Will Kate Middleton not take the China tour due to pregnancy?

Kate Middleton Pregnancy Prince William

Will Kate Middleton not take the China tour due to pregnancy?

by katemiddletonreview25 Comments on Will Kate Middleton not take the China tour due to pregnancy?

Quick note before I start the post (because it interests me), I took a tally of responses from the last Prince William and Kate Middleton post about the dress code memo. There were three camps people fell into: It’s rude for guests to dictate to hosts; Will and Kate (especially) have not earned the respect the memo is asking for; It’s a non-story blown out of proportion. The Rude and Respect camps were tied, but the Non-story camp had almost the same amount of people (I’m including myself), which was surprising to me. I thought I would be mostly alone in that one. Of course, when the Rude and Respect camps are put together they far out weigh the Non-story camp. Many more people thought negatively about the memo than didn’t mind it. This just goes to show how bad Will and Kate’s PR is getting, and how low their image has fallen. Maybe that new American PR guy will have to start earlier than the New Year.

There have been reports that the China tour that was hinted at earlier this fall will happen in the first quarter of 2015, while Kate is still pregnant, which throws her participation into question.

From the Telegraph:

    The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been asked to carry out an official tour of China early next year to improve Britain’s diplomatic links with the world’s second-biggest economy.
    [Chinese officials] are hopeful arrangements can be finalised quickly enough for the Duchess – who is due to give birth in April – to be able to make the trip, though royal aides admit her participation is in doubt because of her pregnancy.
    The NHS advises pregnant women that most airlines will not allow them to fly beyond 36 weeks of pregnancy, which for the Duchess will fall some time in March.
    Royal sources said it was still “too early” to say whether the trip would go ahead, though they confirmed that dates in the first three months of 2015 are being discussed. Prince George is not expected to be taken on the trip regardless of whether the Duchess can go.

And from the South China Morning Post:

    The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, plans to visit China next year – but it’s unlikely his pregnant wife Catherine will be with him.
    A royal official told the South China Morning Post: “There has been an invitation [from China], and it’s being considered.
    “I think there’s a good chance the Duke of Cambridge will travel out to China in the first quarter of next year.”
    The official did not mention the Duchess of Cambridge, who is due to give birth to the couple’s second child around the time of the planned trip in April. It is unlikely that she will be able to fly due to health considerations.
    Buckingham Palace could not give an itinerary for the visit because “we’re not particularly advanced in terms of the planning on this”, the official said.

The SCMP also said, “A formal announcement is expected to be made this week.” The Telegraph didn’t mention when an announcement would come, so we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

One nit-picky thing I want to mention: April is not in the first quarter of the year, it’s the beginning of the second. Yearly quarters are 3 months (because, you know, 12 divided by 4). Okay, nit-picking over.

I’m pretty shocked that they (Kensington Palace and the Chinese government) are even considering the first part of the year for the tour. When thinking about when the tour would be, I thought for sure the first half of the year would be ruled out since Kate is pregnant and then would need at least a month off after the baby is born.

I think it’s pretty dumb for the Chinese government to even ask Will and Kate to visit during that time when they know Kate isn’t going to go due to her pregnancy.

And you know what, no one gives a crap about a solo William. No offense to him, but he is pretty boring (unless he’s throwing a tantrum or banging Jecca Craig). I don’t see why the Chinese government would even WANT to plan the tour if they know Kate isn’t going to be there.

Back to Kate. Yeah, if the China tour is planned for the first part of 2015, then I fully expect Kate not to go – anything to get out of work, you know. But you know what, I wouldn’t even blame her, I’d blame the morons who planned the tour during the later stages of her pregnancy. They SHOULD plan the tour for September, October, or November of 2015, that way she’ll have a few months after the birth not to work (because we all know she’s not going to) before she goes on the tour, but then she’ll actually go on the tour.

As soon as I finished my post on this, BBC’s Peter Hunt tweeted this:

Will update if there’s more news.

In other news, you know that gala dinner on the last night Will and Kate are in NYC in December? If you want a chance to meet Will and Kate, you’ll have to shell out $100,000. And by “you”, I mean “the rich people who were invited”. The gala is by invitation only and will have about 450 guests attending. For $100,000, “you” get a table that seats 10, 2 VIP tickets to meet Will and Kate (screw the 8 people “you” filled “your” table with, right, those VIP tickets are “yours”!), premium seating, and platinum donor listing. The prices go down from there.

So… does that mean Will and Kate won’t be mingling with everyone? Like, they’re going to sit in the VIP section and only chat with a handful of people? Is that normal that only a handful of people get to meet the guests of honor used to sell the event? I genuinely don’t know. And yes, the two lowest price tiers are sold out, apparently. Relevant link.

St. Andrews NYC gala benefit ticket prices

Random tidbit: The One Direction people who met Will and Kate at the Royal Variety Performance a week and a half ago were on the Jimmy Kimmel show and mentioned meeting Will and Kate. The boys said Will and Kate were nice but the meeting was in an unnatural setting because there were “like six people each side of you going don’t say this, don’t say that.”

The relevant part of the video is from about 2:58 to about 3:42.


Websites: Kate Middleton Review Meghan Markle Review

25 thoughts on “Will Kate Middleton not take the China tour due to pregnancy?”

  1. I think the Chinese government would prefer Kate with William. Realistically they could have invited him any time without her before now. But I don’t see her going on this trip. A long flight, probably lots of visits and walking. Being that close to delivering, I don’t think the gray men would appreciate the spare possibly being popped out in China. So I don’t think she’ll be going and I think she’ll be very unhappy about it because it’s another place she’s never been that she could cross off of her list. Why can’t they just reschedule it for later. She’ll have two nannies by then.

    1. If the trip is in early 2015, then I fully expect Kate not to go and I wouldn’t even complain about her, because if she’s in her third trimester then she shouldn’t go on a long tour. And I would say that about anyone. What I will complain about is how utterly stupid the Chinese government is for trying to schedule the tour during her pregnancy. Why can’t they just wait until the second half of the year? You know they want the press Kate will bring them. William won’t bring them press. No one cared about William going to Malta. No one really cares about a solo William. It’s unfortunate for him, but that’s just the way of it. The reason I don’t cover solo William (unless he’s throwing a tantrum, being hypocritical about wildlife, or banging Jecca Craig) is because people don’t comment (and I don’t care enough to cover him even if people don’t comment the way I care about some of the other European royals). *By the way, that’s also the reason I don’t cover Prince Harry unless he relates to Kate, because I’ve covered him before and no one cared at all.* I honestly think this is completely stupid and they should schedule the tour for later in the year when Kate is not pregnant.

      1. You know feelers were probably put out for a possible tour quite some time ago and I have a feeling no one expected her to be pregnant right now. Which kind of points to William appearing so ticked off and Kate camping out at Ma and Pa’s place for so long. It should have been a happy time celebrating another new child and instead it was a mini separation.

        1. The first inkling of a China tour in the press came at the end of August. So yes, the China tour has been in the works for a while. But they’ve known Kate was pregnant for over 11 weeks (they announced the pregnancy 11 weeks ago today), and would have known about when Kate would give birth would clash with the purposed tour, so they’ve have plenty of time to rework the schedule. Given the amount of time they’ve had, there is no reason they couldn’t have moved the tour to the fall.

          But I agree that the pregnancy seems like it was a surprise. She was spotted drinking right before the announcement, and Will seemed extra grumpy after the announcement, and Kate disappeared to her parent’s house for quite some time while Will was god knows where except at her parent’s house.

          1. Hi KMR & Lisa,
            I agree that the timing of this trip is ill planned. It’s even more ridiculous for the palace to consider having Kate go this late in her pregnancy. Why can’t it be put off until the fall or the spring of 2016? It’s not like China won’t still be there.

          2. OK, I’m thinking that all of this ‘consideration’ about Kate actually going on this tour is PR stuff again; in that Kate is actually ‘considering’ the tour (when she isn’t at all) which is supposed to make her look marginally better than just not being able to go because she’s pregnant (I totally agree she shouldn’t go) but I think it’s being put round she may just go…probably to avoid the sheer boredom of William going on his own (yawn………….) my way out of this conundrum is just send Harry instead and let William do his air ambulance thingy….(rolls eyes)

          3. I think the possibility of a tour was floated way before then. There’s so much that has to be worked out on a visit like this that it’s not going to happen in a few months (IMHO) or weeks like this NYC trip.

            Kate may have moved up her getting pregnant with a second child on her own because she didn’t want to deal with certain things and loves staying at home and going on her shopping trips and to visit her mother. She can float her stories about being sick, but she really needs to remember to act it out completely and not show up looking so rosy cheeked and wide eyed when she “recovers.”

      2. I’m wondering if this tour was meant for Harry all along, and William stomped his feet and said “No, no, I’m the important one!!” So the tour is arranged for when Kate can’t go, giving William a get-out-of-work card, because W doesn’t like to work, and Harry goes instead, just like he was supposed to. William and Kate get the credit for wanting to work, Harry shoulders the burden, and the Chinese get the popular member of the BRF like they wanted. Win/Win/Win.

        2. Probably not. Willy doesn’t get a lot of press on his own anymore b/c he’s boring as unbuttered toast and he has very little charm. Harry oozes charm and good manners and I’d much rather have a beer in a neighborhood pub with the latter for several reasons. Willy wants to pretend to be a soldier so he can psychologically “rescue” his mother from the tunnel, by pretending to be an action hero. Harry is the one who actually has served (repeatedly) in combat at substantial personal risk to himself, like every other soldier. Willy having to go to China and have a lot of boring small talk with the “appalling old wax works” his father despises isn’t fun to him. Playing at helicopter to rescue Mummy is. Going on vacation with his nude wife is. Willy is not nearly as popular as he likes to think he is. Like above, I’d rather have an ale with Harry. Free Willy.

    1. Hey J,
      Thanks for the heads up about this article. All I can say is Right like Kate is going to adhere to these style guidelines, She already blew it with the blue Jenny Packham dress. I did chuckle at the bit were it said she has the final choice as to what she’ll wear, it seems it’s the only choice she can make, given how Carole and Wills run the rest of her life. She has supposedly been given style guidelines in th past and never followed them, why should she start now?

    2. LOLZ. The HuffPo article this article is based on is so dumb, and an obvious plug to the woman quoted, but I love that this article takes the HuffPo one to task a bit by calling out Kate for breaking all of those “fashion rules she won’t break”.

  4. Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist but I wonder if the palace didn’t want Kate to go because they don’t have confidence in her to not have another wardrobe malfunction and they don’t want the press to see W&K strained marriage, ala Di and Charles in Korea? If W is unhappy about parenthood again, and maybe regretting his marriage while always insecure K keeps digging her hooks in, it’s going to show.

    1. I don’t blame her either, I’m just wondering if the timing is deliberate because it would be better PR if they both could go and unless aching has a full book for next year, they could schedule later in the year. It just begs the question.

  6. For the VIP tickets this is standard practice. I went to a luncheon once with Laura Bush. People who paid more were taken to a private area to meet her and pose for a photo before the event. During the event we got to breathe the same air but there was no approaching her. This sounds like a more expensive version of this.

  7. 1. Yes V.I.P. lunches work this way. Unless you shell out the top price, the best you can tell your friends and family is that you were at the “same” event as the V.I.P., maybe even in the same room. But only the wealthiest and well-connected get to actually speak to the “V.I.P.”
    2. Katie won’t go to China. She probably shouldn’t at that point in her pregnancy anyway. This is so she can give the illusion that she’s “busy” even when we know she’s doing squat.
    3. If the baby’s due in April, it was conceived in July, probably around Georgie’s first birthday. They announced it as early as possible to give Katie as much time to beg off doing public duties as possible.
    4. If the trip to China has been in the works for several months, it is entirely possible it’s incidental to the pregnancy. For a major foreign tour involving senior royals like this, it’s not unusual for discussions and planning to have started six months or more in advance. So they may have begun planning the trip in July or August, then Katie discovered she was pregnant. With the howls of indignation at her work ethic (lack thereof) growing louder, they announced A.S.A.P. Incidental.

    1. I had lunch with Juan Carlos and Silvia of Spain once. We were at the next table and our waiter served them, so in my mind I had lunch with them. And I paid nothing except my lunch tab! 🙂

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