We haven’t “seen” Prince William at all this week. He made multiple public appearances last week, all around the VE Day commemorations, and he’s scheduled to make a public appearance tomorrow, Friday, for the Order of the Bath event. William actually has been “working” this week – he hosted an investiture ceremony and tried to get attention by claiming that Princess Charlotte is really into track & field. He also hosted a private dinner for the merger of two charities, Child Bereavement U.K. and Winston’s Wish. He’s not very good at keeping up appearances in general, and specifically keeping up appearances that he’s hard-working or just “working” in general. Which is why this story is pretty funny: “Prince William trying to shed ‘work shy’ image as he prepares for ‘job he doesn’t want’.” This a reference to the recent NY Times piece in which William was criticized for being lazy and only interested in media-friendly events.
Prince William is regularly cited as one of the most popular members of the royal family. He has carefully crafted an image of a modern man, juggling being a father and husband with his public life. He and Princess Kate are now the most powerful royal couple and they have been widely praised for the way they have brought up their children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7, away from the spotlight. But behind the scenes, William has faced accusations of not being as committed to his duties as he might be.
Even before Kate’s cancer diagnosis, the royal league tables of engagements raised eyebrows with both regularly lagging behind older members of The Firm. While the likes of Princess Anne and the King rarely have a day off, William has irked Palace staff with his aversion to official engagements, especially outside of the UK.
While 2024 was an incredibly difficult year for the Prince, courtiers noted he was still able to enjoy trips to Germany for the European Championships, and South Africa for his Earthshot prize despite refusing to take on board royal visits. We reported that King Charles had to pull rank last month and order a reluctant William to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome.
William’s seemingly work-shy attitude was raised in a recent New York Times piece on the family’s rift with Prince Harry. And experts believe he is trying to shed the image – by creating a new one.
Historian Ed Owens told the publication that William was “burnishing his reputation as a statesman”. He said: “William has sometimes been seen as work-shy, but we see him gravitating toward bigger, more media-friendly events.”
While William’s appearances are relatively rare compared with his father, they have tended to be important over the past few months. In December last year, he attended the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, an event that allowed him to spend time with US President Donald Trump. And while his trip to the Vatican was under duress, according to sources, it was another substantial world event that William was visible at. King Charles’s cancer diagnosis has meant attention has turned to the future of the monarchy.
The NYT’s London bureau chief Mark Landler notes that the “job that William does not want, at least for now, is his father’s” But he notes that “fears over the king’s health have made talk of succession inescapable”.
“While his trip to the Vatican was under duress, according to sources…” LMAO. William was under duress because he wanted to watch Aston Villa, not attend a pope’s funeral. I really do wonder what Charles or the courtiers had to say to William to get him to go to Pope Francis’s funeral. Was it just “hey, you’ll get attention, you get to call yourself a statesman again?” Anyway, William and Kate used to be called lazy and work-shy all the time by the British media, but then Prince Harry fell in love with Meghan, and suddenly William and Kate could do no wrong. It’s interesting that, all these years later, people are remembering… oh right, W&K still aren’t doing jacksh-t.
Anyway, the larger point is that these people are idiots – “how do I brush off the ‘work-shy’ label?” WORK MORE. Do more events! Stop with all of the idiotic busywork and “mother nature” videos! Stop making your life’s work “briefing reporters about how much you hate your brother.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London on the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 996579342, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, attend a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, London, UK, 08 May2025.,Image: 996583221, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: JULIAN SIMMONDS/Avalon
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales, attends a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, London, UK, 08 May2025.,Image: 996583504, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: JULIAN SIMMONDS/Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London on the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 996583915, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales leave after attending a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London on the 80th anniversary of VE Day.,Image: 996608021, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- Prince William – Prince Of Wales depart a VE Day 80th Anniversary Service at Westminster Abbey, London, England, UK on Thursday 8 May, 2025.,Image: 996630909, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales attend a concert to mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day at Horse Guards Parade on May 08, 2025 in London, England. The King and Queen, joined by Members of the Royal Family, will take part in events from May 5th to May 8th to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, which signalled the end of the Second World War in Europe.,Image: 996700501, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson/Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 08/05/2025. London, United Kingdom. Prince William and Kate Middleton at a concert on Horse Guards Parade in London to conclude the UK’s 80th anniversary of VE Day commemorations.,Image: 996719273, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images/Avalon
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- Concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade Featuring: Prince William, Catherine Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 May 2025 Credit: Toby Melville/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
You know what Willy, if you don’t want the job, abdicate for George. Then Lazy and her mother can run The Firm.
And you can watch AV games to your heart’s content without having to attend funerals such as the Pope’s.
Work-shy and definitely NOT a statesman. Just return the taxpayer money and you’ll be left well alone.
Proving once again that Peg doesn’t use the brain god gave him. What he is trying to do is figure out a way to not look lazy but still don’t do the work. He is a bald box of rocks,
Oh we know he wants everything without working for it: especially the status and the money.
But he’s too stupid to realise that the energy he spends on briefing the rats could have instead been spent on “working” and interacting with the peasants who fund him.
What’s noticeable for me was until QE2 died, Willy was “poor” compared to Harry. The Montecito mansion made him incandescent – “How can Harry afford it?”
But once she did, he automatically got the Duchy income. So it was funny in the lead up to it there were all these KP furious briefings every time the Sussexes announced a deal. Now, I don’t know what Harry’s net worth is, but I reckon his wealth creation ventures will make him so independently wealthy that Willy will continue to rage because his income has strings attached it.
Just a reminder Willy what the rats want from you : We pay, you work.
Willy is nothing but an Angry Little Wanker.
The fix to the work shy image is indeed an easy fix: just get out in public more and do more Royal “work”. However, the unspoken part is that while Will wants to shed the work shy image, he wants to do so without actually increasing his workload. Hence the dependency on PR and a sycophantic press – but that is not really an effective long term strategy, especially in times of general economic hardship and a more loud republican movement.
When he becomes King he will not be able to hide anymore and it will be interesting to see what happens then. Especially if he tries to get his way because I do think there will be push back if he tries to be the invisible King.
He can cut back on the vacations and not try to pass of sports events as “work.”
Exactly. Work more. Vacation less. If he needs an example he can pattern himself after Anne or Charles. They don’t work as much as a person with a full time job, but they don’t get accused of shirking. I guess, the problem is they would have to be around (gasp) commoners who aren’t celebs.
He’ll brief more on how much he hates Harry on a daily basis and that it’s because of his hatred of Harry and his work ethic, that he can’t possibly work. 😂
When he’s king, he’ll make a rule that he can classify the “hate Harry” briefings as actual engagements. They will probably start to appear in that royal court circular thing.
Indeed, hating on Harry and Meghan is the only part of his planned agenda that we know about. And maybe go to Earthsh!t things every year or two to hang with celebrities. That’s absolutely the sum of what he’s telegraphed.
Once he becomes king, who is he going to send in his place? George is probably still going to be too young and you don’t send an 18-year-old to the Pope’s funeral. Is the entire burden going to fall on Edward and Sophie?
More Fiesta than Edders. Edders still has chronic covid, and his schedules have been lighter since he fell ill, with longer ‘rest buffers’ between events than previously.
Right….if he wants to shed his workshy image, he needs to work more. thats it. the issue of course is that he wants to be seen as this hardworking global statesman without working.
working covers up so many sins and I dont know why he doesn’t get that. Even look at us on here – we are pretty anti-Charles, but at least once a day someone will comment on Charles’ work ethic or his work with his trust or something. There’s a lot of comments along the lines of “charles is a crap father BUT at least he works.”
“William is an entitled ahole who refuses to work” – there is no BUT.
I commented about this yesterday regarding Kate’s four season video. In trying to avoid work, they make everything so difficult. It’s easy to visit some cancer centers and researchers; it’s hard to produce a video series or run an early childhood program. With William, it’s easy to attend church, some garden parties, visit military installations, go to funerals – there’s an established system for these royal chores. It’s hard to end climate change and homelessness and achieve peace in the Middle East. The easy things are unimpeachable – all they have to do is be there and people will be happy. But because they choose the hard things and are so incompetent at them and neglectful of them, they’re rightly criticized.
And I can see why they’d think “this busywork isn’t as important as the hard things”, and that’s true. But they have been so inept at addressing one hard thing after another, even to the extent of just saying “here’s a difficult thing, how can I help?” and getting eyeballs on the people who CAN do the things, they’ve really burnt up any goodwill or grace they might have been granted.
The NY Times story must have upset Pegs. Pegs does not juggle family life with responsibilities because he shirks the work he has to do and takes many vacations and sports events count as “work.” It is insulting to parents who work for a living and can raise families and be great parents as well. And the Wales children were not brought up away from the spotlight. Considering cover stories for George and Charlotte. Pictures of Louis at an event all over the media. George going to sports events. And the children trotted out for the Commercials produced by the Keens. The fact that William makes it known that he was attending the Pope’s funeral “under duress” does not speak well of him. The man is no statesman.
Wow else on this planet is praised for going to the reopening of Notre Dame or the Pope’s funeral or both? Absolutely no one. So stop, it makes it worse for your image William. Show up and shut up!
@Moondust
Phone calls are also counted as work. WK calls some institution, William talks for 10 minutes, Kate says hello and puts in a word and both have an hour of work written down in their documents. SERIOUSLY:)
The way of camouflaging continuous, multi-week vacations is also “funny”.
Before leaving, Kate visits two or three organizations near her house, drops in on each for 15 minutes, and when they sneak off to the tropics, the report from “work” is gradually shown.
@KoRAR, they were counting meetings, phone calls with their own staff as work too. I think, she doesn’t do that much, but Kate was absolutely showing any talk with her staff as work.
Oh, my. Do I detect snark here??
“William’s seemingly work-shy attitude was raised in a recent New York Times piece… And experts believe he is trying to shed the image – by creating a new one.”
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Not by, you know, WORKING.
By CREATING A NEW IMAGE.
To replace the reality.
So … basically Alternate Facts.
Got it.
I mean yeah. Work more? And not just for one or two weeks but you know, every week?
the US has many sayings that describe Work Shy Willy. The first that comes to mind is “All hat and no cattle”.
All crown but no kingdom?
All show, but no go!
Ther’s an easy answer to that problem:
WORK BITCH!!
Welp. Making voiceless appearances in his wife’s vanity home video projects will not improve things…
Since his staff does the heavy lifting, all he has to do is read the brief, show up, shake hands, and listen while giving a photo op two to four times a week. Yes, it’s dull, repetitive, and mindlessly boring, but it’s low-hanging fruit to appear busy and act like he cares about people. This is his life; he needs to accept it and stop trying to compete with his brother.
A person with a modicum of curiosity about the world around them might actually find that a bit interesting at times. Some people might even consider it a “dream job”. Go figure.
“The NYT’s London bureau chief Mark Landler notes that the “job that William does not want, at least for now, is his father’s” But he notes that “fears over the king’s health have made talk of succession inescapable”.”
I’m sorry, but the way that these people talk about a *hereditary* position like it is some kind of surprise that no one had bothered to plan or prepare for until the SEVENTY-SIX year old occupant is diagnosed with cancer is just insane. Yes, it’s sad and a shock to the system when an elderly parent gets a bad diagnosis. It makes reality much more real. But, it doesn’t change the fact that people die. This is a part of life. If your parent from whom you are inheriting the family business is in his mid-70s, ummmm yes in literally any normal, non-dsyfunctional family, “talk of succession” would take place.
The only thing he’s shedding is hair.
😅 that’s the truth….
Lol, the accusations of “work-shy” William weren’t behind the scenes – they’ve been right in front of the scenes for years. He’s even announces it himself every time he says he’ll pare down his patronages and busy work and only focus on a few “impactful” projects.
LOL. This story made me think about a line from an early Simpsons episode, ” I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas”. You could just work more dude and take less vacations and game attendance. Or you could still do those things but if you worked more people wouldn’t begrudge you that.
I’m not of an age to have really paid attention to the full on reign of QEII, but I feel like it’s pretty well known that she traveled a lot for horse racing and vacations and no one ever claimed that she was lazy. This guy wants to figure out a way to not do the obvious thing and still get credit for it.
You cannot invent this high-level idiocy. A whole high level office and you don’t know how to find a solution to your lazy reputation? Oh my god, these are clueless dumb & dumber
I’m cracking up at the title. 😂. I’ll edit if I have anything else to say after reading.
They go on about him doing more important events and then make only two since December. One of which they already said he was forced to go to. 🤭.
Yeah, the BM isn’t feeling the Wales’ this week. It’s funny to see.
What WandK fail to realize is that the bread and butter engagements, such as county fairs and factory openings are what helps tie the people to the monarchy, these engagements shine a bit a royal light onto every day people. William’s stated plan to do away with those types of engagements and only focus on “impactful” work doesn’t interest the ordinary people, who will never benefit from said “impactful” work, and will inevitably lead people to wonder what the hell are we paying millions of pounds for? As the late queen said “I need to be seen to be believed”, William I believe, will be the if not the end, the cause of the end of the British monarchy.
Harla, I agree. And think how easy it could be for him and his team to do one activity a week and hype it up on social media before and after the visit, especially a county fair or business opening! It would give him 52 more events a year, lots of social media material, and good will. For one event a week. And he could double it by doing two in the same day.
How many of us would love to work two days a week and get paid for a full week!
But he is too lazy to do even do that.
Peg & Keen do not like mixing with the peasants, and they can’t hide that fact.
Well said.
Earthshot may be a great initiative/project – I honestly don’t know. But I imagine most britons dont care about it. They would rather William hand out the ribbons at their county fair or that Kate comes to open the new children’s hospital in their town/city or something. That’s what creates the connection, not william jetsetting around the world to hang with celebrities.
It’s also very odd to push the “William hanging out with celebrities means he has star power” narrative and expect the public to be impressed by it, when the RR have basically turned “celebrity” into a slur when it comes to Harry, Meghan, and their famous (genuine, unpaid) friends.
William is finally learning that there’s no such thing as a free lunch … or a free duchy.
You’ve got to be at least SEEN doing the things that royals consider “work.” It’s not actually work but he can’t even do that.
Nice work, Charles — you created a lazy, good-for-nothing heir and sent the spare, who truly wants to serve, away.
I don’t think these people care what it says anywhere. He will become king regardless of whether he is lazy, industrious, hairless or whatever else. These people sit in their tax-funded palaces, shielded from the population and served by a group of people who learnt their trade in the Middle Ages. They don’t care what is written anywhere, because they can’t be prosecuted for anything. And if the monarchy were abolished, it would be a long process and they would negotiate in such a way that they would always have a special status. So what do they care what their people think. It’s all just a farce. They think the people who are not part of their aristocracy are stupid and easy to lie to anyway. No ruler has ever worked for the people. It was always the other way round.
The work shy image William has wouldn’t be a problem if he put in the work when he turned 18. He must be getting closer to the Crown than expected.
I get the sense that the press is not happy about William and Kate’s work load but they’re reluctant to say so publicly because of the deal they with KP. The NYT article is being used here to say what they really want to say.
Isn’t another school break coming up? And then there’s Balmoral for a month over summer. Will be interesting to see where they vacation next.
It’s right there is the phrase. Work. Just work more, William, and people won’t think you’re a lazy, entitled twat being gifted with money and status.
This may be groundbreaking, but maybe he could actually hold engagements and show up for things?
So they are basically admitting he is just a media whore..got it
He’s not going to get away with not working when and if he becomes king. It is expected for him to be out and about on a regular basis. He better get over it now.
Well. 3 leaked beach/ski vacations, one vacation around Christmas and new pics of Charlotte in camo indicating a recent Scottish holiday in 5 months while leaking a tantrum about attending the Pope’s funeral instead of attending an AV match are all very bad looks, Willy, especially since summer break is coming up and you typically disappear for at least 8 weeks on summer holiday. Spend as much time working as plotting against your younger brother and you should be on your way. Divorce the lazy mattress and stop the weird, desperately out of touch social media posts. Meghan is better at social media. You can’t compete. The Queen Mum and QE were popular because of the bread and butter events they constantly performed where they interacted with average people. Every event can’t be a media stunt to get photographed with celebrities and your grannies knew that. Your lack of ease around the working class registers in pics as much as your lack of ease around the bourgeois. Read your briefs and show up prepared. No more day drinking events. Stop holding your penis in pictures. It is a cowering look and looks creepy. Get some counseling to deal with your jealousy, anger issues and social phobias. Harry left 5 and a half years ago and is never coming back to do your work for you and to be your willing scapegoat. Get over it. Stop playing out the heir and spare dynamic among your children in the media. Don’t be a psycho pratt to your children the way you have been to your brother. Get professional pr, listen to the professionals and stop leaking like mad to the rota about your brother and father. Your apparent death watch of your father when you are so ill-prepared to be King is cringe. Get professional help with your style and grooming. Moisturize! You look clinically depressed, hangover and sloppy. You can look professional, clean and put together without wearing King Charles cosplay. Get professionals to tutor you in public speaking and posture/body language. The school run lie is nonsense. Stop blantantly lying as part of your pr strategy to dodge work. Don’t lie about things that are easy to fact check.
Tn Democrat – your analysis is spot on! When listed in totality as you’ve done, I count at least 24 sensible points that could make William a new and better person. Of course he won’t change because what he does is mostly working for him now. The Royal Family have done a Faustian deal with the media and they think they have won. William’s part of the contract failure is the most noticeable now that Charles isn’t well, and Charles has ‘simplified’ the royal numbers.
By the way, you shine as a ‘Life Coach’ with your wisdom. 🙂 It’s too bad that William doesn’t want to hear any of it or change.
That moniker is going nowhere. The will forever be known as “the Work Shys”
Quick answer: you can’t shed the image of being work-shy when you ARE work-shy. They have miserably failed in every possible instance to prove otherwise. How stupid do they think we are?
He wants to shed his lazy image but can’t imagine how?!? Oh that’s rich! The fool is too thick to figure it out. What a waste of space and taxpayers money.
William is the poster boy for arguments against hereditary monarchy.
I am stumped! What could someone possibly do to shed a lazy work-shy image. Really, I cannot think of even one thing. Just keep going on vacations.
I know!! His team can brief to all the media that Will is a big boy statesman now who does statesman things. That is certainly gonna work.
Anne and king wanker rarely take a day off? WTFIUWT?
Granted Willy’s work shy for sure.
But what’s expected of them? Dress up, trot out like a pony and perform every single day? Sounds like slavery to me.
Babe, they are getting millions per year for this. How is that slavery? 😭😭 Anne, Charles work one-two hour per day. If that is working like a slave, I don’t know what you call any person working a standard 35 hours per week? If they don’t want the job, they can quit. But, then they don’t get to spend millions of taxpayer money each year, right?
It would take me about two weeks to come up with a five-year plan for him. And he’s had decades. He needs to fork up some money and hire some quality staff. All he needs to do is something public once or twice a week, like an investiture or tour a wool factory. And do some actual work, like volunteer at a homeless shelter, two days a week. It’s not like he has to spend two hours in hair and make up to leave the house.