Prince William & Kate Middleton's Work Ethic Is Being Questioned Again After Their Long Summer Holiday

If Prince William thought that the controversy surrounding his decision to cheer the women’s soccer team from afar during the World Cup finals was going to go away, think again. His and Kate Middleton’s long summer break is making even the biggest royal family fans start to question the monarchy.

The Prince and Princess of Wales certainly deserve time away from the public eye to enjoy a relaxing vacation with Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5. However, it’s the amount of time they decided to take off is the issue giving people pause in the U.K. “They’re very popular, they’re a huge asset to the UK, but there have been eyebrows raised in other parts of the royal household about the amount of time they’re not doing official engagements,” GBN’s royal correspondent Richard Palmer explained on the Royal Round Up podcast, via GBN. That means that anti-monarchists will likely start counting how many engagements the couple does between now and the end of the year.

“It may well be that they come under a little bit of pressure to up their number of engagements,” he continued. “There aren’t many families where both the father and mother are able to have 12 or 13 weeks with their children on all of their school breaks. I think there’s an awful lot of goodwill towards them, but they do need to keep an eye on that.” Kate and William have taken a much different approach than King Charles III and Queen Elizabeth II when it comes to raising their family. They are much more hands-on and try to keep as much normalcy around their three children as possible. 

The lack of work ethic is something William and Kate have been criticized for over the years. The British tabloids even nicknamed him the “slightly reluctant royal” and “Work-shy William” for his low number of royal engagements. And Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh has drawn major praise for being the senior royal “who works harder than Kate, William or Camilla.” Yikes! It’s something that the couple will have to pay attention to as their kids grow up because plenty of people are keeping tabs.

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