LIZ JONES: This picture of Kate at the Baftas says it all. We are tired of reading between the lines – it’s time for the truth
It was business as usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Baftas on Sunday night. Kate was wearing a chiffon Gucci gown she first debuted in 2019. And indeed it felt as though we were all inhabiting a time warp: before the momentous events of the past few years, weeks and dreadful, damning days.
Of course, for William, as president of Bafta (it’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it), it’s obligatory to turn up in a dickie bow, read from an autocue then rub shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio. Of course Wills had to be there: cry off in the week your uncle, the former Duke of York, was arrested, his homes searched in connection with accusations of misconduct in public office, and it will look as though you too have something to hide.
But the only allusion William made at the bash was to say, of the terribly tragic film Hamnet, ‘I need to be in quite a calm state and I am not at the moment. I will save it.’
Let’s unpack that. Why not just say the movie – which went on to win Best British Film and its star, Jessie Buckley, Best Actress – that is all about the loss of a child was wonderful and moving?
Catherine at least managed: ‘The children are starting to get interested in films and it’s a really great way to have hard conversations with them.’
In the same week his uncle was carted off to a police station, our future king went on Radio 1 to talk about his own mental health as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
During the panel discussion, Prince William said he thought it was a ‘real national catastrophe’ that male suicide was not talked about enough. He reflected on his own feelings, saying: ‘I take a long time trying to understand my emotions… and I feel like that’s a really important process…. to check in with yourself’.
It was business as usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Baftas on Sunday night
In the same week his uncle was carted off to a police station, our future king went on Radio 1 to talk about his own mental health
William’s own mental health hardly seems like the focus after a week in which the nation has been in uproar discussing what young women suffered at the hands of – allegedly – the Andrew formerly known as Prince.
But the bewildering blind spots and inability to read the room don’t end there. Yes, King Charles released a heartfelt, stern statement about his brother on Thursday, but it was consciously missing those all-important words: ‘my brother’. His next, inexplicable move was to turn up at … London Fashion Week, meeting designers he’d never heard of, watching clothes neither he nor anyone in his circle would ever wear.
Camilla, hours after her brother-in-law was arrested, was in Westminster listening to young music scholars, doubtless bored out of her skull.
Meanwhile, the Princess Royal visited a prison, of all places, on the day her brother had his starched collar felt. On Friday she nobly stopped off at a crisp factory in Sheffield.
On Saturday, while we were all reading, open-mouthed, essays in newspapers telling us this could be the end of the monarchy, Catherine turned up, smiling and giggling, to watch the England rugby team lose to Ireland at Twickenham.
What she and William should have been doing is putting their heads together to come up with a statement far better than the one released by their spokesperson last week which claimed their ‘thoughts remain focused on the victims’.
For William, as president of Bafta, it’s obligatory to turn up and read from an autocue
There is no time like the present for the King – but even more so William and Catherine – to prove their value
Waving at cameras in a designer gown and jewels no longer cuts the mustard, I’m afraid. These official rock-ups shouldn’t just be counted; they need to be judged on how effective and relevant they are. What changes are made as a consequence?
I was aghast, during President Trump’s state visit to the UK last year, that all Catherine could think to do with his wife Melania was to lead her onto a muddy field to patronise junior scouts who were aiming for their Go Wild badge. Once again, Kate was performing a diplomatic duty with all the global gravitas of the school run.
Maybe all she and the pampered William know is how to talk to children and navel gaze. But we are adults. We need not elliptical half statements but reassurance, facts, action.
I understand the couple have had a difficult 18 months. It’s natural that they want some privacy and even normality. But I forgive them less for not being blunt and open than I do Charles, who is of his mother’s era of ‘never complain, never explain’. Goodness, even the late Queen was more responsive and intuitive, stirring our spirits with a moving, televised address to the nation after Diana’s death, and during the Covid lockdown.
William was the same after Catherine bravely, eventually, talked about her cancer diagnosis: his only utterances seemed constipated. He found 2024 to be the ‘worst year’ of his life. On a TV travel show, he said it was the ‘hardest year I’ve ever had’. Again, all about him. Not Catherine, and certainly not us.
There is no time like the present for the King – but even more so William and Catherine – to prove their value. Their immense privileges cannot be bought by gurning at a gala before retreating to their mansions and palaces. We are tired of reading between the lines.
