KATE & WILLIAM
The real power behind the throne
BEfore he left England for a landmark tour of India and Bhutan, Prince William was in the eye of a storm. Royal watchers claimed he was “work-shy”, neglecting his royal duties with just 87 local engagements in 2015 compared with 380 made by his father, the Prince of Wales, and 306 by his elderly grandma, the Queen. The British media was also irritated at the control wielded by Kensington Palace aides, heavily committed to protecting the privacy of the Cambridge family.
As a fervent “family man”, William wants to guard his wife and children against the media scrutiny that dogged his own childhood, but he’s also aware that he and Kate are crucial to the future of the monarchy.
In a BBC interview filmed just before he left, William explained his dilemma. “I think royal duty is extremely important ... But it’s about finding your own way at the right time and if you’re not careful duty can sort of weigh you down an awful lot at a very early age ... I’m going to get plenty of criticism over my lifetime and it’s something that I don’t completely ignore, but it’s not something I take completely to heart. I’m concentrating very much on my role as a father. I’m a new father and I take my duties and my responsibilities to my family very seriously, and I want to bring my children up as good people, with the idea of service and duty to others as very important.”
So, with a sizeable media entourage approved to go with them – including The Weekly – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s fifth overseas tour as a couple would be William’s chance to
In a hugely successful tour of India and Bhutan, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge faced their critics with a confident display of royal panache and tender togetherness, reports Juliet Rieden.
set the record straight. It would also be an opportunity to redraw the lines of engagement, to underline how, as second-in-line to the throne, he intends to operate – to carry out his duties for Queen and country, but also establish a work/life balance. It would also put the Duchess back on the world stage after maternity leave and establish the couple as the power behind the throne, the new force of a very modern monarchy.
The seven-day tour was a bold and historic one, 55 years after the Queen first came to India and 24 years after William’s parents visited and his mother was famously photographed
sad and alone at the mausoleum to love, the Taj Mahal. That visit came to symbolise the disintegration of a royal marriage. This one, coming a few weeks shy of Kate and William’s fifth wedding anniversary, showed the rock-solid couple more together than ever; laughing, talking, even wandering hand in hand.
The trip also introduced the couple to the magical Kingdom of Bhutan, where the King and Queen are known as “the Will and Kate of the Himalayas” and ensuring the people’s happiness is part of the national constitution.
The tour began in Mumbai at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, one site of the 2008 terrorist attacks that killed 164 people. Security was tight, with cars thoroughly checked – bonnets opened, engines scrutinised and even a large mirror run underneath vehicles to ensure no explosives were lashed to the undercarriage. Yet the couple seemed unrattled and the hotel was certainly in raptures to host the royals, dubbed “WillKat” locally.
“They are the fourth generation of the British royal family to stay with us since 1911,” Nisha Dhage, the hotel’s Associate Director of Sales, told The Weekly. “Every corner of the hotel is bedecked with flowers ... Indian jasmine, marigolds and roses.”
Their first meal was vegetable kebabs, lentil curry with rice, ricotta cheese and okra. “It is all vegetarian because I was told that was what they preferred,” said the chef. It was a maxim the couple stuck to, no doubt to avoid the risk of food poisoning.
At an afternoon game of cricket, Kate faced a ball bowled by famous Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar who afterwards conceded the Duchess’ form was “very promising”. Later that evening, Kate dazzled again in a blue gown glistening with Indian beading at a reception packed to the marigoldstrung rafters with Bollywood stars.
“When Catherine and I married, India was the first place on Catherine’s list she told me she wanted to visit. Two children and five years later, we have finally made it,” Prince William announced to an awestruck audience.
The Duchess travels with an assistant, who helps with style choices, and a hairdresser, but does her own make-up. Her outfits are carefully curated back in London and for this tour there were a couple of nods to local designers.
Despite potential security risks, the royal couple made a point of visiting slum areas in Mumbai and Delhi, and were noticeably moved at the house where visionary leader Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down en route to his daily prayer meeting. Later, Kate and William mingled with Delhi’s high society at a lush garden party, an early celebration for the Queen’s 90th, where shepherd’s pie tartlets were served alongside Indian delicacies and washed down with Pimm’s and gin and tonic. Here, in an unusually personal speech, Prince William revealed, “I am incredibly lucky to have my grandmother in my life ... She is a remarkably energetic and dedicated
guiding force for her family. And I am so glad that my children are having the chance to get to know the Queen. George and Charlotte, too, will discover how lucky they are to have such a wonderful great-grandmother; a role model for the rest of their lives.”
After delivering a message from the Queen, the Prince quipped, “Now I can report back to Granny that I have done my duty!”
The royal visit to Bhutan was at the Duke and Duchess’ request, and their thrill at coming to this place was obvious to see. The couple chartered a plane, sitting up the front while the media filled the “cattle class”. As they came in to land, the couple rushed into the cockpit for a pilot’s eye view of one of the most spectacular landing strips in the world.
When Bhutan’s Queen gave birth to a boy in February, the country was euphoric. The King and Queen are smart and internationally educated, but fiercely proud of the simple, time-honoured way of life in Bhutan. They live in a one-bedroom cottage and spend time walking in the mountains talking to their people, the majority of whom are subsistence farmers. Maintaining traditions is key to the nation’s identity – be it in their clothing, housing or ceremonies. So it was with immense pride that monks, dancers, musicians and warriors received the Duke and Duchess, with a display of colour and Bhutanese pomp. It was like a slice of medieval pageantry.
“I understand, from the international side, there’s a fairytale element to it – two beautiful couples meeting. For us, it’s much more,” Dasho Kinley Dorji, Secretary of Bhutan’s Communications Ministry told The Weekly. “The two royal couples represent the past, the dynasties, but they’re the sensation of the present. They represent the future.”
Nevertheless, in this far-flung kingdom, “if the Duke and Duchess
“I am so glad my children are having the chance to get to know the Queen.”
walk down the street without media following them, they’d hardly be recognised,” says Kinley. “Hollywood stars come here because no one knows them. There’s a sense of freedom.”
Watching Kate and William disappear up into the mountains the next day, on their six-hour round trip trek to Bhutan’s famous Tiger’s Nest Monastery, which nestles on the side of a cliff face and can only be reached on foot or by horse, that Bhutanese “national happiness” was certainly rubbing off. They strolled hand in hand, drinking in the idyllic landscape and clearly relishing the opportunity to spend quality time together.
William’s father, Prince Charles, only made it to the trek’s halfway point when he visited Bhutan in 1998. With the 17th-century monastery standing 900 metres above the valley oor, the heir to the throne decided not to venture further. He said at the time, “I don’t think I’m going to risk that cliff. The older I get, the more vertigo I get”. William and Kate had no such qualms.
Although the couple climbed alone, at the top of the mountain, William shared his experience with the waiting media. “It was amazing. Beautiful scenery,” he said.
“You said it was ‘easy’ at the halfway point? Too ambitious?” a reporter asked. “I may have slightly spoken too soon,” the Prince joked. “It was a little bit cheeky on the second part de nitely. My father didn’t make it to the top. So that’s something I’ll be reminding him of when I see him.” William also mentioned George and Charlotte, saying, “It will be lovely if the children could come.”
Kate added, “We did actually see one family up there with a small child on their front. It was very brave of them ... Maybe when they’re a bit more mobile”.
The culmination of the tour was the much-hyped visit to the Taj Mahal. The couple didn’t con rm they would sit on the “Princess Diana bench” until hours before, but in the end, the world got the pictures they longed for. As the couple left the mausoleum, they signed the visitors’ book, adding their signatures below that of Prince William’s mother.
“They wanted to come to the Taj because it is one of the wonders of the world,” said a royal spokesperson. “The Duke is completely aware of the history of this place with his family and he appreciates that a lot of people who come here have his mother in mind. But this is about the future for them, it’s about looking forward and creating new memories.”
It was also about the monarchy’s future and in the hands of this young couple, it certainly feels very secure.
“A lot of people who come here have his mother in mind.”