Most years, Prince William and Kate do a final push in December to increase their event-numbers. Not this year – we’ve barely seen them in December beyond Kate’s Christmas carol event. The work numbers were already tallied by the newspapers more than a week ago as well, so maybe Will and Kate were just like “f–k it, we can get away with not doing anything in December.” William undertook 172 engagements in 2023, and Kate did 128 engagements. Even those sad numbers are padded with “private meetings” and “phone calls,” and their numbers mirror the engagement numbers of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who are 79 and 77 years old. Anyway, the Mail is still deeply upset that Omid Scobie mildly criticized Kate’s laziness in Endgame, and a recent episode of Palace Confidential was devoted to defending Kate’s work-shy honor.

The Princess of Wales shouldn’t be seen as ‘not working hard’ because she is ‘trying to raise our future King’, the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden has told Palace Confidential. It comes after an analysis of public events and official meetings by the Sunday Telegraph showed Princess Anne, 73, was the hardest working member of the British Royal Family this year, carrying out 457 royal engagements, 32 more than the King. The Princess’ workload recently came under fire in Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame, in which he branded her ‘technically a part-time working royal’.

Speaking on the Mail+’s weekly talk show, Mr Eden said: ‘There’s an element of truth in that in the sense that they want to spend more time with their children. Catherine is trying to raise our future King [Prince George], and the children, it’s a very important job so it shouldn’t be seen as not working hard. She’s doing that in addition to engagements. So you would always expect someone like Princess Anne to do more.’

The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English added: ‘The Prince and Princess of Wales, they are always a bit low down and I think this highlights the balance that they are trying to find, which is, they also want to focus on a smaller number of charities and get more intimately involved in those charities. That does mean less public engagements. Queen Elizabeth was always of the opinion that you have to be seen to be believed, royalty has to be seen to be believed, and I think that highlights… questions might rise, are they getting that balance right? They’ve also made very clear that their other really big job is bringing their family up and being good parents.’

‘That’s what we saw in that lovely video of the three children going to the baby bank, is actually they’re bringing up three really happy, well-adjusted kids who are comfortable enough with the spotlight on them without being overexposed to it. So I think those numbers to reflect that balance they’re trying to find.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, the “she’s raising the future king” excuse is already wearing thin, as we’ve seen from some increasingly critical coverage of Kate. People noticed that she was too lazy to go to the Rugby World Cup semifinal. Even royalists questioned whether Kate is simply too lazy to travel this year. There was analysis in the Mail about how Kate basically only does events within a thirty-mile radius of her home, and only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Plus, she disappears every summer and returns with new wigs and fillers. Anyway, we’re going to hear this bullsh-t about “she’s busy raising her children” until Louis’s 18th birthday. Then they’ll invent a new excuse.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.