Prince William ignored his fathers advice ahead of the Caribbean Flop Tour

In March 2022, Prince William and Kate set off for a week-long tour of several Caribbean countries. Their comms office told reporters that it was a “charm offensive,” and there was a specific reason for the tour – it was important for the Windsors to travel to Commonwealth countries as part of QEII’s Platinum Jubilee year. They visited Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Trouble began before the tour even touched down in Belize, with protests gearing up and demands for reparations being made. Instead of going in with a soft, skilled, diplomatic touch, Will and Kate staggered around in colonialist garb, offending everyone and even getting fired live on camera in Jamaica. Will and Kate were truly in their Flop Era in that moment. Omid Scobie detailed the Caribbean Flop Tour in Endgame, with some bonus information about how Charles felt nothing but schadenfreude for Peg & Buttons.

What happened when Scobie was critical of the tour in the first few days: “I hope you’re going to set [Omid] straight,” a senior aide said to one of the traveling royal reporters. But there was little reason to—in less than twenty-four hours, the world’s media echoed the same points.

The chainlink fence photos: At best, it was an unfortunate snapshot; at its worst, it was proof that the all-white and undiverse Palace team was just not equipped to carry out such engagements. Their bosses, Prince William and Kate, then the Duchess of Cambridge, were equally oblivious to the poor optics. “If you were there, it wouldn’t have been as obvious that this was an entirely inappropriate visual to be sending out into the world. The couple wanted to meet as many people as possible and not ignore anyone,” a Kensington Palace staffer explained some months later. Perhaps, I suggested, it would have been avoided entirely if the couple’s team included people of color or those with more sensitivity to what would be appropriate and what wouldn’t. “Maybe,” they replied quietly.

The Land Rover event: The trip was organized months in advance, and all movements were determined by an earlier reconnaissance visit led by members of William’s team and the British Foreign Office. Even though the whole scene was drawn up and presented to Palace officials and the couple, no one found the staging of the pair standing in an old Land Rover to re-create imagery of colonial-era trips made by the Queen and Prince Philip a bad idea. The move—which saw the couple in all-white on a raised platform waving at the all-Black crowds below—was greeted with horror and widely mocked. “There were questions, including from William, about whether it was appropriate,” admitted a Kensington Palace source. “The staging was all at the request of the Jamaican government, not the Palace. They were keen to include the Land Rover, which had been kept for moments like this, but absolutely we should have pushed back.” (Curiously, a spokesperson at the office of the prime minister of Jamaica said this version of the story did not ring true.)

William was unprepared: Later that evening, William was said to be “frustrated and irritated” that he was so unprepared for the moment. So far, everything about the trip looked like a throwback to a bygone era of the British Empire. [Despite] the Palace campaign to position William as a “statesman in the making,” he was not as ready for the role as the institution wanted people to believe. [Jean-Christophe Gray than briefed the press about William’s lessons learned, how he would do things “the Cambridge way” and have a smaller staff than his father.]

Charles was pissed about William trying to throw him under the bus after the tour: Charles (who allegedly derived some schadenfreude from his son’s recent missteps and public humiliation) was said to be furious over William’s effrontery. This kind of declaration was for either the Queen or the direct heir to make, not for the second in line. “It was disrespectful . . . Not only was he dangling the carrot of something his father could not deliver, but he also failed to address how he could actually deliver any of that,” an aide huffed. Another source added at the time that William was “out of order” and Charles saw this as a deliberate attempt to upstage him. The Duke of Cambridge screwed up, but he effectively leveraged the moment to tease the public that he could soon be able to bring change. As often envious of his own son’s popularity and favored status in the institution as Prince Charles was, this was already a sensitive topic with him, so this breach in royal etiquette, which he has never spoken about directly with William, apparently “left a mark.”

Charles had warned William ahead of the tour: While the trip was still in the planning stages, separate sources said he had advised his son to be “alert and prepared” to the growing calls for reparations. But, as those first days of the visit proved, William ignored his advice, letting bravado obscure his judgment. Distrust and simmering animosity between father and son are nothing new to their working relationship. A source close to William said, “Though [Charles and William] share a number of passions and interests, their style of leadership is quite different.” An insider in Charles’s camp explained, “Contrary to public belief, [Charles] leads with his head and his heart. [William] is colder in that respect. He just wants to get the job done and has no problem taking prisoners along the way.”

[From Omid Scobie’s Endgame]

“The Duke of Cambridge screwed up, but he effectively leveraged the moment to tease the public that he could soon be able to bring change.” Classic William – acts like a racist clown, blames everyone else, then says “at least I’m not Charles!” But there’s a wealth of info here – Kensington Palace lying about who came up with the colonialist homage to Liz and Philip, Will & Kate’s all-white staff being too stupid and racist to understand the tour they planned would offend everyone, William being unable to simply sit down and listen to what the protests were actually about. I remember writing at the time that, immediately after the tour, it felt like William’s mindset was: I can’t change, so commonwealth countries need to accept my colonialist cosplay or they can just go! Like, he still hasn’t considered the fact that he needs to genuinely change his worldview, mindset and skillset.

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Photos courtesy of Instar.

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