Independent: No one buys Prince William’s chaotic school-run stories at this point

Prince William’s radio interview last Friday continues to make news, and not in a good way. Two of the biggest headlines so far: William had no idea his wife of 15 years speaks conversational Italian (or rather, that Kate knows a few words in Italian); and that William’s eldest son Prince George is already boarding at Lambrook. The boarding issue is especially notable given that William and Princess Kate are constantly using the “school run” as an excuse for why they can’t do anything. Within the same radio interview, William even tried to tell Normal-Bill stories about the chaos of the school run, like he’s even awake at that hour. Well, a columnist for the Independent isn’t buying William’s school-run lies.

Prince William and Kate are often seen doing the morning drop-offs to ensure their children – Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight – have as normal a childhood as possible. But in what can only be described as a full-on Amandaland moment, our future king took to the airwaves, describing on Heart Radio’s breakfast show that his mornings are often total chaos on the way to deliver their kids to the £10,669 a term Lambrook School, near Ascot, with Prince Louis messing the car up with his sticky snacks.

“Yes, there’s a lot of jam sandwiches taken in the car, usually. Louis is very kind. He’ll leave jam fingerprints throughout the car, which is really helpful,” William reported to the nation. “It depends if there is a guitar lesson going on in the morning, a music lesson… you’ve got to get the guitar in the car,” William continued, casually dropping his ability to multitask.

“‘No, we’re not taking the guitar and we need to take the bag for school’. ‘Are we boarding, are we not?’ ‘Are we seeing friends?’ ‘No we’re not’.”

His children also bicker in the car, apparently, with him admitting while giving them a shout-out on air: “Charlotte and Louis, as George was boarding last night… if you’re listening to this, please make sure you are on time,” he said. “Make sure you’re not fighting over who’s listening to what this morning.”

It all sounds like a very bog standard morning in the day in the life of a parent – and I love the fact William is such a hands-on dad, but are we really going to be taken in by this? I think not.

The rest of us are hopping on buses, trains, or driving in clapped-out cars, as in my case, with the wing mirror broken as somebody drove into it last week and I’ve stuck it back on with Sellotape. Most of us don’t have a valet to clean sticky finger marks from our leather seats and I’d posit most family cars are unsalvageable from all the slime and Nutella pancakes, with breadsticks wedged in between the seatbelt sockets so deep, it’s now impossible to remove them.

We also aren’t followed to school by police protection officers or have helicopters at the ready if we’re returning from a half-term break in the countryside and need to make a quick dash to the school gate, or, for that matter, fuss about remembering who’s boarding where that week. Because, guess what, nobody is. While our kids play out on the street, or take a trip to Alton Towers, the Wales’s brood get to hang out on Buckingham Palace’s balcony for a RAF flypast.

We don’t have permanent nannies on top of oodles of other staff at the click of our fingers to organise the mornings like clockwork, should we ever need a break, or are working. Now that would take the pressure off.

The demands of child rearing in a cost of living epidemic, where childcare is out of reach for many average households, is hard – and the minor details of sticky finger marks on a car seat, are the least of our worries.

[From The Independent]

I personally think that various British columnists are trying to draw attention to the holes in Prince William and Kate’s stories by highlighting less controversial parts. Like, of course anyone with sense knows that Prince Sleep-It-Off cannot even roll out of bed before noon. Of course he’s lying about a chaotic school run which he does not participate in or facilitate. Of course he’s just trying to play-act his nonsensical idea of normal family life. That’s not actually the point! The point is that some or all of their kids are probably already boarding, and William and Kate have been using the “school run” as an excuse to do f–k all for years. That is the real criticism: that there’s no actual excuse for William and Kate’s laziness at this point.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

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57 Responses to “Independent: No one buys Prince William’s chaotic school-run stories at this point”

  1. Blujfly says:

    It’s also literally a 10 minute drive. Why is Louis eating so many jam sandwiches in the meantime?

    • MY3CENTS says:

      Because that’s what Willy probably saw in some commercial or other as to what “normal working class family mornings ” look like .

      • Anon43 says:

        There’s a very funny “school run” scene in the 1983 movie, “Mr. Mom.”

    • KA says:

      Easy solve for the jam sandwich problem. Don’t eat in the car. My car is super old and junky, and we still don’t let our kids eat in the car but for rare times where it is necessary. Certainly not during the daily school run. Plus, if we do eat in the car, it would not be something sticky!

    • Me at home says:

      Right? I thought Kate and William personally served hearty breakfasts with eggs, bacon, kippers, and fresh fruit. So why does anyone need a jam sandwich for a 10-minute car ride to school?

      And poor Louis.

    • Becks1 says:

      100% its something william saw in a commercial or sitcom or something and so is using that to demonstrate how normal they are.

    • Tessa says:

      Maybe he watches Modern Family. They do those school runs.

    • Tessa says:

      Uncle Buck getting the kids (niece and nephew) ready for the School Run and driving them in his old car is hilarious.

  2. Dee(2) says:

    I don’t understand why the press have to only focus on the ” non-controversial” parts. The Wales’ laziness and half-assed attempts to copy others is clear and obvious at this point. They are private to a ridiculous fault, so the purported “access” shouldn’t be sufficient to continue the tongue bathe them. Just call them out.

    They are deceitful, they do not work, they pale in comparison to people that are literally decades older than them currently, and are shameful in comparison to the previous two generations in their roles.

    I think this is why they haven’t announced where George is going to school. Because inevitably if you admit that Charlotte is already boarding, and George would presumably be bored and had eaten, what are you doing all day Catherine? What are you doing all day William? Why do we see you once a week?

    • Becks1 says:

      I honestly can’t believe William let the boarding comment slip out. And he made it clear in the context that its not just George, that Charlotte boards sometimes as well – so like you said, there goes more of Kate’s excuses (and william’s) for not working. It also reinforces what I’ve said for the past two years – Kate is NOT opposed to boarding and if she is against Eton, its not because of the boarding factor.

      • Nic919 says:

        William self sabotages like this and the beard scared Charlotte comment because unconsciously he wants out but is not in a position to admit it.

      • 9Chevalier says:

        Charles ALWAYS had his valet apply the toothpaste for him. Iron his shoelaces. Etc. And remember the soft eggs? As he wants them immediately, about 2 dozens were cooked, 2 at a time, to make sure they would be ready when he claimed them for his breakfast.

        Then, there’s the true joke about cracking a fresh egg: 1 of the royals had no clue and when faced with it, took a bread knife, endeavouring to cut it, as one would for a cooked soft egg. You can imagine the mess.

      • jais says:

        Right? It’s endlessly funny. Truly, All that talk forever and ever amen about those blasted school runs and she just so easily blows it all to smithereens. What a conundrum. Williams needs to be out there in the whole seen to be believed type thing but the second he opens his mouth he ruins everything. How are they going to manage this?

  3. Chaine says:

    What on earth are Will and Kate going to do when those kids go away to college and they’re not there to be used as a convenient excuse anymore

    • Tn democrat says:

      Keener will claim she is caring for her elderly parents, then grandkids combined with a scatttering of cAaNcer gave me a permanent excuse to do f@#$ all. Willy will claim he is working behind the scenes while raiding/laundering Duchy funds/assets. As a couple they will randomly post insane weird @#$% on Instagram periodically to compete with Meghan/Harry (only in their minds) and “prove” they are still a couple. It is truly chilling to watch Willy in real time treat Louis like comic relief/the spare. The man is just such an obtuse, entitled tool. Parts of the press seem to be turning on the Wails though and are pointing out their bs even while wrapping criticism in flattery. 😃

      • Jay says:

        Oh, didn’t you know? It’s only after all three of your children are grown, graduated from university, moving away and starting careers of their own that Kate could even start thinking about doing her job properly. Until that fateful day comes, somewhere in the distant future, she’s just listening and learning a lot. But don’t worry, it’s been a mere twenty years and she’s really starting to get the hang of it now!

        Unless there are grandchildren – then unfortunately the cycle will have to begin again because she’ll need to be a hands on Grandma.

    • Chevalier says:

      I’m French and went to boarding school at 8. My best friend went at 4 to a selective&prestigious boarding school. Mine was more for kids who lived too far from day school but in both cases, it was because our parents didn’t want to be bothered with school runs.
      In the US, I taught in quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania and stayed in the dorms . Kids were high school level. It was lovely.

    • HuffnPuff says:

      That’s when more cancer cells will appear and she will disappear again. It’s very weird that a woman in her 40s with cancer cells couldn’t be seen at all for months and yet her father in law who is in his 70s with actual cancer was out and about. 🤔

  4. seaflower says:

    I see Louis is already getting the “one who messes up” tag.

    • MY3CENTS says:

      Yeah that was kind of hard to read. Poor kid he doesn’t stand much of a chance.

      • Miranda says:

        Yeah. I wish Uncle Harry and Aunt Meg could smuggle him (and Charlotte, for that matter) a burner phone.

    • Tessa says:

      Nanny Maria would not let him go to the car with jelly on his hands. He would wash his hands.

  5. Brassy Rebel says:

    The tabloid columnists are really coming for William this week. First it was his plan to sell off Duchy land to build more housing. Now it’s the school run. This seems like “Let’s Box William’s Ears week”. It’s nice while it lasts.

  6. Lady Digby says:

    The school run excuse is really insulting to any parent, grandparents, carer who does the school run as a slither of the daily grind of work life. I mean, come on man, this is ridiculous to say feebly that the school run is your greatest achievement as a parent!? But given the nail episode I have to ask myself apart from going to the toilet what else does this entitled rich man do for himself? Maybe it is a big deal for him because everything that normal folk don’t blink at he thinks is a real novelty? Apparently Queen M came across staff ironing shirts and pointed at the iron because she’d never seen one before? How coddled are these people?

    • Miranda says:

      I remember Julian Fellowes telling a story, I think in his commentary for Gosford Park, about some duke or marquess who had to attend a weekend country house party without his valet. The morning after the first night, he was wondering aloud to another guest, baffled that his toothbrush “didn’t work”, failing to produce any froth when he brushed. He didn’t realize that he needed to apply toothpaste, because his valet had always done that for him.

      I have no idea if that story was apocryphal or exaggerated, but it definitely seems to capture the mindset of many British aristocrats and royals.

      • Chevalier says:

        Charles ALWAYS had his valet apply the toothpaste for him. Iron his shoelaces. Etc. And remember the soft eggs? As he wants them immediately, about 2 dozens were cooked, 2 at a time, to make sure they would be ready when he claimed them for his breakfast.

        Then, there’s the true joke about cracking a fresh egg: 1 of the royals had no clue and when faced with it, took a bread knife, endeavouring to cut it, as one would for a cooked soft egg. You can imagine the mess.

    • Bqm says:

      If you mean Queen Mary that’s definitely not true. She knew a lot of practicalities. She even got an iron for her wedding. I doubt she used it herself though. 😆

  7. Nicki says:

    I would suggest Bill didn’t know Cathy speaks conversational Italian because she doesn’t. ‘Hello’ and ‘where’s the bathroom’ don’t count.

  8. QuiteContrary says:

    Thank goodness someone in the British media finally is willing to write what we’ve realized here for years: The heir is full of hot air.

    This school run narrative truly is so insulting to the many parents who are taking their kids to school while frantically trying to make it to their actual jobs on time, while worrying about grocery bills, child care payments, housing payments. There is nothing relatable about W&K. Nothing.

  9. Miranda says:

    Could Charlotte and Louis actually be boarding already as well? At 11 and 8?! Even doing so at 13 seems too young to me! How early can kids start boarding in the UK, in general?

    I have British friends who attended boarding schools, but only for sixth form, when I think students are typically 16 or 17? And I know a few Australians who grew up in the outback, so boarding school was their best option to further their education after a certain grade level. I guess I just find the whole idea of it interesting, because it’s not a choice I can imagine most American parents making unless they had to (though I attended an all-girls school, and many would probably say the same about that, so…).

    • Becks1 says:

      Lambrook allows boarding at 7. It’s not full time – the most is I think 5 nights a week based on their website. But it says that 75% of students board at least some of the time – seems to like one of those things where if enough of your friends are doing you’re going to want to do it too.

      Boarding isnt really a thing in my area AND socioeconomic status (we do have some $$$ boarding schools, some internationally known, but all allow day students as well.) But my aunt lives on the Eastern Shore of maryland and over there for the wealthy its definitely more popular since your options are more limited.

      and then I know random people who boarded – like i had two friends in college from the same small Tennessee town, and one went to Andover and one to the local public high school. Ended up at the same college but I imagine his connects are a lot better for what that’s worth.

      Anyway I think in the US its less common but I also wonder how common it actually is in England? Does it just its popular because of Harry Potter and stories like this?

      • Becks1 says:

        omg sorry. “does it just seem like its popular” my mind is just fried lately.

        also “his connections are a lot better” get your head in the game Becks!!!

      • YankeeDoodles says:

        This is @Becks1, I think boarding schools in the UK partake of a cultural mystique that doesn’t exist amongst US boarding school, like the one I attended. And the mystique is fuelled by a kind of bipolar fascination: on the one hand, you have Charles Spencer’s incredibly moving and appalling memoir of abuse at his school, which has since closed, I believe, and you have stories about how miserable Charles was at Gordonstoun, though Zara seemed to flourish there, as well as other family members over the years. Anne — I believe — went to Bedales. They were talking about Oundle for George, which I can see much more easily than Eton. The real problem is that a huge part of the political / commercial elite class is collectively the product of private & boarding schools, something like 7% of the children in school at any given time. And they have a weird hold on power, because they network so young, that it takes on a life of its own. So even though people own how deplorable the conditions at schools have been, they still hanker after them, as a way to get ahead. Which is really ….just sort of sad, my son goes to our local state secondary, albeit one that is high in the league tables, often beating private school scores for national exams.

      • jais says:

        My feel is if they are going to a school where that many kids board…it becomes the norm. And Charlotte and George probably want to board too bc their friends are. Which fine. The issue is that their parents have created a whole propaganda storyline about the bloody school run and how hard it is and how it prevents them from doing their job. Again, it’s endlessly hilarious that they are such lying idiots for pr spin. And while I do find it funny, I also find it pretty disgusting. That’s my word lately. Just plain disgust.

    • Lauren says:

      I went to a school that also had boarding for students who lived far away but it wasn’t available until you were in 6th grade, so 12ish. I was always jealous of the kids who boarded because they could attend any school events while I couldn’t because my parents would have to free to drive me.

    • Irisrose says:

      They shipped Harry off to board weeks before his 8th birthday.

    • Tn democrat says:

      Both Harry and Willy boarded by age 8. It was probably good for them to escape their parents toxic marriage/paparazzi and to live in a structured/controlled/secure environment, but 8 is the American equivalent of 3rd grade. That seems sooooo young to disconnect from your parents.

      • Irisrose says:

        Given how william abused Harry at school and had his friends join in? Harry didn’t have a chance either place.

  10. jferber says:

    He’s very snarky about Louis, that he is very “kind” and “helpful” by leaving jam fingerprints in the back seat of the car. That’s not the way you’d talk about your kid and, honestly, that non-existent journey every morning seems extremely chaotic and nerve-wracking IF he or Kate really did it. They do not. Maybe that’s a story he heard once from Nanny Maria, about the jam. And yes, the way he talks about it makes it seems like a ten minute drive with 3 kids is more difficult than any working man or woman’s day, dropping off the kids to school AND working an 8 hour job. They have been lying for years about that school run. And if it were really that difficult, no man or woman in England would be capable of doing the school run AND a full-time job. Yet William’s life is much more difficult than yours, whoever you are. What a load of shit from these freeloaders.

    • jais says:

      He is very snarky about Louis. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. But it’s become “a thing.” A few months back, I randomly got a video on my tiktok fyp about Louis and christ it was disturbing. They had recreated his jubilee appearance of when he slapped his mom, no shade bc kids get overstimulated, but with cutesy music and edited it to make him into some kind of a cutesy scamp. It was disturbing af. And if you look at a video for like 10 sec they start sending you more of the same kind and there were so many videos about Louis. I was shook bc he’s a kid, jeez. So yeah keep an eye out on tiktok for some crazy royal propaganda bc that feels like the Wild West in term of royal propaganda.

    • Tessa says:

      There was this large mural of the Queen’s Jubilee and made Louis the center of it, when he did not like the noise and held his ears and looked like he was screaming. I found it disturbing to put the small child being upset on a mural about the Queen’s Jubilee.

  11. Jais says:

    What’s Amandaland? Anyways, I mean yeah, not shocking that some are not buying William’s schtick.

    • Chevalier says:

      Amandaland is a British TV sitcom and a spinoff of Motherland. It follows a mom, Amanda , navigating through divorce, downsizing her house, struggling to raise her teens.
      As we say in French, William ‘se fait son cinéma’ = he’s making up his own script, persuaded it’s going to make him look popular and just like us.

  12. Me at home says:

    I posted elsewhere that, in this single interview, Willy hit a lot of current complaints about the Waleses. So he tells us, yes you guys, he and Kate definitely do the school run without staff help, and he has the guitar and jam stories to prove it (natch poor Louis is the problem). Yes, Kate is definitely an early years expert. And yes, he and Kate definitely share a bed as well as a house.

    It’s like Sunny Bullets finished her 3- to 4- month recon on everything that’s wrong with the Waleses’ PR, and then she sent Willy out with a to-list and talking points on every issue. I guess he gets points for puffing up Kate’s early years, but it makes it even funnier that he fumbles what seems to be a left-wing question about her supposed Italian fluency.

    Anyway, as George approaches FT boarding school (probably) and the school run excuse starts to melt away, I expect we’ll hear versions of this same bs over and over. With stories particularly targetting Charlotte and poor Louis, the remaining kids at home.

  13. Chevalier says:

    Jam sandwiches, as far as I have observed in Southern England these past 15 years are not breakfast food but typical afternoon tea food.
    They were QE2 favourite tea sandwiches and she ate them every day since she was 5 years old. Hers were miniature sandwiches cut round (meaning lots of waste) called jam pennies.
    It’s of course at afternoon tea that Louis and siblings are served those. They are small enough to be swallowed in one bite.

    • Chevalier says:

      Amandaland is a British TV sitcom and a spinoff of Motherland. It follows a mom, Amanda , navigating through divorce, downsizing her house, struggling to raise her teens.
      As we say in French, William ‘se fait son cinéma’ = he’s making up his own script, persuaded it’s going to make him look popular and just like us.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      @Chevalier further proof that Billy Idle probably doesn’t see his kids until mid-late afternoon, when he’s sobered up.

  14. Chevalier says:

    Kate herself told the staff of a school she was visiting, Stockwell, that her 3 children all had cold cereals with milk and fresh fruit for breakfast.
    Jam sandwiches are an afternoon tea food. They were QE2 favourite tea sandwiches and she called them jam pennies. She had them every day for over 90 years. You swallow them whole. They are basically cut with a circular cookie cutter from 2 slices white bread.
    Louis probably had sticky fingers once at afternoon tea and his father thought the anecdote would be a hit with a gullible public.

    • Irisrose says:

      Why would you believe anything Kate says?

      She’s not raising these children. The nannies, housekeeper, cook, and cleaners are.

  15. Abby says:

    I cringed inside reading this – maybe it comes across differently in an interview, but it makes him sound secretly enraged at his children for normal behavior. Why would he share these kinds of unflattering stories about his own children, knowing it’ll be picked up everywhere? I would be so sad if my parent talked about me to the public that way.

  16. Scamuppet says:

    I see she never walks ahead of William

    • MrsTTempest says:

      Indeed. Megan was excoriated for daring to walk ahead of Harry, a blood Royal. The British « media » (I won’t call them journalists) has no shame at this point.

  17. J McGraw says:

    These people don’t cook, clean, shop, fold laundry, pay bills, schedule doctors’ appointments, sit online with service providers, figure out WiFi, or worry about how literally anything will be paid for.

    This couple has a staff of sixty. Imagine your life with a full fridge, clean house, freshly washed clothes, working appliances, zero car problems, meals prepared for you daily, drivers, housekeepers, permanent financial security for you and your offspring. Everything that breaks gets fixed. Every bureaucracy is eliminated. Every annoying task is taken care of for you.

    I’m just shocked that the millions of people struggling to survive in a cost of living crisis haven’t risen up against these clowns, who playact at frazzled parenthood and middle-class struggle like Marie Antoinette playing peasant.

  18. Jferber says:

    An anecdote about our late president, JFK. He was reading a letter from a person that condemned him for “making” Jackie walk a far distance behind him. JFK turned to an assistant and said, “Tell Jackie to walk faster.”

  19. Jferber says:

    I read Peter Fonda’s autobiography (highly recommend it) and he faced bullies at boarding school at a very young age. He was actually pushed off a barn by these bullies and had to be hospitalized for neck injuries. Years later a doctor who took an X-ray said there was actually some sort of fracture/break in his neck, and if not for that, he would be one inch taller. I admire Henry Fonda as an actor, but he was very dismissive and uncaring towards Jane and Peter as their father.

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