Sept. 10, 2024

Kate Middleton Video Backlash: was it a little too much?

Show Notes
Transcript

So...Kate's video.....is it a little too much, and while it seems to say a lot, sort of told us nothing.

Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan released a trailer for POLO in some awful timing all around.

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Ah Caloroga Shark Media.

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Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Palace Intrigue.

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I am your host, Mark Francis, our royal insider Deep

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Crown was suspicious about the timing of Kate's video drop,

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and it seems DC wasn't the only one. In the

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Daily Mail, Liz Jones writes, it started so movingly, so powerfully,

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a simple, stark message from Catherine, a few simple words

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we have all waited anxiously to hear. Few. I was

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in tears. But then suddenly, and inexplicably, what began as

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a heartfelt message, a tonic, a relief after all the

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months of obfuscation, descended into a bodin advert Keith has

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been through hell, through a battle, and she is winning.

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And yet the highly choreographed, slick and soft focus three

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minute video released on Monday afternoon was surely as misjudged.

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The nineteen sixty nine documentary that attempted to portray the

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Royal Family Is Normal backfiring so badly that the Queen

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made sure it was never seen again. If that documentary,

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following a Year in the Life of the Monarch, was

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accused of ruining the royal mystique by making them seem

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like any other modern family. This new video was attempting

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to do the opposite, to portray the Waleses' as hyperreal,

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perfect retro, like something out of an Enid Blaton novel.

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But why on earth a real portrayal would show the

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kids on their phones. Surely Catherine would look tired and pensive,

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not perfect with conquer colored hair. She says, it has

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been incredibly tough. But the trouble is it all looks

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like a photogenic walk in the park. Only William seems

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almost real. Reclined on various blankets or on the sand,

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he is awkward, as if placed there, limbs carefully arranged

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like a marionette. Cancer is messy, imperfect, shattering. After all

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the mental health initiatives, her work stressing the importance of

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shaping young mindan, this strange, odd film seems a misfire

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from a family once so protective of their privacy. Smacks

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of something Megan and Harry might come up with, hallmark, cringy, cliched,

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not real or from the heart at all. Wouldn't it

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have meant more if Catherine had discussed the type of

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cancer she is suffering from, possibly saving hundreds, if not thousands,

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of lives. Perhaps a video of her meeting other women

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with the same diagnosis. Where was the Catherine from that

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bench in Windsor bearing her soul telling us of her diagnosis?

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Replaced by a chimeror an ideal, an illusion? Who at

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Kensington Palace thought this was the right approach. There were

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lots of sober comment pieces in the papers yesterday saying

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Kat has taken control, driven the narrative, but it all

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seems off and the public is seeing through it. After

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a strange video looking ecstatic leaving at farm shop and

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a radiant appearance at the trooping of the Color in Wimbledon,

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we suddenly have this outpouring of intimacy that, to me

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many of us seems a bit desperate. To my mind,

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the portrait of our next king was off too. How

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can we take William seriously? Having seen his bare legs

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wrapped around his wife. The monarchy is hanging by a thread.

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Please don't stretch our credulity. We checked back in with

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Deep Crown, who texted back, notice how you aren't asking

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me about Harry. Melanie Madonna poses a question in the

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standard Can the Crown survive Kate's dreadful video. She writes,

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of course, it's marvelous news that the Princess of Wales

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has come to an end of chemotherapy treatment and is

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well on the way to recovery, which of us did

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not feel for her in her last somber announcement that

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she had cancer. It is also the best of news

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that she will be returning to public duties. She was missed.

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The prayers of the nation have been answered. But forgive me,

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was it necessary to share this news with the nation

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in an utterly grisly video. If she were advertising herbal

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Essence's Tropical Showers shampoo, it would have been just the thing.

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The shots of her walking in slow motion through a

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sunlit meadow, her long hair moving in the breeze, her

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slender figure shown totage in her simple cotton frock. Why

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it made one feel emotionally manipulated, squeezed like a lemon

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from the last drop of sympathy. So she's feeling well,

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One is glad. One doesn't need the point rubbed home

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with a gruesome image of her releasing a little yellow

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butterfly from her hand. Is emotional reticence now over in

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the Royal family, one fears so, though it still thank

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God has a place with the redoubtable Princess Anne, but

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it comes as a cost. By turning the Royals into

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exhibits of emotional wellness, it diminishes their value as parts

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of a national institution in which dignity is the main thing.

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Kate has lost that. In the Guardian, Marina Hired rites,

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I feel deep sympathy for Kate, and I'm glad she's better,

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but this dance with the media devil won't work. Watching

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the three minute films shot by some adman, I wondered

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who could possibly feel it was anything but sad that

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a recovering post chemo mother should feel that this is

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her best option for keeping well wishes at bay A

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little longer. Kate's video shot by a man who has

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also shot campaigns for Uber Eats and who made Tesco's

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Food Love Stories commercials. Something else is being served up here,

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which for some reason he has decided to make look

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like a Center Park's ad, despite artfully included clips of

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Prince George asking off a camera is this filming? The

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video was not captured by a GoPro and a picnic rug,

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but by a crew in a significant post production operation

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who made studied use of filters and slow motion, switching

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from sweeping shots to greeny scenes designed to ape sinnate film.

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Unlike the private home movies. In the opening titles of Succession,

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the footage shows a happy family, but for my money,

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the sense of menace is still there. But whereas the

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Royers are menaced from within, the Minister the Waleses comes

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from the outside, and it is the endless and thankless

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task of appeasing it that dictates that this video must

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exist at all. The Princess of Wales video feels like

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an attempt to meet social media on its own terms.

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Social media is, of course, the arena in which hunting

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Kate became a jolly global blood sport earlier this year year,

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when the hashtag be kind brigade grew bored within weeks

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and whipped up a vicious feeding frenzy of conspiracy theories

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as to her absence and the reasons for it. Kate

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tried silencing it with a Mother's Day photo. Minor editing

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glitches immediately became a scandal for which she absurdly felt

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obliged to formally apologize. Inevitably, Meanwhile, the saying critics who

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detest Harry and Meggan's barefoot California content declin to look

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at the style of the Waleses video and consider that

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the meganization of the Royal family continues a pace. Even

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the BBC, in their prim and proper way, suggested something

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is curious about this video. They write it's a world

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away from old school Royal releases, which stuck to the

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barest of details and stayed as dry as the desert.

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This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and

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public figures taking their messages straight to the public, using

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the language of social media rather than conventional news or

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an interview. It allows a great deal of control over

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the message, with a vocative music and slick editing driving

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the story forward rather than any questions that might arise

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about her health or treatment. We see Catherine in a

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nineteen seventies style, long flowing dress, spending time with her

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family in the woods and by the beach, playing a

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game with her own parents. These are framed in a

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relatable way, the family relaxing after really tough times in

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a rural setting. That's meant to send a message about

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the soothing powers of nature. Over the top of the

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pictures is Catherine's narration in a movie voiceover style, capturing

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her sense of cautious optimism as she welcomes the end

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of her chemotherapy while at the same time recognizing the

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fagility of life. It's where Norfolk meets Hollywood plus Instagram.

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Surely Harry and Megan would sit back and let Kate

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have her moment in the Sun, No, Piers Morgan in

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the Sun writes the gap was only one hundred minutes,

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but it might as well have been one hundred light years.

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At four twenty nine pm on Monday afternoon, the Prince

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and Princess of Wales released a stunningly powerful three minute

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film about Kate's ongoing battle with cancer, and at six

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nine pm Netflix released a promo for a new documentary

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series about Paulo made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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Of course, it may just have been a stupendous coincidence,

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but if you believe that, then I've got some very

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dodgy old Ford corteens to sell you. One thing is indisputable,

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and it's that the separate announcements perfectly encapsulated the very

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different lives of these two couples now, one featuring the

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heir to the throne and his health stricken wife, was

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an extraordinarily moving, humble, and profoundly inspiring insight into what

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it's like to have a life threatening illness when you

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have a loving, young family, regardless of wealthless status. The other,

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featuring two spoiled brat renegades who ditched royal duty and

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service for a life of self enriching Hollywood glitz and glamour,

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was a nauseatingly ill timed self promotional plug for a

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series about a sport so elite only millionaires can play it.

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Regardless of whether Megan and Harry deliberately rushed out their

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promo to try and spoil Kate and William's big announcement

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or just to capitalize on the megaton sized global attention

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it instantly received, it landed like a PLoP of unwonted

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pigeon poop on a pavement. All Tuesday's newspapers front pages

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from England to Australia, to America and India were dominated

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by images from the Wales' film, with barely a cursory

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side mentioned to the Sussex's bedeweled horse and mallet grift.

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I can only begin to imagine the indignant shrieks of

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hand ringing rage that emanated from a certain mansion in

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Montecito when the Sussexis realized that the latest money grabbing

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venture had once again been eclipsed by their sworn sibling

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and sister in law enemies. At Kensington Palace, Pallas Intricaple

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right back, William, who totally isn't trying to get you

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to stop talking about Harry's fortieth birthday, made a solo

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appearance in Wales. William kicked off the day at Swiss

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Valley Community Primary School, where he greeted staff and students

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with a cheerful good morning. In Welsh, head teacher Joe

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Davies described William as a gentleman and noted how his

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warm demeanor put everyone at ease. She shared that the

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school was thrilled and honored by his visit as it

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highlighted their efforts to provide enriching experiences for their students.

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Williams day also included a stop at the home to

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the Scarlett's rugby union team. There, he supported the Welsh

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Rugby Unions Missing Caps campaign and spent time with past

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and present members of the national women's rugby team which

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recently qualified for the twenty twenty five World Cup, and

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they have it for this special bonus edition. Please follow

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us on Spotify, Apple or the app of your choice,

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and if you need to email us aldresses the Palasindriga

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at gmail dot com. Mark Francis my thanks to John mcdermaly.

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This's the Palace Indrigue. Good turned

Kate Middleton Video Backlash: was it a little too much?

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