Few people back in 2011 could have realized just how bad public opinion would turn against the Duke and Duchess. After a wonderful wedding with just friends and family (many family members being also public figures, such as various Arab royalty and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg) with Prince Harry as his best man, Prince William looked ready and willing to embark on a full public life, after a brief spell in Anglesey and the Falklands. Instead the ducal couple was whisked to Canada (after a two week honeymoon sojourn in the Seychelles and an appearance at Buckingham Palace to meet the President of the United States and First Lady) and Los Angeles, California to make numerous appearances. Oddly, instead of embracing the public that has been so ready to adore them, the couple has instead retreated to a reclusive life that has at first bewildered the public, but has now triggered hostility and resentment among a beleaguered tax burdened public.
William, going from his career in the Royal Air Force to a reclusive life has made the palace worried and the public impatient. Everyone first understood the Prince's wish to live a quiet life in Wales while he was working, but in 2013 when his career ended the public expected the prince to begin a full time roster of royal appearances and begin to settle into royal life. Yet, the Prince has now balked and it's causing consternation. The Palace has worked hard at trying to explain the Prince's retreat, but it has had the effect of making the public resentful at what they see as the Prince's rejection not just of his expected duties and responsibilities, but has in fact caused a feeling that they, the public, are in fact being rejected by the Cambridges. William has just in fact become more and more (unhealthily in the view of the public) isolated even his own family. The Queen shoulders a large portion of duties and appearances, even at age eighty-eight, which is causing more dissension among the previously united royal family.
Prince Philip has in fact been getting more medical treatments as he gets older and while he is fairly sturdy, there is no denying that Prince Philip is beginning to deteriorate physically. The Queen adores Philip and he has been her mainstay, but the reality is that he is approaching the close of his life and if he predeceases Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth fill follow closely after. That will mean that Prince Charles will become King, Camilla (Duchess of Cornwall) will become Princess Consort, and Charles will inherit the duties of Sovereign. Charles will leave behind his created charitable organization, The Prince's Trust, which will be without Charles' charitable expertise and William will face the possibility of inheriting his father's position and responsibilities. By now taking on even some routine shifts and appearances on behalf of the Trust, William would be contributing greatly to the successful continuation of the foundation that has helped millions over the years.
Unfortunately William has shown a complete disinclination to work on behalf of his father (who is himself getting on in years) and become groomed for leadership of the Prince's Trust, there is a very unnerving possibility that the very charitable empire that Charles has built and worked so hard at, will in fact deteriorate and shut down, leaving endless at-risk youth without a pipeline to a better life. Charles has reportedly been increasingly frustrated at his errant son; his former sympathy over the loss of Diana long gone and the entire established planning that courtiers have worked for assiduously over the years at risk of complete disruption. When Charles becomes King he will be required (by circumstances) to relinquish his position and duties at the Trust and focus entirely on political and diplomatic issues (where his gaffes are becoming legendary) and participate in all state ceremonial, requiring additional trips to foreign locations to receive homage and preside over banquets and receptions. This will leave the Prince's Trust in limbo, along with the rest of the charities of which Charles is patron.
It's expected that various charities will lose a royal patron when the Queen dies and there is a shuffle of priorities, but it is also known that other charities will expect to gain a royal patron as well. William could step easily into running the Prince's Trust, but William's reluctance for a royal life is in fact undermining his ability to learn early and become used to the Trust as a matter of course. Yet, William is not and his reluctance is putting the natural evolution of royal patronage in jeopardy; training in royal life is vital and it's a known fact that without training, any royal in the line of succession will make mistakes that can cause an already shaky monarchy more instability. William's royal tours have been undemanding, but as he moves up to the title Prince of Wales, it is a fact that he will be required more high level and demanding tours with more substantial meetings and protocol will be strict. Charitable patronages have been a lower key training ground for a higher-level position and official life. As William continues to avoid charity work and avoids fulfilling his role as a working royal, he is seen as undermining his ability to get used to life in the royal family.
None of this is expected as a surprise from William, who has been brought up since birth as a member of the royal family, but his odd resentment of working life has in fact come as a complete surprise. His brother Harry has moved effortlessly into royal life and has worked at participating in projects and attending the game, or concert, or exhibition that he helped organize. His duties and appearances are a rarity, but it's known that he works hard at his military career and projects, so there is a lot more understanding. Harry has also put in appearances when requested (or required) and attended the Sovereign when there are state occasions and family gatherings. William's oddly rebellious behavior has caused a marked contrast and while Harry has in fact evolved in his responsibilities, William has markedly declined in both looks and popularity. His former connection with the public has frayed and Harry is openly discussed in the press and among the public as a better candidate for the throne. At the time it is impossible, but the idea of William stepping down is gathering momentum.
Ideas of William stepping aside for his more vivacious brother has in fact begun to gather momentum; during the festivities leading up to the wedding, it was touted that Prince Charles should step down in favor of Harry, but now public opinion has swung towards William stepping down in favor of Prince Harry. Prince Harry has had his scandals, but has never allowed his party lifestyle to interfere with his duty to the Queen. He has successfully conceptualized, planned, and carried out the numerous projects he has participated in on behalf of his charities and made a good showing at state occasions. He was granted the position of being the Queen's escort on various appearances when Prince Philip has taken ill, something that should by right go to Prince William, but William's reluctance to participate in duties has made Harry more in the favor of the Queen than before. Queen Elizabeth has turned an indulgent eye towards Harry's antics, which apparently remind her of her husband's amusing exploits in the early years of her marriage. As Harry settles down more and matures more, he has been entrusted with more substantial royal tours as well.
The Queen has become concerned with William's mental state as he (William) becomes more and more increasingly reactive against the media. There are fears that William will engage in a self-destructive spiral that could cause his complete collapse. Certainly William will not be allowed to reach a state of final self-destruction, but worries about having to intervene have kept the Queen and courtiers up late at night, wondering if there is any way to save her wayward grandson. The Queen worked hard at making sure that William and Harry had a stable upbringing with many normal experiences, but it wasn't until William reached university that an odd estrangement set in. For a while William spent much of his time with the Queen at Windsor castle as a teenager and was a frequent guest for tea during weekends while he was a student at Eton, a school where many, many royals and aristocrats have attended since the founding of the school. Since the early years, William has bonded with the Queen and Prince Philip and it has come as a blow how drastically William has deteriorated mentally.
Since the wedding William became more and more and more reclusive and even the slightest off-duty press coverage has triggered a hostile reaction from the Prince. His reactions have escalated and his determination to allow his wife a stable off-duty life has made courtiers wonder just how much negative influence the Duchess of Cambridge has had on his increasingly fragile and reactive mental state. Instead of helping him reach out, as William spends more and more time as a husband with her, the Duchess has apparently enabled his inclination from leading a quiet life, to withdrawing from the public life he is expected to lead (and by default, from the affections of the public) and possibly triggering the paranoia against the media that William is famous for. Kate was at first sociable with the public during her engagement and during her first few months as a royal wife, but she too showed worrying signs of alienation by first refusing to join the club that military wives (of officers) formed as a support group and preferring to live off base at the large country estate in Wales.
It has been a particularly galling issue, mainly since Kate is no stranger to public life, being a regular on the London club scene and high street shopping district. Her happy go lucky carefree life and often on the covers of magazines and tabloids, it was expected she would enable William to end his long-term mistrust of the media and connect him to the wider public. Her lack of title and lack of established social standing made courtiers have reservations, but at the same time, her lack of any social constrictions made it possible that combined with her obvious enjoyment of life would ensure that William would in fact find more of a common standing with the population with Britain and strengthen his good natured preference for ordinary life into a more fundamental bond with the public. Kate had developed a reputation for waiting around and had been nicknamed a "Wisteria Sister" (the other one being her sister Pippa Middleton) and become quickly enamored of royal privilege, but it was only considered natural, since many girlfriends of princes have become thrilled with the privileges and prerogatives of royalty and it wasn't initially considered cause for alarm.
The real concern is how Kate's determination to distance herself from her commoner past has resulted in her own form of reclusive withdrawal, one that is far more alarming. She isn't just shirking duties, but has been losing vast amounts of weight, but is oddly determined to lose even more, or maintain her increasingly skeletal figure. Her shopping sprees, public nudity, and participation in lawsuits against the media have in fact been causing her previously good relations with press and public to deteriorate rapidly. She's experienced abusive nicknames from readers, who leave comments about her lack of work and lack of modesty that in this article are unmentionable. The Duchess has begun failing to even fulfill the most basic number of events, leaving the bulk of the work to Prince Charles, Camilla, or Harry, while her husband is content to have Queen Elizabeth do not just her own regular routine duties as Sovereign, but to also an exhausting round of public appearances. Often Kate has danced attendance with the Queen, but it has been causing the Queen strain since Kate often still fails to wear the appropriate lower hemlines that are preferred for royal women.
Kate has been regressing to her pre-marriage lifestyle, lunching, shopping, lounging around, and while at a higher level, her fundamental behavioral preferences have been established and the more cynical courtiers have made it clear in small ways that she might have a title, but she does not have their respect. She had free and easy choice at first during the early months of her marriage, but her failure to take charge and fulfill a regular agenda has in fact caused her to lose leverage and influence. Kate is marriage to the future King William V, but she is facing private repercussions for idling around. She has been seen wearing old clothes, a sign that Charles has in fact drastically reduced her shopping budget, allowing new things for appearances, but for personal use, she has been reusing old clothes that she brought with her from her old life in Berkshire. This has been galling to the fashion conscious Duchess, causing underlying hostility, while Charles has made it clear in various ways that he resents paying her bills for beauty treatments and pampering, along with the bills for various other household expenses.
Normally it's expected that an extravagant lifestyle is de rigueur for members of the royal family, but the balance has been days full of appearances, meetings with charity committees, and work at the offices and backrooms of clinics and other buildings where the royals are patrons. Instead of breaking ground as a commoner who became a royal duchess (and future Queen Consort) and bringing help to those in need, Duchess Kate has in fact epitomized the very stereotype of royalty that the British royals have been working so hard to banish. Kate's loafing around has caused more people to pay closer attention to the easy lifestyle the royals enjoy and during these times of economic crashing, there has been a backlash that isn't just motivated by sales or brief resentment promoted by anti-monarchist organizations, but a more fundamental belief that the royal family isn't just shirking duties or taking too much money, but are in fact a pointless albatross.
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