Kate Middleton’s birthday forces Prince William to make exceptional request to King Charles to…
Prince William may have put pressure on King Charles III to let him skip a landmark event so the Royal Family can still celebrate Kate Middleton’s birthday, as the Princess of Wales turns 43 on Thursday, January 9.
It’s a notable moment in the life of Middleton as she celebrates her first birthday cancer-free following a nine month battle with the disease throughout 2024, and Prince William wants to make it memorable.
As a result, the heir to the British throne has made a tough request of his father to put family ahead of duty by asking him to skip the funeral of Jimmy Carter, the United States’ former-president who died at the age of 100 on December 29.
The King regularly attends these events, having done so for the ceremonies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr in 2004 and 2018 respectively, to preserve the United Kingdom’s military, economic, cultural and diplomatic relationship with the USA.
Now that task was due to fall to William as the incumbent Prince of Wales, inheriting the title from his father upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, but he asks to skip Carter’s funeral to celebrate his wife’s moment.
“Surely the current Prince of Wales would have been a more suitable choice than the fourteenth in succession to the throne,” the Daily Mail posted, reflecting on the situation. “Asking William to support Carter was probably not an option. Thursday is Kate’s birthday, and it’s always a family affair.”
Who will represent the Royal Family?
As a result, it will be Prince Edward who will fly out across the Atlantic to be present as the former leader of the Democrats is put to rest. The youngest child of Queen Elizabeth will be joined by his wife, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Sophie.
Edward is currently 14th in the line of succession, but was born third. Despite being the youngest child of Elizabeth’s four, he was ahead of Princess Anne because of an old tradition that placed younger brothers ahead of sisters. This was only changed in 2013.
