Kate’s latest venture exposes brutal double standard

Kate, the Princess of Wales, has unveiled a new series and it reveals a whole lot about the Duchess of Sussex.

COMMENT

Get out ye old faithful bell of yore, one that has not been rung in the three years since Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, last passed immigration at Heathrow and was forced to declare her travel smudging stick.

It’s double standard time.

Overnight on Tuesday Kate, The Princess of Wales put out a stunning three minute nature video celebrating the healing power of pastures green and new, full of shots of babbling brooks and dewy petals bursting with promise.

Titled Spring, it was released to mark Mental Health Awareness Week and offers lots of nice shots of the princess and her nice husband.

Kate released the new video on her social media platforms. Picture: Instagram / @princeandprincessofwales

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Prince William enjoying some nice bits of the countryside, which the royal family has probably owned since the trebuchet was the hot new thing.

This video is just the start and what Kensington Palace will be a series entitled Mother Nature, by far the most creatively ambitious and clearly personal project from the princess in which she says in the voice over things like “Let us reconnect to nature and celebrate a new dawn within our hearts”.

We could rhapsodise a bit here about the cinematography ( done by Will Warr who also shot Kate’s video last year announcing she was cancer-free) and the Palace’s seeming willingness to really stump up for a hell of a lot of drone photography.

But dear god - imagine if this was Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex we were talking about.

Imagine that it was the Californian native and yoga-ist who had put out exactly this sort of video either back when she was on the royal clock and being sent to Hull for the afternoon.

The caption said it was to mark mental health awareness week. Picture: Instagram / @princeandprincessofwales

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Even imagine that the duchess had put out this video since this year, since setting up her stall on Instagram to give us all the Harry-In-A-Hat content no one had exactly been clamouring for.

Talking about ‘new dawns’ and “healing” and “sanctuary” and “healing” and “growth”?

Kate has just given us the most ‘Meghan’ thing she has ever done which has been met by very straight-faced support but if this was a Meghan video, it would surely have unleashed a sh*tstorm.

The reaction would have been an extraordinary outpouring of gleeful mockery and snorting derision at just how woo the Californian duchess was, the unspoken (or perhaps actually spoken) bit - this was just further proof about her and her novel ideas were never going to fit into the stodgy bosom of Crown Inc and their agricultural fair away days.

Much, much, much hay would have been made by British opinion writers of a certain stripe (taking a break from their usual beat of furiously banging on about migrants and who should and shouldn’t play under sevens girls’ soccer) and a Meghan nature video would have gotten more thumbs downs on YouTube than a video of someone kicking a puppy.

Meghan likely would not have attracted the same response. Picture: Instagram

Much would also be made of the decidedly ho-hum reception that Kate’s video has gotten, only, so far, being watched just over 100,000 times on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Instagram and YouTube accounts.

(By contrast, her cancer remission video has been viewed more than 38 million times across both platforms.)

Obviously, Kate has faced none of this.

Similarly last week when the Waleses and their three kids attended commemorations to mark 80 years since VE Day. A bored, impish Prince Louis was caught seemingly making fun of his elder brother Prince George and also playing with his father’s airforce uniform.

Would Meghan and husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex be given such an easy ride by the media if it was one of their kids not acting with perfect restraint?

I would not take that bet.

If there is one thing that Meghan and husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex have in spades besides stretches of lawn and security bills, it’s a sense of grievance about their treatment as opposed to that of the Waleses’ enjoy.

In moments like this you can’t help but feel like they are entitled to feel exactly the way they do.

It exposes a huge double standard. Picture: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

If you look, the instances of this sort of thing playing out just keep adding up.

Last week Meghan made news last week after admitting to trying “woowoo” things during her pregnancies with son Prince Archie and daughter Princess Lilibet, including adaptogens and the ancient Indian wellness practice of ayurveda.

Yet there is no more famous proponent of the more alternative of treatments than him what sits on the throne.

A lifelong advocate for a bit of “woo” himself, in 2022 the King appointed pro-homeopathic Dr Michael Dixon as head of the Royal Medical Household who still leads his medical team.

So committed are Charles and Queen Camilla that they have repeatedly, and over two decades, been visiting the alternative and holistic health Soukya resort in Bangalore, India, including even in October last year.

Then there are the blasted avocados.

In 2019 the Daily Mail ran a story with the headline “How Meghan’s favourite avocado snack - beloved of all millennials - is fuelling human rights abuses, drought and murder”.

(And all she thought she was doing was having a nice bit of toast.)

The Prince and Princess of Wales. Picture: Instagram / Will Warr

Fast forward to October, 2024 when it was revealed that, after a lifetime of skipping lunch, King Charles had started to indulge in a midday ‘meal’ of half an avocado.

Oddly there was not a peep about how his newfound midday meal was supposedly contributing to the razing of the Amazon basin or people trafficking or whatever.

Six years on since that avo story, here we are still, with that double standard bell still needing to be put to good use.

There’s a certain irony that this year, both Kate and Meghan are venturing forth and putting themselves out there, onto our screens, and giving us a far more personal view into who they are and what they care most about.

The Windsors, both foreign and domestic, are ready for their closeups.

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

Originally published as Kate’s latest venture exposes brutal double standard