Depleted royals handling workload
It was a claim that drew an unprecedented rebuttal from Kensington Palace: the Sussexes left the Cambridges in the lurch when they withdrew from royal duties.
While the story was flatly denied, it did raise a question: just how much work are William and Kate doing?
Claims from an unnamed friend of the Cambridges in Tatler magazine that the couple cannot be hands-on parents because they are picking up Harry and Meghan’s duties are not borne out by the Court Circular.
Figures compiled for the first quarter of 2020, when the Cambridges were active but the Sussexes had withdrawn to North America, show that William and Kate carried out a similar number of engagements as they had in the same period last year. In Britain, William carried out 44 engagements between January and March this year, one more than he did in the same period in 2019 despite the disruption caused by Covid-19 at the end of March. Catherine’s fell from 35 to 29.
Court Circular records compiled by Tim O’Donovan, who has catalogued royal engagements for The Times every year since 1979, show that the Duke of Sussex attended 35 domestic public engagements in the first quarter of 2019, falling to two this year. Meghan’s duties fell from 26 to one.
Royal commentators said that the Cambridges would inevitably have to take on more work not only because of the withdrawal of the Sussexes but the absence of the Duke of York, who stepped back from public life after a poorly received interview with the BBC over his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
There are now 12 active members of the royal family, the smallest number since 2005. The bulk of the engagements are by the Prince of Wales, who carried out 521 engagements listed last year in Court Circulars, and the Princess Royal, who was listed 506 times. The Queen carried out 295 in 2019, a reduction from the 2000s when she would routinely do more than 400 each year.
Hugo Vickers, biographer of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, said that the Cambridges would have to cover for those who have stepped back. ‘‘But I don’t think there’s any stress about it. They’re coping extremely well.’’ He noted that they had carried out meetings by video link and on telephones during the lockdown. He added: ‘‘When we all come out of Covid, and we look at the winners and losers, the Cambridges will be seen to have done their bit, and home schooling for three small children. Whereas the Sussexes have got it dead wrong. All that flying off in private jets when everyone else is buckling down. Not very impressive.’’
The Times