The Evening Standard is not one of the go-to British outlets for royal gossip, nor royal embiggening. As of late, the Windsors’ favorite outlets are the Telegraph, the Times and the Mail. Those are the royal reporters getting all of the confirmations and major briefings. So imagine my surprise at this weird Evening Standard piece, “Inside the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Quiet Transformation of the Monarchy.” The sub-headline is the funniest part though: “As Harry and Meghan fail to generate headlines, Kate and William are in stealth mode as they strategically shake up the Palace.” Excuse me? First of all, are we treating Harry and Meghan like they’re the king and queen and they must “generate headlines”? Secondly, the Sussexes DO generate headlines constantly. Thirdly, I guess “stealth mode” is the new royalist code for “being too lazy, stupid and enraged to do anything substantive.” Anyway, some highlights from this curious piece:

The Sussexes’ “desperate quest”: While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex continue on their increasingly desperate quest to become Hollywood power players across the pond, on home turf, the Prince and Princess of Wales have been quietly cementing themselves as a more grown-up brand of superstars.

The Keens’ showbiz credentials: Earlier this month, it was revealed the royal couple has been shoring up their own showbusiness credentials by hiring TV bigwig Dame Pippa Harris as a director of their Royal Foundation. The appointment is being seen as a shrewd move in royal circles, with Dame Pippa known for being an “expert at getting things done”, and comes hot on the heels of reports that the future king and queen are also set to hire a CEO to head up their team, in what’s being hailed as a “revolutionary move” at the palace.

Hiring a Top CEO: It’s William and Kate’s other staffing move, however, that is said to have ruffled feathers at the Palace…Many royal insiders see the appointing of a CEO as a sensible strategic step and a crucial indication of how the future king and queen are positioning themselves for the throne. “I think it’s a smart move for William and Kate to corporatize the court as they move up the royal ladder,” says Claudia Joseph, author of Kate: The Making of a Princess. “The new CEO will oversee both their legacy projects, such as the Earthshot Prize and the Princess’s Centre for Early Childhood, as well as the Duchy of Cornwall and the Royal Foundation. Inevitably, some noses will be put out of joint when the new CEO arrives and makes changes, but that is normal in any section when a new boss takes over.”

People are critical of the CEO hire: “It seems to me the title of CEO, obviously intended to make the monarchy sound more business-efficient, is woefully misguided,” says Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III. “People don’t want to be reminded that ‘the Firm’ is exactly that – a multi-billion-pound moneymaking enterprise. I’m sure William and Kate think they are helping Charles ‘streamline’ the monarchy by creating this new post, but all they are really doing is adding another layer of bureaucracy and creating a recipe for even more backstabbing and intrigue [in the palace]. I think it is highly unlikely that Charles will embrace the CEO concept. He is very much a traditionalist when it comes to the way the house works, and believes that the private secretary system has served past monarchs well.”

Heartthrob Peg: William has also started to evolve as more of a global statesman over recent months, most notably on his trip to New York in September. There, he was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers, all desperate to grab a selfie with the popular prince – both William and Kate’s approval ratings are currently soaring, with the prince the second most popular royal after the late queen, on 67 per cent, according to the latest YouGov survey, and the princess not far behind on 62 per cent (Meghan and Harry, meanwhile, are on a measly 29 and 27 per cent respectively). William was praised by the American media for being “warm and genuine”, while his dip in the Hudson to see the Billion Oyster Project was said to have revived his “heartthrob status”.

Copykeening the Sussexes: That popularity will stand William and Kate in good stead with Gen Z, who the couple are keen to court. Eagle-eyed royal watchers have noticed that the Waleses’ social media feeds have been publishing increasingly slick videos of their work lately, such as the clips released around the King’s Coronation in May. These punchy video montages have racked up millions of views, likes and retweets, and the prince and princess have also increased their social media team to three people, including a new head of digital. A Kensington Palace source was quoted as saying the couple recognised this new aspect of being a working member of the royal family as “incredibly important”.

A new kind of monarchy: With the arrival of a CEO, a glitzy new showbiz hire and a more prominent social media presence, William and Kate now seem poised to take the royal family into a whole new era. “Monarchy in the 21st century is a very different beast from the 1950s, when the late queen succeeded to the throne,” says Joseph. “We live in a different age, where the royals are scrutinised as never before and people are less reverential towards the Firm. Charles has already begun a programme of modernisation as he takes on the role of king, but William has to look to the future for how Britain will look in 2050.”

[From The Evening Standard]

That quote from Christopher Andersen was from this Daily Beast piece, which I covered in September. This ES piece just regurgitated a lot of other coverage from the Mail, and added some hilariously unhinged digs on the Sussexes for no real reason other than “the Sussexes live rent-free in the Windsors’ heads.” The Sussexes have all of the power, celebrity and fame they want – they live quiet lives in Montecito and they can easily dominate headlines whenever they want. Meanwhile, Will and Kate are two desperados copying every single thing about Meghan and Harry. The CEO move, hiring people from the entertainment industry, the social media stuff, it’s all the Waleses attempting, in their lazy way, to become an all-white version of the Sussexes. As for “William has to look to the future for how Britain will look in 2050”… the assumption seems to be that King Charles will live to be 102? And that William will be a keen and hip 68-year-old king?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.