Prince William and Kate Middleton current events 5: June-August 2008

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Villemann

One wonders how Kate feels about all this navy and army stuf keeping her boyfriend away for weeks on end. Can a girl not born and bred as a princess accept that her beloved has to go away so much? It must be difficult not only for Kate but for all those commoners, who fall in love with princes because the lifestyle is so entirely different.

Ask any Army wife how this is... without the gimmicks. Or the wife of any career employee... Or the wife of a craftman away on a rigging assignment... There are soo many women who have to face regular times of absence of their husband, that it doesn't really seem to be worth mentioning, especially not nowadays with the internet and cell phones.

[Villemann]

No, I am sure the absence is felt the same way whether you are royal or not, but a webcam can not really replace a warm cuddle from your loved one at the end of the day, can it!

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Jo of Palatine

Ask any Army wife how this is... without the gimmicks. Or the wife of any career employee... Or the wife of a craftman away on a rigging assignment... There are soo many women who have to face regular times of absence of their husband, that it doesn't really seem to be worth mentioning, especially not nowadays with the internet and cell phones.

Cell phones, internet, webcams wonderful inventions for anyone with a husband/wife/son/daughter/father/mother in the forces!
By comparison, William has barely been away.

[Amelia]

PRINCE William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton amazed airline staff by refusing an upgrade to first class. She insisted on being treated as a regular passenger when she flew to Barbados to meet Wills. The humble 26-year-old then asked British Airways cabin crew: “Please call me Kate.”

Is it Kate or Catherine? I wish they would make up their minds.

Kate's in a class of her own | The Sun |News|Royals

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Amelia

Is it Kate or Catherine? I wish they would make up their minds.
Kate's in a class of her own | The Sun |News|Royals

All 'we' can do is wait for an announcement, it was after all one of the tabloids that told us, that she told everyone to call her Catherine. She might prefer Cate or Cathy or......

[Villemann]

If the Sun story is correct, I think Kate - or Catherine - is sending a great signal here:"No special favours thank you." Lets hope she keeps it up after she has been to St. Paul's!

[Menarue]

I am an army wife, you get used to the absences, you have to. The longest separation was two years alone with four small children and no family near and I survived. Other times it was 1 year, 6 months, etc etc. When you marry someone in the military you have to accept this and to complain would be unfair to the husband. If you are going to object to absences because of duty it is better not to marry and find someone else with a 9-5 job. Sarah Ferguson is a example of someone who couldn´t cope.

[Incas]

I think Kate turning down the upgrade shows her to be very media savvy. If she took up the offer, it would be another mark against her for getting freebies and going on another holiday. It's a shame really, for the airline clerk to sell the story to the tabloids. I'd think airline's so called privacy policy would cover its paying passenger's encounter with its agent. It does make me wonder if the agent was the one to took it upon him/her-self to give Kate an upgrade after recognizing her, either her name or face.

[georgiea]

Originally Posted by Incas

I think Kate turning down the upgrade shows her to be very media savvy.

Totally agree with you Incas. I think the agent got MONEY!

[hilal]

The unassuming 26-year-old surprised airline staff by turning down the offer of a seat in first class for the 6,000 mile flight to the Caribbean. She was on her way to be reunited with her royal beau, who's been on attachment with the navy.

Kate declines upgrade as she jets to Caribbean for tryst with Wills

KATE MIDDLETON HA PUESTO RUMBO AL CARIBE PARA PASAR LAS VACACIONES CON EL PRÍNCIPE GUILLERMO

[Amelia]

Issa that a freebie frock, Kate? There's an awful lot of giveaway dresses in Brazil for designer's 'muse' | Mail Online

Maybe I'm a little suspicious of the DM's intentions but it is interesting that they went with this story while other news outlets were going with the 'turning down the upgrade' one. Which happened to be one they totally ignored.

[Monika_]

Originally Posted by Amelia

Maybe I'm a little suspicious of the DM's intentions but it is interesting that they went with this story while other news outlets were going with the 'turning down the upgrade' one. Which happened to be one they totally ignored.

I totally agree. And did anyone notice the DM article stated that she's 'helping' (not working) with her parents' business? Me thinks Katie Nicholl is seeing green.

[Mermaid1962]

I think that it was "Pick on the Middletons Day" at the Mail today, because there was an article about Pippa and her new boyfriend as well. I think that there's a green-eyed monster working at the DM.

Originally Posted by Amelia

Issa that a freebie frock, Kate? There's an awful lot of giveaway dresses in Brazil for designer's 'muse' | Mail Online

Maybe I'm a little suspicious of the DM's intentions but it is interesting that they went with this story while other news outlets were going with the 'turning down the upgrade' one. Which happened to be one they totally ignored.

[Incas]

I think that's interesting as well. Of course, reading through the comments, they were lopsidedly against Kate, assuming everything she got were freebies. The strange thing was, with all the paps parking outside her home, I'd expect at least one photo of the "courier bag-loads of frocks" among the evidence. This isn't really a new story. I remember reading in DM at least a year ago about Kate getting free handbags. Kate must be so glad she turned down that upgrade...so not worth it.

[Lemon Lyman]

Another DM article - they must be really short of things to publish.

I wear Next clothes as they fit really nicely and I like their style - doesn't mean I get them free!

[Ella Kay]

I definitely remember reading right after the event that Kate bought her pink Issa evening gown from the Boodles Boxing Ball at Harrods. This "getting the dress for free" angle is a new one to me. We've heard that she works with a stylist who brings clothing to her flat so that she can try it on, but no one has ever said that she gets those clothes free.

I'm just flabbergasted at the amount of non-news coming from the DM lately. It's even worse than usual.

[Isana]

I agree with everyone. Don't most people wear one or two labels? I wear mostly H&M and Zara doesn't mean I get freebies from them (I wish ) or that I'm their "ambassador". It would also not make a lot of sense to deliver her cloths to her London home when she moved back to her parents by the end of last year. Even if they deliver her cloths, couldn't it simply be a VIP service to protect her privacy? They send her something to her home, she gets to chose (and pay) and doesn't need to go to some shop and be bothered by paps etc. That would also fit in with what the designer said.

‘Kate is not an ambassador for Issa. We love it and are very flattered that Kate wears Issa. 'She’s a private client and we never make any comment on our private clients.’

And then it's not really hard to outshine Chelsy when she has that infamous scowl on her face. Chelsy is a beautiful girl and she wore a great dress to the BBB but she just doesn't photograph well at all. Girl needs to learn to smile every once in a while at least when she attends public functions with her beau. But then the DM never let logic or fact get in the way of their stories.
But of course the usual suspects immidiately jumped on the story and took it as gospel. Surely her paying for the dresses wouldn't be right either because that would be wasting money. Maybe they would be happy if she ran around naked all day...

[putski]

Funny that Katie Nicholl's article quotes Daniella Issa in the end, which refutes her whole story. You guys are right... it's a slow news weekend (they couldn't get any scoop from Mustique perhaps) and are filling the pages.

And I don't really care if Kate gets free stuff. Why shouldn't she? She makes the Issa label look good. It's clearly a win-win situation for both parties if true. But my guess is she only gets discounts. And KN should just stop writing useless non-stories... and also leave Pippa alone. Because frankly, she (KN) sounds like a jealous socialite who has to resort to mundane bickering because she couldn't get the more relevant stories like Harry's visit to Mandella's cell in South Africa.

[Monika_]

Originally Posted by putski

Funny that Katie Nicholl's article quotes Daniella Issa in the end, which refutes her whole story.

Lol! I don't recall if it was Nicholl, but the same was true of the article about the Queen wanting Kate to get a job. After all the nonsense written about what the Queen expects of Kate, the article was concluded with a statement that BP doesn't comment on such things.

[Warren]

The two pages (yes!) of speculations over who paid/pays/will pay for Ms Middleton's dresses has been moved over to the Rumours and musings thread.