Expert Backs King Charles and Prince William’s Slimmed-Down Monarchy Plan: ‘Entirely Right’
Amid royal experts and commentators’ concerns about King Charles III’s slimmed-down monarchy and Prince William’s reported plans to take it a step further, one says keeping things small is “entirely right.” Ahead, why a royal expert feels smaller is the “right model for the future” of the British royal family.
Expert argues for ‘tight unit’ of working royals
“I still hold to the idea that the slimmed-down royal family is indeed the right model for the future,” Jennie Bond, a royal expert and former BBC royal correspondent, told OK! Magazine.
She argued the approach matched up with that of other European monarchies as well as combatting the “most common complaint” about taxpayer costs.
“Adding new working royals to the payroll will only exacerbate that criticism,” Bond said. “I think the model William has experimented with is the answer: drafting in his cousins here and there (e.g. garden parties) to spice things up a bit.”
The royal expert also noted how a slimmed-down monarchy makes appearances more “special” while also providing a better balance between their public and private lives.
“I think the king and William are entirely right to be determined to keep the core of working royals a small, tight unit that can be accountable to the public purse,” she concluded.
The slimmed-down monarchy has another royal commentator ‘worried’
Bond’s comments came after royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams revealed what a friend of the Prince of Wales’s told him only exacerbated his own worries about there being fewer working royals.
“What he told me left me worried about the future of the monarchy,” Fitzwilliams wrote in the Daily Mail. “The friend said William was in ‘full agreement’ with his father about the need for a ‘slimmed-down monarchy.’”
“He told me: ‘When the older members of the family retire, His Royal Highness won’t be inviting anyone else to become working royals. It remains to be seen if he will even want his two younger children to be working royals.’”
(The Prince of Wales and his wife, Kate Middleton, reportedly plan on encouraging Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, to look outside of the royal family for jobs when they grow up while their older sibling, Prince George, 10, will take the working royal path.)
“By the time William ascends to the throne and Kate becomes Queen, they may be the lone full-time royals,” Fitzwilliams added, noting the source told him “That is what William wants.”
The royal family has 11 working royals
In recent years, the working royals line-up has changed. In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left royal life, followed by the deaths of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II in 2021 and 2022.
Additionally, Prince Andrew was stripped of his titles and working royal status following a widely panned Newsnight interview about his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That means the royals lost five working royals in as many years.
Today, the royal family has 11 working royals (via UsWeekly). They include King Charles, 75, and his siblings Princess Anne, 73, and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, 60, as well as his wife, Queen Camilla, who turns 77 on July 17, 2024.
The heir to the throne, William, is the youngest working royal at 42, alongside the Princess of Wales, also 42. She, however, is on a break from duties as her cancer treatment continues.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s wife, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is the closest working royal in age to William and Kate at 59 years old.
Rounding out the working royals are Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 79, and his wife, Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester, 78, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, 88, and Princess Alexandra, The Honorable Lady Ogilvy, 87.
