William’s devastating Kate decision

As the Prince of Wales marked a major first since his wife was diagnosed with cancer, he faces a heartbreaking call that could have major consequences.

COMMENT

Protestantism or Catholicism. Scotch or whiskey. Nell Gwynn or Alice Keppel. Philatelist or the wholesale afternoon killing of thousands of birds.

Decisions, decisions: Kings (and future Kings) face plenty of them. (Thus ends the pitying portion of proceedings.)

Now Prince William, the next person set to become intimately acquainted with how damned uncomfortable the St Edward’s Crown is to wear, is facing a tough one of his very own concerning his wife Kate, the Princess of Wales.

If the first 13 years of their marriage was one particular chapter – of Zara tops and the princess learning the finer art of ceremonial tree-planting – we are now entering a new one that is presenting the prince with an incredibly difficult choice.

Kate has been undergoing treatment for cancer.

Prince William is facing a tough decision concerning his wife.

From that magical moment on April 29, 2011 until this year, the universal view of Kate was, cor, what a good job that William had done nabbing her for a wife and future Queen. She turned out nicely in a hat, turned out nice babies, and had never once been heard complaining about having to spend so much of her Duchy allowance on idiotic, retrograde nude hose. Generally speaking she’s been a largely unproblematic team player, if not exactly ever in a position to wrest the royal ‘most enthusiastic’ mantle from Princess Anne.

At which point 2024 rolled around and said, hold my beer. The princess, the jolly hockey sticks head girl of Buckingham Palace who generally met the very moderate expectations of her workload, has now become the source of no end of worry and scrunched up brows and, I’m guessing, hastily convened palace crisis meetings.

First came her planned abdominal surgery in January and then, a month later, her shocking diagnosis of cancer – only weeks after King Charles’s own shocking diagnosis of cancer. (The princess made her news public in March.)

The princess, who generally met the very moderate expectations of her workload, has now become the source of no end of worry and scrunched up brows. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The easy, breezy Kate, who has only ever been a perfect helpmeet to William, is gone (through absolutely no fault of her own) and now the prince is facing some bloody hard judgement calls about his wife.

It comes down to this: Is he a husband and father or the Prince of Wales first?

If the 41-year-old had any hair left to lose then this year would have sorted it out once and for all.

Until now, making that choice has been an easy one. William and Kate’s motto, as the Sunday Times’ royal editor Roya Nikkhah reported in January (before her cancer diagnosis) was “100 per cent family first, day job second”. Not only did the princess need her tall drink of tap water husband by her side but their three young children obviously did too.

But while that “family first” credo made perfect sense at the beginning of the year, just how tenable, as the months drag on, is it still?

Something would appear to be shifting. This week William conducted his first investiture since February and also spent his first night away from his family in more than six months for an official visit to Cornwall and the nearby Isles of Scilly (pronounced ‘silly’).

Prince William in Newcastle upon Tyne in April. Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Earlier this week, a friend of William’s told Nikkhah: “I don’t know how he managed to keep doing all of that, knowing what he was going through, while the world was ridiculing and throwing shit at his wife while she was having chemotherapy. That speaks to his character, grit and determination to go out there and do the job that is expected of him. He has taken most of it on the chin and got on with it.”

But the problem is, how long can William try to simultaneously “do the job” and what is “expected of him” AND hold true to “family first”?

I fail to see how, at some point, he is not going to have to make some very hard decisions about his wife and his work. Can William really do the job of prince and keep the home fires burning and the lunch boxes packed? As far as I’m aware, he has yet to be able to apply quantum physics – the ability of particles to be in two places at once – to royal life.

The calculus here would be totally different if it was only Kate who is battling cancer but Charles obviously is too.

This week has seen the King return to public-facing duties, having invited 5000 Brits who had done good works back to his place for a scone and a cuppa at the first Buckingham Palace garden party of the year. However, His Majesty is yet to actually return to a full roster of engagements.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis need their dad. Picture: Rob Pinney/Getty Images

His Majesty’s back but not quite fully, and with an already much reduced line-up of starting official HRH players, Crown Inc is running out of slack.

Take the question of investitures, that is the ceremonial handing out of honours to the great, the good and the occasional longtime Corrie star. The only people who can conduct these ceremonies are the King, William and Princess Anne. Of the 18 that have been held this year, the prince has done three, Anne has done 15 and the King, zero.

Anne might possess the stamina and fortitude of a thoroughbred doped up on the best growth hormone cocktail money can buy, but surely even she has a limit.

Also out this week, work statistics compiled by highly-regarded Canadian royal reporter Patricia Treble which show that Anne has single-handedly carried out one third of the entire total of engagements so far this year.

The Princess Royal, who it should be noted is 73 years old, carried out 172 engagements between January and April. Even the Duke of Kent, who is 88 years old, did 31 engagements in that same time frame and the Duke of Gloucester, aged 79 years old, managed 26.

William carried out 28.

Princess Anne has carried out 172 engagements already this year. Picture: Hollie Adams / POOL / AFP

Let the record show, none of this is meant as a criticism of the prince, not in the slightest, but you see the inherent tension building here.

Short of Anne developing a taste for Red Bull and crushed-up Sudafed mixed with Fizz Whizz, how long will she, and a couple of aged dukes, be able to keep this sort of pace and load up?

And it is against this backdrop we have to look at William and the decision he is facing about how he juggles the competing priorities of Kate and the kids and the monarchy.

His family needs the Prince of Wales oh-so-badly right now. And Crown Inc. needs William oh-so-badly too. I have no idea how he can truly balance these competing priorities.

That question of scotch versus whiskey? Scratch it. Really, I think he needs large belts of both of them sloshed together in a glass, right now. And then maybe another one. And one after that.

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 William’s devastating Kate decision