But what can I do?

blue eyes · January 26, 2013, 04:36:59 AM

With the latest interviews and media coverage
I would like to ask what the Royalty today could do that Royals of generations past did? For example...
Could a royal today get away with not doing interviews?
Could a Royal today get away with refusing the media access to residence?

All those things people talk about that they wish Royals didn't do.. could they really not do those things?
:shrug:

amabel · January 26, 2013, 09:46:32 AM

I agree..I think that while of course they COULD refuse to talk to the Press, it would be considered haughty etc etc and they'd get lot of bad press, less supprot for their charities etc etc. It si impossible, in the modern world to avoid "having to publicise yourself"...

Jenee · February 28, 2013, 05:51:07 PM

Well, the Queen doesn't really give interviews. She gives a Christmas speech, but I don't think I have EVER seen her sit down with a reporter and answer questions like the younger set do.

Media access to their residences... there's another one that I don't really follow... because the media doesn't have access to their private residences. Yes, Buckingham palace is open to everyone who pays the fee to take a tour, but that's not really where they LIVE. We never get to see their private spaces (nor should we be able to).

The media makes it more difficult for Royals today to do a lot of the things that Royals of the past did - hunt, have affairs, drink heavily, etc. Not just media, but technology too (camera phones!) make it incredibly hard for a Royal to make a wrong step privately.

Windsor · March 01, 2013, 12:43:18 PM

The above video shows the closest thing to an interview Queen Elizabeth II has ever been involved with.

corydora · March 01, 2013, 04:40:21 PM

I watched several movies and documentaries on youtube yesterday (been a little bit under the weather) and one movie (fiction) showed Diana arriving to meet her staff the first official day. She was told "You will keep a diary which will be stored for future historians to study, your schedule will be made 6 months in advance and cannot be changed, your dressers will select clothes that are suitable for each appointment, etc." I thought "what if I just said no, I don't want to do that." Not that I would. What sanctions could be taken against me, Princess Cory, if I just said I won't do it and you can't make me?

chavita · March 01, 2013, 04:43:08 PM

How much of what you just said they showed in the movie is true? Do they really get told all of that? :hmm:

cinrit · March 01, 2013, 05:20:55 PM

I don't know if it's true that Diana was actually told that, but I believe all the Royals ... at least those closest to the throne ... do keep a diary. Diary-keeping goes back as far as Queen Victoria, but I'm not sure if it goes beyond her. Maybe so, maybe not. I also know that their calendars are usually prepared weeks and sometimes months ahead of the actual dates. So it's possible that the documentary is correct.

Cindy

Jenee · March 01, 2013, 05:50:36 PM

It's possible it was based on truth, but I think we've found that their events are not set in stone and can be cancelled or amended with very little notice. Catherine's engagements were cancelled when she got sick, and I recently read an article about Prince Charles taking a sidebar from one of his, when a local invited him to a pub for a drink.

What about outside the British royals though. I am not aware of any other Monarch giving an interview, are you (collective "you")?

corydora · March 01, 2013, 06:27:10 PM

It was just a movie and an old one at that. I don't know how accurate it was. Except they do sit down and make up a schedule for the next 6 months or year. It made me wonder about having to do so much. I think it is part of the job, and you need to think about it before you take it on. Camilla (I have heard) has turned down some trips due to heat or cold or sea sickness. So the palace isn't cruel about things it seems.

Jenee · March 01, 2013, 07:05:09 PM

Yes, I remember hearing about that too - or perhaps it was that she went on the trip, but once she got there and the heat was too much, Charles went on some engagements without her. It was within the first couple years of their marriage, anyway.

amabel · March 02, 2013, 06:31:41 AM

Quote from: cinrit on March 01, 2013, 05:20:55 PM
I don't know if it's true that Diana was actually told that, but I believe all the Royals ... at least those closest to the throne ... do keep a diary.
Cindy

Of course she wouldn't be told to "keep a diary". However of course she had to have an engagements diary, and part of her duty as Princess was to do good works, charity and representational engagements. That's the deal. It is not set in stone, of course if a royal falls ill, they may have to cancel engagements, and that's understood. But generally speaking for the senior royals like the monarch and the heir to the throne, things are planned ages in advance and they don't cancel unless there's a really good reason. Diana Had to cancel things in her first pregnancy because of morning sickness and sometimes Charles had to do them alone..
However if she had gone "petulant" and said she didn't want to do engagements etc, she would look very bad. Fergie started off with a puppyish enthusiasm for her royal works, but after a while she began to drop things and spent more of her time skiing and partying, and she completely lost popularity...