I’ve got a few blah stories about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I shrugged at every one of these, but they’re worth discussing. First of all, William and Kate are both going to attend this year’s annual St. Patrick’s Day photo-op with the Irish Guards and Domhnall the puppy. Every year, William and Kate are supposed to hand out shamrocks to the Irish Guards and their mascot. Last year, Kate skipped the photo-op for no reason. Literally, she didn’t have a scheduling conflict or anything – she and William had just returned from a ski holiday – and she reportedly skipped the ceremony because she didn’t want people to expect her to show up every year. I guess someone told Kate that she couldn’t skip this year.
Second story: Kate says Princess Charlotte is very keen. No, I jest, Kate didn’t say the word “keen,” but it’s definitely the subtext. During an event last week, Kate spoke to a mom about how they both have two-year-old girls and and the other mom said: “She said that Charlotte is growing up really fast. She is the one in charge. We have both got 2-year-olds and they are ruling the roost.” Kate also said Charlotte and George are becoming friends. I’ll admit, I was slightly worried that George – who used to bash other babies in the face – would end up the alpha child and Charlotte would have to do whatever he ordered her to do all of her life. But it seems like Charlotte is already a tiny ballbuster. Props.
And finally, William and Kate are already preparing for their so-called full-time move to London later this year… by getting the taxpayers to fund even more renovations to Kensington Palace. Per Sebastian Shakespeare’s column this weekend:
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have 22 rooms and two kitchens in their lavishly refurbished Kensington Palace apartment, but do they need even more space for their expanding family? Ahead of William and Kate’s move back to London in the autumn, I can reveal that plans are afoot to dig out an enormous two-storey basement underneath the Orangery in the grounds of Kensington Palace, to ‘free up the palace suites for the Royal Family’.
New planning documents show that some of the 100 staff working at Kensington Palace could move out of their offices in the palace into the 50m-long basement extension, which would also house a collection of ceremonial dress. In total, the development at the Grade 1-listed Orangery would provide more than 1,500 sq m of extra space over three floors: two below ground, and one above ground. Staff would be based on the upper level of the basement, which has lightwells to provide ‘light and air’.
The planning application submitted this week says: ‘The addition of a basement storey is required to allow for the accommodation of administration which must necessarily be moved out of rooms leased from the Royal Household in Kensington Palace.’ The application was submitted by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), the charity that looks after the state apartments at Kensington Palace.
Two-storey basement extensions are usually in breach of Kensington & Chelsea Council’s basement policy — but it looks as though the palace’s plans will get the green light. Council documents say planners are ‘willing to make an exception’ for the royals.
My take is that William and Kate are continuing with their quest to have a “separate court” from the Queen and Charles, which means they want their extensive collection of staff to be housed in KP, rather than Charles’ offices in St. James’s Palace and Clarence House. So as they prepare to move their family to KP full-time, they already want available office space for their staff in-house. That being said… I feel like there’s a joke in here about how they need to free up more space in Apartment 1 because Carole Middleton is moving in.
PS… I still find this hat to be very questionable.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.
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