William & Kate - Press & Public

The Windsors have so many “traditions” when it comes to Christmas. They still adhere to the Germanic traditions of their ancestors, and the Queen feels strongly that Christmas is a time for strict rules, dozens of costume changes, a lot of liquor, and quiet contemplation in church. There are actually tons of rules about the kids too, and what part of Christmas little kids are allowed to participate in and all of that. Basically, Royal Christmas is a tightass convention and they’ve been needing to shake things up for years. And now it’s finally happening, because of the pandemic:

Maybe (and this is more realistic), maybe the rest of the BRF is in such a high state of agitation that spending any kind of time with Kate and William would set all of them off. Just think on it: WK are responsible for Harry and Meg being driven out. A prince of the Blood has been overthrown and so has his consort. Now the plans that Charles had for a double act have gone up in flames and he will have to literally start from scratch all over again. Not just that, but diplomats and politicians will have to work to restructure their entire dossiers and portfolios and at the same time, maintain stability in order to avoid chaos that is always something that politicians and diplomats fear the most. Even in the best of times, it takes insanely hard work to maintain the kind of stability that normal people get to enjoy and now, thanks to WK, all of them have to work tent times harder to prevent chaos at the top.

If WK were to make an appearance at Sandringham, among the entire BRF, I am dead sure that tempers would be lost and a lot of screaming matches would occur. I am dead sure that Princess Anne would lose it and HM and Philip are too old to have to deal with that kind of tension that WK's presence would bring. It would just be too much for even the youngest and healthiest person to have to handle. There is no way that WK would credibly sit in a church and pray to the Lord while having been instrumental in overthrowing what many believe to be the divine order, the God created succession. Then after that, the entire BRF sits down at a fine family meal and three members of HM's family are missing because they were driven out of the family because of WK's selfishness. I cannot imagine just how enraged everyone would be or how much more HM would be able to take and not explode.

American Vogue is running a very curious feature called “Kate Middleton’s Quiet Power: How the Queen-to-Be Defined Herself in 2020.” First of all, I hate it when we’re like “let’s assess someone’s year!” and it’s only mid-September. Even in a normal, non-pandemic year, Kate would only *barely* begin thinking about being keen about various annual projects at this point in the year, just ahead of a “flurry” of pre-Christmas events. So, clearly, I came into this article thinking that it would just be another vague embiggening fluff piece. And it is… but it’s also kind of shady too? Vogue summarizes Kate’s Hold Still photography project (while subtly pointing out that Kate didn’t even really do a “launch” for it), they embiggen Kate’s Zoom calls, but then these sections happen:

That’s not to say nothing went wrong, publicity-wise, for the duchess during this period. In late March, Tatler published a story about the duchess, claiming, among many things, that she was “furious” about her larger workload after Harry and Meghan’s departure. [editor's note: the Tatler piece was actually released in May.] Palace shot back at the publication: “This story contains a swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations which were not put to Kensington Palace prior to publication,” said a spokesperson—and it sought legal action. (In a statement, Tatler stood by its reporting.)

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It’s pertinent to mention that another under-the-radar, yet significant thing happened in April: The Cambridges hired Harry and Meghan’s old social media manager after the Sussexes left royal life. While other royal accounts were filled with routine stock images, @sussexroyal had been, well, interesting. There were candid iPhone pictures of Harry and Meghan holding hands, black and white shots, quote cards with aesthetically pleasing typefaces. One day they even posted an artsy picture of Archie’s foot next to some flowers. For a time, the Sussexes account was the fastest-growing on Instagram.

Sure enough, similar social media techniques cropped up on the Cambridge’s account, @kensingtonroyal. There’s William and Kate with their backs to the camera, Kate’s hand tenderly on William’s back. An iPhone picture of a pint of beer and some curry, to plug William’s appearance on That Peter Crouch Podcast. A screenshot of an email sent by the duchess, informally signed “C.” Then there was the viral post that juxtaposed two pictures of Prince Louis: one, of him peacefully finger painting; the other, smearing said paint all over his face. They captioned it with an internet catchphrase: “Instagram vs. reality.” The couple gained more than 8,400 followers on Twitter that day. Slowly but surely, the couple, and transitively, Kate, have been compounding an incredibly valuable currency: invested followers, the 2020 version of loyal subjects.
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Yet with polished reserve, Kate Middleton has trudged on in L.K. Bennett heels. “Kate understands what she is expected to do,” says royal historian Sally Bedell Smith. “She grasps that hers is a lifetime commitment.”

Bedell also points out that the duchess has figured out how to make the near-impossible possible: “She also has a natural ability to blend accessibility and dignity with a royal mystique that shields her privacy—a tough line to navigate,” Smith says.