How come William chose to ignore the massive elephant in the room and no one challenged him on it?

[Roadtripwithpretzels]

Prince William spoke about the very important subject of mh yesterday on Radio One and while it’s a subject that should be highlighted, does no one else think that his credibility on this issue has now been damaged by the AMW case?

He may not have been personally responsible for the alleged cover up, and he may well loathe Uncle Andrew, but he is still a central player in the institution that helped to pay off and cover up the voices of AMW’s alleged victims? Virginia Giuffre took her own life fhs! He can’t just ignore it!

To me this interview came across as incredibly unintelligent and insensitive in current circumstances. And proof that William himself just doesn’t “get it”.

Why on earth did he not say that in the light of current circumstances and out of respect for victims; the interview couldn’t go ahead?

Or why did his new ex crisis manager PR person not advise this?

And why was he allowed to sit there by the BBC and not address this?

And what about the mh of the Palace staff who have suffered because of AMW’s boorish and inappropriate behaviour for years? The nanny who allegedly left because of AMW being inappropriate and the policeman whose arm was hurt by AMW’s speeding at Windsor? The maids who were screamed at? What about the mental health of the police protection offices who quite recently were, according to Lownie, reminded about their NDAs and the safety of their pensions if they spoke out?

I don’t think it’s good enough any longer for a senior member of the RF to sit there and say yet again in a rather generic way “we all need to talk about our mental health” while ignoring what their own institution has covered up for years and is still allegedly trying to suppress?

And the BBC should hold some accountability about this too!

We must be looking at different clips. William listens politely and says something light while clearly ending the converation. It’s a normal part of small talk to end a conversation politely withiout being rude. Watch him in any public engagement, and you will see him do this all the time.

It's a terrible one.

The Wales children are being groomed into a life they have little choice in. How can anyone support that?

I have seen it before but just watched it again.

SF initiates conversation.
William and Kate turn to listen.
You can’t see Kate’s face but William is nodding, then chats back to her. I presume he says something amusing as Kate can be seen smiling as she turns back, William smiles, verging on laughing and SF and Andrew laugh.

The optics of that are not good.

SF spots the camera and smiles, you can then almost see her mind clicking over, she looks Catherine up and down from the back, clearly looking for something to say to engage them, she then leans into the back of Catherine and William, over their shoulder, starts talking to them and they both turn around to face her, neither of them say a word to her, until William obviously says two words to cut the 3 second convo off, he turns around with a smirk, and Sarah started to laugh

That's exactly what I saw.
Sarah moves behind W&C and looks like she starts talking rapidly. Neither W nor C smile until they turn away from her (I thought they caught each other's eye as they were turning).
S is left laughing to herself for some reason - maybe to make it look like it had been a more congenial exchange than it had been. Which seems to have worked on some observers.

Eta They don't seem to engage with Andrew at all. In fact, he turns away and looks to his right halfway through. He only pays attention when S continues talking and laughing to him when W and C have already turned their backs on both of them.

William is smiling a lot, almost laughing. I don’t doubt that SF was thinking it would look good to talk to them, but William didn’t have to act as he did. One word answers, no extra comments, certainly no funny comment, no smirk, no smiles. No one would have questioned it as it was a funeral!

They seem clueless about how they look.

No I don’t think that at all. But others do. That’s rather the point of my post!

So what would the mechanism be which would enable us to vote someone out if we decided they were no longer suitable to be HoS? Do you honestly think they wouldn't set up some kind of system so that people could not be voted in or out on a whim? And just because someone is 'elected', it doesn't mean they are squeaky clean - look at Nicolas Sarkozy!

William is smiling a lot, almost laughing

William smiles after he's turned away from Sarah.
He looks like he spoke a couple of words and then turned away.
Then S started laughing and spoke to A.
As I said, I think she wanted to make the exchange look like jolly banter.
And, as I said, it obviously worked on some observers.

I feel for the young children, having so little say in their life, especially George. However, no doubt they’ll grow up to be as unlikeable as the rest and my sympathy won’t last because they will all choose to stay it it and have their own children in the same institution.

Harry and his kids are well out of it, although I wish he’d distance himself fully, get rid of titles etc, but as least his kids will be free to a degree.

Not asking me but are you not understanding that poster deliberately? They would get their 4 years or whatever and then it would be up for vote again, just like how we vote for our government atm or other countries vote for their president. Nothing is perfect, but a democratically elected head of state would be an improvement imo. All this ‘it couldn’t possibly work’, when it works in other countries is nonsense. Having a corrupt Royal family is definitely not working.

Well i thought i did, but sounds like you are going to tell me different

All that struck me in that footage was how awkward and odd SF is. She always has been hasn't she? Even years ago, she would stomp along waving like mad to anyone, grinning and making faces. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be faintly cold shouldered by everyone which is what it's been like for years. She must have more front than Blackpool.
If it were me, I would quietly retire away from any situations like this. I cannot understand what goes through her head. So, say her ex AMW says... we are going to this memorial, you must come. I'd say.. no, I am not going to be frozen out or any of your family trying to avoid making eye contact with me. You do what you want, I am not coming.
But no, she just turns up at every opportunity. Awful.

So you think his protection officers are there to spy on him? You think he never has any privacy? Do you seriously think the officers supervise his emails? How would they do it? Look over his shoulder, yes he's likely to be ok with that. Illegally tap his emails and phone calls, not likely.

So he visits a friend, Maxwell perhaps, a cosy dinner party for a few friends and his protection officers are standing supervising things? No they are standing outside maybe having a coffee and sandwich the servants bring them.

He wasnt under arrest then and could actually tell the officers to clear off as I believe Diana did.

Well apparently not as Charles and/or William should be keeping a close eye on what they are doing.

simpsonthecat
All that struck me in that footage was how awkward and odd SF is. She always has been hasn't she? Even years ago, she would stomp along waving like mad to anyone, grinning and making faces.

Totally agree with that.
She looks very uncomfortable at the beginning, unable to just stand still watching what was going on like the others were doing. She then glances round until she sees a camera and smiles right at it. You really can see cogs whirring, imo, as she decides to try to engage William and Catherine in conversation as she's remembered she's being photographed.

Agree with @LaMarschallin
those cogs are clearly whirring.

Yes, and I wonder what she thinks of the latest with her ex. The arrest and the photo of him in the car etc. I just find it odd that one minute she is saying he is the most honourable man she has ever known and he is her rock. The next minute she is having nothing to do with him and they appear to have cut each other off.

I am wondering if Charles said I will provide you with a home on Sandringham estate but Sarah cannot come with you. It is ridiculous that she was allowed to live on a Royal Estate after having been divorced 40 years.

Personally, I do not want to see her or the daughters again but I'll be lucky...

But knowing what she’s like, William didn’t have to do exactly what she wanted. Bloody idiots. God, I’ve had enough of the lot of them.

William didn’t have to do exactly what she wanted. Bloody idiots.

I don't agree that he did.

What did Charles know, then, that made him oppose Andrew being given the Trade Envoy role-apparently believing him to be unsuitable?

Good question.

I watched the link. I didn't see chatting and laughing, I saw a couple of remarks exchanged and a polite smile. What struck me most in all the footage that day was how uncomfortable and aware that they were being filmed the whole family were, except for Andrew and Sarah who were laughing and trying to engage everyone around them.

We all look at images and clips with our own biases, particularly those that are clipped from longer films. Unless we expected William to jump away shouting "unclean", what was he supposed to do? I think a polite exchange and small smile is appropriate for what was after all an event that was nothing to do with Andrew but about grieving a much loved family member.

Trying to catch up with the thread again…

Sorry, forgot quote, edited to show that my post is in response to this one from:

CurlewKate · Today 06:37
So we’re in Shroedinger's Royal territory? Charles was apparently very opposed to Andrew becoming a Trade Envoy, and thought he was entirely unsuitable for the job. He also knew that a significant chunk of money had been paid to buy Virginia Giuffre’s silence. But he also didn’t know anything about his brother’s misdemeanors. William is a hard working royal preparing, in the not too distant future to be king and presumably meeting with officials and reading reports and being briefed. But he knew nothing about what his uncle was up to. Because that’s what families are like.

Yes this pretty much sums up my position on this too CurlewKate

Just so we are all clear about the time line, the pay off to Virginia Giuffre took place in February 2022 and the Queen died in September of that year.

QE2 at end of March 2022 made her first public appearance after five months so she must have been ill prior to that.

It was well known at the time that Prince Charles was dealing with a lot of the day to day matters at that point as the late Queen was unwell.

William was approx 39 years old at the time of the pay off so hardly a young stripling.

I see that some posters are querying the details of the pay-off but it was written about by Lownie in Entitled way before the papers got hold of the story recently and presented it as new.

The details of the pay-off are described by Lownie in Entitled as follows. Writing about AMW in Feb 2022 he says…

“He settled for just over £10 million - £4 million and the rest paid in six monthly instalments - financed from the sale of his Verbier chalet and a bridging loan from Prince Charles.

He also agreed to make a ‘substantial donation’ to a charity - thought to be £2 million paid by the Queen - and accept that Giuffre had ‘suffered as an established victim of abuse’. In return there was no admission of liability by Andrew but non-disclosure restrictions on Giuffre.”

Lownie goes on to state that “pressure had come from his older brother Charles to ‘shut it down’ rather than face a trial …”

For me this is a strong indication of Charles’s involvement and knowledge of AMW’s activities.

How much, or how little, William knew we simply don’t know,

In response to numerous posts about William and Catherine chatting or not chatting to AMW and SF at the late Duchess of Kent’s funeral…

Fwiw, I think we are focusing on the wrong thing.

Some posters may find this hard to believe, but despite my op, I am trying to be fair to William, and I don’t think in a situation like that, at a family funeral, when the cameras are on you, you can be blamed for making polite chit chat. Even to people you loathe. We’ve all done it on occasion purely for the sake of our hosts and because it’s appropriate behaviour for the occasion.

I agree with everyone that AMW and SF behaved in a crass, odious, appalling manner and made it all about them and standing as close to the main players as possible. Horrible for the late Duchess of Kent’s family.

If the gruesome twosome were genuinely mourning they could have crept in and out discreetly using a side entrance and stayed firmly at the back. Westminster Cathedral has many entrances and exits!

What we should be focusing on imho is why weren’t the highly paid Palace PR team thinking ahead and anticipating this possibility?

But more importantly who in the RF signed off AMW and SF having tax payer funded police protection while being driven from Windsor to Westminster Cathedral? In other words, why was AMW still being protected by the Palace at our expense as recently as September 2025?

He’s still being protected though. I don’t understand your point.