How Prince William and Kate's marriage will take the strain of the Megxit effect
Harry and Meghan's decision to quit may have serious repercussions for Wills and Kate's family routine, so how will the Cambridge clan cope with the fall out?
Harry and Meghan's decision to quit may have serious repercussions for Wills and Kate's family routine, so how will the Cambridge clan cope with the fall out?
Words by Michelle Davies
Every December a retired insurance broker named Tim O’Donovan sits at his kitchen table in Berkshire and painstakingly tallies up which Royal Family member has carried out the most engagements in the previous 12 months. The amateur archivist has been doing this for four decades, using information publicly available in the Court Circular drawn by Buckingham Palace. Once completed, he then sends his list to The Times for publication.
Charles ranks first
This December was no exception, with Mr O’Donovan’s list for 2019 revealing Princes Charles carried out the most engagements with 521 in total. Princess Anne was closed behind with 506, while the Queen was third with 300. Prince William, meanwhile, attended 220 official events, Harry did 201, while their wives Kate and Meghan notched up 126 and 83 respectively.
But next year’s list is going to be a very different proposition without Harry and Meghan being available for ribbon-cutting and hand-shaking duties. So the big question now is: who will now carry out the 250+ engagements previously undertaken by them?
A bigger burden
The most obvious answer is, of course, William and Kate. As the youngest senior Royals in this newly streamlined Monarchy, they are the best place candidates to step up and shoulder more of the burden of public life. Already William has carried out two engagements at Buckingham Palace alone, when previously Harry would’ve appeared with him.
‘The likelihood is that William and Kate will take on more,’ PR expert and Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams confirmed to one newspaper. ‘The institution’s hopes rest on them] and they have the distinction of never putting a foot wrong.’
Marie Claire Newsletter
Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!
It’s true the couple are near flawless in how they carry themselves publicly, as proved last week when they carried out a joint engagement in Bradford. Writing in Vanity Fair, seasoned Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl said The Queen in particular is a fan of how ‘unflappable’ Kate is juggling events both home and abroad with motherhood and that the Duchess makes the Royals seem normal and ‘in touch’. ‘The Queen holds Kate in high regard,’ she wrote.
A juggling act
But what will the impact be on them privately if their workload is doubled, as Mr O’Donovan’s numbers suggest it might have to? With three children under the age of seven, Kate and William have a busy home life. Term time is spent living in their apartment at Kensington Palace, while weekends and holidays are spent at their Norfolk retreat, Anmer Hall. An increase in public duties will inevitably mean less time spent at both and presumably an increasing reliance on nannies and Kate’s hands-on parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, for wraparound childcare.
Then there is the inevitable increase in scrutiny that will come with them taking on an even greater public role in the absence of Harry and Meghan. Already their every move is examined and dissected – when Kate was filmed shrugging off William’s hand in the BBC TV special, A Berry Royal Christmas, rumours abounded that something was amiss. Royal watchers claimed it was because the couple are not usually tactile in public, unlike handholding Meghan and Harry, and Kate thinks they should keep it that way, following the Queen and Prince Philip’s decades-long example.
Palace concern
Faced with their lives become even busier, it’s no wonder Prince William was said to be ‘incandescent’ on reading Harry and Meghan’s shock ‘we quit’ statement only ten minutes before it was issued to the public two weeks ago. He must have been all too aware of what it would mean for his young family and how it would heap pressure on him and Kate.
‘There’s a genuine worry over how much this could affect the Cambridges,’ the Mirror newspaper quoted one Palace source as saying.
While the Royal diary is now being hastily rewritten to take Harry and Meghan out of the equation, some plans are firming up – including Kate and William’s first overseas visit of the year. In March they are due to visit Ireland for the first time, visiting Dublin and Cork during a two-day stop.
One expert who thinks they’ll weather the post-Megxit fallout is Kate’s biographer, Claudia Joseph. She thinks the Duchess will rise to the challenge and the crowds will love her even more for it.
‘She’s very much the girl next door, from how she dresses to how she behaves and interacts with people on engagements,’ Joseph said. ‘She is likeable and relatable and that has made her very popular.’
Maria Coole is a contributing editor on Marie Claire.
Hello Marie Claire readers – you have reached your daily destination. I really hope you’re enjoying our reads and I'm very interested to know what you shared, liked and didn’t like (gah, it happens) by emailing me at: maria.coole@freelance.ti-media.com
But if you fancy finding out who you’re venting to then let me tell you I’m the one on the team that remembers the Spice Girls the first time round. I confidently predicted they’d be a one-hit wonder in the pages of Bliss magazine where I was deputy editor through the second half of the 90s. Having soundly killed any career ambitions in music journalism I’ve managed to keep myself in glow-boosting moisturisers and theatre tickets with a centuries-spanning career in journalism.
Yes, predating t’internet, when 'I’ll fax you' was grunted down a phone with a cord attached to it; when Glastonbury was still accessible by casually going under or over a flimsy fence; when gatecrashing a Foo Fighters aftershow party was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and tapping Dave Grohl on the shoulder was... oh sorry I like to ramble.
Originally born and bred in that there Welsh seaside town kindly given a new lease of life by Gavin & Stacey, I started out as a junior writer for the Girl Guides and eventually earned enough Brownie points to move on and have a blast as deputy editor of Bliss, New Woman and editor of People newspaper magazine. I was on the launch team of Look in 2007 - where I stuck around as deputy editor and acting editor for almost ten years - shaping a magazine and website at the forefront of body positivity, mental wellbeing and empowering features. More recently, I’ve been Closer executive editor, assistant editor at the Financial Times’s How To Spend It (yes thanks, no probs with that life skill) and now I’m making my inner fangirl’s dream come true by working on this agenda-setting brand, the one that inspired me to become a journalist when Marie Claire launched back in 1988.
I’m a theatre addict, lover of Marvel franchises, most hard cheeses, all types of trees, half-price Itsu, cats, Dr Who, cherry tomatoes, Curly-Wurly, cats, blueberries, cats, boiled eggs, cats, maxi dresses, cats, Adidas shelltops, cats and their kittens. I’ve never knowingly operated any household white goods and once served Ripples as a main course. And finally, always remember what the late great Nora Ephron said, ‘Everything is copy.’
-
Jennifer Lopez issues a reminder that she is human amid hurtful comments
By Jenny Proudfoot
-
Balzac Paris x Barbour is back with another sell-out collection
Cool-girl approved
By Sofia Piza
-
Blurring foundations are my secret to achieving a *seriously* seamless base - these 7 formulas give Paris filter every time
FaceTune? No need
By Jazzria Harris
-
‘If you’re using the #NotAllMen hashtag, you’re part of the problem’
By Jenny Proudfoot
-
Munroe Bergdorf: 'Time's up on social media abuse'
Activist Munroe Bergdorf on why 2021 must be the year of lasting, impactful change online
By Sophie Goddard
-
After the Candice Brathwaite TV show storm: 'Are we finally ready to talk about colourism?'
Ateh Jewel, Marie Claire's beauty columnist, talks about the Candice Brathwaite and Rochelle Humes docu debacle and why colourism - the preferential treatment of lighter-skinned individuals compared with darker-skinned Black people - must finally be acknowledged and action taken
By Ateh Jewel
-
'We cannot ignore the white privilege on display at last night's Capitol Hill riot'
By Jenny Proudfoot
-
US Election 2020 - An Insider Tells All: ‘There’s no coming back from this, is there’
Days before the most consequential election ever, Becca Andrews, a journalist at US news site Mother Jones, reveals what it's like living in Trump’s America and why, along with tens of millions, she’s holding her breath expecting the worst
By Marie Claire
-
Instagram turns 10: but is it breaking us or making us more human?
Happy birthday Instagram! A simple photo-sharing app was born on 6 October 2010 and changed the world for better or worse. Now home to more than a billion active users, author Daisy Buchanan examines her complicated relationship with it
By Maria Coole
-
'Why do we still have a problem with race?' asks anti-racism activist Layla F Saad
How do you become a better anti-racist ally in 2020? For starters, recognise that if you're white and privileged, you're probably helping uphold an oppressive system. On Black History Month, we're shining a spotlight on what Layla. F Saad, author of Me and White Supremacy, has to say about shutting down racism
By Marie Claire
-
Hunger strikers demand justice for Breonna Taylor
Black Lives Matter protests are still reverberating and now protesters in the US are on hunger strike seeking justice for Breonna Taylor, a woman killed at home by police in March. Marie Claire's Dami Abajingin asks why the killing of black women is rarely centre stage in narratives about police brutality and why #SayHerName matters
By Marie Claire