King Charles’s allies tell Prince William: Don’t trigger the king’s jealous streak

Prince William and his wife did jacksh-t for two weeks during their kids’ school break, then there was a sudden blitz from William as he traveled to Singapore last weekend and spent four days doing Earthshot things. His trip did not garner much attention domestically or internationally, mostly because William is a charisma-vacuum. In fact, the most attention he got throughout the entire trip was on his final day, when he spoke to the reporters traveling with him and said that he has zero plans to take on more patronages because he’s more interested in “social leadership” and making “change” in bigger, keener ways. William’s Singapore trip also happened in the middle of King Charles’s attempted to dominate the newscycle by A) briefing lies to the Times about Prince Harry snubbing his birthday party invitation, only for Harry to correct the lies and B) doing his first-ever Parliament opening with the “king’s speech.” Hilariously, both Charles and William got overshadowed by the Sussexes going to a Katy Perry show and Harry doing a video for veterans. Still, it’s clear that William and Charles are absolutely engaged in a PR war with each other. Without the Sussexes to gang up on, the rats are eating each other. From The Daily Beast’s Royalist:

Friends of the king are sending a warning to William: Friends of the royals have cautioned that competition between King Charles and his son and heir Prince William could trigger Charles’ well-documented jealous streak, after William appeared to criticize his family’s habit of taking on “loads of causes that you sort of turn up and keep an eye on.” The friend of the king and Queen Camilla said: “William is entitled to make these comments, which, frankly, are pretty unremarkable, but part of the reason the marriage with Camilla has worked so well is that she understands that Charles is the star. William has to be careful not to wake the green-eyed monster.”

William wants to make it clear that he’s simply too lazy to overshadow his father: A friend of William’s, however, denied the comments would spark conflict with the king. The friend of William’s told The Daily Beast: “William is in no hurry to be king. This is not him parking his tanks on his dad’s lawn. William and Catherine have three children, the eldest of them is ten, and that’s very much their priority. They are totally focused on maximizing impact and always have been. He was just saying that having 500 patronages isn’t how he is going to do things, which I think is fair enough. Any idea that he is attacking his dad is just rubbish.”

The King’s Speech clashing with Earthshot: On Tuesday, the signs were that William, in Singapore, had accepted that this was just the way the cookie had crumbled on this occasion. His event received some coverage, but arguably less than it might have done were it not for that iconic royal first unfolding on the same day back home. He certainly did nothing to upstage his father (unlike Harry, who released a video in support of veterans just hours before his father started speaking—but Harry’s unpredictable interventions are largely priced into royal calculations these days).

The palace isn’t mad about William’s interview?? Palace sources sought to play down the [interview] While the king’s office and William’s office did not respond to requests for comment, one courtier said the comments were not designed as a headline-grabbing intervention, but were in fact made as part of a casual meet and greet with the print media. This is a carrot that is often afforded media traveling on foreign trips to encourage attendance.

Charles’s people insist he’s no longer seething with jealousy: While William’s comments stirred up the prospect of a jealous Charles for some, another friend of King Charles denied William’s comments would annoy Charles, telling The Daily Beast: “The model is his mother [Queen Elizabeth II]. His mother allowed Charles the freedom to do what he wanted as Prince of Wales and, especially in the last years of her life, he was king in all but name. That model worked very well as it ensured continuity between the reigns. People will no doubt want to suggest he is jealous of William, but that’s just media rubbish. He wants nothing more than for William to start thinking about what his reign is going to look like. What matters more than anything to Charles now is the strength of the institution.”

Whether Charles has, historically, been jealous of his family: Asked whether they thought there was any truth in the well-known accusations of jealousy made against Charles by Princess Diana and Prince Harry, the friend said: “Yes, but it’s not his personal ego. The problems have arisen when he feels the work is overshadowed. I don’t think, looking at the first year of Charles’ reign, anyone could say the collaboration between William and Charles has been anything other than a massive success.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“Part of the reason the marriage with Camilla has worked so well is that she understands that Charles is the star.” I would go so far as saying that the reason why Charles married Camilla is because he knew that nag would never be more popular than him. What has always fascinated me about the Windsors is that none of them have ever taken a remedial business or economics class and they truly believe that the entire “royal project” is zero-sum. That if William gets attention, it’s “taking away” something from the king. That there’s only a limited amount of attention/press, there’s only one pie and they’re all fighting over who gets the biggest slice. That’s not how any of this works or should work, but it just shows that all of these people are idiots. And Charles and William are definitely at war with each other. I would even go so far as to say that Camilla has her knives out for both William and Kate. The fall of the House of Middleton didn’t just happen accidentally – there was and is some palace orchestration happening there.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.