A major change behind the scenes at the Cambridges' office points to one thing: The royals are upping their game in the battle of the brothers. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
The last British monarch to lead their troops on the battlefield was George II in 1743 during the War of Austrian Succession, which was all about various gout-ridden kings arguing over whether one woman should be allowed to rule the Habsburg empire. In the centuries since then, the various kings and queens who have sat on the throne in the UK have much preferred to stay far away from the front lines and anything pointy and sharp – instead preferring to stay in much closer proximity to a decent gin and tonic. Smart.
But all rulers need able soldiers and gifted tacticians to help them – and the future King William V is no different.
Right now there are changes going on behind the scenes personnel-wise at the Kensington Palace office of William and wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge which point to one conclusion: They are preparing, quietly, for the fight of their lives.
Last month, the Times' royal editor Roya Nikkhah confirmed the months-long speculation that the Cambridge family are preparing to move out of their Kensington Palace home to Windsor and that their three children will all go to school in the area. (Since then, the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage has been named as their new home.)
But tucked away in the same report was the tantalising fact they have hired a new communications secretary.
Unlike previous hires for the position who have experience in government, this time around the Cambridges' have instead chosen 34-year-old Lee Thompson, the outgoing vice-president of global communications and strategic partnerships at NBC. Those who know Thompson, according to the Times, describe him as "an inspired hire" and "a brilliant, super-switched-on guy who really gets the international stuff".
And it's those last two words right there – "international stuff" – which tells us oh so much.
If there is one thing that the past nearly two and a half years has taught us, it's how inadequate the traditional royal playbook has proven when it comes to managing media and image when the rules of the game change suddenly.
When accusations came flying – of institutional racism, of cruelty, of a family and business that put grim-faced survival far above the suffering of some participants – what did the house of Windsor do? They turned to the most powerful tool in their arsenal (duh, duh, DUH): The statement.
In the wake of Oprah, Buckingham Palace saw fit to put out a riposte so short you'd think they had been paying its writer by the word. While it might have famously called into question the Sussexes' "recollections", it did not in any way push back against any of their most serious claims.
The pen was definitely not mightier than the TV tell-all.
The palace clearly did not want to be drawn into a slinging match and decided on a strategy of trying to remain far above the prime time fray, which only made them look dismissive and, to some, guilty.
The whole thing was a bit like bringing a partridge fork to a knife fight – and worked about as well.
In the UK, the royal family might now be enjoying something of a purple patch popularity-wise, with the recent Platinum Jubilee likely having pushed approval ratings even higher, but outside of Britain, the royal family seems to be viewed with side-eyed scepticism at best.
Post-Oprah last year, a "senior royal aide" told the Times that: "We have a US problem."
This situation was likely only made worse in March when William and Kate trundled off on their Caribbean tour to fly the flag for Queen and country without anyone having really considered that this would be the first international trip post-the global Black Lives Matter reckoning. The Cambridges rolled up with their SPF 50 and biggest smiles and instead collided with the horror of Britain's colonial past and role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Photos of the couple driven atop a special Land Rover, past saluting soldiers of colour, looked like something dredged up from a Cinema Pathé reel and for many only further confirmed the image of the royal family as an oppressive and archaic institution.
If the situation is not great now, well, it might only be about to become much worse in terms of how a lot of the world views William and Kate.
If all goes according to the original timetable, at some point in the coming months the royal tell-all to end all tell-all will drop when Harry publishes his memoir. Promising "a first-hand account of my life that's accurate and wholly truthful" and having cost Penguin Random House a reported $27 million advance, loins back in London should be girding right about now.
A p***ed off prince who seems to enjoy score-settling? His publisher should be rubbing their hands together in glee and royal aides reaching for their smelling salts.
In February, a friend of Harry's told the Mirror that the book would "shake the monarchy to the core" and: "If they think that he's gone soft, then they are mistaken."
Meanwhile, other reports have suggested Harry might take aim at his late mother's bête noire, his current stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
A friend of Harry's told the Telegraph in late April, "[Harry] needs a new target and she will do … I'm sure he will say some unkind things about her, or try to make her a 'baddie', but that doesn't mean it's real."
There is also the "at-home" docuseries the Sussexes are reportedly filming for Netflix.
When Page Six broke the news in late May, the report quoted "a highly placed Hollywood insider" as saying: "I think it's fair to say that Netflix is getting its pound of flesh."
That ominous sounding "pound of flesh" does not exactly suggest that all producers are keen on capturing is the couple, a trusted coterie of staffers and a whiteboard plotting caring campaigns and more PR opportunities for their chickens. Netflix has lost nearly $300 billion in value since the beginning of this year; they desperately need the sort of must-watch hit that will see subscribers flock to the service and that would mean a show that offers some sort of real gory, nose-up-against-the-glass insight into royal life.
The problem here is not only what might be coming down the pike but when it will happen and where. The Cambridges could potentially be touching down in America just as it's being released. (Aaron Spelling at the peak of his soapie powers could not have come up with such a dramatic crescendo …)
This year's second round of Earthshot Prize awards, the $87 million project started by the Duke to fund practical solutions to the climate crisis, is set to take place in the US and possibly as part of a wider tour.
There is also the fact that the Times has reported, per royal sources, "Kensington Palace is 'very alive' to positioning William into statesman territory". The Duke of Cambridge rubbed presidential shoulders at last year's G7 and Cop26 meetings.
With so many moving pieces, international manoeuvring and incoming PR mortar shells, the mind positively boggles at all the adroit planning, tightrope-walking and all-round juggling act that will be required with all of this going on.
Against this backdrop, William and Kate's hiring of Thompson, who is, after all, a "guy who really gets the international stuff," starts to make perfect sense. The Cambridges look like they are getting their ducks in a row to meet the very serious challenges that lay just around the corner for them.
Interestingly, it would seem they are not alone in this sort of thinking.
Last week, Charles and Camilla's Clarence House made an announcement that sent eyebrows sky high: They too have signed on a new communications chief, choosing Tobyn Andreae, former deputy editor of the Daily Mail. Not only is their decision to go for someone from a tabloid background interesting, Meghan has successfully sued the paper's parent company after they published parts of a letter she had sent her estranged father while Harry more recently too sued them for libel them over their reporting of his legal stoush with the Home Office about his taxpayer-funded security arrangements.
Right now, with the royal family's annual migration north to Balmoral coming and the Queen's summer holidays about to start, things are starting to quieten down a bit. But this all may very well be the calm before the new, international storm …
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