This is week-old gossip but I just saw this piece in the Daily Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column. The column is written by unknown Mail staffers and editors, and the column is often used to spread some royal gossip in particular directions. Well, last week, the column pointed out that the last of Queen Elizabeth’s patronages have finally been reallocated, two-and-a-half years after QEII’s passing. QEII had 376 patronages when she died in 2022, and there was a long process of shifting patronages around given King Charles’s accession, like certain “Prince of Wales” patronages which had to be shifted over to Prince William, who begrudgingly accepted them. Still, 376 patronages were suddenly left without a patron and it took time to sort it out. Guess how many of QEII’s old patronages were taken over by William and Kate?
The last batch of the late Queen’s patronages – all 376 of them – have now been re-allocated.
The majority of them to Charles and Camilla. William and Kate were persuaded to take on one, the Royal Marsden NHS Trust.
Apparently the King tried to get them to take on the English National Ballet which had been without a royal patron since it lost the too notorious Prince Andrew.
In the end Camilla took the ENB under her wing. ‘Maybe William would be more interested if the Taylor Swift fan club asked for a patron,’ says my cynical source.
THEY ONLY TOOK ONE. Oh my god!!! You know what though? It’s what Charles deserves. He absolutely got the heir he deserves, an heir who can’t be bothered to show up for the patronages he already has, who has to be dragged kicking and screaming into fancy military handovers to spite Prince Harry, who is too lazy to take over anything but ONE of QEII’s old patronages. It’s not like QEII was visiting all of her patronages constantly either – many of those patronages were happy to see her once a year, or once every few years. It’s insane that William and Kate can’t commit to that.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
