Prince William was out and about in London yesterday, visiting a hub for BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD program. It was a pretty simple and uneventful engagement for William, and he barely got any attention. Most of the British newspapers and tabloids didn’t even cover the event or publish any photos. Overall, it felt like everyone ignored the guy who is supposed to be one of the most popular royals (according to the emotional-support polls bought and paid for by guess who).
Well, interestingly enough, this event was William’s only public appearance on Wednesday. He skipped his father’s big, splashy Windsor Castle premiere event last night. Charles had a huge premiere for his latest documentary, which will stream on Amazon Prime next week. Kate Winslet, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rod Stewart and the Duchess of Edinburgh were all in attendance. But William and Kate skipped it, even though they live just a few miles away from the castle and even though the documentary is about Charles’s environmentalism and his pioneering work in organic farming. From Tom Sykes’ latest Royalist Substack, “William Shuns Charles’ Big Day.”
If William had cared to stamp out whispers that the relationship between King Charles and himself has curdled, then attending the Windsor Castle premiere of the King’s new film, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision would have been an easy way to do it.
But he wasn’t there and the empty chairs where the Prince and Princess of Wales might have sat Wednesday night reinforce the sense of a family that can’t help advertising its own fractures.
The explanation, I guarantee you, will be about not “overshadowing” the King. True, the Waleses do command a lot of attention simply by turning up, but in this case, the messaging would have been amazing: the heir at the King’s side, a statement of support, a visible endorsement of a cause Charles has made his life’s work and William is continuing with Earthshot.
It matters because this documentary is being sold, by Buckingham Palace itself, as a “deeply personal exploration of ideas that have shaped His Majesty’s life and work.” In other words, it is an attempt to turn Charles’ longest-running passion—environmentalism, sustainability, and a kind of spiritualized belief in the natural world which to be fair appeals to many—into the defining idea of his reign.
Which is why William’s no-show is more than a scheduling quirk. It reads as a refusal to be in the King’s story at a moment when Charles is explicitly asking the country—and the family (Sophie was there)—to see his mission as the monarchy’s mission.
…A monarchy is never only about the person speaking. It is also about who is standing next in line. William has his own environmental brand in Earthshot, and it has been pitched as the heir’s signature project: modern, pragmatic, pitched to a younger audience and bringing VC energy to dreary old do-goodery. The palace could have had a neat narrative of continuity: the King as the spiritual architect, the Prince of Wales as the heir, the institution united around a defining cause. Instead, the audience is left to wonder why the heir didn’t want to be in the room as his father tried to frame the meaning of his reign.
This is where Harry comes back into the story. Palace insiders have long told me that the deepest fault line between Charles and William is not the environment, or strategy, or staff. It is Harry.
Sykes went on to beat the dead horse of how William despises Harry, and William will scream, cry and throw up if daddy ever talks to brother again. You get the idea. Personally, I don’t believe that William skipped Charles’s premiere because of Harry specifically. William and Kate skipped because they’re fundamentally lazy, self-centered people who do not want to show up to support a family member’s thing. “We have our own projects and we barely show up for them, so take that” is probably their rationale. But yeah, it’s pretty notable that William skipped. I honestly think that he’s been fuming ever since Charles announced (last December) that his health was improving. William had to stop with the “I’m going to be king soon” briefings.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales and Big Zuu in one of the greenhouses during a visit to BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD programme at the Ubele Initiative in the Wolves Lane Centre, north London. We Move FWD is a 10-year commitment by BBC Children in Need, delivered in collaboration with BBC Radio 1Xtra, to create opportunities for Black children and young people across the UK. Featuring: Prince William and Big Zuu Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jan 2026 Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales and Big Zuu in one of the greenhouses during a visit to BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD programme at the Ubele Initiative in the Wolves Lane Centre, north London. We Move FWD is a 10-year commitment by BBC Children in Need, delivered in collaboration with BBC Radio 1Xtra, to create opportunities for Black children and young people across the UK. Featuring: Prince William and Big Zuu Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jan 2026 Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales and Big Zuu in one of the greenhouses during a visit to BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD programme at the Ubele Initiative in the Wolves Lane Centre, north London. We Move FWD is a 10-year commitment by BBC Children in Need, delivered in collaboration with BBC Radio 1Xtra, to create opportunities for Black children and young people across the UK. Featuring: Prince William and Big Zuu Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jan 2026 Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales takes part in a roundtable discussion during a visit to BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD programme at the Ubele Initiative in the Wolves Lane Centre, north London. We Move FWD is a 10-year commitment by BBC Children in Need, delivered in collaboration with BBC Radio 1Xtra, to create opportunities for Black children and young people across the UK. Featuring: Prince William Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jan 2026 Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales takes part in a roundtable discussion during a visit to BBC Children In Need’s We Move FWD programme at the Ubele Initiative in the Wolves Lane Centre, north London. We Move FWD is a 10-year commitment by BBC Children in Need, delivered in collaboration with BBC Radio 1Xtra, to create opportunities for Black children and young people across the UK. Featuring: Prince William Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Jan 2026 Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Sorry 😂😂😂 I got to the part where the “Wales command a lot of attention when they show up” and died of laughter 😆.
What is VC energy?
Did Sykes mention that Harry made a brief (childhood) appearance with Pa in this documentary?
Venture capital.
Ah okay thx. So William is supposed to bring some VC energy? LOL, sure. I guess that’s the point of ES.
He looks like an alcoholic around the age of 58-60. I mean it literally.
He looks awful, im not sure if its alcohol or because his misery is sucking the life out of him. I wonder how Kate feels on what is happening to her once handsome Prince.
@neeve
Waity ain’t exactly a vision herself.
They are completely compatible
He’s a reverse Dorian Gray. All the ugly on the inside is showing on his face.
Here comes Tom Sykes with his imaginary sources again! He already told us he got kicked out of the BP WhatsApp. William doesn’t like it when anyone else is getting attention and he doesn’t want to support his father. I agree that this has nothing to do with Harry. Sykes is running out of stupid talking points at this point. The royal family seem to be entering an extremely dull news cycle with the same boring stories being repeated over and over.
Recently Sykes has admitted to regurgitating pieces from the Times and Page 6, and if you go back to the original articles he’s twisted them shamelessly.
Sykes has got nothing anymore.
Did any royals other than Sophie show up? No one seems to want to be associated with Charles’ vanity project.
The Gloucesters were also there.
See, I think Sykes is right, at least partially. I think whatever is going on between Charles and Harry – the potential thaw or however you want to word it – is a huge problem for William. William wants Harry permanently exiled – we’ve been hearing that for 6 years now. charles has never seemed to be fully on board with that (lots of “charles would welcome Harry back IF….and then a list of conditions that would never happen) but that September meeting seemed to trigger something in William.
so I think William and Kate skipped because they’re lazy, because they wouldn’t have been the focus of the event, and because there is bad blood between William and Charles and Harry is a part of that (but not the only part.)
I do wonder if they were even invited though lol.
If William really doesn’t want his Father and Harry to make it up he really is an un nice person.
Hmmm … I’m wondering if Harry actually did see his father last week. He was here in the UK for a good while and it’s all gone very quiet re: what he did and where he stayed, etc 🤔
I bet something glitzy like this Kate would have loved to attend and show off a gown and some diamonds. I guess if Willy doesnt want to she cant either.
Harry wasn’t even there. How could this be his excuse? More likely he was hanging out in one of his apparently beloved pubs. Or at home, spoon-feeding and bathing his very young children. The bedtime routine is the nighttime school run.
Ah, but Harry made a brief (childhood) appearance with Pa in this documentary! Maybe that’s what did it.
Harry was there actually. The press is reporting that a picture of Charles teaching Harry to fish is in the documentary.
I think the implication was that if Charles is thawing towards Harry then William is going to shun his dad because he hates Harry. Not that Harry was going to be there.
@BQM that was my interpretation as well. this is William throwing a tantrum about whatever is going on between Charles and Harry
You’re not considering the most likely reason… that Charles and Camilla didn’t want the perpetually angry William and his unpredictable wife to be there.
I thought that too, he didn’t want them there so they weren’t. Although none of them are remotely interesting without added celebrity presence. No one would care a jot without Cumberbatch and Winslet and we all know what they are after.
I mean I think the answer is these people don’t really like each other that much. The Wales are lazy yeah but in truth these two couples are not jumping to spend time together.
I need a photo of the empty chairs for Willnot and Kannot. Were those chairs dressed with extra buttons? Were there little airplanes embroidered on the cushions?
Considering the Palace is only about the optic, I suspect there weren’t actual two empty chairs. Tom Sykes was using a euphemism
I didn’t think I had to mark my comment as sarcasm, but perhaps I was wrong.
Yeah, you probably should have.
@Dee I think it was pretty clear with the buttons reference lol.
If either Chuck or BillyIdle had actual chops as environmentalists, I might care.
But they’re both very “do as I say, not as I do” when it comes to curtailing their own environmentally damaging behavior, so they can both go soak their heads in some nice warm compost tea, for all of me.
As for why the Wails didn’t show up for dear old Dad: none of them like each other very much, & Won’t & Can’t are too lazy & self-obsessed to think or care about the bigger picture.
I’m still wondering if William is the one with the health issues because whatever was up with Kate — cancer or preventative treatment — she seems ok. Whereas William is clearly on a downward trajectory.
Not even William’s fans spoke about his London engagement. They were still talking about Kate’s outfit changes and her braiding her ponytail.
Maybe he can loan his wife’s braid to make the papers will notice him more.
Anyway yes its weird W&K didnt turn up but what about the rest of the family? Only Sophie? Odd
Bill was too busy tending the scuzz on his chin and promoting the British Inebriation Industry. I need more Beckham drama, the BRF is so same old same old.
The deepest fault line between Charles and Willy is Willy’s constant “when I’m king” briefings plus the “Arise Queen Kate” puffery that browns off Camilla. Another fault line is probably Charles’ fears for the future of the monarchy, given Willy and Kate’s complete lack of work ethic and substance. Plus Willy doesn’t get along with anyone, so there’s that.
Sykes is full of it. Sykes knows all this very well, but Harry is a convenient scapegoat both to protect Willy and for the SEO clicks. Otherwise nobody would give two figs about what Sykes has to say.
Can’t believe William hates his father so much that he turned down a chance to wear his velvet airplane slippers.
Nah, the biggest fault line is Camilla. It’s why William hates his father.
Was there any pic of Will in the documentary, or only Harry? That was a choice, and a big one, to include Harry as a child. I’m totally into organic gardening, and would watch this. I’m surprised Kate was not there to support a documentary about gardening & nature, since she usually attends that garden show. So weird. As a gardener, if that was my father or father in law, I would have attended for sure, in support but also because of my own interest. Her own nature videos have been useless & focus on herself and nothing to do with helping the planet be a better place.
So much for Keen being the daughter Charles never had.
Was there an article about “will Harry attend” . If there was I seem to have missed it.
My guess is that Chuckles left the Waleses off the invite list altogether. Thou shalt not steal my thunder. Peg would not have missed a chance to hobnob with celebrities because……Harry.
And Kate Winslet, I am so disappointed in your royal bootlicking as of late. I thought you had more respect for yourself than that. Wow.
She wants that title.
William has had a constant and ever changing fault line with his father since he was a teenager. Was the fault line Harry when he was speaking to his father so nastily Camilla and courtiers were appalled? What about when he chose to live in Norfolk 4 hours from his father even after his father had purchased land and a home for him? What about the 3-4 years they pretended to live in Wales and Norfolk? Etc etc
I wonder if Kate’s busy day this week was about trying to trample on Charles’ news cycle – we are all just so conditioned to assume they’re obsessed with harry (and they definitely are lol) but Kate has tried to steal Charles’ thunder before, so I can see her thinking wearing a braid and skinny jeans the day before this event would be enough to knock Charles off the front pages.
Whether they skipped or weren’t invited (or were invited with the understanding they wouldn’t attend) – it shows how bad the relationship is between the king and queen and the prince and princess of wales.
I was wondering about that too because Kate did 3 things in one day plus she changed her hair. That’s totally something she would think would take over the media coverage.
Taking attention from Charles is probably one thing that William and Kate both agree on.
I have always felt that the biggest problem William has with Charles is not Harry or Diana (although those issues factor into the rift) but that Charles expects William to work. Whether you like Charles or not, he has always taken his role very seriously and worked very hard at it. Then you have “Golden Boy” who has always felt entitled, ordained, and everything should be handed to him without him having to lift a finger. True, he is saving the pubs and everywhere I go people are talking with great excitement about Kate’s braid (!!!!), but he is absolutely spoiled and useless. This ties into my belief that his biggest problem with Harry was not betrayal but jealousy of Harry’s work ethic, ease with people and popularity along with fury that Harry left William to “shoulder the burden” on his own.