Royal Aides Scramble to Run Palaces Without Charles, Kate, and William

Royal aides have been given a “very stark reminder of the extremely contingent nature of their roles” as they confront a near-total royal shutdown.

Princess Kate, Prince William and King Charles are all out of action owing to hospital treatment for Kate and the king, who were both discharged on Monday.

While the royals are expected to continue working behind the scenes, perhaps even holding some private audiences, it seems inevitable that many of the vast army of people who work in the various royal households will be at a looser end than they might otherwise have been in the weeks ahead.

Kate Middleton Finally Out of Hospital After 13 DaysON THE MEND

Dan Ladden-Hall, Martha Mercer

Charles is likely to remain publicly invisible for up to another month, having already taken ten days off frontline duties for treatment for an enlarged prostate. William and Kate are likely to be out of action for a staggering three further months as they focus on her recovery and attending to their family, having already been out of sight for two weeks.

Kate is likely to have been ordered to try and stay in bed as much as possible following her planned abdominal surgery. William is taking time off his royal duties to care for her and their three children, and has been spotted doing the school run in recent weeks, sources have told The Daily Beast.

Courtiers have said they expect the Waleses to be largely out of the public eye until after Easter.

One former courtier told The Daily Beast: “Serving the royals can be a precarious business, as Queen Elizabeth’s staff found out when she died. (Royal staff) are not exactly twiddling their thumbs, but there is never going to be the usual volume of business to attend to if your principals can’t do royal jobs. For instance, it takes dozens of people to plan and execute a foreign tour, and those have all been canceled. (Courtiers) devote their lives to serving these people, and one does assume it will just carry on forever. But of course, it doesn’t, and hiatuses like this come as a very stark reminder of the extremely contingent nature of their roles.”

A friend of the king’s however, said: “It really is nonsense to suggest that everyone is going to be at a loose end. The public engagements are a huge part of the job, but much, much more happens behind the scenes, and that won’t stop. The king’s people are kept incredibly busy and I suspect if they only have a chance to catch up they will be jolly happy.”

Neither William and Kate’s office, nor the king’s team, responded to queries from The Daily Beast for this report.

However, the palace have sought to play down any sense that the king will be cutting back on his workload, with sources previously telling the Daily Telegraph and the Sun that he would be “raring to go” after the procedure and working from home while recuperating. He made a point of walking out of hospital for the media on Monday. On Tuesday, Camilla hosted a reception for authors at Windsor Castle; the message was very much that royal work continues as normal.

Kate, however, took a different approach to her father-in-law. Not for her the public wave on the hospital steps. Instead, she left hospital quietly and without fanfare, slipping out without getting photographed by the waiting media.

This perhaps points to a difference in how the two offices intend to handle their respective principals’ time off in the days ahead. A friend of William’s and Kate’s said, “I think they have made it very clear that the next few months are about the family. They are taking time off and no-one begrudges them that. I’m sure the office will be a bit quiet over the next few weeks; that is kind of the whole point.”