This week, some royal gossip sort of got buried. Over the weekend, the Times of London published a semi-authorized profile on Princess Anne ahead of her 75th birthday. Anne does not want any fuss for herself or her birthday, but some “royal insiders” spoke on her behalf to the Times. It’s very common for the palace to authorize these kinds of birthday profiles, which is why it was fascinating to see those “sources” criticize Prince William within Anne’s b-day profile. The Times noted that while Anne is “fond of her nephew,” several sources told them that Anne wants to see William do more “bread and butter” royal engagements, especially hosting investitures at Windsor Castle. Per a source close to Anne: “She’s still doing most of the investitures [at Windsor] even though William lives there. It annoys her.” Well, funny story. Anne had to shlep all the way over to Windsor Castle this week to host another investiture. While William, Kate and the kids were lounging on a superyacht in Greece.
Princess Anne is holding an investiture at Windsor Castle after a report claimed that she thinks Prince William should be leading more of these ceremonies. On July 22, the Princess Royal, 74, hosted an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle, where she presented medals to a group including actress Sarah Lancashire. Investitures are services in which a working member of the royal family presents insignias to individuals recognized for outstanding contributions in honors lists, which are released twice annually.
Currently, just three royals can host the events. The royal family’s website outlines that only King Charles, Princess Anne and Prince William can conduct the honor, leaving the small group responsible for about 30 investitures a year.
So far in 2025, Princess Anne has held the most investiture ceremonies. According to a tally from Gert’s Royals, she has hosted 10 of the events including Tuesday’s, while King Charles has done six and Prince William has done five.
Over the weekend, The Sunday Times published a new profile on the Princess Royal ahead of her 75th birthday in August, where a source said that Anne would like to see William, 43, partake in more “bread-and-butter” royal duties.
“She’s still doing most of the investitures [at Windsor] even though William lives there. It annoys her,” a source told the Sunday Times.
While the Prince of Wales and his wife, Kate Middleton, live minutes away from Windsor Castle at Adelaide Cottage with their children, his calendar already had a commitment on July 22 — his son Prince George’s 12th birthday.
For a moment, consider a world where no parent ever has to work on their kids’ birthdays? What the hell kind of excuse is that from People Mag? “It was George’s birthday, how dare you expect William to work!” They use a similar excuse for the kids’ school holidays too, like it would be a fate worse than death for parents to work at all while their kids are out of school. Anyway, it’s just funny, it’s almost as if Anne set it up on purpose, knowing that William and Kate were going to be squirrelled away on an Arab prince’s superyacht while Anne was trudging through her tenth investiture of the year.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Princess Anne, Princess Royal, and Prince William, Prince of Wales attend the recording of a special episode of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, on September 06, 2023 in Windsor, England. The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast included TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales, and The Princess Royal, in their respective roles as Patrons of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), to mark the start of the Rugby World Cup. The podcast is co-hosted by Mike Tindall, James Haskell (to the left of Mike in the images) and Alex Payne. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 804353203, 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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- Camera Press Rota 04734696. The 80th Anniversary of VE Day. Members of the royal family watch the VE 80 Parade flypast at Buckingham Palace. 05/05/2025,Image: 995422576, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Camera Press Rota, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Joanne Davidson/Avalon
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- Britain’s Anne, Princess Royal and Britain’s William, Prince of Wales arrive for the Order of the Garter service at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 16, 2025.,Image: 1011415756, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Carlos Jasso/Avalon
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- The Princess Royal (left) and Emmanuel Moulin at the State Banquet for President of France Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on day one of the French President’s state visit to the UK. Picture date: Tuesday July 8, 2025.,Image: 1019896834, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- Day one of Royal Ascot, Ascot Racecourse. Featuring: Princess Anne and Lady Gabriella Kingston Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 18 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal during a visit to the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) National Championships at Hartpury University and Hartpury College in Gloucestershire Featuring: Anne, Princess Royal Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal in the stables during a visit to the South African Riding School for Disabled Association (SARDA) while on her two-day to trip to South Africa. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: South Africa When: 21 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal makes a speech during a service to officially open the new Labour Corps Memorial at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWCG), Company’s Garden in Cape Town during her two-day to trip to South Africa. The memorial honours over 1,700 members of South African labour units, predominantly black South Africans, and is the first memorial on the continent of Africa honouring those who served in non-combat roles in the military labour units during the First World War. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Cape Town, South Africa When: 22 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
When does Anne get to go on her vacation?
IIRC, William was pretty blitzed at his last investiture so maybe no one trusts him to handle what is probably 15 minutes of work.
Anne along with the other grifters whole life is a vacation
Let’s not be fooled.
Does Anne take months and months off bc she could absolutely never work while her kids are off from school? No, she doesn’t do that. That’s all Will and Kate. That said, I’m sure she has time to take vacations and has a lot more time to herself than many many others.
Yes it would be funny if she set it up while the lazies were away being lazy lol. Look Anne is older and it sounds like she would like to be doing less but her “dear nephew “ doesn’t want to work.
😂 actions always speak louder than words.
Here is Anne, doing investitures – double that of her lazy arse nephew who’s lounging around in a yacht in the Greek Islands.
Who knows, Willy could see his future in Abu Dhabi, or Bahrain, or Jordan where they still have a feudal attitude towards their monarchs. He also seems to like the Middle East a lot.
Funnily enough, I was watching that psychic Sloan Bella recently and that’s exactly what she said. That Willy was making shady deals with the Middle East, pocketing the money and plans to dip when the time is right.
Snuffles, the only reason I don’t agree with him actually doing that is because it requires forethought, planning, and action. Three things Willy can’t do.
Kate has staked it all on being Queen. If William dips out on his kingship where does that leave her? Queen Mother to George? What about the Middletons; all these years of sucking up for nothing?
She didn’t say his plans included Kate.
Over the years I’ve really gotten the impression that nobody in the BRF likes or respects WandK, they tolerate them, kiss their behinds when necessary but don’t think highly of them, especially not as the future K and Q.
Again.
Seems like such an easy way to highlight talent, strong community leaders / contributors and individual causes. They are presented with the lists. Like. I’m not gonna connect the dots for the staff that read the comments as to how this simple ceremony could be turned into an actual IMPACTFUL series of things that would require very little on the behalf of the mighty 3 but would make it look as if so much more work was being done. Ugh.
HOW ARE THEY SO BAD AT THIS
Because they never had to be good at it. They get all of life’s goodies not for doing but for being.
I don’t know how much they care about papers/sources outside the BM publishing about their lazy heir and his spare, along with the heir’s lying “I-had-cancer/chemo-for-non-existent-PRE-Cancer, -but-I-can-downhill-ski, -do-extreme-workouts, -and-lay-in-the-sun-all-day (*cough*cough*)” wife being on a super-yacht belonging to a foreign sovereign. Because of *course* this generous expensive vacation (which we ALL need when we work only 10 days out of the last 7 months!!), doesn’t come with *any* expectations down the line from the next King. Tsk tsk… who could *ever* think that!?
Just as with our press here, afraid to “poke the bear” and actually DO THE *ACTUAL* JOB OF A JOURNALIST, ask the REAL questions and post the reality of what is going on.
Sorry…still on my 1st cup of coffee, and while I’m not a Brit, and it pisses me off for you all, that you have to pay HALF A *BILLION* for this lazy lot. Almost as angry as I am for us in the US, having to watch *our* journalist afraid to open their mouths and publish the *real* truth, as well as probe for the actual *truth* about Felon 47 and his criminal cabal, and how they’re dismantling our constitution and our country, and harming just about everyone in this country who is not a billionaire crony. Feh! (as my sweet Grandmother would say!)
And in September Chuck and Camilla and the others will all wine and dine Trump and his “wife”. Such a bad look receiving with fanfare a man who is causing so much destruction. Bet Andrew will be there, to thank T for now being able to travel and go everywhere after Ghislaine lies in exchange for an out of jail card. And Melania will probably exchange tips on “how to keep a fake marriage by only meeting once in a while for special events while living separate lives” with Kate.
Can’t work on the kids’ birthdays. Can’t work during school holidays. Can’t work while the kids are in school – school run, duh. What a sweet, sweet deal.
I really cannot for the life of me understand why they are being allowed to get away with such a pathetic and frankly embarrassing work ethic. They have got it absolutely made…no Pap pics, no questions asked about their pathetically few engagements, no evening engagements, and the ‘work’ that they do bother to do seems to be in the middle of the week…allowing for a nice long weekend eh?
How they dare to be referred to as Prince & Princess of Wales when clearly not being up for the job just beggars belief. Diana for all her faults turned up for her Charities throughout all the trouble and strife of her divorce. I wonder what she would think?
It is embarrassing – and not just for the Waleses. It makes the whole royal family look bad and it raises the question “what are people paying for” if the HEIR TO THE THRONE cant be bothered to work on his son’s birthday (I mean he couldn’t work because he’s on a yacht in the Ionian sea, but lets just play along with People here.)
If they want these honors and such to be taken seriously then the royals need to take them seriously. IMO it should be Charles’ job to do these events and when he cant, then William should step up. Anne should be the last resort, not the go-to. It’s not like William is doing anything else anyway.
First, there’d be no Kate. And doubtful that Willy would’ve run as wild as he did in his teen years. If the behavior(s) continued, I could see Diana going full Cher in her “Moonstruck Mode” smacking Will again (as she did that one time on the school games day), but this time, across the face, saying: “SNAP OUTTA IT!!”
She’d never let him become the slack wit he is.
Lizzie bee . Diana was way too good for the family and treated badly The talk of her so called many f a u l t s came from Charles fans like penny and Ingrid. Charles has many volumes of f a u l t s and will is catching up. Diana was needed to keep will in check and he is now allowed to slack off work.
I found the no working on their birthday part kind of funny, just because I come from a family where no one works on their own birthday. I have actually never gone to school or worked on my birthday in my life, but you best believe if it was 15 ft of snow my parents were sending me to school.
That said, while we may disagree on how much ” work” it is to swat someone on the shoulder with a sword it is part of their role and she shouldn’t be doing the bulk. While her nephew, the actual heir who is 30 years younger is chilling.
I don’t understand what William and Kate’s long term game plan is. These people aren’t going to provide enough cover for his laziness. I’m sure if you looked at the court circular for the past month the Dukes of kent, edinburgh, and Gloucester have probably all done events. I’m sure the Princess Royal and The Duchess of Edinburgh have also done events. They just aren’t covered because no one cares.
So that won’t be enough to distract from the literal King being lazy, especially not if social media and other media is covering them on numerous vacations. It’s not North Korea the British citizens will be able to see what they’re doing reported elsewhere even if the telegraph doesn’t mention it.
Their Endgame? I think Willy is waiting for a golden handshake: here’s a palace, a lifetime’s security and chopper rides.
What I think made him incandescent was before QE2 died, his income was well below Harry’s who inked so many deals after they left. But once he reached the Duchy income after QE2’s death, you could see visible signs of relief – reliable source of income, workload decreased etc.
Free money to do nothing. He’s behaved like an aristocrat like the Duke of Westminster – billionaire heir. But to Grosvenor‘s credit, he set up a foundation to reward the peasants.
Willy has gone the other way and has become more of a leech on others. He can’t afford a yachting holiday? 🤔 He really must like his freebies then.
Anne didn’t just do one investiture on the 21st she did two. Each is about 1-2 hrs followed by a reception. She did a morning and afternoon one. So she should be doubly annoyed with William. The sword used is 3-4 lbs so she got a little bicep work in.
This article really should have said that William couldn’t done the investiture because he’s on a super yacht in Greece at moment. The British media is still tiptoeing around the truth
They keep protecting a lazy man with poor character. Can’t really see his current gig lasting long even if the rats protect him.
How much longer will the keens get away with the laziness
Will not seems to be headed for being the worst and laziest prince of Wales. Ever. And k an not the laziest princess of Wales
I feel bad for Sarah Lancashire, a great actor, having to know that these royals’ main concern about investitures is who gets stuck doing them. Kinda takes the shine off the honor.
It does give the feeling that they are all bts sighing and saying who has to do the investitures this time.
What’s going to happen when William is king? Charles won’t be there to do this kind of thing, and Anne will be in her late 70s. Is William going to do them and all the other royal rituals? Or will he just let it all drop?
If he insists on continuing to do nothing much except going on holiday, he could be the end of the monarchy in its current publicly funded form.
Maybe this is why the tabloids are so frenzied about getting Harry back. The whole enterprise is possibly going to fall over without him because of William’s fecklessness and incompetence.
They are in for a very rude awakening when the old guard can no longer perform these duties. Perhaps the lack of effort when that happens will push anti-monarchy sentiment even further.
The real reason William wasn’t available to do the last investiture was he and his family are on a yacht in Greece but I guess People Magazine is following the royal rota in remaining silent about this vacation.
Must not disrupt pegs watching sports and those school runs
What a lazy loader he is.
Edit lazy l o a f e r
🙄 ‘…leaving the small group responsible for about 30 investitures a year.’ Oh, these three are SOOOOO overworked!!!
For fun I looked up Anne’s events this month. She’s had 35, six just yesterday. And most were not a brief meet and greet opening. She’s worked 15 of 23 days.
And that doesn’t count the state dinner or events for Macron this month. She did two events in two separate areas outside London the day of the dinner.