The Princess of Wales celebrated her 44th birthday on Friday by releasing her fourth and final video in her Mother Nature “four seasons” series. The “winter” video showed Kate prancing around alone on some royal estate, with Kate’s voiceover reciting something that sounded a lot like AI-written text. Despite The Royalist’s increasingly frantic rants about Kate’s popularity, I’ve seen very few justifications for Kate’s Mother Nature series. In fact, even regular pro-royal or royal-ambivalent people have taken issue with the videos as a huge waste of time, money and effort. There’s a huge messaging problem for Kate, in that she really has not shown any concern for the real struggles of average Britons, not to mention people who are currently being treated for cancer or who have lost loved ones to cancer. Speaking of, the Daily Mail’s Liz Jones has another highly critical piece about Kate’s shampoo/MAO-inhibitor commercials. Some highlights:
A harsh English winter: In the midst of this cold weather gloom, it was therefore surprising to see the latest video from the Princess of Wales. It is of course wonderful to see Kate looking so radiant, healthy and strong after the terrible cancer diagnosis that shook the whole nation. When she released her first video in summer announcing she was on the mend, I wrote about how moving I found it – and that it brought me to tears. Yet watching her latest video, I felt once again a little twitch of worry about the direction the slick Palace PR team seem to be directing her.
These videos feel like something the Sussexes would do: As I wrote about the first video she released, cancer is messy, imperfect and shattering. But the most recent of these strange films seems to be a misfire from a family once so protective of their privacy. It smacks of something Meghan and Harry might come up with.
The Winter video: Kate took the opportunity to mark her 44th birthday today by releasing the video, posted on Instagram, to close her series of more emotional – some sycophants would say modern, but I would say unwise – social media offerings made following her cancer diagnosis and recovery. This latest instalment of her time out with Mother Nature, entitled Winter – not very imaginatively, shows her walking through the Berkshire countryside at dawn. The clip is accompanied by her reflective voice-over and a soundtrack of plinky plonky music.
The video series was a bad idea: I am so sorry to say this on her birthday but who on earth told Kate releasing this video, today of all days when so many people are struggling, was a good idea? It’s not just unfortunate timing, its tone shows she – and by extension the Prince of Wales – has come unstuck. No matter how many hospital wards or Scout troops she might visit, she is missing the mark on how to truly empathise with the British public. And given the deep affection and respect we hold Kate in, that’s such a pity.
Out of touch: This three-minute nature-fest shows Kate is as out of touch as if she’d released a film of herself sitting on a throne wearing a crown, or waving from a private jet as she heads off to the Caribbean or on another skiing jaunt. This is not how winter, especially in the countryside, is for the vast majority. The reality is shivering at a bus stop in a thin coat (rural poverty is the hardest of all) or scraping thick ice off the windscreen. Or shovelling snow so you can get the car out, feed the animals or even just get down the path. Where’s the mud, the chaos, the road crashes (I saw two this morning up here in the Dales)? Now that would have been a better video: Kate helping locals to clear snow outside a school or church. Delivering boxes of groceries. Chatting to people waiting to see a doctor.
Keen Antoinette: She is delivering an idealised 1930s vision of rural life that no longer exists, or perhaps only survives inside the royal parks and estates. Her diction, too, is reminiscent of the late Queen’s early Christmas messages to the nation – as clipped as one of Charles’s yew hedges.
The people need health care, Kate: Far worse, though, is her whole ‘Nature is our quiet teacher’ schtick, that it ‘helps us to heal’. I am afraid this misguided way of thinking reminds me of The Salt Path scandal, in which a seriously ill man claims a several-hundred-mile hike and bracing sea air cured him. I imagine those with no money and chronic ill health who can’t spare a second from their demanding lives to stop and appreciate a tree or a bird will be left feeling a little inadequate having watched this.
Instagram comments: Writes one: ‘Well, if I wasn’t poor things would be a lot different.’ Another writes: ‘I like Kate but these videos are getting weird now. We get it — you survived cancer, but why not include a message encouraging people to donate to cancer charities so as to help others?’ The most telling comment I saw? ‘She might not have had the same outcome if like most of us with cancer she had to run the gauntlet of the often-incompetent NHS.’
There are two things I’ll say in a backhanded defense of Kate. One, I certainly believe that this was some kind of dumb project cooked up by palace advisors as something simple and easy for a lazy and arrogant princess. As in, “all you have to do is sit in front of a microphone once every three months and recite some drivel, and we’ll send you out to preen in front of nature.” Everything around Kate is so tightly controlled and managed, I do think it’s unfair to solely blame her for this mess. A lot of people f–ked this up, and the Kensington Palace brain trust probably had their hands all over it. Two, Kate and her handlers are so terrified of doing anything that reeks of controversy or politics, this is basically all they’re left with. This is the royal equivalent of “just talk about the weather.” Now, all that being said, Liz Jones’s criticisms are accurate and well-stated. Kate is a dumbass for putting her keen stamp on this.
The Mother Nature series has been a deeply personal, creative reflection on how nature has helped me heal. But it is also a story about the power of nature and creativity in collective healing.
There is so much we can learn from mother nature, as we look to build a happier,… pic.twitter.com/yZ3u6yLEe4
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 9, 2026
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, Avalon Red.
-
- HRH Catherine – The Princess of Wales holds the hand of a pupil from All Souls CE Primary School in London as she arrives to launch a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood at National Portrait Gallery, London, England, UK on Tuesday 4 February, 2025.,Image: 960070844, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon/Avalon
-
- The Princess of Wales spent time with a group of Scouts aged between 10 and 15 from groups in Cumbria and Greater Manchester on a walk near the shores of Lake Windermere as they undertake a challenge to earn their Naturalist Badge.,Image: 988235630, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kensington Palace/Avalon
-
- Mull, Scotland, 30 April 2025: Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales and William, Prince of Wales meet Countryside Rangers from the Mull and Iona Ranger Service at the Ardura Community Forest, to highlight the importance of protecting and championing the natural environment, during a visit to the Isle of Mull, western Scotland.,Image: 993867413, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: OLI SCARFF/Avalon
-
- Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales reacts as she meets healthcare staff during a visit to Charing Cross Hospital, in London, Britain, January 8, 2026.,Image: 1064283546, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Isabel Infantes/Avalon
-
- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales make a visit to Charing Cross Hospital, in London, Britain, January 8, 2026.,Image: 1064283562, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Isabel Infantes/Avalon
Well she still hit her duds in about the Sussexes (who would never do a lame ass video like this) and she still touted the poor cancer survivor Can’t (which in my opinion she never had) but she did get some digs at Can’t as well. The taxpayers pay them tons of money and this is the drivel that they get from her. More articles should be written about just exactly what she does all day. She has nannies and other help and the school run doesn’t take that long so what does she do?
Sadly, I stopped reading at “It smacks of something Meghan and Harry might come up with” and I know I’m not alone. These people just don’t get it. The “lets hate on the Sussexes to get rich” schtick has really run its course. People are no longer clicking on these types of articles because of the continued Sussex hate fest. The Fail and its ilk are losing big. Time to wake the heck up folks.
Same. I was like, no, the Sussexes would not do that. Meghan would be giving concrete recipe and craft ideas as opposed to just wandering and staring at the moon. Sussex tax, as @meathome says below.
I mean, when they have to fantasize about how much more they would be able to criticize this if Megan or Harry did it… It’s such an own-goal/tattle-tell…. They WISH Meghan or Harry had done something this vapid and cringe bc then they could be as mean as they super, truly, want to be about this vapid drivel….but since it’s Kate they’re stuck saying things like “IF it were Meghan doing these same things, we’d rip her to shreds. But since it’s KKKate, we’ll just kinda pretend that somehow the Sussexes *made her* do this by leaving a slim coat of ‘wokeness’ and ‘vague, American, spiritualism’ behind…”
That part actually made me laugh because its the worst criticism the British press can use – this is something Meghan would do!!!!! And Kate’s doing it and she’s getting slammed for it.
No way is keen fake accent like the late queens . The queen had a lot better speech than keens fake posh accent. No it is nothing the sussexes would do. It is what lazy keen does. Keen is so out of touch like marie Antoinette
The late Queen was naturally posh.
Liz said Kate’s accent was “reminiscent” of the late Queen’s accent, not that it was “like” the late queen’s accent. That seems deliberate, lol.
I thought that was Liz’s sneaky way of pointing out the ridiculousness of Kate’s very affected accent. We know she doesn’t really sound like that!
@Jay, agree. I just didn’t phrase it well.
I took it that she meant the late Queen’s early messages – in the early years of her reign, she spoke quite differently in a strangulated super-posh accent. She softened this quite a bit later in her reign.
No one in the UK talks in that antiquated posh accent anymore – except Kate.
The queen was brought up with that accent. Keen tried to adopt it and it sounds fake on her.she also mumbles.
I wonder what henry Higgins would say about keens fake accent .
But at least Marie Antoinette knew she was out of touch and cosplaying when she went to the Petit Trianon and her “little village” where she pretended to milk goats…. She knew it was fake and make believe and did it anyways she was wealthy enough to do it without anyone getting mad at her, until the did.
Kate has alway attempted to cosplay this “I’m just a little, normal, middle class girl….watch me be dazzled by something like a flowing stream, or an Aga stove, or popping out baby after baby and just wanting more babies…” while at the same time ALSO trying convince everyone she’s a “steel marshmallow, born aristocrat, and perfect future Queen Mum,” even if she *technically* wasn’t well-born enough to be part of anything but the middle class….
(The fact that “Prince” William had to settle for such a middle class clinger/hanger-on like Kate just shows how horrible he is as a person, as well, if he can’t even snag someone remotely close in class to himself, despite being the future King of England.)
OMG you are so right! Think about how bad it is that the Future King couldn’t snag someone. That is actually hilarious. For thousands of years the King/Queen of England has had arranged marriages and if those fell through then all the nobles in the land and in Europe would be scheming to marry one of their daughters off to the King.
But not William…..LMFAO. That is why they had to sell the love story. Because no one wanted him but a social climber who only saw the crown.
The reference to the Queen’s early messages was because the Queen had a more posh accent in the early years and it changed over time. Liz is making fun of Kate saying she’s out of date and talking like a rich person from the 1950s.
I honestly think keen made up that accent to sound posh. But it backfires.it is hard to understand and very exaggerated The mumbling of hers was never corrected. She should have gotten real speech lessons
lol this isn’t the equivalent of talking about the weather, Kate is literally talking about the weather. This is hysterical. And while it irritates me that they’re using it as an insult “like something that the Sussexes would do” is for them a damning barb.
Hahahaha I just watched the video for the first time. Omg it’s so embarrassing and stupid.
“That woman was never anything more than a piece of scenery , and now nothing remains. ” This was something Colette said about someone else , and it describes Kate today ..just an empty vessel with no purpose in life. Why they have to take a side swipe at Meghan i cannot understand ..its Kate trying to be a poor copy
I had to google the Salt Path scandal, and it’s about a British couple who faked illness, while walking across Britain, to sell books. What is Liz saying, exactly?
Here’s the line: “Far worse, though, is her [Kate’s] whole ‘Nature is our quiet teacher’ schtick, that it ‘helps us to heal’. I am afraid this misguided way of thinking reminds me of The Salt Path scandal.” The bit about Kate’s nature “schtick” is good. But again, Liz could have referred to anything besides Salt Path; for example, she could have pointed out that Charles abandoned his beloved homeopathy for traditional cancer treatment.
This also feels like Liz had to pay the Sussex Tax, which Anna Pasternak (I think it was) says anyone who is remotely critical of the Waleses must pay. But Liz frames her Sussex Tax barbs more neutrally, basically as, “You can’t criticize the Sussexes’ output but still say you like this slop.”
For a British audience a lot of people will have heard about it and their story was that nature ‘healed’ his incurable illness. Kate is also massively over-selling the benefits of nature vs having money, a warm home, great medical care, etc. so the connection makes sense.
The husband’s illness was also greatly exaggerated and Liz is definitely telling British people that Kate is over egging the pudding.
This didn’t land because it’s not authentic to her or the Royal Family’s brand. I don’t doubt Kate loves nature, who wouldn’t when you have access to safe, secure grounds, but the whole vibe of this seemed ripped off from Lydia Millen’s YouTube channel and her “Evergreen -discover the joy in every season” book, which launched while Kate was “away”.
As much as I dislike W+K, I can’t imagine being in my 40s and having no idea who I am and what I stand for. I think they need a marketing team to help with their branding going forward.
“It smacks of something Meghan and Harry might come up with.” As someone who works for the Wail that has to be an insult to Kate. Interesting.
Actually they know that neither Meghan nor Harry would ever come up with anything this banal and that’s the problem. They want Kant and Wont to be able to compete with the Sussexes, but they are unable to produce or do any meaningful work.
But they got rid of Harry and Meghan so that W/K wouldn’t have to compete. Seems it was a waste of time.
The challenge for KP is that the only thing Kate can do is smile for the cameras and even that she can barely do now. They needed to find a way to have something of Kate’s compete with Meghan’s show/Instagram/appearances which get a huge audience globally and get views outside of the royalists fandom. These videos were not it of course but they have nothing to work with. Glad it’s over but a bit terrified for what they will try next.
Yikes, “…as she heads off to the Caribbean or on another skiing jaunt.” This is such pointed criticism that I don’t really mind the obligatory swipe at H&M.
This whole article is criticizing Kate and is being incredibly snarky so the Sussex tax doesnt even faze me – if anything it makes me laugh like I said above. that’s how we know Liz Jones really really hates this video- MEGHAN might have made it ! (meghan would never but you know.)
My favorite part is the line about a 1930s country life that doesn’t really exist anymore outside of the royal estates. Even the aristos with those large estates are still hustling in a way that Kate doesn’t – opening the homes to tours (or at least the grounds), renting the grounds for things like concerts, fairs, polo matches, or whatever else. Even Charles seems to work on his estates and is actively involved with how they run. Kate is just wandering the moors (okay forests but I think “the moors” sounds better lol) all pensive and contemplative and thanking nature for healing her.
Its clear the british press as a whole HATES these videos and at least one of them is finally letting loose.
BIG agree! And excellent point about the other land owning rich people of Britian….they DO still work (I mean…they aren’t taking the bus in the snow but they do a semblance of work outside of meandering and shopping online…)
Charles sells jams! (lol) and other foods off the estate. Rose Hanbury has a massive work operation giving tours and managing the estate. Kate just sort of goes for walks…..
….imagine if any one of us reading this article had a fraction of her wealth, time and influence…..
…and she does absolutely nothing with it. Doesn’t even thank her doctors or nurses….just zip zilch zero. It is almost pathological. I will never understand it.
This is who khant is. Tone deaf and out of touch amongst other things. Last week was brutal for some parts of the UK with Storm Goretti. Where I live, we woke up on Wednesday morning to a lot of black ice warnings. A lot of people becoming injured from slipping/falling on black ice. The nearby hospital had to close their minor injuries unit for the day as they were overwhelmed with people coming with injuries from the black ice.
A lot of car crashes including my partner who decided to drive his car seconds after warning me to take extra care as there’s black ice when our road is notorious for accidents even when the weather is calm. The result, he is a bit bruised and his car is a write off and our car insurance premium will skyrocket now 😭 and more expense to look for a decent second hand car that would suit us. An even challenging start to this winter season.
Omg, the photo that is directly under the Twitter/X post……her hair looks like 4 separate animal tails springing out from under her hat! I know it’s the most cliche criticism of her, but she DESPERATELY needs a haircut. She looks ridiculous. The hair doesn’t even look like a “little girl” or “a doll” anymore. It has surpassed that level of ridiculousness for a 40+ year old woman who is supposedly in such “fragile health.”
She looks like a walking wig shop. She looks like Cousin It. We all know it’s fake. Just stop wearing it! Go get “your hair” cut, Kate!
I don’t think this was something the palace team told Kate to do. I think this something that she came up with, which is why it’s so half-assed and nonsensical. Nobody can force Kate to work more or do more if she doesn’t want to it. She pulled out of Ascot the day of, missed VJ Day, did 68 engagements for the year, and went on 5 vacations that the public knows of. Kate works when she feels like it and should absolutely be blamed for the entirety of this mess because she is the one who is in control of her “work”.
Yep! I think they told her she had to do *something* so she was like “I’ll wander my estate for a few days and read a script you all write” and that was it.
Agree, I’d say KM came up with this herself with Ma’s ever-ready help. It’s essentially unintelligible.
“given the deep affection and respect we hold Kate in,”
Pardon! Who are ‘we’?
The real comparison here is to Diana. What would Diana do? She wouldn’t waste time on this crap, she would get out there, roll up her fabulous sleeves and try to make people’s’ lives better.
This is why you don’t lock into a year long project in advance because you never know what may change, or how the project may go over. Like Kevin Costner making his epic multi-installment westerns no one really asked for, you don’t want to go down in flames just to follow through on what you said you were going to do. You never set yourself up that way.
Wasn’t the video also released during a bad winter storm? Poor timing. Doesn’t reflect much sympathy for real people struggling with real weather events. I think Kate saw H&M’s original pic of Harry with Meghan lying under a tree and thought…that’s it! That’s the answer!! I will go forth in nature. And I will also start to release black & white photos, like they do. I will also start to dress like her too. Also, I will put on a long wig, as Meghan has long hair. Anything to copy Meghan. It’s hilarious and a little scary at this point.
Truly pathetic for a 44 year old woman with all the resources in the world to do some good. What a lazy, self-absorbed creature she is! Why is this okay?
Kaiser, I think it’s bold of you to assume that she did these VOs every three months! They are all just word salad ai slop, why not record all of them at once and then splice in what often appears to be stock footage? It’s not like the visuals have much if any relationship to Kate’s mumbling about the “Wundas of Naycha”.
Kate’s mindless videos may be to clear the way to for her to stay at Forest Lodge or Anmer, surrounded by nature for her health, rather than living in Kensington Palace in the big city. William can mostly live in KP, “work” in London, & hang out with friends (& cousins).
I can’t bring myself to watch this. But between her massive wigs, significant weightloss, and lack of appearances, I would say all is not well. I do hope she has recovered, but what they can treat medically won’t translate to getting out of a situation that makes you so visibly unhappy.
I believe wholeheartedly that KP and KKKate absolutely thought this is something that Sussexes would do, and that’s why KKKate is trying to copykeen. But like EVERYTHING she does, it comes off as second-rate, lame brained, and out of touch.
Invoking the Salt Path scandal is really, really interesting, given that it involved a couple who faked (or at least exaggerated) the husband’s illness.
And this line was brutal: “I imagine those with no money and chronic ill health who can’t spare a second from their demanding lives to stop and appreciate a tree or a bird will be left feeling a little inadequate having watched this.” Indeed.
Perhaps the reference to the Salt Path scandal was a not-so-subtle hint that the rota know KKKate lied about having cancer. I never believed her, and I hope that the truth comes out.
This is all very interesting. I read this article as a slam on Kate, sprinkled with sugar. The rota is holding on to a gold mine of intelligence and I wish one of them would be brave enough to publish it. I said it before and I will say it again: Whoever spills the beans pn the Wales will be set for life. They can move to another country if need be or publish under a nom de plume…but the truth will get more clicks and more reads than any of the flattery.
Liz is letting British people know that kate is not telling us the full story.
When I say she is the British Melania Trump, this is the kind of thing I mean. They both aggressively pursued a man for money and power and are willing to tolerate anything to keep it. And they are both narcissists no better than the despicable men they married.
This clueless video is as bad as that idiotic documentary Melania is getting paid $10 million to do.
The main difference might be that Melania has scaled up her scam of the American people whereas Kate’s scams haven’t been as bold.