Analysis: Royals (and Ex-Royals) Back to Business
Packed diaries and how the nature of the Court Circular needs to evolve
Hello Dear Readers!
I hope everyone’s had a good end to the work week and an amazing start to the weekend. Today’s newsletter will be about the British royals who’ve been more present with engagements than ever before since the 1-2 gut punch of King Charles and Princess Catherine’s cancer diagnosis. It seems the royal family is keeping calm and keeping on. Let’s take a look at the events they’ve been part of in the most recent weeks. This is the free post of the month so everyone should be able to read. We hope you enjoy this newsletter! And don’t forget to subscribe.
King Charles and Queen Camilla
Despite still receiving treatment for cancer, King Charles III stiffened his upper lip and headed back into public life this Tuesday.
He returned to official public duties as he and wife Queen Camilla visited a cancer treatment center, the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre, in London where he met with medical specialists and spoke to fellow cancer patients who are currently undergoing chemotherapy.
“It’s always a bit of a shock, isn’t it, when they tell you?” the King said, per the Times of London, of finding out about his diagnosis in February. He was overheard telling patients that he was feeling “well” and “not too bad” as he continues to receive outpatient treatment. He was also heard asking a patient if they’d used a cold cap, a device those undergoing chemotherapy are able to use to help them retain their hair during treatments.
Following the King and Queen’s visit, one staffer told the outlet:
“We were not expecting it [personal thoughts] at all. We thought it would be very generic, questions about other people’s treatment.”
The event at the Macmillan Cancer Centre was a smart start to King Charles coming-out, if you will. Everyone knows someone whose life has been touched by cancer. Royals aren’t gods, nor are they infallible. They’re human. And Charles isn’t afraid to lean into that and show his vulnerability this way, a trait he most definitely didn’t share with his parents.
A day after the event at MacMillan Centre, Queen Camilla hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to recognize supporters of survivors of sexual assault and mark the relaunch of the Wash Bags Project. This was an initiative Camilla’d created back in 2013 after learning the stories of survivors of rape and sexual abuse through visits to Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs). This program aims to provides toiletries to those affected by rape and abuse, with the kits offered at SARCs after examinations as a gesture of comfort.
The Queen gave a speech about how vital the program has been to sexual assault survivors
“Two years ago, Jane attended a SARC, with her mother and sister, for a full forensic examination just hours after being attacked.
“This was described by her mother as a ‘horrible, if necessary, event. We were preparing to leave and were all feeling very low and subdued. Jane’s personal contact then returned with a wonderful bag of toiletries and items to pamper and relax her. This simple act completely changed the atmosphere and lifted our moods. It was such a lovely and completely unexpected gesture, which reminded my daughters and I of the kindness of strangers at a very dark time’.
Among the guests was Zara McDermott who has presented a BBC documentary on the subject of revenge porn and previously said she was left devastated when her naked photos went viral after being posted online following her appearance on reality TV show Love Island in 2018. Ms Phillips said:
“What we need is action. There are victims at this event who are currently awaiting not trial but charge – for two-and-a-half years.
“The Queen is an unbelievable advocate, I’ve worked with her now for nearly a decade on this subject. She does it quietly and with actual purpose, with actual practical solutions for actual people.”
Once again, this is an area of advocacy the late Queen Elizabeth would’ve shied away from. It’s great to see Queen Camilla continuing to champion this initiative for survivors everywhere.
And yesterday, King Charles made an appearance at the Royal Windsor Horse Show where he was greeted warmly by his niece Zara Tindall who was also in attendance.
It was announced this morning that after reviewing 1,000 patronages, the King has taken on more than 300 new charity affiliations. Among the new ones he’s taking on, the King is going to be the new patron of Royal British Legion giving ‘clearest indication yet’ that he will on the Normandy beaches next month with world leaders for 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The King and Queen’ll also step up their involvement in horse racing - one of the late Queen's biggest passions - as they become joint patrons of the Jockey Club.
The King also loses 74 of his charity patronages with this reshuffle and around 200 charities will be told in the coming days that the royal family won’t be able to continue to support them with a full patronage. The decision to maintain as many as possible was made during a major review and reflects the view that a royal figurehead is hugely valuable, even if not able to maintain a personal connection and visit regularly. This is how the late Queen went about things. She was patron to hundreds of charities and was rarely ever able to visit them. It seems Charles is eager to continue that streak. William and Catherine don’t see things this way, as we’ll discuss later.
Duchess of Edinburgh
Bravely denouncing Putin’s forces for using rape as weapon of war, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh became the first British royal to visit Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.
The Duchess, who visited in her role as champion of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and the Women, Peace and Security agenda, said “women and girls pay the highest price” in war. And Sophie has a lot of experience with these topics.
In January 2020, she flew to Sierra Leone, where she visited a Women’s center. Two months later, the Duchess traveled to the Republic of South Sudan and visited various initiatives to protect the safety of girls and women, as well as meeting female peace builders and rights activists.
In March 2022, the Duchess delivered a keynote speech at the United Nations in New York about the importance of upholding women's rights in Afghanistan.
Prince William and Princess Catherine
The Prince and Princess of Wales celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary this Monday by releasing an unseen photo from their wedding. Three kids, 13 years, divorce rumors circulating every 90 days and they’re still going strong.
Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte celebrated their sixth and ninth birthdays respectively this past week. Both photos of the little Wales’s were released on the day of their birthdays, when customarily, this has been released the night before to allow newspapers to throw them on the front page. Both photographs were taken by their mother, Princess Catherine, in the last week or two at Windsor. It’s encouraging to hear this as the Princess is likely in the throughs of chemotherapy treatments. Taking pictures of her children is something she seems to genuinely enjoy and I’m glad to see this has continued.
As we discussed Dear Readers in a previous newsletter:
When The Prince and Princess of Wales began having children, they forgoed the usual way of introducing them to the press, which at that point was inviting them over to their homes to film, photograph and accost them. Check out this archive footage on YouTube from the Smithsonian. A one year old Prince William getting cameras and microphones shoved into his face before he can barely string two words together.
It’s equal parts dystopian and Truman Show-like. And this was the expectation. William and Catherine wanted to do away with that. Catherine, an amateur photographer, would take pictures of her children and share them with the world on special occasions like birthdays, holidays like Mother’s Days and occasions like #ButterflyCount Day in the UK.
Copies would be provided to the press and money couldn’t be made off of them. At the time, this decision didn’t go down very well. Covering the Royal Family is lucrative and the press complained at length that they were being cut off from the family. As journalists, they were “entitled to cover and photograph” their children in the same way William’s parents had allowed him to be documented.
What the media didn’t take into account was William and Catherine are very stubborn and have steel rods in their backs in place of flesh and bone: Their children will always come first and there was no future where Kensington Palace’d agree to go back to how things were done when William was barely a year old. The Prince and Princess of Wales refuse to be bullied by the public or the press.. And it’s no surprise to me that photo agencies have put both pictures of their children on their databases.
The King also honored the Princess of Wales for her distinguished public service. She is now a Royal Companion of the Order of the Companions of Honour and she’s the first member of the royal family to receive the honor. The relationship between King Charles and Princess Catherine’s said to have grown in closeness since their joint diagnosis. The King was more than happy to let the press know just how fond he was of his daughter in law:
Buckingham Palace released a statement on Friday expressing how the King is “so proud of Catherine for her courage” in speaking out.
According to those familiar with their relationship, the King has always had a “soft spot” for the Princess. “It’s a different relationship to the one he has with his son because he’s not just pa-in-law, he is also the King,” explained one insider. “She does often turn to him for guidance on royal matters, but not family matters – she has William for that and her own parents Michael and Carole, to whom she is extremely close.
“He’s not a father figure as such – she’s got her own dad to whom she’s absolutely devoted – but you could say the King treats her like the daughter he never had. You see it in the pictures of them together. That relationship is best summed up in those fascinating moments when she greets him first with a kiss and then with a curtsey.”
The Prince of Wales was appointed to be Great Master of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in recognition of his time in the armed forces. The order, designed to award members of the military or civil service for exemplary service, was established by King George I in 1725.
The Prince of Wales had a packed diary of engagements. Last week he visited St Michael's Church of England High School and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of West Midlands (Sir John Crabtree). This visit was months in the making:
A young student at St Michael’s, Freddie, wrote to Prince William in October of last year asking if he’d come to visit to see a project he was an advocate for “The Matrix Project”. It aimed to shine a light on young men’s mental health and provide a safe space for them to discuss their feelings without being judged. The slogan “Am I Man Enough?” was chosen in part to break past the belief that men talking about their feelings makes them sissies. Someone on the Kensington Palace Social Media team must’ve flagged this as an event worth going to, so Prince William payed them a visit. And in a full-circle storybook ending, Freddie was on hand to greet Prince William when he arrived.
The Prince of Wales also visited Woodgate Valley Urban Farm and was received by Mrs Louise Bennett (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of West Midlands). The farm is described as an amazing resource for the local community, providing life skills and mental health support to young people and children through outdoor nature-based activities.
William later opened Anchor Point for Betel of Britain and was received by Dr Derrick Anderson (Deputy Lieutenant of West Midlands).
This week, in his capacity as President of the Earthshot Prize, he visited Low Carbon Materials, an Earthshot finalist, and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham (Mrs Susan Snowdon). Low Carbon Materials focuses its research on how to make everyday products more sustainable. Due to being Earshot finalists, they’ve partnered with the UK’s National Highways to create a more sustainable version of concrete. Their goal? “Creating low-carbon construction material alternatives and other innovative new products which are helping to drastically reduce emissions within the construction industry.”
Prince William was also on-hand to open up a new chapter of James Place which provides free, life-saving treatment and support for men in suicidal crisis. Its soft open was held in January 2024 and has already helped more than 140 men since opening its doors to referrals in January. Prince William has been on had to open their last three expansions.
Whether it’s visiting a hospital, opening up a mental health charity or visiting Ukraine, these are the types of events that don’t get much attention in the press because they’re “boring”. But I find them interesting because these are the unsexy service-type events that make a difference in people’s lives.
Unlike his father, it seems that William and Catherine are uninterested in taking the route of being royal patrons to hundreds of organizations, especially if that means they’re not able to form a relationship with all of them. They want to focus more on causes they’re passionate about and use their influence to effect change which can be seen over time. Similar to his views on conservation, from the outside looking in, William seems to take the point of view that he’s there to use his influence and that’s it.
William’s modus operandi isn’t coming in and forcing his views upon others. He’ll instead, leave it up to the ones who are experts in their fields. His goal’s to help individuals on the ground doing the work. With Earthshot, he isn’t telling people what they can do to lead more sustainable lives. He’s highlighting work that’s already being done around us.
Singapore is one of the greenest cities in the world and was the home city for Earthshot 2023. Because it’s a small island that lacked natural resources, the central government prioritized planning and management approach to use the resources available efficiently. And it’s been a blueprint for other countries to follow. At the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit last September, Charlot Magayi of Mukuru Clean Stoves stated when her company won the Earthshot Prize in 2022, her company had sold 150 clean stoves. Since then? They have just reached a milestone of 400,000 homes due to the funding and exposure she received from Earthshot.
Earthshot provided her company with $1.2M in seed money, she (along with the other winners/finalists from 2021 and 2022) visited Windsor for a week earlier this year for Earthshot Prize Fellowship Retreat. Similarly to 2022, where finalists were invited to COP26 to meet with business leaders, pitch their ideas to get funding, the these finalists were able to attend a forum in London hosted by a Fortune 500 company where they were connected with advisors, market access partners, and potential funders to help them scale up their solutions. The Queensland Indigenous Womens Ranger Network, winners from 2022, are using their $1.18M (doled out over three years as is standard with grant funding) to beef up their ranks. Due to the publicity and backing of Earthshot, they received a spread in Condé Nastand the CEO was in New York during the Earthshot Innovation Summit with Jacinda Arden.
Along with an investment from Just Eat Ireland to promote the roll-out of its sustainable packaging across its platform, 2022 Earthshot winner NotPla has been benefitting greatly from the association with Earthshot.
Prince William, in his capacity as President of the Football Association’s using his influence to help make food packaging at sports stadiums more sustainable with the help of NotPla. He is the proverbial middle man, recognizing that there are people far smarter than him doing the work in this space. And all they need is someone with a high profile to shine a light on their work. And we haven’t even discussed his scheme to invest millions to build housing for the homeless on the Duchy of Cornwall lands.
The type of behind the scenes work was seen in 2020 with Catherine as part of her advocacy for Early Years. The Princess used her influence to lobby 19 British brands to donate more than 10,000 new items to more than 40 baby banks across the UK on an annual basis. Diapers, formula, clothes, blankets — items that could make or break a baby’s well-being were donated to organizations that helped families in need on the ground. The CEO of the charity went on the record to laud Catherine for her advocacy.
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics UK, says that the impact of Kate's initiative has been"amazing" and while the charity had some small donations from some brands before the royal's visit, it has "absolutely snowballed since the Duchess got involved".
Donations skyrocketed after the event and to this day, those same 19 brands continue to donate to these baby banks. And this was driven by Princess Catherine and Kensington Palace. This drive occurred in the middle of COVID, a time of uncertainty for many families unsure of how they were going to put food on the table. Baby Banks are a vital resource for struggling families and this provided tangible relief for those in need. And in the lead up to this announcement, there was nary an event to be seen.
Many of these meetings aren’t public facing. Which is why I believe the Court Circular (the official count of events for Royals) is flawed by design. The Circular only counts the events where Royals are out greeting people. More often than not, the work that’s being done behind palace gates to strategize, to meet with stakeholders and plan meetings aren’t captured, which is quite a shame and a missed opportunity to show how how much time and energy’s being invested for a cause. I’d like to see the method of counting events evolve with the times.
Yours in Royal Tea,
Lady Sinclair