Confession: while I keep up with business/money correspondence in a timely manner, I often neglect my personal correspondence. I forget to send birthday cards, I fail to send thank you notes and remembering to send Christmas cards is something I’ve rarely mastered. Then again, I don’t have a staff of sixty-plus busy-workers who could easily be tasked with these kinds of things. The Prince and Princess of Wales have a huge office staff, but apparently they can’t manage to send out Christmas-card thank you notes until three months later.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have been surprising their royal fans as it has been revealed on social media that members of the public are only just receiving responses to their Christmas wishes. Their Christmas cards have been arriving in letterboxes three months after the big day.
Broadcaster Simon Glazelle pointed this out on Instagram, and he was inundated with people sharing their stories. “I got mine yesterday and I’m living in Romania, it cheered me up,” penned one user and: “I just received mine in the United States today,” added another. A third wrote: “It always takes very long for a response. I did receive the King’s response in late February, though. I’m still awaiting my response from the Prince and Princess of Wales.”
Etiquette experts Debrett’s note that “late is invariably better than never” when it comes to thank you cards or letters. Their website reads: “Letters or cards should be sent as promptly as possible.”
The royal couple often send out thank you cards, and they did so to their fans following well-wishes about their 10-year wedding anniversary. The royal family are sent thousands of cards each year and also presented with an array of gifts.
While Hello says “Christmas cards,” I think the Waleses’ actual Christmas cards went out in December. I think this is referencing thank-you notes for people who sent cards to William and Kate. People expect to get a timely response, even if it’s an autopen-signed thank-you note or even just a simple unsigned card from the palace. LMAO – waiting until Easter to respond to Christmas well-wishes is pretty funny. But again, this is yet another example of terrible staff work from the Kensington Palace clownshow. Did no one in their office staff of sixty (probably more) think to send out notes in January or February? Perhaps while Will and Kate were off on some ski trip?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Place2Be, a UK children’s mental health charity, visiting Castle Hill Academy in New Addington, Croydon, south London, to mark Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Feb 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince William Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Mar 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
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- Annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Mar 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales during a visit to the Southwark Brewing Company at the Bermondsey Beer Mile in London Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Mar 2026 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales during a visit to the Southwark Brewing Company at the Bermondsey Beer Mile in London Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Mar 2026 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales during the Enthronement Ceremony installing Dame Sarah Mullally as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Canterbury, United Kingdom When: 25 Mar 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Royals attending the Easter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 05 Apr 2026 Credit: Mischa Schoemaker/ **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
It’s not like their staff has a lot of work to do. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s only one person dealing with correspondence.
I imagine the RF gets thousands of cards from all over the world from people hoping to get a response they can put in their scrapbooks. W&K have a lot of staff, but I don’t that many in their office – one person for correspondence sounds right.
They had 2 dozen office staff by the first christmas the year of their wedding. It is entirely possible they have 60 office staff now.
From the last report the 60+ staff members include nannies and household staff, as well as personal assistants and comms people.
I doubt they’re telling the truth about the number of staff they have at the different homes. They lied about living without staff in the farmhouse in Wales. They had four full time staff there.
They lied about having no nannies with george, when they already had bills old nanny and a night nurse on staff before the first kid came home from hospital.
They lied about ‘no nannies’ for years and were caught with four nannies on a holiday when they only had two kids.
My bet is all 60 staff they admit to are office staff. Because no one has access to how many staff they have at all their forever homes.
And that 60 figure doesnt include their hired derangers on SM.
.
She’s so busy doing (checks notes)….nothing.
The staff are focused on destroying the Sussexes. They don’t have time for this gratitude nonsense.
🤭
I’m sorry, but it doesn’t matter how many people handle correspondence, answers are printed. A signature is also. The problem is probably that they never intended to respond, and someone finally explained to them that they should.
By the way, this card is a photomontage. Kate is glued on.
I noticed that too, right away. The size of Kate isn’t proportionate to the other people in this photo at all.
Wait. People write to the king and the Waleses and actually expect a response for their cards? That’s wild.
Surprised me as well.
I don’t get why they do it in the first place. The best they can expect in return is some boilerplate thank-you sent out by a staffer. Do some people think W&K are personally sending these out? I mean really.
I remember visiting a friend’s mother in the UK – she had a card from Elizabeth on her mantelpiece. It was generic and auto signed, but she was very proud of it.
When I was 10, my granny and grandpa got a signed certificate from the QUEEN congratulating them on 50 years of marriage (my granny was a war bride here in Canada). I thought it was so thoughtful that the Queen actually remembered their anniversary and even knew where they lived!! lol
Sweet ignorance 🙂
Who is giving these people gifts?? Why?? Don’t they live off the taxpayers dime as it is??? THEY are the “fucking grifters.”
Some people are insane…🤦🏻♀️
How personalized are these cards. As in, do Kate or William have to do any work at all? Or do they send out form acknowledgment cards, with an autopen signature at best?
Anyway, was Natasha in charge of these cards and nobody who remains understands the scope of her job?
It honestly seems like Natasha did everything.
It’s the middle of April. Sending out Christmas thank you’s now is bonkers. Assuming that they all arrived well before Christmas – that’s 4 months.
The Wales need a dedicated team of staff in charge of responses to all correspondence. Even just having people read them and put them into various categories with different levels of response would be a full time job.
Responding to every message would be a legitimate soft power / easy PR win – and they have the staff right there. And if they cant dream of asking their staff to work, they could easily hire new staff – likely peasants with work ethic.
Most euro royals send thank you responses for any correspondence especially birthday, Christmas and congratulations
The bigger question is did Kate and Willy get those Easter presents from Harry and Meghan and if so how long will Harry and Meghan have to wait for a thank you note😄😀😀. I joke . Seriously though, Willy and kitty brand is lazy so therefore anyone working for them also has to be just as lazy so no surprise at all from the office of the do nothing
@OverIt, W&K being angry that they, full grown-ass adults, did not receive “Easter gifts” will never not be hilarious
They have a staff of 60+, what do these people do? I’d love to know how many are administrative staff, how many are senior level staff, how many are domestic/household staff, etc. We can also believe that their staff diversity percentage is super low and nonexistent in senior level or administrative staff.
The entire operation is plagued by laziness. The dust around the palaces must be inches thick.
These are their office staff, not people like the multiple housekeepers, cleaners, nanny army, and cooks at each residence.
I guess they never got around to hiring that COO they advertised for a year or so ago. Or that senior private secretary.
And I disagree with that etiquette person. A four-month late thank you note is an insult. It is not better late than never.
My first thought upon seeing this headline was basically, “You Have One Job” — the Walses cannot even get the most basic things right. It’s incredible really.
What truly competent, qualified person is going to agree to be overworked, underpaid and subjected to horrible boss behavior by Willy/Keener? Can you even imagine their behavior towards “commoners” who signed a nondisclosure agreement? The wails don’t really care about their role anyway. Why would their staff care about the nitty gritty details of their duties when they don’t?
The only thing I can say is that profile picture in the blue outfit is witch like…. the outside matching the inside it seems!
Not only are they lazy, they’re terribly ungrateful and horribly rude.
My neighbour is a royalist and sends them a Christmas card every year and gets a card back usually in March: photo of them and automated message inside but she loves it. I’ll let her know it’s going to be later this year.
It’s like belonging to a fan club when you’re a kid. Writing to your favorite pop star & getting a signed photo in return.
Good lort, some people need to get lives.
Sending Christmas wishes to lazy grifters? It couldn’t be me.
I’m not surprised at all that it takes months for KP to respond. W&K are begrudging in everything they do.
Probably yet another job they foisted on Natasha….
Many famous and important figures (more famous and important than Will and Kate) respond to correspondence. When my daughter was little, she drew a picture of the White House, had me take a picture of her and her White House and made two small gifts (including feathers) for the President and First Lady of the United States. Along with her picture of her and the White House, she sent her two gifts and a letter to the Obamas. Not too long after that, she got a letter signed by President Obama (probably stamped by an employee) saying how important young people are and how necessary it was to stay in school (she was seven at the time). Not everybody is as important as the President of the United States, but the President made it the White House’s business to respond favorably to a small child who was a citizen and well -wisher. Neither the Wales nor Trump have an iota of the grace or kindness of the Obamas. So three months late for the Wales and a possible self-deportation letter to a child from the president both seem about right. And a pox on all three of them.