The Prince and Princess of Wales have delighted royal fans with a full round-up of their engagements for the month of September.
Taking to their Kensington Royal Twitter account, Their Highnesses posted a thread of photos documenting their happenings throughout the month, including both solo and joint engagements.
The first tweet in the thread reads: ‘Welcome to the September Rewind with The Prince and Princess of Wales.’
The monthly round-up is a new feature for the royal couple and comes after they ramped up their presence on social media earlier this year with glossy videos documenting bog royal occasions, including King Charles’s Coronation.
It also comes amid reports Kate and William, both 41, are looking to hire a CEO to run their household of around 60 staff.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have used their Kensington Royal Twitter account to update fans on their movements over the last month
Last month the Daily Mail’s diary editor Richard Eden reported the new boss will report directly to them and won’t answer to the private secretaries who have long held power behind the scenes at the palaces.
It was described as a ‘revolutionary move’ by a source who added: ‘They are overthrowing the traditional, hierarchical structure in which staff answer to private secretaries. It has really set the cat among the pigeons. Will the King and Queen have to follow their lead?’
Kensington Palace has already hired a high-powered recruitment firm, Odgers Berndtson, to find the best candidate. It has placed an advertisement online which stresses the unprecedented nature of the position.
The round-up included both their solo and joint engagements from September, including a memorial service on the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death
‘This is a unique opportunity,’ it says. ‘The CEO is the most senior and accountable leader for the Household, reporting directly to TRHs The Prince and Princess of Wales. They will be responsible for the development and implementation of TRH’s long-term strategy and continuing to strengthen a professional and collaborative Household culture.’
In an apparent admission that there are some strong-willed, difficult characters are the palace, the job description states that the successful candidate must be ’emotionally intelligent, with ‘low ego’, and strong self-awareness and understanding of their impact on others’.
Anyone wanting the job must be ‘able to operate as a ‘servant’ leader, empowering the senior team’, it says.
The CEO will deal directly with King Charles and Queen Camilla’s household, ‘serving as the strategic interface to Buckingham Palace, to align The Royal Highnesses’ priorities with those in support of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen’.
No salary is given, but it is understood that the CEO will be paid more than the couple’s private secretaries.
Earlier this year, the Prince and Princess of Wales began to shake up their social media presence by posting professionally edited reels of big royal occasions, including the King’s Coronation and the events leading up to it.
Speaking at the time, the Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English told Palace Confidential that the couple’s ‘social media blitz’ would win over young people.
She noted that, while overall support for the royal family was high among the British public, there was a ‘generational difference’ in levels of support.
Other photos included in the September round-up are from the Prince and Princess of Wales’s trips to France for the Rugby World Cup
Princess Kate’s solo trip to see the England rugby team at the World Cup in France featured in the round up
One of Prince William’s overseas engagements, his recent Earthshot trip to New York City, was also included
Speaking to Jo Elvin, she said: ‘Support [for the royal family] is really rock solid amongst the older generation, but not so much amongst the younger generation.
‘So the Waleses have been looking at this for a while and they’ve really ramped it up since Easter. ‘How do we tell our story to these people? How do we engage them?”
She added that, as well as showing people what their lives are like as people, the videos also gave the Waleses a chance to share the work they are carrying out on issues such as homelessness.
However, she added the ‘jury is still out’ on whether or not the Waleses are going about this in the right way.
‘These social media clips are almost too well put together, there’s a lot of jazzy music that goes with it,’ she said.
Jo Elvin added: ‘Arguably [the videos] could be a little bit alienating for the younger generations, couldn’t they? So much wealth, so much gloss.’
English said a source in the royal household had told her the Waleses had got the ‘right idea’ but that there was still some discussion about the slick production of the videos.
Eden joked that there might be a ‘competition’ between the Waleses and the King and Queen, who are now advertising for their own videographer, presumably to produce similar content.
He said: ‘It’s quite amusing but that’s what you’ve got to do if you want to reach different age groups.’
The pair made the point that the royals have not yet joined TikTok, amid scepticism from the British government over its security after government workers were banned from downloading the Chinese-founded app onto their work devices.
However he joked that if the royals did join TikTok, he was looking forward to seeing King Charles and Queen Camilla involved in a ‘dance-off’ against the Prince and Princess of Wales.
English laughed: ‘If they don’t do it, AI will do it for them.’
She also revealed that the Waleses have had talks with TikTok, but it was more to gain an understanding of how the platform works.