Will William and Kate Undertake Future Royal Tours?

On Friday, King Charles and Queen Camilla will begin their royal tour of Australia. Obviously, Charles has toured Australia before, but this will be his first visit as sovereign, so it’s certainly a special trip. As the royal couple embark on this visit, I can’t help but wonder again what the future of royal tours looks like for William and Kate.

It has been more than two years since the couple undertook their last proper royal tour. They have not undertaken one as Prince and Princess of Wales. To be fair, they have not had much of a window to do so. The first half of 2023 was overwhelmed with Coronation activity. There had been talk that the couple were planning a tour in the back half of 2023, but, for some reason, any plans for a 2023 tour evaporated. Then, there were reports the two would tour in early 2024, but obviously the royal world was turned upside down when Kate was hospitalized in January.

I frankly think William is shying away from classic royal tours. As you all know, I believe very strongly that the couple were very unjustly attacked during their Platinum Jubilee Tour, and it really seemed to rattle them. In addition, William obviously wants to create a new kind of monarchy, and he’s been forging that path pretty boldly in the last several years. His vision for the monarchy seems to be that of Britain’s CEO, which I think is a little problematic, since Britain already has a CEO—the Prime Minister.