Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Recent Family Trips Have Made the Queen ‘Uncomfortable,’ Royal Expert Says
According to one royal expert, Queen Elizabeth II used to cut Prince William and Kate Middleton a lot of slack regarding one unofficial royal travel rule. But more recently, she seemingly grew “uncomfortable” with their family trips. And she might have let them know she wanted things to change.
What might have unsettled the queen about how the future monarchs were traveling? And who else took issue with it? Read on to learn more.
The queen overlooked an unofficial travel rule for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s family trips
There’s an unofficial rule in the royals’ world that says no more than one heir to the throne should be on the same aircraft at one time (per Business Insider.) That way, the chance of losing multiple heirs lowers if something tragic happens.
When it’s all said and done, the queen has the final say on whether that unofficial rule can be broken. And sources said she’d been relatively laid-back regarding Prince William’s family’s traveling by air. After all, splitting three kids up into separate helicopters seems like a lot to juggle.
But the party-planning grandmother seems to have grown more “uncomfortable” with their habit of hopping from place to place by helicopter, according to one royal expert. And she might have let the royal couple know it.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were taking family trips by helicopter
As it stands, Prince William is currently second in line to the throne after his father. His three children follow him in the line of succession. And the family was frequently traveling by helicopter to get from place to place.
So, according to one royal commentator, the queen became “uncomfortable” with the idea of the second, “third, fourth, and fifth in line to [the] throne being wiped out in a crash.”
“I think they’ve been curtailed with that a little bit,” royal reporter Richard Palmer said (per Express.) She supposedly “worried” about creating the potential for a crash that would devastate the royal line.
“I think the Queen … certainly let it be known that she felt uncomfortable about the entire family traveling by helicopter,” Palmer added.
Why some observers accuse Prince William and Kate Middleton of hypocrisy for flying on family trips
The queen wasn’t the only one with something to say about the royal couple’s flying. An anti-Monarchy group called Republic targeted Prince William and his father, Prince Charles, with billboards for their efforts to address climate change.
Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith told Newsweek: “The royals have jumped on this environment bandwagon. They need to be called out on it.”
Smith claimed climate is a political issue and the royals should stay out of it. But that wasn’t the only complaint. “The biggest thing is that they are incredibly hypocritical,” Smith opined.
