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Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly planning an overhaul of royal traditions, with royal sources claiming that the couple are aiming to establish a modern monarch that is ‘less formal and stuffy’.
The Sunday Mirror quoted several royal insiders as claiming that the Duke and Duchess are willing to drop their royal titles in normal use and want to be addressed by their first names during official tours.
According to a source, the criticism that followed their Caribbean tour in March this year was the catalyst for the willingness to bring forth some change in royal engagements.
The insider shared: “They want to be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition. When the team arrived back in London [from the Caribbean] the couple had a debrief with aides.”
The source continued: “They went over everything and pinpointed specific things that went wrong and how to improve moving forward. The general consensus was that the tour seemed out of date, out of touch, too formal and stuffy.”
“So now it’s more ‘Wills and Kate’ instead of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge… ‘Just call me Wills’ type of thing. They want to try to avoid the bows and curtsies in public, be more approachable… and break away with a lot of the tradition and focus on a modern monarchy.”
Both William and Kate faced stiff criticism during their Caribbean tour during which they posed for pictures with locals standing behind metal cage fences, and posing atop a Land Rover.
The source commented on the same, saying: “If they could wave a magic wand and go back in time, they would change almost everything about the Caribbean tour.”
“William and Kate are now both very aware that to certain parts of the world, and to the younger generations, the monarchy is a symbol of colonialism and a time gone by. Now, it seems silly to have celebrated that and push royal traditions during the tour.”
“It was a shock to them all. A real eye-opener. This is what prompted institutional change within the monarchy. Otherwise, they just wouldn’t survive,” the source concluded.