We have reached Day 18, the penultimate day of the Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand. Prince William and Kate Middleton spent their next-to-last day in Canberra—the capital of Australia. They visited the National Arboretum, where they planted a tree (and by “planted” I mean they threw dirt over and already planted tree) and chatted to schoolchildren. They attended a reception at Parliament House where the host PM Tony Abbott and Will both made speeches (opposition leader Bill Shorten also gave a speech). The reception was attended by more than 600 guests including members of Australia’s House of Representatives and Senate, diplomats, and members of the armed forces, among others. The next appearance was at the National Portrait Gallery where they viewed portraits and met some artists and patrons. One of the paintings they viewed is the portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark; they also met the person who painted it. I have to say, that is a portrait. CP Mary looks wonderful.
Here is a video of Will’s speech.
During the reception, when he was mingling with guests, William cheekily said he wanted to rip his trousers off on Manly Beach and reveal a Speedo. William actually showed a bit of personality with that line. Way to Go. I imagine making small talk with so many people for 18 days in a row would get tiring, and boring. It’s actually nice to have him throw that line out there. But seriously, no one wants to see that.
Kate wore a green bespoke Catherine Walker coat-dress. After the super low neckline the day before, Kate really covered up with a coat that zipped all the way up to her neck. She apparently was quite warm wearing a coat in the hot sun. Kate wore her LK Bennett nude shoes. For jewelry, Kate wore her emerald and diamond earrings, and Cartier watch. She wore her hair down—again, if it’s so hot, why not put your hair up?
Eh. <--That’s my entire opinion of this outfit. She has other, better green coats. Will and Kate are due to attend a reception at Government House later where we will hopefully see some nice jewelry—I’ll post on that later. Then tomorrow they will attend an Anzac Day service at the Australian War Memorial before they leave to fly home at around 2pm OZ time. Links: National Arboretum website. National Portrait Gallery website. Mirror. Daily Mail. Express. Popsugar.
Actually, I thought this green dress wasn’t too bad. It had more style and flair than some of the other dresses from the tour. However, I think a darker green color would have been better with her skin color. She looked kind of washed out.
Those LK Bennett heels must be super comfy for her to wear them all the time. I know some people here will want to tear my eyes out, but actually, I kind of like them. I think they do go with a lot of her outfits – but then again, I am not a big shoe person.
DM had a headline where the PM complimented W&K saying he has the decency of his father and the compassion of his mother – while they appreciated Kate’s “grace and warmth.” I thought that was a very appropriate thing to say about William, but simply a lukewarm assessment of Kate. After all, he was expected to say something nice. But truthfully, she does not show much compassion at all. Even when she gets teary-eyed, it seems like a put on. Thing is, aside from waiting for 10 years, she really has no experience about real life prior to becoming a royal- therefore she cannot identify with anyone. People might argue – well now she’s a mother. Yes, but one that has all the help in the world – a full-time nanny, chef, driver, and her parents who are ready to babysit at the drop of a hat. So the “grace’ he mentioned really only denotes how she carries herself, the “warmth” was about her attempt to connect. However, until she gets more real world experience, which will be next to impossible as a senior royal, there really will be no way she can learn to connect, comprehend, and have compassion for anyone but herself.
I agree with you about the darker color, I think the brightness of the green was throwing me off.
I don’t think Kate is a big shoe person either. She doesn’t really have a ton of shoes and the ones she does have are all pretty similar to each other. But that’s fine, she doesn’t have to be a shoe person. I just wish she’d chose a different pair of nude shoes to wear all the time. I don’t know why anyone else dislikes those LK Bennetts, but for me I don’t like them because they have a platform and look clunky. I don’t like platforms. I don’t understand the platform fad. Well, I understand that women want the height, but the clunky platforms also make the feet look big and clunky and it’s just not a good look. Granted the platform on these LK Bennetts isn’t as bad as the platform on some shoes, but still, I’m not a fan. She has other nude shoes that I like better. In fact, LK Bennett sells other nude shoes that I prefer over the platform Sledges.
Re the GG’s comments about Will and Kate. It’s interesting that the comment about Will is so well defined while the comment about Kate is simple and generic.
Very balanced!! Like it!!
Crazyamc, i do not feel sorry for lazy! I do not understand how some like her is not interested in anyone! Oh yes she has an interest in bill, of course because he provides with a rich life style. If he were on welfare & living a basement apartment she would not give him the time day! The only reason some people think they had the baby was becasse nudity scandal in France and to restore thieir reputaation. She constantly complaining about Prince George. They should be grateful they have healthy baby! What kind of mother & woman is she? Lazy is trying get out of work by exposing herself! When her son grows up he will see his mother over exposed body & what will he think? Because of kate’s behavour smart people are questioning her baby’s parentage? There are rumors are that bill’s inheritance paid for the middleton’s mansion? Good old uncle gary might have
illegal activities? I do not know it’s it is true, but it has never been denied! The middletons have tried to expand their business into the U.S.A When the parents were told that the business had be investigated they quickly let for home! All businesses that are coming into the U.S.A. have be investigated! What do they have to hide is a good question? We never see the middletons with michael’s family! I wonder why? It is because they know they are & what they are! The aristocracts
shunn the middleton. Kate’s brother & sister have been freeloading from bill! mom carole raised kate to marry royalty including kate’s sibling! Please let’s not forget the suspicious nurse’s death…..
I hadn’t heard about her parents wanting to expand their business to the USA, but it makes sense they wouldn’t want to be investigated. It would likely get out that there is substantial money on both sides of her parents – well over & above just what they make from “Party Pieces”. On dad’s side – one of his ancestors was a male with the last name of Lupton, who made and left what amounted to millions in textiles. Michael Middleton came to inherit a very nice sum in a trust left by I believe his grandmother. This is why Carole, nee Goldsmith, was attracted to him – not because he was an airline pilot. If you remember, her mother, Dorothy Goldsmith spent a majority of her life social climbing, which she instilled in her children. They must have had money (i.e. Goldsmith – which I have not yet been able to link with the banking family, but if they are not related, how is it that Uncle Gary is so rich?) Nobody on her mom’s side ever said anything as to how Uncle Gary got his millions – the only thing ever said was that Carole worked as an airline stewardess, then started Party Pieces in the late 1980’s. It’s unlikely given the several recessions and the dot com bubble since the late 1980’s would have allowed a regular middle class couple to make millions off a website – no matter how hard they worked. No regular middle class couple could both work, raise 3 children, and somehow raise the millions needed to get their children to the level of mingling at school with royalty. (I also believe the Middleton’s paid someone off in the dormitory department to get their daughter a room close to the Prince in their 1st year.) They are not as hard working as what they portray to the media – otherwise their children would have a better work ethic.
Re where Gary’s money came from. I believe he had some sort technology or tech support business, something like that, which he sold and made money from. That’s the clean version anyway. There are also rumors of drugs/drug trafficking.
I heard about the drugs, but usually the money with that goes fast – unless their is trafficking. Hadn’t heard about the tech business. I’ll have to think about this.
One thing I don’t understand. When I was in the Uni, I had to do 6 or 7 talks just to get my Bachelor’s, and I am not counting volunteering. My friend who was in Arts (I never got what she ended up doing, she was going for Music, then suddenly was studying economics, then switched to linguistics… anyway that’s offtopic, sorry), she said they had even more requirements in terms of speaking. Everyone I asked had to do at least one talk for their degree, which is usually 15-20 minutes long + Q&A, and no hope to read anything from the paper. As far as I can see neither Will nor Kate seem able to do that. Did they not have this requirement in the Uni? Okay, Will could get away because he is “special”, but what about Kate? Her speeches are just terrible, she can hardly read 8 sentences without confusing/mispronouncing things.
I had to give a number of speeches during my time at university. I have no idea what kind of speech requirements Will and Kate had. But you bring up a good point, they should have had some type of speech preparation in school, so why are their speech-giving skills so lacking? Things that make you go, “Hm..”
Here’s my issue – The Royal Family has more money, power and resources vs. the Middelton Family. Why didn’t they do their homework if what is being said is true? Additionally, I believe that PW needs to take accountability for Kate – he married her and exposed the world to her – this is why I feel sorry for her. PW gets very little blame for his part in marrying someone who obviously didn’t know what she was getting herself into!! I find it hard to believe someone would continue to purposefully allow themselves to be put into the same position time and time again. It just doesn’t make sense to me unless she is being advised by someone who is clueless ie PW
Hi CrazyAMG – I see you really defend Kate and wanted to ask a few questions. (I am just trying to understand your perspective – please don’t think I am trying to be mean.) You mention about the royal family “doing their homework” – about what? Believe me, when Kate was starting to hang around PW, his minders thoroughly checked her and her family out behind the scenes. They are hired to maintain his security, and will do everything possible to see he stays safe. After all, he is in line for the throne.
As far as PW taking accountability for Kate. It sounds like you are giving him all the power, and she is completely passive in all this. She wanted to meet, date and marry PW. She (& her family) did everything possible to put her in his path. They dated for 10 years. He said he wanted to make sure she understood the implications of a lifetime with him. At the very least, if she had second thoughts, she should have said no to his proposal.
I am not sure if you remember Princess Diana (yes, I grudgingly admit I do, including her very brief dating history with PC, but I was still young at the time). Anyway, their “whirlwind romance” was one of less than a handful of dates, his proposal, and the wedding a few months later. They did not know each other at all. It truly was an arranged marriage pushed by Prince Phillip and especially the Queen Mother, who approved of Diana’s aristocratic background and her virginity. Nobody from the RF cared about Diana’s side of things, her perspective, or the fact she had just turned 19 at the time of her wedding. It was Diana who realized after a very short time she was in a loveless marriage with a bunch of narcissists heading the family who expected her to conform – no questions asked. She put on a brilliant act for years, until she helped us understand just how truly miserable she was.
Turning to Kate – she witnessed all this as a child growing up, seeing all these stories on TV and in the paper. Someone would have to be blind, deaf, dumb and dead not to hear the h*ll Diana was going through. Still, Kate and her family made conscious efforts by the time she was about 18 to meet and get to know PW. Either she ignored all the issues regarding Diana, or just didn’t care. I think it was both.
Kate has shown us she likes the adulation, the pictures, the money, attention, and gifts. In fact, these are what she focuses on. She appears to also suffer from narcissistic personality disorder in which people with this are often extremely competitive, focus on “winning the game” and don’t care who they hurt, and truly cannot empathize with anyone. She has shown all these. Typically people with NPD are very good actors – they put on a lovely show to the public, but behind closed doors they are maniacal – they scream, demand, drain from their friends and family – all to glorify themselves. It’s kind of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.
Still, Kate is not Diana. Kate is now 32 years old, and has been with PW since she was also 19. However, she did not marry him until she was 29 – she had a full decade to get to know his lifestyle. In the meantime, she has also aged, and should have more life experience than what she had at 19. So according to what you are saying, at what age/time should she be ready to understand how the RF works and her role in it? I don’t agree that she “didn’t know what she was getting herself into” – after all, what was she doing with him for the first 10 years?
I also don’t understand what you are saying with, “I find it hard to believe someone would continue to purposefully allow themselves to be put in the same position time and again.” People with NPD know their “ways” have worked well for them in the past, so they don’t listen to anyone else’s advice, unless it will cause them to lose everything they have gained. But to get them to understand that takes some doing. She got quite a prize marrying PW in terms of perks, doing things her (and her parent’s way), what benefit would she get by listening to an advisor if she thinks she is right?
So overall, I believe Kate, at the age of 32, should already have the experience to know what she wants and be responsible for herself. PW did not pick her out of some group to say, “You will marry me – no questions asked.” So I believe she has alot of personal responsibility in all this, she just doesn’t want to admit it.
“if she had second thoughts, she should have said no to his proposal.”
But that would have negated the Waity-ing. Plus, Ma Middleton wouldn’t have been very pleased had Kate come home and told her she refused the ring they waited so long for.
As far as the Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde bit… I’d bet that more applies to Will. He definitely seems like the type of person who would yell at Kate all the time for every little thing. She probably walks on egg shells around him and his temper.
I really believe PW told her he would protect her from all that his mother had to endure. That she would be different and not forced into Royal Duties until he was 2nd inline (full time). I believe Kate married him truly believing in him and that she loved him dearly. I don’t believe that her family was that calculating. I mean really, the Middletons would have had to out smart the RF for 10 years!! There is just something about PW and his reckless behavior to go against tradition that puts him in the center and more at fault for the outcome and not Kate. She seems to always look to him before she makes a move, willing him to guide her and protect her. I just feel sorry for her and that she tries. Granted she doesn’t have a real since of style and needs a stylist. Her hair is absolutely beautiful and obviously her pride and joy. I believe she adores PW and still believes in him. I don’t think PW can see beyond himself. What husband would allow his wife to walk down all those stairs when they arrived in NZ with heels on holding a baby and not take the baby. If he would just pay more attention to her and make sure she is getting what she needs I think she would do ok. Diana was special, no one will ever take her place. So I wish the comparison between the two would stop. It sets Kate up for failure. I think she ultimately wants to please PW and his family and that they do everything to make her fail except HM. As far as Kate’s family I do believe the mother is a social climber but many people are and she could be worse. She loves her daughter and considering the situation Kate is in, that love is Golden.
“She seems to always look to him before she makes a move, willing him to guide her and protect her.”
This is true. And this is why it always bugged me when people said Kate was such a modern woman, because no she’s not if she’s so submissive to her husband all the time. BUT, did you notice how much confidence Kate gained while on this tour? She started cracking jokes at his expense, she showed off after winning the yacht races, she wagged her finger at him when he almost hit her in the head with a cricket ball. She’s definitely become more confident. Hopefully that translates to her future appearances. I’d like to see a more confident Kate when she’s doing her events.
I agree med4kmd! Kate was 29 when she married bill & this tuesday april 29 will be their 3rd
wedding anniversary! Diana 20 when she maried charles, he was 32. By the time of Diana 3rd
anniversay, she had represented the queen at a solo state visit to norway! What has waity done?
Nothing! Diana was basically a highschool dropout. I am not bashing Diana or Kate, nor am i
jeolous!When Lazy stated in the engagement interview, that she would work hard & learn quickley!
Where is the quick learnin & hard work in 3 years? I am not trying to turn anyone against Kate!
Yesterday some one commented on the daily mail” does Kate middleton autistic? I do not know the
answer? I wonder….
I doubt Kate is autistic. She may have some problems (don’t we all), but not to the point of autism. I agree that the whole “hit the ground running” thing never came to fruition. She really should be up to more engagements every year than she is up to now. But I don’t know if I’d go so far as to compare Kate to Diana, because 1) I hate that comparison because it is so overused, and 2) Kate is in a different position than Diana at the time of her marriage. Diana was Princess of Wales, married to the 1st in line; Kate is married to the 2nd in line, there are different expectations that come with that. It’s Camilla’s lack of work that should be compared to Diana. Seriously, Camilla barely works. Granted she works double what Kate works, but double what Kate works isn’t that great.
Sorry I don’t understand the comment “Is KM Autistic” what’s wrong with being Autistic? Please remember that Diana represented HM in a different time. Media coverage and the publics need to know every aspect of the tour is different. Diana was followed by the media at a degree that was unthinkable for the time yet we are in times where media attention across a lot of different mediums is greater than what she experienced!
Yeah, the “Saint Diana” bit would not have lasted long had the same type of media coverage Kate gets applied to Diana back then. It’s a whole different ballgame now. If Diana and Charles had had to deal with the same type of media attention, their marriage probably would have ended sooner.
CrazyAMG, I am not implying there is anything wrong with autism! You are correct about the
media. I am physical challenged myself, i would never put anyone down or make them feel
unworthy! I do not want be harsh or rude to anyone! I just read the commentator’s question.
I am trying to say that with Diana’s youth & limited education she did make difference with her
royal position. Kate comes across as ” i don’t care about anyone, but my self!” Kate did say”
I am will to learn quickly & work hard!” Kate’s words not mine! I am not trying to turn you against Kate & you have a right your opinion!
The reason i brought to this website is because some
people might think Kate has disorder? I do not know if she does or not I’m not trying to start rumors or character asassinate Kate! It bother me a great deal, because she can help a lot of
people, but she does not care! I do not want argue with anyone about Kate! Please keep in mind
when said that i’m physical challenged, i don’t need or want pity or sympathy! Thank you.
I agree that it can seem like Kate doesn’t care, but then again I also get that from William.
“…William cheekily said he wanted to rip his trousers off on Manly Beach and reveal a Speedo… But seriously, no one wants to see that.” – I limit myself to 5 LOLs per year because I feel it is far too over-used. To you, KateMiddletonReview, I bestow my first LOL of 2014. Are you ready for it? LOL!
I’m glad my attempt at humor paid off 🙂
Halia what argument? I thought it was an interesting exchange of ideas and opinions…. The reasons I enjoy this blog. And everyone has such interesting thoughts and comments. My apologies to our host if it seems like I was going in another direction and to you as well. As far as your physical challenge, i can’t speak to, however your thoughts and opionion no matter how different from mine they are I want to hear!!
I love the debate. That’s what’s great about it; it’s an outlet for people to express different opinions and debate those different opinions. That’s what I want. That’s why I approve all comments, even the ones that are different from my own opinion, and even the ones that are rude to me personally.
Crazyamc, you don’t have to apologize to me! I am sorry that i came on to strong to you!
I like everyone on this website! It bothers me when billy & lazy do not do anything to help
his grandparents! They are elderly & in poor health, but they manage to work harder than
the dim dou! iI i offended anyone i opologize!