Why Prince William and Kate Middleton ‘Dread’ Royal Tours Abroad
Hitting the road isn’t exactly something Prince William and Kate Middleton look forward to in their capacity as senior royals. According to an author, the Prince and Princess of Wales, both 42, “dread” royal tours abroad. Why? Because they’d rather stay closer to home.
William and Kate don’t like that royal tours abroad take them away from home
Writing on her Fresh Hell Substack blog, author Tina Brown shared why William and Kate don’t like royal tours abroad. It’s not the hours spent traveling or even the busy schedules. Although those may be a factor. For the couple, it’s being away from their day-to-day lives.
“William and Kate dread foreign tours that take the princess away from the children and cut into what William (to his advisers’ irritation) calls his ‘me time,’” Brown wrote (via Newsweek).
William and Kate live at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, England, with their three kids: Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6. Their last big royal tour abroad happened in the spring of 2022 (more on that below). It’s since been followed by shorter trips overseas, including Boston, Mass., in late 2022 and Jordan in June 2023.
William and Kate’s last big royal tour abroad didn’t go as planned
Things didn’t go well the last time the Prince and Princess of Wales went on a royal tour abroad. In March 2022, William and Kate spent eight days on a Platinum Jubilee tour, visiting Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.
As the U.K.’s Guardian wrote at the time, “It was supposed to be a visit to mark the Queen’s [Elizabeth II] platinum jubilee.” A “chance to present the modern face of the British monarchy to a region where republican sentiment is on the rise.”
Instead, William and Kate returned to England likely to report “that the tour may have accelerated moves to ditch the Queen as the head of state.” Protests combined with powerful visuals—shaking hands with children through fences, a military parade—had local campaigners talking “throwback[s] to colonialism.” Sure, there were plenty of photos and videos of William and Kate smiling and laughing. Nevertheless, the royal tour was still described as a “PR disaster.”
Kate Middleton and Prince William may have more royal tours on the way for 2025
During his visit to Cape Town, South Africa, for the Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in November 2024, William shared traveling might happen for him and Kate after a year of staying close to home due to her cancer diagnosis.
“Hopefully Catherine will be doing a bit more next year. So we’ll have some more trips maybe lined up,” he told media at the end of his visit (via Town & Country).
At the time of writing, the biggest event on the calendar for the Prince and Princess of Wales is the latter’s annual Christmas carol service. Held at Westminster Abbey on Dec. 6, 2024, the Together at Christmas service will be broadcast in the U.K. on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, William and Kate don’t currently have any royal tours abroad scheduled for 2025.
