WILLIAM MISSUSYOU, CATHERINE!
The Prince went to a wedding yesterday with the ‘missus’ – and it was the talk of their set. Why? Because look at what’s she’s missed...
THEY could hardly have felt more at home. For when, yesterday afternoon, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the most discreetly arranged of high society weddings at the beautiful Thurlestone Hotel in Devon, the guest list included many of their closest circle.
Pippa Middleton, Kate’s sister, was there to see upmarket estate agent and amateur boxer Bear Maclaine marry pretty socialite Daisy Dickson, and so was TV pre- senter Natalie Pinkham. Indeed the guest list included many of the friends who gathered for William and Kate’s own marriage at Westminster Abbey four years ago.
Yet The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the presence of the Cambridges in Devon was a cause of genuine surprise to many. Indeed, some believe it was a nearmiracle that they appeared at all. For friends of the Royal couple report that William has all but abandoned his social life in recent months – at the request of his wife, who is determined that any spare time the couple have should be spent with their children.
The Prince said recently he has to run decisions ‘by the missus’ and now it seems that joke is more telling than many may have realised. Away from public duties, William has always been known for his gregarious nature and sense of humour. But now members of his circle are expressing concern that he is turning down invitations to highlights of the social calendar. One friend even called William a ‘party pooper’, while Kate has almost completely disappeared from the social scene.
In the two years leading up to their engagement, Kate and William went to dozens of weddings together.
But she attended none in the two years after they married, and has appeared at only two since – the wedding 2013 of polo player Mark Tomlinson to Olympic dressage gold medallist Laura Bechtolsheimer at the Swiss resort Arosa, and that of their friends Tom Eaves and Libby Keir in London last year. William, in contrast, has been to at least five weddings on his own.
Kate’s absence from William’s side was noticed at one event in particular: when he was usher at the wedding of one of his oldest friends, Tom van Straubenzee, in June 2013.
On the day, she was seen out shopping. She was expecting Prince George at the time but had diligently attended a Royal engagement nine days before and went to another a month later.
In her absence William knocked part of his tooth out at the reception and when he returned home bleary eyed to his wife, he was given short shrift. Many say that this was the moment she began to rein him in.
HE HAD also been unaccompanied at the funeral of his childhood nanny Olga Powell in October 2012. In the absence of his wife, he his mother’s sisters for company.
Then, earlier this year, eyebrows were raised when Kate didn’t go to the christening of Zara Phillips’s baby, Mia – even though she had just named Zara godmother to Prince George.
There are mitigating circumstances, of course: the Cambridges have a newborn baby girl and a toddler son to dote on, and William’s job with the East Anglian Air Ambulance service takes up much of his time.
But Kate’s gradual withdrawal has been evident for some time and her absences from shoots, weddings and hunt balls no longer causes surprise.
William had been attending a few by himself, but now he is declining even these invitations. His ‘naughtiest’ friends – Tom Inskip, who went on the infamous Las Vegas trip with Prince Harry, and his nightclub owning pal Guy Pelly – have both privately admitted that it is ‘ages’ since they saw William ‘properly’ .
One close friend of the family said last week: ‘Kate has basically told him that because of his hours with his new job, any other time has to be spent with her and the kids.
‘His friends understand, of course, but they are really missing him. And they suspect he is missing them too.
‘William used to be allowed to go to things on his own and he’d always excuse Kate’s absence, but she’s asked him to avoid going to any social functions for the time being – with or without her.’
One friend has even suggested that Kate has been turning down invitations on William’s behalf. It is hard to ignore the facts. Until yesterday, William and Kate had yet to attend a single summer wedding together despite numerous invitations. It is true that the number of their unmarried friends is dwindling, but a handful of appearances has been the norm until now.
Some expected him to show up at
the wedding of Arthur Vestey and Martha Beaumont in June at Hexham Abbey in Northumberland.
And, of course, he could have joined his friend Tom van Straubenzee at the wedding of banking heir James Rothschild to Nicky Hilton, which took place at Kensington Palace last month.
Then there’s William’s polo hobby. He plays about four or five times a year and in previous times would be watched by Kate on two or three of those occasions. But since 2013 Kate has cheered him on only once per season, this year making an appear- ance with Prince George at Beaufort polo club.
Now William’s social invitations for the winter season are beginning to flood in, and some have already been refused. The van Straubenzee family organises an annual charity carol concert in honour of his late brother Henry, but Kate hasn’t attended since 2010 and has already decided not to attend this year’s event in December, according to a close family friend. A shooting weekend in Scotland is also off the cards for William, as is a stag party and a ski weekend his friends are planning. A friend said: ‘He used to be allowed to go to things on his own but now it’s rather embarrassing. He’s turning down invitations without any real excuse.
‘Everyone knows it’s because Kate won’t let him out of her sight. It’s not good for Kate’s reputation with his friends.’
Having relocated from Kensington Palace to their Norfolk home Anmer Hall, William has now given up playing weekly football in Battersea Park and the accompanying post-game pub sessions that he loved. Their absence as a couple from most social functions this summer has only been highlighted by their past form for being quite the sociable pair.
Before marrying, Kate was never exactly wild, but sometimes she could be the life and soul of the hunt balls, Chelsea nightclubs and even roller rinks – who can forget her glitzy appearance drinking shots in gold hot pants and skates during her brief 2007 split from William?
As they approached their late 20s, the wedding season became a huge fixture in the pre-marital couple’s lives. Kate would stride down country church pathways as if she was back on the St Andrews University catwalk, often smiling happily for the cameras.
She and William even used one wedding as a way of dropping the hint they were engaged.
At the 2010 wedding of Harry Meade and Rosie Bradford, they walked through the church doors together in full view of cameras for the first time.
This, and Kate’s giddy smile, was widely perceived to be their way of telling the world that they had finally, albeit secretly, become engaged. The announcement came days later. Within a year she had married her prince – but giggly appearances at weddings by William’s side now seem to be a thing of the past.
Recent invitations to the high-society weddings of Lord Palmer’s daughter Edwina to Andrew Charlton, James Meade to Lady Laura Marsham, Guy Pelly to Lizzie Wilson and Victoria Inskip to Robert Davies-Jones were all turned down by Kate.
Never one to miss a joke, Prince Harry has been teasing his big brother, mainly via Skype, about being ‘boring’ and ‘prematurely middle-aged’.
Though the scenario is one that many new parents will be all too familiar with, the young Royals made it clear on Friday that they believe their children should not live a secluded existence behind palace walls.
But for William, it seems the rules are different...