Kate Middleton’s massive King Charles mistake

The Princess of Wales has committed a huge royal no-no that has left King Charles humiliated on his big day.

COMMENT

I’d love to know how many times I’ve typed the word ‘mess’ in the four and a half years since Prince Andrew’s self-cashiering via Newsnight. It would have to be in the hundreds. The thousands?

I had thought that in 2024 I might be retiring this particular noun, no longer needed now that the late Queen had died, King Charles had been firmly anointed and Prince Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had taken themselves off to twiddle with website fonts and to make rom-coms.

But no. Mess is back but this time, plot twist, it is Prince William and Kate the Prince and Princess of Wales causing it.

And it is King Charles who is paying the price.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the prince and princess are the newest entries in His Majesty’s bad books, along with the designers of the Tate Modern, the Chinese politburo, and whoever cancelled the The Goon Show, after committing the ultimate regal no-no.

Generally the goody two-shoes of the royal family, the couple - and especially Kate - have just achieved an unfortunate first, managing to badly embarrass Crown Inc. and at such a crucial, jittery, high-stakes time.

Monday in the UK was Commonwealth Day, an occasion marked every year by various senior members of the royal family ironing clean shirts to take their sombre place at Westminster Abbey. It might sound about as exciting as the annual Buckingham Palace paper clip audit but this is a red letter day in the royal calendar.

It is only on the rarest of occasions that the monarch has not attended the service however, with the King currently undergoing treatment for cancer, he has recorded a nice video for the occasion and Queen Camilla and William have put on a show of togetherness and lead the way.

Ah, best laid plans. We hardly knew ye…

Instead of me having to write a long and hopefully not too dull story about the King’s message of unity, all that the world cares about is Kate-ocalypse (trademark pending).

The Princess of Wales has committed a huge royal no-no that has left King Charles humiliated on his big day.

Only about 12 hours after the Waleses’ released an official photo of Kate for UK Mother’s Day, the first sanctioned image of her since she underwent abdominal surgery and in the wake of weeks of frenzies speculation about her condition, Getty, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters issued a ‘kill notice’ over concerns the photo had been “manipulated”.

The Oscars, the US presidential race, the hideous conflicts around the world: Briefly all seems to have been forgotten in the ongoing communal meltdown that has gripped social media, the news and the Internet.

Overnight, Kate released a statement taking responsibility for the confusion.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she said.

“I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.

“I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”

This is truly an extraordinary - and shocking - turn of events. The Waleses being essentially called out by major news agencies takes us truly into uncharted, bizzarro waters.

But more importantly for One’s Bad Book, this is a disaster for Charles.

Plot twist, it’s Prince William and Kate the Prince and Princess of Wales causing the drama now.

If there is one rule in the royal family, aside from never serving white wine with grouse or letting Princess Anne DJ (it’s just all Bob Seger and Aviccii), it’s never overshadow the monarch. No outshining or eclipsing whoever wears the crown, and especially not when they have a big address to give.

William and Kate have just broken this unspoken edict, and in spectacular fashion.

Photoshop-gate has meant that the only people who will be paying any attention to Charles and him saying nice cheery things about the Commonwealth and “friendship” are a dutiful Camilla, herself only half listening while keeping one ear on The Archers too, and the remaining six fully paid up members of the Monarchists League.

Any hope that His Majesty might have been holding onto for a nice, measured return to something that could pass for normal after a hurly-burly start to the year has been extinguished.

It’s not suprising if the prince and princess are the newest entries in His Majesty’s bad books

With the King now King-ing remotely and during a time when he is openly battling cancer, what Crown Inc oh-so-desperately needs is to be calmly exuding a serene, steady-as-she-goes sense; that everything and everyone one is smoothly sailing along, competently doing their jobs and neatly cutting the crusts off of their sandwiches.

William and Kate and their handling of her ongoing sick leave have dashed any such hopes.

Thanks to the Prince and Princess of Wales, the royal family has instead been plunged into this chaotic, shambolic mirror world where the world’s leading news agencies are publicly accusing them of ‘manipulating’ an official image and social media has long since lost its damned mind.

It’s never too early in the week to point fingers so, let’s start with William, who really fired the starting gun on the crazy when, last month, he mysteriously pulled out of godfather King Constantine’s memorial service at the last minute. The various ludicrous theories that had been quietly burbling away in the more extreme parts of X suddenly exploded into the mainstream until even the venerable BBC was reporting on the brouhaha.

Then, a pap photo of Kate and mother Carole Middleton did nothing to dampen the collective fever dream that had overtaken even the most rational-minded.

Then came Sunday, which was Mother’s Day in the UK. For the last few years, Kensington Palace has marked the celebration by issuing a new image of Kate and the kids or as they did in 2022, releasing the cards the young princes and princess had made for their “Granny Diana”.

Here was a jolly god-given opportunity to tamp down the mania that has engulfed social media; here was a chance to prove that the Princess of Wales is alive and well-enough to work her trusty curling tongs. This should have finally set things to rights, a return to cool-headedness, normalcy, sanity.

Join me to enjoy a brief, wry smile here.

Oh no. In the place of a nice return to regular viewing, those major news agencies put out that “kill notice” and things went nuclear.

For Charles this is something of a Chernobyl-sized mess (instance #868) in that no one seems to have even the remotest clue how to put out this inferno or begin to clean things up.

King Charles who is paying the price for the recent Royal conundrum.

All that William and Kate and their Kensington Palace’s office have managed over the last few weeks is to create this chaotic, shambolic, out-of-control situation which is now being reported on by every major outlet globally. Heck, even the New York Times put out a news alert.

In years of writing about the royal family, charting their downfalls, their exits, their TV shows, podcasts, books, interviews, interviews again, births, deaths and energetic visits to waste recycling plants, I have never seen anything like the insanity - and the inanity - of the last few weeks.

As we approach the first anniversary of Charles’ coronation, his reign has been overtaken and by first the Sussexes’ and their truth-telling urges and now by the Waleses’ and their ham-handed, havoc-creating ways.

What is a sovereign to do?

In Harry’s memoir Spare he recounted the father saying in 2021 during a heated scene, “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.”

Sadly, William and Kate are accidentally doing exactly that this week.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Kate Middleton’s massive King Charles mistake