Entertainment

Prince William And Duchess Kate Step Up Work Over Claims Of Royal Laziness

Published on: February 24, 2016 at 4:33 PM
By Amy Feinstein

There have been public questions about the light royal workload for years, but now, the palace is bending to public perception, and stepping up the hours that the family is putting in. For now, after criticism for Prince William’s 20-hour work week, Duchess Kate Middleton is trying to pick up the slack. Prince William has gotten a lot of criticism for only having “part-time jobs.”

According to the Inquisitr , Duchess Kate was the guest editor for Huffington Post UK last week, blogging about the topic of children’s mental health. The Palace had Huffington Post as a guest to get out the message of mental health intervention amongst children, and to remove the stigma for everyone.

Vanity Fair is reporting that after questions from the press that the royals have light work loads, Duchess Kate is picking up the slack for the rest of the family. Kate took her first “away day” of the year, and left Prince George and Princess Charlotte at home with their nanny, and spent the day at St. Catherine’s day school to discuss mental health. She also took part in a tennis workshop with the mother of British tennis star Andy Murray.

Prince William has recently been called “throne idol” recently by the press, as he has only carried out royal duties twice this year. The excuse has been made that Prince William’s part-time job as a pilot has gotten in the way of carrying out royal events. There is criticism that the younger royals are not pulling their weight in comparison to Queen Elizabeth, who carried out 341 royal engagements last year alone. Comparatively, Prince William participated in 122 official engagements.

The Daily Beast asked if royal Prince William was “too lazy to work,” and if Prince William and Duchess Kate are workshy. When the palace mentioned William’s part-time pilot gig, that made tempers flare even more. Sources at the airbase, out of which Prince William flies, says he is not seen there with any regularity.

“He’s hardly ever on shift. He was very enthusiastic to begin with but it tailed off. It’s supposed to be four on, four off but with the Duke, it’s more off than on. He had at least four weeks off over Christmas, which has to be staffed the same as normal weeks. It’s fine that he gets a bit of special treatment, but it’s beginning to really annoy some people. The rumor is that he’s just a bit bored of it.”

Excuses were made by the palace about required rest days and the CAA, Civil Aviation Authority, but the organization says the palace is confused by the restrictions. Rest days mean that you cannot fly, but they do not mean you can’t do anything else. They also said that these constraints are not put on part-time pilots at all.

“Your employer might worry if you were reporting fatigue, and might want to discuss that with you, but there is no specific ban on those things,” the source said.

Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, participated in more royal events after invasive heart surgery last year.

Macleans is also asking questions about Prince William’s workload, and why he cannot seem to make appearances, even at his house when official parties are thrown, like for the BAFTA awards, where the prince is on the board.

The Sun suggested that six weeks into the year, Prince William went on his first royal outing.

“While most of us have been grafting for well over a month, his first official engagement came 47 days into the new year.”

The palace is aware of the perception, and seems to be stepping up the visibility of the younger royals.

Do you think that Prince William and Duchess Kate need to do more to earn their keep?

[Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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