During Wednesday’s investiture ceremony, Prince William was visibly swaying and furiously blinking, as if he was under the influence. He also dropped a medal. Something like that would have caused a full week of headlines if Prince Harry had been “butterfingered in public” or visibly drunk at an official honors ceremony. But because it’s William, everything gets swept away or not commented upon. Interestingly, those weren’t the only weird moments at the event. William also presented Patricia Spruce with an MBE, and by her own account, she said that William mentioned that the Princess of Wales had “two Filipino nurses looking after her.” Oh. Okay? There was a backlash:
Prince William is being slammed online for praising Kate Middleton’s “Filipino nurses,” with social media users stating their ethnicity is irrelevant. During one of his first public appearances since the Princess of Wales returned home from the hospital following abdominal surgery, the Prince of Wales honored a woman named Patricia Spruce with a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) on Wednesday.
“What an amazing experience, the castle was just breathtaking, everyone was so lovely too [sic] us as we were just in awe of everything,” Spruce wrote in a public LinkedIn post.
“Prince William said that Katherine [sic] had two Filipino nurses looking after her and they were amazing and kind.”
Royal watchers were quick to put William, 41, on blast for involving the nurses’ ethnic background.
“Like what does their race have anything to do with it??” tweeted one reader.
“It is very important to know Kate’s nurses were Filipino. Why? Hell if I know, ask Will,” wrote another. “He made their race a focal point in a room full of White people.’
“It’s very telling who was included in the Archie’s complexion debacle,” the second X user continued, referencing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claims that royal family members had questioned their son’s skin color.
“William said Kate had two Filipino nurses. Why was it important to say they were Filipino nurses as opposed to just nurses?” questioned a third.
Let’s be fair: there could have been added context which was not included in this woman’s Linkedin post. Let’s also be fair that William has a track record of being racially insensitive, if not downright racist. I shudder to think how he might have questioned the two nurses’ ethnicity and perhaps even wondered aloud why Kate couldn’t get some white nurses. But honestly, my pet theory is that William was simply drunk and lying. William and Kate both do that all the time, they meet someone and they hear that the person is an astronaut/accountant/ski jumper and Will or Kate will say “oh, that’s so interesting, George wants to be an accountant and Charlotte loves space and we can’t keep Louis off the ski slopes!” They lie for clout and relatability all the time. The specificity is what signals, to me, that William was lying – TWO Filipino nurses? That man was sh-thoused and lying his ass off.
The Prince of Wales has returned to royal duties after his wife’s abdominal operation and following the announcement of the King’s cancer diagnosis.https://t.co/Ig4ZQJ3Vi4 pic.twitter.com/KUXAYfZZfp
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 7, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.