Here are more photos of Prince William and Kate in Rothesay, Scotland on Thursday. William was really Lurch-ing out in Scotland. The man went Full Lurch. Maybe it’s the climate? Anyway, both William and Kate were really forcing themselves to be keen and look keen at every moment, all because they’re convinced that they’re competing with a redhead and his wife. Not to mention, there’s another major family drama brewing all around William, only this time, he has literally no involvement in it. I’m talking about Charles Spencer’s Swan Song, which is being serialized by the Daily Mail and has already given us a cornucopia of scandalous headlines. William finds himself in a unique position of bystander as his Spencer uncle carves up his Windsor father. I suspect that William is being advised to simply stay silent on everything about this book. Well, William can’t just stay silent without telling people that he’s staying silent on purpose, and you should pity him for staying silent! Thus, this bonkers new Telegraph piece: “Amid the royal drama, spare a thought for Diana’s silent son.” LMAO.

As [Swan Song] was published, via a serialisation in the Daily Mail, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex were at opposite ends of the UK. Prince Harry, who knew the book was coming but did not know its contents, was in London preparing a presentation for his Invictus Spirit Awards. The Prince and Princess of Wales, believed to have learned about the book’s existence at the same time as the public, were returning to their children at home in Windsor from the Isle of Bute in Scotland.

Princes William and Harry have different memories of their mother, different approaches to her legacy, and different bonds with Earl Spencer. The Prince of Wales is not known to be close to him. Prince Harry, Meghan and their children stayed with the Earl and the new Countess Spencer this summer. Harry has told his own version of events in Spare, his no-holds-barred memoir in which he seemed to side with Uncle Spencer over his eulogy (“truth hurts”, wrote Harry) and his fight to block the “barbaric” walk behind Diana’s coffin. Prince William has not.

The silent son, destined to be King, has shouldered it all. His father was diagnosed with cancer and then his wife, leaving him fearing an uncertain future. His younger brother left the UK, leaving a trail of accusations in his wake. His three young children, George, Charlotte and Louis, have needed him. In 2024, he said he had been through “probably the hardest year of my life”. Prince William’s aides and friends are now on a three-line whip to say nothing. There will be no briefing, no quoting, no engagement: first on the circus of the Sussexes’ return to Britain, and now this.

The Prince has come to terms with his mother’s death in his own time and his own way. He thinks of her constantly, and talks to his children about “Granny Diana”. But he, more than Harry, has reconciled “that” walk behind the coffin: he does not think they should have done it, but understands how it happened. He has made it clear, over the years, that he does not welcome new accounts of his mother’s life, particularly if they revisit old and painful ground.

If Prince Harry has worn his heart on his sleeve over the years, so Prince William has kept his cards closer to his chest. Not quite fully signed up to “never complain, never explain”, he does try to resist the urge when it comes to family matters.

On Bute on Thursday, he gave no sign that anything was amiss. He hit a shinty ball, picked up litter from a beach and drove a tractor, his wife by his side throughout. He had a cider in the local pub, helped a little boy open a washed-up message in a bottle (“I hope it’s a nice message,” he said. “I hope it’s not a message for help from someone stuck on an island!”) and declared the wet and windy Scottish weather “the best”: “I love it wild.”

It was, in other words, “keep calm and carry on” – again.

Those who know Prince William believe it is all he can do. The burden of monarchy will one day rest on him, and he needs to focus on work and his own family in order to face it.

“His focus is on duty and service,” palace sources have repeated countless times in recent years.

The royal drama has only increased. The headlines, this week, will be about Earl Spencer, the King, and, as he returns to public visits in Britain, Prince Harry. In Bute, on ordinary royal engagements, the Prince and Princess of Wales seemed a world away.

[From The Telegraph]

I’m no William defender, god knows, but… I think he’s doing the right thing about Swan Song. Why would he comment? Why would he clap back on his Uncle Charles? To defend his father’s honor? LOL. Occam’s Razor – William isn’t saying anything because he doesn’t have anything to say. In my opinion. William is staying silent because he’s secretly pleased to see his uncle give his father some well-deserved lashings. This is, after all, the same heir to the throne who spent two years endlessly briefing the media that he would be king sooner rather than later – there’s no love lost between King Charles and Prince William. And going even further, there’s good reason for that decades-long beef to exist. Harry wrote about the neglect and trauma of his childhood. While William had it easier, there was absolutely neglect and trauma in his childhood too, and both brothers lay a lot of the blame for that at their father’s feet. Basically, why would William say anything when he’s secretly happy that Charles Spencer is finally saying some of these things?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.