bitchy | Royalist: Princess Kate’s sudden Ascot withdrawal left staffers ‘bewildered’

One of the things I go back and forth on is “what kind of control does Buckingham Palace exert over Kensington Palace?” The 2024 “Kate Missington” debacle was largely fueled by Kensington Palace’s incompetence, and the situation only improved when (imo) BP took over and started cleaning up Prince William and Kate’s mess. William and Kate swear they do their own thing and organize their own meager diaries, but every now and then, you do get the sense that King Charles and Camilla order W&K to do certain things or NOT do certain things. This week, when the Princess of Wales suddenly pulled out of appearing at Ascot, rumors and conspiracies popped up. One of the rumors was that Camilla and Charles ordered Kate to stay away, or that Kate was being punished for some transgression (possibly that odd People Mag cover story). I don’t know if that’s the case. And the Daily Beast’s Royalist column says it’s absolutely not the case, and that BP’s staffers were caught off guard as well.

A royal insider told The Daily Beast there was a “real sense of panic” at the palace Wednesday, after Kate Middleton dramatically pulled out of a scheduled appearance at the Royal Ascot horse-racing festival at the last minute. The palace has provided no on-the-record explanation for the absence. However, Kate’s team sought to play down the idea that the cancellation signaled a downturn in her health, with some media briefed that it was just a question of the princess seeking “balance” as she continues to recover from cancer.

Kate herself clearly said that her plans could be subject to change when she announced she was cancer-free earlier this year, which at least gave a superficial plausibility to the claims that Wednesday’s unscheduled cancellation was no big deal. The U.K. media has largely gone along with the palace spin, dutifully reporting that Kate’s decision to abandon the legendary Ascot carriage procession was almost routine. In fact, pulling out of such a high-profile event, just over an hour before she was due to appear with the king and queen, is highly unusual.

Behind the scenes in the royal household, people are far less sanguine. The Daily Beast can reveal that the announcement left staff behind palace walls “bewildered and worried” as they tried to figure out what was happening. The situation was made worse by the fact that an official “carriage list” published at noon by the palace said Kate would be there, only for her to cancel within the hour.

One former courtier who retains good links with serving staff said, “Everyone was wandering around going, ‘What is going on?’ One minute she was going, and the next she wasn’t. This is one of the biggest days of the year in the royal calendar; you don’t just miss Ascot on a whim, so there was a real sense of panic. The chaotic nature of the announcement was eerily reminiscent of the dark days of last year. People were bewildered and worried.”

The insider added that rumors had briefly swirled around the palace that the future queen had been taken unwell and either needed to see a doctor or had been rushed to the hospital. Kate’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment, but a friend of the princess told The Daily Beast: “My understanding is that Kate was basically exhausted after Trooping the Color on Saturday and Garter Day on Monday and couldn’t face it. There are good days and bad days, as she herself has very candidly said.”

[From The Daily Beast]

One of my theories is that Kate was tired or she had some kind of cold or virus, and she didn’t believe that her cancellation would generate THIS much news. That’s the sense I got from the royal reporters – while there was concern about Kate’s well-being, there was also a real effort across the board to say “of course it’s nothing serious.” What I also gather from this piece is that KP still keeps BP in the dark about almost everything. It should have been Kate’s people informing Buckingham Palace about the cancellation and the two offices working out a statement together. Instead, BP was left in the dark and that’s why it became a larger newscycle, because BP couldn’t control the story.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.