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.

[From The Royalist Substack]

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.