The Prince and Princess of Wales get something that Prince Harry, on the evidence of the past fortnight, does not: the British public want their royal engagements well managed, uncomplicated and in support of causes nobody could possibly object to.
It is the subject of my conversation tonight on The Royalist podcast premiering on YouTube at 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK with our star guest, Robert Jobson, the godfather of royal reporting, and today, as if to order, William and Catherine provided the perfect illustration, as Sinfield, 46, waved his way into the DIY Kitchens Stadium in Wakefield. At the end of it, he stopped dead. Waiting at the finish line were the Prince and Princess of Wales.
“How did you find today?” Catherine asked him. “It’s been the hardest day so far,” he replied. “It’s really impressive,” William said. Catherine told him: “What you are doing is so inspiring.” Sinfield was close to tears as he addressed the crowd.
Earlier in the day the couple had been at Headingley, meeting Leeds Rhinos players and watching a women’s under-19 training session while chatting to Year 6 pupils from a local primary school.
William let the kids in on the secret: “You know Kevin’s doing his big run today as well? We’re going to surprise him in a bit.” Catherine added: “He’s super fit. He’s doing seven ultramarathons in seven days, that’s a lot of running.” William: “If he can walk by the end of it, it’s going to be amazing. His poor knees.”
(Princess Anne, the epitome of royal duty, had turned out at the University of York athletics track to watch Sinfield run yesterday and, when invited to join him, declined with the words: “I will stick to horses.”
Worthy, uncontroversial, a great cause, a local hero; it is not rocket science. But it does take logistics, money, time and commitment. The royals spend millions a year on the teams that make these visits run, and this is what that money buys: an advance team that has spoken to the school, the club and the charity; a route that has been walked; a finish line that has been checked; a surprise that has been planned to the minute; pictures that everyone in them is happy to be in. That is what Robert Jobson and I will be talking about tonight.
Compare and contrast with boneheaded Harry, who turned up at Ninestiles Academy in Birmingham earlier this month, unleashed the royal rota on a classroom of unprepared kids and was left humiliated by them, one complaining on camera about having “six cameras in my face” while another asked “Who is Prince Harry?” and had to be told he was the King’s son. A distinct “F Off,” could also be heard. Suboptimal.
The desire to get into schools and alongside kids to look royal will always backfire if the kids are not clear what is going on. You can’t just wing it. William and Catherine don’t. Harry does, and it shows.
joins me tonight on The Royalist to talk about all of this: what the public actually want from their royals, why the Waleses keep delivering it and why the Sussexes keep tripping over their own cameras.
If you haven’t watched a Royalist podcast before, please join us! It goes out first on YouTube and later here on Substack, but if you watch on YouTube you get the comments and the live chat as well, which is half the fun. I can’t give you the exact link yet because Rachel is still busily tweaking it to make sure it all looks and sounds amazing but my YT homepage is the place to start. Hit the bell and you get notified whenever we go live.
On Friday, we are doing another members-only Ask Me Anything for paid Substack subscribers and YouTube channel members. The last one was great and we hope you’ll join us: 1pm Eastern, 6pm UK and Ireland. Please post any questions in the comments here!
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