for that article, one from People magazine happened to pop up saying that Richard Pohle was the only person to “defy orders” and took pictures of the Queen with Andrew inside Westminster Abbey during the service of thanksgiving in honor of Prince Philip. They were actively trying to cover up the fact that Andrew was right next to her, so I love the fact that this photographer said “fck that” to the rules and took photos anyway. I really like this guy now, lol.

  24. Paddingtonjr says:

    Every time I read about Willy’s attempts to be relevant and a statesman, I am reminded of the accomplishments of other heirs to the thrones of Europe. For instance, Leonor of Spain is fluent in English and Spanish, and, at 17, gave a speech for her foundation in multiple languages, including English, Spanish and Turkish. Willy wouldn’t even speak French when they went to Canada! Why, exactly, is the BRF needed?

  25. May says:

    What’s funny is that Princess Anne had an engagement either at the same time as William and Kate’s just before the state trip to France or during Charles and Camilla’s visit to France. But I guess no one cares what Anne does because she doesn’t pull attention away from the principles!

  26. Tessa says:

    Maybe William can wage a campaign to be people magazine sexiest man alive

  27. equality says:

    So no bribes by any outlet like TMZ to get footage from security cameras of PW jogging? Because it never happened or nobody cared or both?

  28. jferber says:

    I don’t believe the Wails have EVER been banned from working. Work is anathema to them and they would love to be banned from work for life! No half in and out, like the Sussexes wanted, but ALL IN, yet at the same time, ALL OUT, since you’ll never see see them do a stitch of real work in their lives.

  29. jferber says:

    Tessa, in all seriousness (?), didn’t he already win Sexiest Bald Man Alive in some venue? I seem to remember that.

  30. Mcmmom says:

    Last week, both Climate Week and UNGA (the UN General Assembly) were in NYC. I was there, along with about 25 of my colleagues. I stayed in a hotel off of Central Park. I had no idea William was in NYC until I read this site.