Scobie: Prince William comes across as insecure & obsessed with Harry

One of the things Omid Scobie does so well in Endgame is use his background as a straight entertainment/royal reporter to show, in detail, how the royal courts blatantly work with the media to get favorable press. In 2022, both Prince William and Kate turned 40 years old. For Kate’s 40th in January, we were gifted with a steady stream of glowing puff pieces about how Kate is the most perfect royal woman ever. My estimate is that about 80% of those birthday pieces were centered solely on positive stuff about Kate, with about 20% devoted to how Kate feels about Meghan and Harry. But it was different for William’s 40th birthday keenery. From Endgame:

I’ve watched Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace repeatedly get worried about being upstaged and derailed by the couple, and leak negative information on Harry and Meghan—a tactic that started before they even got married—during moments that could easily be focused on genuine royal news instead. Around significant birthdays, Palace aides are often eager to quietly provide one or two outlets with access to a select group of sources for quotes and background information to use in puff pieces celebrating the life and work of that royal.

…For William’s fortieth in June 2022, the Daily Mail—a paper whose complex relationship with the Firm has shifted over the decades but is currently very cozy—provided one of the big birthday reads. With contributions from those closest to William (friends and aides who were given tacit approval), the “intimate portrait” promised the “true story” of a king in the making but, in the end, mostly delivered a list of familial complaints about Harry. Instead of hearing more about William’s ambitious environmental plans, we were told in detail by royal sources that he “alternates between grief and anger” over Harry’s life decisions and feels his brother “has 100 percent crossed [a] line” by speaking publicly about his struggles within the family.

And rather than share how William was preparing for his role as the Prince of Wales and taking over the Duchy of Cornwall, we heard from people close to him about how Harry has been “sucked into an alien world [in California] and there’s f–k all [William] can do about it.” Still, opined one close friend, “William is absolutely allergic to drama,” before proceeding to air his grievances about Meghan. Could have fooled me!

The article had an air of insecurity, and instead of showing a transformational prince at work, it inadvertently cast William as a petulant, grudging brother who is so consumed by Harry’s decisions (and his anger over making them all so public) that he, and those around him, are unable to even put it aside to seize his moments.

[From Omid Scobie’s Endgame]

Scobie goes on to partially blame the courtiers around William, which I think is a fair criticism – someone is obviously feeding William’s insecurities, and clearly, Kensington Palace still believes that all of this is a good look for William, to always be portrayed as angry, wrathful, insecure, petulant, childishly competitive and singularly obsessed with the Sussexes. Perhaps the strategy is “Let William Be William,” and they simply can’t contain it. Scobie then goes on to note that there is a significant “glamour void” post-Sussexit for the Windsors and that void “is harder to fill than they ever expected.” The thing is, I don’t think Charles and Camilla actually want that void to be filled.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.