A Royal Roasting

As Will and Kate wooed Paris, critics were laying into them back home.

- Nicola Whitfield

THEY ticked all the boxes: murmuring words of sympathy to the disabled; accepting flowers from kids with indulgent smiles; making small talk at dinner; and marvelling at works of art in one of the city’s prized museums.

As a two-day charm offensive intended to ease the ire at Brexit, the mission was a success. The visit also marked Prince William’s first official royal tour of duty to Paris since his mother, Princess Diana, died in the city. And making it all the more poignant is the fact that this year marks the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death aged 36 in that catastrophic car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel on 31 August 1997.

Yet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s whirlwind tour of the City of Lights is only serving to further whip up a hornet’s nest of controversy engulfing the couple. Unflattering titles are being heaped on their royal heads by the media, royal watchers and the public who believe the pair aren’t toeing the line.

Before they were even married they vowed to make the royal family more accessible and less elitist. But those promises have started to ring hollow.

“Throne-idle Wills”, “duchess do-little”, “workshy materialists”, “part-time royals” and “lazy” are just some of the terms being used to describe the two. Some people are even questioning whether William really wants to be king.

“You could call Kate Middleton and Prince William a lot of things,” tabloid site The Inquisitr says, “but hard-working isn’t really one of them.”

Carole Malone of British newspaper The Mirror described William as “a petulant prince” and a “big, soft lad who’s still hiding behind the cloak of poor persecuted, hounded Wills which protected him for so long after his mum died”.