Mail<\/a>\u2019s Davies. \u201cThe lads are particular fans of barbecues, beer and a lot of wine.\u201d<\/p>\nWhile they prefer to hang at each other\u2019s houses, they also \u201cmeet at pubs in West London with discreet landlords and quiet back rooms, where the Prince is said to be partial to a pint of Stella Artois.\u201d<\/p>\n
(We remain painfully in the dark as to his preferred crisp flavour. My money\u2019s on cheese and onion.)<\/p>\n
According to the Mail, William and his gang \u201choliday abroad together at least once a year \u2013 often at a ski resort.\u201d <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s during these under-the-radar outings that the prince \u201cdons an occasional disguise\u201d, a source told the Mail. This involves him \u201ceither growing \u2013 or shaving off \u2013 a beard, wearing a hat and glasses and, on occasions, employing an \u2018iffy\u2019 Welsh accent to put strangers off the scent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wow. What a trickster. Maybe he should see if Harrods could send over a pair of plastic glasses with attached comedy nose and moustache. <\/p>\n
Still, it sounds like things can get a tad rowdy with the source saying, \u201cTheir occasionally boisterous behaviour has to be toned down so as not to draw too much attention to themselves\u201d. <\/p>\n
Not that they always succeed. In 2023 William was photographed dancing at east London\u2019s KOKO club with other members of his \u201cband of brothers\u201d, Guy Pelly and James Meade, only hours after the prince undertook the onerous official duty of going to Royal Ascot. <\/p>\n
Ditto in 2017 when the prince faced the serious accusation of doing dad dancing in public when he hit a nightclub in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier during a lads trip. During the same getaway, which he took instead of attending the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, he was photographed enjoying a \u2018lubricated\u2019 lunch including wine, beer and Jagerbombs with a 24-year-old Australian model.<\/p>\n
According to the Mail, there\u2019s just one rule going when the prince and his pals are busy bonding over their pints: No royal talk with \u201cconversations about William\u2019s current or future roles \u2026 strictly off limits\u201d. <\/p>\n
Then there is what we can learn about the Waleses\u2019 home front where it sounds like he is the very picture of domesticity incarnate. Well after some training at least. We now know, thanks to the Mail, that when he started dating Kate more than 20 years ago and suddenly found himself in the middle-class milieu of Agas and homemade Yorkshire puds, he was forced to come to the crashing realisation that most people are not served sandwiches on silver salvers. <\/p>\n
Life Chez Middleton meant he actually had to learn how to load a dishwasher and confront the fact a royal upbringing had left him painfully disconnected from reality. Take the painful, red faced moment when he was tasked with setting the table for Christmas lunch: Errr \u2026 um \u2026 how? <\/p>\n
\u201cLaying a tablecloth was a struggle and placing the cutlery [was] embarrassing. He tried to claim it was because he\u2019s left-handed,\u201d the royal source told the Mail. <\/p>\n
Then came what sounds like a red letter day, a Caserian Rubicon of normality, when William was dispatched off to the supermarket. \u201cHis first experience of a big shop following Carole\u2019s detailed lists was apparently mind-boggling,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n
Other rude shocks for the Prince of Wales included \u201cthat the Middletons had to nip to the shop for food, ensure there was enough bread in the house, empty their own bins and put out the recycling on the right day\u201d. <\/p>\n
Luckily the source says that the prince found all these novel domestic duties \u201crefreshing\u201d. <\/p>\n
A couple of decades later and he is still at it, which is why the home he and Kate have built is a fundamental departure from the usual royal set up. In contrast to his father King Charles\u2019 homes, \u201cthere are fewer flunkeys wandering around\u201d. <\/p>\n
While the Wales family has help from their trusted nanny Maria Turrion Barrollo and her assistant, a valet, a housekeeper, and a cook, they \u201clargely operate out of sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cook is sometimes redundant as William or Kate often cook themselves,\u201d said the source, a personal Everest Charles has never bothered to attempt to scale. <\/p>\n
In total, with private secretaries, aides and what-have-you\u2019s, William and Kate\u2019s entire operation is said to number close to 60 people, who work out of office at Kensington Palace and Windsor Castle. However, unlike in every other senior royal household, the Waleses\u2019 \u201cstaff are not allowed to roam around\u201d their family homes, including Forest Lodge at Windsor, their Palace apartment in London or at their Norfolk weekender Anmer Hall. <\/p>\n
So you have to wonder. In a few decades from now will Prince George, The Prince of Wales finish off a busy day of holding investitures and knighting England forwards by coming home to stir fry for his own supper and then manfully handwash his own silk pocket squares? I truly hope so. The Middleton-ising of the monarchy might be what actually saves the whole thing. <\/p>\n
Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years\u2019 experience working with Australia\u2019s leading media titles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just imagine. You\u2019re in a pub in a nice bit of west London, at the bar ordering a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[179695,7605,2786,77500,222775,1128,87020,77178,222768,222748,152491,434,222759,222751,222763,73207,222771,202779,202812,222777,18,4507,117,42433,1015,222749,148584,222754,222784,222758,9259,222770,222760,11696,179783,222772,222769,19,17,11384,222783,222757,222752,8417,222766,196986,130,202808,5091,210665,46342,7957,1539,161032,89512,954,222745,27250,222762,222780,222747,222776,3480,10468,222744,58173,222773,26005,222746,222755,196976,222774,222767,222786,222753,222761,222778,222781,135061,7792,222756,222765,137354,2423,222785,222782,222764,385,128167,222779,393,19366,222750,7958,193627,8952],"class_list":["post-514166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-aston-villa-football-club","tag-attached-comedy-nose","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-model","tag-ben-dawes","tag-british-tradition","tag-catherine","tag-celebrities","tag-charlesbroadcaster-dee-dee-dunleavy","tag-city-of-birmingham","tag-commonwealth-day-service","tag-daily-mail","tag-doing-dad","tag-duchess-of-cambridge","tag-duke-of-cambridge","tag-edward-van-cutsem","tag-eire","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-europa-league","tag-europe","tag-everest-charles","tag-extreme-measures","tag-family-homes","tag-final-football","tag-final-soccer","tag-forest-lodge","tag-funafuti","tag-fundamental-departure","tag-george","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-guy-pelly","tag-homegrown-football-team","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-istanbul","tag-james-gill","tag-james-meade","tag-jamie-lorriman","tag-king-charles","tag-lads-trip","tag-leading-media-titles","tag-london","tag-mahmoud-abdul-rauf","tag-meghan-markle","tag-milestone-announcement","tag-new-south-wales","tag-norfolk","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-northern-ireland","tag-novel-domestic-duties","tag-oceania","tag-onerous-official-duty","tag-plastic-glasses","tag-polynesia","tag-pork-scratchings","tag-prince-william","tag-princess-kate","tag-private-pub-nights","tag-queen-elizabeth-the-queen-mother","tag-red-letter-day","tag-royal-ascot","tag-royal-insiders","tag-royal-reports","tag-royal-source","tag-royal-talk","tag-royal-upbringing","tag-rugby-match","tag-school-ties","tag-secret-life","tag-senior-royal-household","tag-single-time","tag-ski-resort","tag-sky-news","tag-sophie-taylor","tag-supermarket-shop","tag-swiss-ski-resort","tag-switzerland","tag-tad-rowdy","tag-thomas-van","tag-timed-publicity-stunt","tag-turkey","tag-tuvalu","tag-under-the-radar-outings","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-vanessa-boateng","tag-virginia","tag-western-asia","tag-western-europe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}