This is such a weird controversy but it’s notable that the issue was seemingly started by royal reporters. On Monday, it was “misreported” in the British press that Kate, the Princess of Wales, would attend the Commonwealth Day reception at Buckingham Palace. Kate attended the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey alongside the other senior royals (King Charles, Camilla, William, Sophie, Edward and Anne) and then… she was the only one out of that group to skip the palace reception. What gives? There’s even some back and forth about whether she was originally scheduled to go to the palace, or whether she was never on the guest list. Well, that unhinged “royal expert” Daniela Elser has some thoughts!

The Princess of Wales going missing after the annual Commonwealth Day service is a bad look, a royal expert has claimed. Writing in her column for news.com.au, royal expert Daniela Elser wrote that after the service, which was held at Westminster Abbey on Monday afternoon, all other royals such as Prince William and the newly-appointed Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, all “trooped back to Buckingham Palace for the Commonwealth reception”. The mother-of-three, however, was “conspicuously absent from all the polite chitchat”.

Kate’s absence was noticed, despite an earlier press release saying, according to Ms Elser, that “she would be attending”.

There are “current theories” claiming that she could have been collecting Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis from school. However, with the fact that the Waleses have a nanny, this seems unlikely.

Ms Elser added: “Sure, Kate’s desire ro perpetually do the school run is admirable and all, but does not change the fact that her priorities in this instance are reall quite off.”

[From The Daily Express]

Don’t make me act like a Kate apologist – I am not. But I do believe that for these kinds of events (like a palace reception), Kate just does what she’s told. Either King Charles or Prince William didn’t want her there. That’s the real story – why didn’t the Windsors want Kate there? Did they think she would make an ass out of herself and embarrass everyone? Did Charles just want the spotlight on him? Did William not feel like pretending to be a happy couple for one more minute?

Interestingly, over the weekend, the Guardian had a piece analyzing Kensington Palace’s “coordinated PR campaign” starring Kate. The Guardian wrote that this is “perhaps a counter-PR campaign, one constructed with the specific purpose of neutralising a less conformist message disseminated by the Wales’s arch-enemies, the Sussexes.” The Guardian pointed out that Kate is carrying the Good Ship Windsor because Charles is “a man whose equilibrium cannot survive a leaking pen” and William “is possessed of a dangerously volcanic temper.” My guess? Someone got jealous and ordered Kate to stay away so William and Charles could have the headlines (they received few headlines).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.