PR disasters thread 27

[BigWillyLittleTodger]

A shiny new thread to continue the chat on the Sussexes summer shenanigans!

"Accounts filed this week at the Charity Commission reveal that the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales received an astonishing £8.7million last year from its US office"
"The monies from the 'American Friends' branch of the foundation, which is a separately controlled entity established in 2011, is almost £4million up on the £4.9million that it handed out in 2024"
"The generosity of their US supporters is so great that it accounts for 44 per cent of the foundation's total reported income of £19.6million in 2025"

Thank you for the link, @bluegreygreen; at least this is based on verifiable facts, and by god the above will STING

How dare W&K trespass on territory which was supposed to be the very location of H&Ms' glory - except of course it didn't work out quite like that

The problem with Archwell was always going to be that it didn't seem to stand for anything specific. Everything they released was either short term jumping on a bandwagon or very generic 'support women' type stuff. It must be hard to attract money when donors don't actually know what the money is going towards.

Catherine and William have been very specific about where they are putting their time and attention. It's a change from the wider, hundreds of patronage approach that the late Queen followed. Not everyone liked that narrowing of focus but at least it enables clear communication of what you are campaigning for and why. Easier for donors to understand.

Thanks @bluegreygreen , I really must get the hang of Archiving !

I think the other problem with Archewell is this only 5% of donations actually have to go to charity thing (if remember that correctly). I assume this is not the case for the P&PoWs' foundation. Now I know the Archewell setup is legal , but if I were going to make a substantial contribution to charity I would want to think that up to 95% of it was not going towards expenses.

Hmm. I'm inclined to believe it.

Rumoured that all photo's of M have been removed from Highgrove. I assumed this was because of the Althorp photo's. But perhaps doing this was done in rebellion against the RF and H.

She seems to be harking back to her days at writing her "Tig" blog when she was +/- 30 and filming Suits in Canada.

But that was 10-12 years ago and it's just seems very try-too-hard/over-staged - complete with professional photographer - influencer. It screams "look at meeeee ... I'm so zany .... I'm ready to partayyy" but there is no crowd of friends/family joining in the party - just Harry who seems so awkward

As a pp said the bw photo from Portugal of her laughing with Harry was a much nicer, more natural photo that she could have used.

I'm not sure. If he was, she'd surely be monetising it somehow. Victim again blah blah

Catherine and William have been very specific about where they are putting their time and attention. It's a change from the wider, hundreds of patronage approach that the late Queen followed. Not everyone liked that narrowing of focus but at least it enables clear communication of what you are campaigning for and why. Easier for donors to understand.

It's a different era. The late Queen lent her name to many charities, but wasn't responsible for one.

The King set up the King's (then Prince's) Trust and Foundation, with clear aims. He did this while Prince of Wales, and those charities have gone on to benefit thousands of young people.
The current Prince and Princess of Wales are doing similarly.

Meanwhile, both individual and corporate donors increasingly want information on specific outcome measures.

@Lundedo you think that photo was natural? To me, it was so obviously staged, it was annoying. She has this strange need to be seen laughing all the time. I mean who takes a photo of someone laughing?!

I think one other thing is that W and C seem to me to be popular in the US, and being WRF more closely associated with charitable work / service. Also whether H&M like it or not , and I suspect not 😊, William is going to be the next actual King , which must inspire confidence that he is into supporting this foundation for the long term.

If those who believe Archewell was mainly intended to make money for themselves are correct, BasiliskStare, then the above was inevitable

For a couple of people so greedy the Delaware registration was always going to be an opportunity ... not unlike Harry himself being an opportunity if only he had the sense to see it

He didn't pull any punches!

"Personality of a potato and as much food knowledge as a rock"

Thank you @Mylovelygreendress and @bluegreygreen for the link/archive link.

That’s an interesting read and some very meaty figures, via American Friends, going into the Royal Foundation.

Very ‘ouchy’ though if you are H&M.

I picked this out:

It comes after it was announced that Prince Harry and Meghan's charitable arm, Archewell Philanthropies, was undergoing a 'reset' after making some staff redundant in December to streamline the operation. Despite the setback, the Sussexes have promised to 'broaden their global philanthropic efforts'.

Will be watching to see how they manage to do this.

He's not wrong. I am baffled as to how she even got that gig. Yes, I know the rumour, they wanted H but that's even more problematic. He's actually worse !!

Charities in England and Wales operate under a very different legal structure. In the US it’s essentially just a tax declaration. In England and Wales (Scotland and NI similar but under different law) the concept of charity is very precious, very ancient, and very protected by legislation.

It isn’t actually about money spent, you don’t always have to spend a lot to do good work, but it very much goes to purpose, and who benefits.

The very simplest way to explain it is
A (donor) gives to B (trustee) for the benefit of C (beneficiary).

As you will see, no mention of patrons in there.

Broaden their global philanthropic efforts. More meaningless word salad. Honestly, I'd have more respect for them if they leaked a sex tape

Oh please don't give anyone any ideas!😲

TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW

She watches DONT give her ideas

😂

🤣🤣🤣

Eh? I don't understand this post.

So what’s next for the gruesome twosome? Any pretendy royal tours in the offing? Awards they have purchased?

NO ! I haven’t had my tea yet !!

Kinsey Schofield had a whirlwind trip to the UK during Ascot and TOC and other events. She discussed here (14.45) how she went to a dinner with American Patrons of St George's. They fundraiser for the upkeep of St George's Chapel at Windsor. Apparently it started with American descendants of Knights of the Garter and now has just morphed into rich Americans who love the Royals. I had no idea St George's upkeep wouldn't have been funded through Windsor Castle upkeep but apparently not. Anyway safe to say there are plenty of fans over there, with money, and who possibly get access we wouldn't otherwise know about. (And inevitably H&M will be completely ignorant of this.)

@Starryfifty.. did you really need to go there! , were we not punished enough with todgergate then hospital twerking? Now this? , it’s too much I tell you! Far too much! 😱