The Prince and Princess of Wales did not attend the state opening of Parliament on Tuesday. Prince William was hanging out with celebrities in Singapore, and Kate was… seething in Adelaide Cottage, one would assume. The official cover story was, of course, that Kate was “supporting” Prince George as he prepared to take an important exam. I find it interesting that People Magazine pointed out William and Kate’s absence, even if the mag just repeated the cover story.
Kate Middleton and Prince William weren’t by King Charles’ side for a first of his royal reign. On Tuesday, King Charles and Queen Camilla attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time since his accession. The King wore the Imperial State Crown for the first time since his coronation and read the King’s Speech, which was written by the government and contained an outline of its proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session.
Aside from the King and Queen, Princess Anne took part in the event in her role as Gold Stick in Waiting.
However, the Prince and Princess of Wales didn’t attend the historic event.
It’s not required for the heir to the throne to attend the State Opening of Parliament, but King Charles accompanied his mother, Queen Elizabeth, several times throughout her reign. He attended for the first time in 1970.
But Prince William had a significant event of his own on Tuesday: the Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Singapore. The Prince of Wales, 41, hit the green carpet alongside Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham and Sterling K. Brown as they honored the next wave of environmentalists coming up with answers to the planet’s most pressing problems.
Although Princess Kate, 41, joined her husband at the inaugural awards ceremony for the environmental prize in London in October 2021 and for the second cycle in Boston in December 2022, she did not make the trip to Singapore. She stayed in the U.K. to support their son Prince George as he tackles school exams.
[From People]
“It’s not required for the heir to the throne to attend the State Opening of Parliament” yeah but it feels notable that for the king’s first-ever Parliament opening, his son and heir wasn’t there? I think it was a confluence of shady sh-t too – while the official date for the state opening was announced after Earthshot was scheduled, surely William should have been aware of the general timing well before? It’s also weird that father and son were like ships passing in the night – Charles returning from Kenya just as William left for Singapore, and Charles made sure to brief everyone that his Kenya trip went better than Kate and William’s Caribbean tour.
I also wanted to point out that the “Kate is helping George with his exams” excuse effectively suffocated any plans Kate might have made to pull focus from her husband or father-in-law. When William went to New York in September, Kate made a point of doing several events back in the UK in retaliation for being left behind. She couldn’t do that this time because the whole point of the cover story is that Kate can’t work or travel when George has his exams! That was also why Kate couldn’t represent her husband at the opening of Parliament. Looks like George is about to become the most fictitiously tested child in England – William stumbled into the perfect excuse for why Kate can’t do anything.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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