for The Guardian<\/a>, an environmental expert slammed super yachts, such as those owned by Russian oligarchs or American billionaires, as \u201cenvironmentally indefensible.\u201d This expert, Chris Thompson, a professor at the University of Southampton in the U.K., also said they should be banned.<\/p>\n\u201cFirst and foremost, owning a mega-yacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in,\u201d Thompson wrote. \u201cThe bulk of these emissions happen whether or not a yacht actually travels anywhere. Simply owning one \u2014 or indeed building one \u2014 is an act of enormous climate vandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another PR problem for William and Kate is that the yacht\u2019s owner has not been identified. Among locals, \u201cspeculation was rife\u201d about which yacht they sailed on and who got to play their host, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s owned by a Microsoft tycoon, a billionaire tech guy,\u201d a taxi driver told a Daily Mail reporter. Meanwhile, stories circulated in the Greek media that William and Kate enjoyed the largesse of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a prominent member of the UAE royal family, the Daily Mail also said. The sheikh\u2019s $450 million \u201cmega-yacht,\u201d named Opera, is said to be one of the most opulent private vessels in the world.<\/p>\n
But the fact that the British media was left in the dark about the couple\u2019s foreign trip, when William is the future head of state, is yet another issue, according to the Daily Mail journalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they they want to have a private holiday, but I think they also don\u2019t want it to be reported, even after the event, which makes things difficult,\u201d Eden said. He pointed out that it was naive of the couple to think their presence wouldn\u2019t become known and leaked to the Greek press. But he also said, \u201cYou know it\u2019s it\u2019s very hard then to have nothing in the in the British papers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Columnist Richard Kay said he understands William\u2019s desire for privacy, but said he risks \u201ccrossing\u201d a line in which he and Kate are \u201cmoving into areas of censorship to try and protect their privacy at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Elvin pointed out, William and Kate also are public figures, while Kay explained that it has been a tradition for the monarch or their heirs to let the media know where they are going on vacation and to even do a photo call once their reach their destinations. After that, the press will leave them to enjoy their vacation.<\/p>\n
Kay also said, \u201cthere is an element of cost\u201d to the British taxpayer because \u201cwe pay for the protection officers who go with them. We pick up their bills and pay their salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rumors and reports have been swirling around the Greek media for weeks that Prince William, Kate Middleton, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7714,7713,4080,30688,23900,77,533,2843,388,12,2832,532,2831,7710,519,6417,23902,7711,7712,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-328784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-catherine","10":"tag-catherine-middleton","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-celebrity-alert","13":"tag-coffee-break","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-kate-middleton","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-lifestyle","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-prince-of-wales","20":"tag-prince-william","21":"tag-princess-of-wales","22":"tag-royal-families","23":"tag-royal-family","24":"tag-things-to-do","25":"tag-tv-streaming","26":"tag-uk-royal-family","27":"tag-william","28":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114995071943493692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}