King Willem-Alexander joked about the Waleses’ manipulated photo fiasco

If there’s one thing the Windsors hate, it’s when they’re the subject of mockery. The peasants are supposed to bow and scrape at the mere mention of their names. The past week has been pretty rough on Prince William and Kate in particular, as everyone laughs at their clownish behavior and lies, especially around the manipulated Mother’s Day photo. Instead of genuflecting, the international audience spent a full week talking about how there’s a bunch of colonizers who lie constantly and they “killed Diana” and they all have cheating cousbands. It’s even worse because the Windsors are a joke to other European royals too – the Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander made a joke at William and Kate’s expense last week:

The King of the Netherlands has waded into the royal Photoshop row by making a joke at the Princess of Wales’s expense. King Willem-Alexander was greeting members of the public in Zutphen, one of the country’s oldest cities, on Tuesday. As he bent down to speak to a group of flag-waving schoolchildren wearing orange paper crowns, a little girl made a reference to “a photograph with your whole family”.

The King replied: “Really? At least I didn’t Photoshop it.”

The joke was not lost on the adults standing behind the children, who burst out laughing as the grinning monarch moved on to greet another group of onlookers.

[From The Telegraph]

I love that he cracked a joke about it. Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are not big on photo handouts, from what I’ve seen either – maybe a portrait for one of the bigger birthdays, but the Dutch royal family would rather just do photocalls with their children and allow the Dutch press to just get their photos that way.

Oh, and there’s so much mockery across the board! I hope this Mother’s Day Frankenphoto Fiasco has shown William and Kate that they’re not respected or admired outside of the UK.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.

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34 Responses to “King Willem-Alexander joked about the Waleses’ manipulated photo fiasco”

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  1. equality says:

    Cue the BM stories about how W-A is close with PH and needs to choose Will’s side because he will be snubbed in the UK once PW is king.

    • StillDouchesOfCambridge says:

      I think BP, KP need to know that the world sees their circus and clown joke jobs. They should probably just cut ribbons and do photocalls – they’d be good. Theyre just not cut for the big stuff like Diana, good king harry and beautiful smart wife meg.

  2. BeyondTheFringe says:

    See? These are the snide comments that the petty side of me loves. The rich and powerful taking swipes at the rich and powerful (and delusional.)

    Although…now I’m wondering if this was a setup, a softball lobbed to allow one Royal to look more “hip and relatable” at the expense of another (no matter how deserving.) I do not know what to believe anymore.

    I guess the only thing I can believe is–setup or not–it will piss William off and that is good enough for me now.

    • Mel says:

      Maybe Charles and co. aren’t that popular with other royals? They’ve been the “big dogs” for so long, somehow I don’t think they’ve displayed a lot of humility with other royal families. Now the others are bemused that their hidden BS is coming to light.

      • bettyrose says:

        Yeah, I think you’ve nailed it. The BRF probably treats the other European royals like the poor relations (I mean, they are all cousins, but IDK if they’re less wealthy). Brexit may not have been orchestrated by the BRF, but it seems like it was a strong reflection of their own mentality that the British empire matters more than Europe.

  3. Lexistential says:

    Even the other European royal houses are into making fun of the Frankenphoto. LOVE THIS FOR PEG AND WIGLET.

  4. Oh dear other royal families are mocking Peg and Can’t. Whatever will they do? I would like to think that Peg thee incandescent is lying on the floor somewhere flailing about and throwing pillows whilst drinking large amounts of alcohol and demanding to know why that little joke wasn’t run by KP first.

    • Tuesday says:

      I hope Charles lives another 30 years so that the generation of royals that William comes to the throne around The same time as Christian of Denmark and company. If his much younger peers ascend before him, they will get precedence at international events. I would love it for Peg.

  5. Just Jade says:

    Everything they wanted for the Sussexes happened to them and I am loving it for them.

  6. M says:

    The King of another country mocking you? Not a great look for the House of Windsor. I suspect Charles is very angry at Huevo about all of this.

    • SussexWatcher says:

      I wonder (doubt even) whether Chuckles cares at all about the ridicule being heaped on Pegs and the Missing Button. Chuckles certainly is letting his own staff and their BFFs in the press mock his son, and Camzilla has had it out for the Wailses since she got the big crown. Pegs is getting it from all sides – the War of the Wailses II and BP vs KP round 426.

    • Moondust says:

      You think Charles is angry? Right after the coronation William was planning his own and saying how he would do things differently. I’ve forgotten to mention that the Wales were late for the coronation and made the king wait. Then I guess Charles was angry. Now? I can imagine him being embarrassed but also delighted.

    • Beverley says:

      Sometimes I think that maybe Charles actually *wants* to be The Last King of Britain.🤷🏾‍♀️
      He doesn’t seemed motivated to bail Pegs out of this predicament.

  7. S808 says:

    Oh to be in their gc when everything hit the fan….

  8. Jay says:

    That private eye cover had me in stitches! It’s all the funnier because you know the Windsors have no sense of humor when it comes to themselves. Like, for father’s day, if William were to post a selfie of the fam with a newspaper “just to be sure” that would go a long way to defusing the criticism. Or releasing a photo of himself with his 2008 hair badly photoshopped onto his dome saying that he asked Kate to make him “look his best”. See? Funny! Self-depracating!

    • ML says:

      Omg, that Private Eye cover is pure comic gold and great advertising!!!
      And I love Rishi with K’s blurry hair on the New European.
      Thank you to WimLex as well. That reply was genius, and all the parents were cracking up in the background.

  9. lanne says:

    Couldn’t happen to a more deserving passel of jokers and clowns. The Wales are cowards, as bullies tend to be. They have invested everything into their image of perfection, which they expect to be upheld due to their own arrogance and entitlement. What a blow it must have been to realize the whole world is now laughing at them. I have a feeling that Will-di Amin cannot stand to be laughed at, and by people he considers his peers at that.

  10. MsIam says:

    I’m sure King Wax has more respect for Harry. And William not showing up to the memorial service or them not going to that birthday party when somebody’s son turned 18 didn’t help.

  11. Saucy&Sassy says:

    Well, it seems the chickens are coming home to roost. This is what happens when you let other European royals know how much above them you are. The fall, when it comes, is epic.

  12. Brassy Rebel says:

    I hope Willem-Alexander wasn’t counting on an invite to William’s con-a-nation. If he was invited and showed up, William would no doubt punch him out.

  13. Stonecoldjaneausten says:

    Shown William AND Kate?? Kate has to be awake/conscious in order to appreciate the fact that she is being mocked

  14. Molly says:

    If I’m any of the Euro royals, I want to make a clear distinction between myself and the wayward cousins who are doing everything in their power to show the uselessness, absurdity and entitlement of royalty in general…

  15. Lau says:

    It might just be in my head but I swear that photo looks more fake each time I look at it.

  16. Andrea says:

    That New European is GOLD!
    Private Eye..meh..I liked the one with Andy peeking out the window. And the weekend at Bernie’s with George & Louis holding up Kate lmao now KP should really retweet that one, it would go along way to diffuse the bomb

  17. Bad Janet says:

    Who else is in this photo? Is that Rishi Sunak standing in as Kate? I recognize some other faces but can’t place them.

    • sevenblue says:

      * Rishi Sunak – Kate
      * Liz Truss – Charlotte (she was PM for a minute, allegedly killed QE2 with her curtsy according to John Oliver)
      * Suella Braverman – George (former Home Secretary, hateful woman)
      * Nigel Farage – looking from the window (Brexiter)

      I don’t know the guy who is Louis. I loved the warning note of the image manipulation though. If the BRF added that, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble.

      • SarahCS says:

        That’s Lee Anderson, racist/islamophobe with a history of saying awful things. He’s an MP and I think going/gone to join Reform instead of the Tories.

  18. Kristen from MA says:

    I like W-A and his wife (Wax & Max). When he was about to become king, he gave an interview in which he said he didn’t want people to bow and curtsey to him. “I want people to be comfortable in my presence.”

    That’s Harry’s attitude, not Bulliam’s.

  19. Berkeleyfarm says:

    Now that this has gotten some “important press” attention (you know the important “behind the scenes” KP work includes someone reading Celebitchy) I am waiting for the pushback.

    I don’t think it’s going to be on the king or queen (“Wax and Max” I call them) but I have from a reliable source that their oldest daughter was living in Madrid and clubbing it up after a security concern had her dropping out of her university. I think she is back in NL now and for pete’s sake she is only 20 and she’s not on the public payroll yet (she said she wouldn’t ask for her stipend before she started working full time). The middle daughter is also now of age. Their dad did like to party when he was a young man and got the nickname “Prince Pils” (beer) but he, well, grew up.

    (My source is Spanish and apparently this was an “it is known” thing but nobody had a huge problem with a young woman liking to go out. Their own princess is in military academy which keeps her busy.)

    I know that the info about now-king Fred of Denmark dropped after the Waleses were made to look bad for not being friendlier with the Euroroyals e.g. Christian’s coming of age gala. Yes, it was the Spanish press because Fred was dumb and left Denmark for his dalliance but it got splashed all over the British tabs.

    FWIW I get the impression that Charles has taken some effort to build relationships with his continental peers but W had been allowed to be very part time and hadn’t put in the work. With occasional bad results like brushing off King Felipe of Spain (*) at an event when he was Duke of Cambridge (so very much wasn’t the ranking person there). I remember their being sent on a Scandinavian tour when she was pregnant with Louis that felt remedial.

    (*) Charles was close to Juan Carlos. They vacationed together when W and H were sprouts and Felipe was a teen.

  20. SarahCS says:

    Yet again, this is a joke at HER expense and Bully Idol is being left out of the narrative. The wording of all their coverage is so telling.