Shocking Kate Middleton and Prince William photo exposes big mistake

The Princess of Wales has been photographed for the first time in six weeks and one detail is causing serious controversy.

COMMENT

Maybe it’s the air or maybe it’s too much locally-caught salmon or maybe it’s being stuck hundreds of kilometres away from a decent flat white.

How else to explain that the royal family keeps making the same ghastly mistake when they collectively shuffle north and take up residence at Balmoral for a few weeks of board games, overcooked venison and non-stop tartan tedium?

William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their troop of small HRHs have arrived in Scotland for the annual bout of Windsor family “fun”, a fact we know because they were photographed driving to the local church Crathie Kirk on Sunday.

Prince William drives the Princess of Wales from Crathie Kirk. Picture: Northpix/Media Mode

The problem is not that their idea of a holiday looks a lot like a seminary student’s average Tuesday (early morning religious services, oh my!) but who was with them, plonked in the front seat of the car – massive gammon and reviled former UK trade ambassador, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

Prince William drives Prince Andrew and the Princess of Wales to Crathie Kirk. Picture: Northpix/Media Mode

His slightly startled look; the dark light of the Highlands; a (future) Queen sharing her travel mints (I’m guessing) with a man who has only a slightly worse reputation than chlamydia – it was all horribly reminiscent of that time in 2019 when the late Queen merrily took Andrew to church hours after Jeffrey Epstein’s death.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew are driven from Crathie Kirk Church following the service on August 11, 2019. Picture: Duncan McGlynn/Getty Images

Here were the Prince and Princess of Wales, recreating what was one of Her late Majesty’s worst missteps since that time she briefly flirted with Unitarianism and the writings of Tony Benn.

For William and Kate, the optics of this church outing could only be worse if the photos had revealed they were simultaneously FaceTiming Mr 215 Pounds Donald Trump or had converted their Range Rover to be coal-powered.

For two people whose image is seemingly more carefully calibrated than the settings on the Large Hadron Collider, WHY? Why in the name of all that is good and holy would the Waleses have agreed to play happy families with such a leprous relative? A relative they have gone to lengths to avoid being publicly associated with?

Last year, it was revealed that William had stepped in to prevent Andrew taking part in the Order of the Garter ceremony in Windsor, the first such gathering of the ancient chivalric order post-pandemic and since the duke’s hobbling.

Roberto Jobson, writing in the Evening Standard at the time, reported that William had been “so alarmed” at his uncle’s attempts to worm his way back into public view by taking part in Garter day that he had threatened to pull out.

The royal was “adamant”, a senior source told Jobson, that “if York insisted on taking part publicly, he would withdraw”.

Prince William has previously taken a hard line stance on his uncle Andrew. Picture: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

It was the right call for William to make, to quarantine he and wife Kate and their wholesome image from the taint of Andrew. (“Taint of Andrew” sounds like a horribly pungent body spray that Fergie would try to get off the ground …)

So, how did we get from immovable William, taking a hard line stance on the toxic,

unemployed duke, to him and Kate seemingly happy to be photographed with the 63-year-

old? The Waleses’ volte here is inexplicable.

The prince and princess and the duke exist at polar ends of the public opinion spectrum. On

one hand, the former are generally adored and could probably get away with being caught

running an underground aristo dognapping ring without it denting their favourability

numbers much.

Andrew sit at the other extreme, a man whose name will forevermore be tied to allegations

of sexual abuse of a teenager (claims he has always denied) and his friendship with a

convicted sex offender. Short of him single-handedly facilitating peace in the Middle East

and managing to prise ex-wife and loose unit Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York’s off of

Instagram, I doubt his reputation could ever really truly be rehabilitated.

Prince Andrew with his arm around his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre's waist in an undated photo. Prince Andrew strenuously denies any claims of sexual abuse. Picture: AFP

So why have we just seen William and Kate risk the contagion of being seen with his uncle,

merrily tootling along to church with him?

Other members of the family drove separately to Crathie Kirk, with Prince Edward and his

wife Sophie, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Anne and her husband Good

Bloke Admiral Sir Tim Lawrence sharing one car, while King Charles, Queen Camilla and her

trusty flask of Irish coffee (well, I’m hoping) were chauffeured in the sovereign’s Bentley.

My point is, I’m assuming the carpooling situation is such that if the Waleses had been

strenuously opposed to having to be photographed with Uncle Andrew, they could easily

easily dodged it.

King Charles and Queen Camilla at Crathie Kirk. Picture: Northpix/Media Mode

What conclusion can we draw here but that being seen with him was a choice they made

willingly?

The timing for William of all this is, technically speaking, absolutely pants. It was only last

week he rightfully came in for a pasting for deciding not to turn up at the women’s soccer

World Cup despite a) England being in the finals, b) the Cup being held in two (2)

Commonwealth countries who are making come hither glances at republicanism and c) him

being the President of the UK’s Football Association.

(Contrast that with last year when it was reported that the Waleses’ office would consider

looking at arrangements for the prince to fly in to attend the men’s World Cup final in Qatar

if the English team made it to the final two.)

No official reason has been given for the Prince of Wales’ abject failure to do something

looking dangerously like work during his and Kate’s now standard lengthy summer hols.

Instead Kensington Palace put out a limp a social media video of William and his daughter

Princess Charlotte holding a soccer ball.

Thus right when the prince is being accused (by me anyway) of exhibiting a quiet contempt

for women, here is being photographed effectively welcoming back in from the cold

member of the royal family who went on TV and somehow forgot to show any sympathy for

sex trafficking victims! Goodo then!

The King might have reportedly been busy extending an olive branch to Andrew, giving him

the plum Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral estate to stay in over the break, but that does

not mean that the prince and princess have to quiescently follow suit.

It’s not as if William and Kate have not exhibited a readiness to risk His Majesty’s

displeasure and do what is best for Brand Wales. Who can forget that series of high gloss

social media videos their team churned out over the coronation long-weekend that

somehow forgot to make much of the actual King and Queen? And which instead made the

whole event out to be a glorious marquee event for the Waleses?

The only vaguest of vague glimmer of sense in all of this came on the way back from church,

when Andrew was relegated to the back seat. Here’s hoping Kate didn’t let him have a

second travel mint either.

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.