Prince William Reportedly 'Refused To Budge'
An excerpt from the book which has been obtained by the Daily Mail says that the Prince of Wales "refused to budge" when it came to taking responsibility for the editing error.
"His PR team suggested he and Catherine issue a joint statement to help deflect the blame from her. The initial prepared statement used the words 'we' and 'our' but the prince decided not to release it," wrote Jobson.
"After all, it was his wife who'd manipulated the snap and nothing to do with him, and if the press found out that he was covering for the princess, the speculation would only grow," Jobson continued in the book. "When the statement was finally issued, it came from Catherine alone."
Prince William's silence was called out following Kate's apology. Richard Eden told Palace Confidential host Jo Elvin and Richard Kay at the time: "I'm just so sad and sort of frustrated about the whole thing because I feel so sorry for Catherine." He then went on to say that "she has been thrown under a bus," before speculating that Kate must have been forced to take the blame for blunder. "I think it's disgraceful. It's very ungentlemanly of Prince William to put the onus on her," he continued.
He added: "For goodness sake, he's the one who took the photograph. And the officials made it public. They gave it out, it's their job. I think it's absolutely disgraceful that they've said to her 'you go and explain what you did.' No, it's your job. Take some responsibility."
Prince William Has Previously Been Accused Of Having A 'Selfish Agenda' And Big 'Ego'
Many people will undoubtedly wonder why the Prince of Wales didn't take joint responsibility for the editing error considering what was going on with his wife's health behind the scenes. If you'll recall, the Princess of Wales had yet to go public with her cancer diagnosis when all of this was going on, but the "Where's Kate?" conspiracy theories were at their peak.
Prince William's actions do seem to coincide with what royal author Omid Scobie previously wrote about him. The future king has been accused of having "selfish agendas" and "ego," with the royal author telling Newsweek back in November 2023 that he often puts himself ahead of everyone else in the royal family: even his father, King Charles!
Scobie explained that the key fault in the royal family at the time was "selfish agendas, ego. We're operating in echo chambers. You only need to look at the recent weeks and the engagements, the big-ticket items have all clashed and gone over each other." He added: "Despite being fed those lines or the briefings about father and son working in lockstep with one another, we've seen father and son on completely different paths at times, with completely different views on things and we haven't seen them together on engagements."