It’s no surprise to anyone following the royal fam in recent years: Since the departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but also the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the balcony lineup has felt extra slim. Perhaps that’s what led to some recent—and frustrated-sounding—comments from an anonymous source close to Princess Anne and published in The Sunday Times over the weekend about her nephew Prince William.
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Apparently, Anne is irked that William isn’t stepping up a bit more when it comes to a certain royal tradition: Investiture ceremonies. The piece—which provides an over-arching profile of Anne ahead of her 75th birthday on August 15—touches on the topic of her relationship with the future king. It reads: “Prince William is known to admire his aunt’s devotion to duty and Anne is fond of her nephew and will support him as King in the future if she is still working when he accedes to the throne.”
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But then there’s a bit of shade: “Several sources close to the princess note that she would like to see him do more of the ‘bread-and-butter’ royal engagements.” Now, the part about the investitures, specifically: “Only the King, Anne and William do investitures, many of which take place at Windsor Castle, near William’s Windsor home, Adelaide Cottage. A source close to Anne says: ‘She’s still doing most of the investitures [at Windsor] even though William lives there. It annoys her.”
For reference, an investiture ceremony is when a working member of the royal family bestows a royal insignia on those recognized for outstanding contributions as part of an honors list, which is released two times a year. According to Gert’s Royals, Princess Anne has already hosted 10 investiture ceremonies in 2025 (including one carried out just this week), King Charles has hosted six and Prince William has hosted five. (There are typically about 30 investitures hosted each year.)
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Of course, Princess Anne is known as the hardest-working member of the royal family. (The piece also touts the fact that she intends to mirror her dad, Prince Philip, and continue her royal work until age 90, if she can manage it.) Prince William is also coming off an extra challenging year following Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis, in addition to his dad, King Charles, which no doubt added an extra emotional load to his plate. Still, over the years, pressure continues to mount in terms of William and nods to his reputation as being a bit work-shy are consistently brought up. (He has been working hard to counter this by stepping up as a statesman at more high-profile events.)
Will we see William at more investitures in the wake of this indirect criticism? Or is it a case of anonymous sourcing in the royal sphere gone wrong? Time will tell.