LIZ JONES: Kents put duty first. If only William had done the same

Now I’m REALLY worried.

On Tuesday morning, with barely two hours to spare, the Prince of Wales announced he would be a no-show at the memorial service for the late ex-King Constantine II of Greece, none other than his godfather.

The reason given was ‘for a personal matter’. Hmmm. He was also swerving the honour of giving a reading.

All of which made me and so many others immediately start to worry about Kate.

Twitter caught fire (11,000 posts about William, 47,000 about Kate) with feverish speculation. This despite the Palace insisting almost in the same breath that the Princess of Wales ‘is doing well’, which sounds rather lame.

Almost telling us to keep our proletarian noses out.

We have since been assured the death of Tom Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella – daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent – was not the reason for William’s absence.

That sad announcement was made several hours after the service, although he had been found dead on Sunday.

Valiantly, and proof if we needed it that the royals are nothing if not stoic, Gabriella’s parents chose to attend the memorial service.

It was all the more poignant given that the venue was St George’s Chapel, Windsor – where Gabriella and Tom had their wedding in 2019, attended by the late Queen.

Gabriella’s parents looked sombre yesterday but gave nothing away. They were in the middle of a family tragedy but they knew the show had to go on.

The temptation to stay with and comfort Ella must have torn the Kents in two but the royals always, always put duty first.

Which of course only fuelled more speculation last night that, for William to be a no- show, something must be terribly wrong.

He has been brought up with duty as his watchword. Even as a 15-year-old boy, he managed to hold it together and walk behind his mother’s coffin.

What on earth could have prompted the dramatic, last-minute no-show?

While most of us have never heard of the late King Constantine, William’s decision not to appear is baffling. The king, who died over a year ago, was cousin to William’s grandfather Prince Philip and a senior European royal.

Guests included the King and Queen of Spain as well as Queen Camilla and Princess Anne.

William’s absence was perplexing on so many levels and I wonder why is the Palace allowing the rumour mill to spin out of control by not giving us a good reason?

Desperate for news, like so many people, I go online. And there, oh dear, oh dear, is a montage that perhaps won’t quite bring about the end of the monarchy, but one that suggests that it will surely tip it into irrelevance.

The photographs of the service were positively Victorian: so dark and glum and the protagonists – there is no other phrase for it – as old as the hills.

Crumbling. No hint of glamour, no sap in those veins.

Of course, it was a sombre occasion, but didn’t the sight of the Princess of Wales in a black veil at Prince Philip’s funeral give hope for the future?

Sad to say, the royal turnout was mostly grey heads and wrinkles. And Prince Andrew, 64 – Prince Andrew! – who led the procession into the chapel. That surely would not have happened had William been present.

The Duchess and Duke of Gloucester, 77 and 79. Princess Alexandra was there at 87, Commander Tim Laurence, 68, alongside Princess Anne, 73.

And, of course, Queen Camilla, 76. The combined age of the royals in the front row was 581.

All of which makes me yearn for William and Catherine: tall and elegant as reeds, much more glamorous than any movie stars.

Why on earth no one thought to shoe-horn Princess Beatrice (row two), Zara (row three) into the best seats to up the style and youth count, I can’t begin to fathom.

And where is Lady Louise, Philip’s granddaughter?

I didn’t spy a single person of colour in our royal ranks, either. 

Royal courtiers will, of course, shout ‘protocol’.

Queen Camilla is holding the fort, but even she must be thinking: ‘We really are on our last legs.’

You can imagine the groans of relief as the congregation is permitted to sit down.

Of course, age brings experience, gravitas, wisdom, a devotion to duty – again, Gabriella’s parents were doing exactly what the late Queen Elizabeth would have done, backs straight, game face on.

But this doesn’t ensure a future, let alone positive oohs and aahs from a waving crowd.

We have never needed William and Kate, and even Harry and Meghan, more acutely: They would be an injection of HRT. It would be all, ‘What is she wearing?’ ‘Are the boys talking?’ ‘How’s Harry’s hair?’

Instead we have, ‘The duke has just sat down, oh my God, will he ever come back up?’

Like it or not, the Royal Family is all about glamour, marketing, putting on a show. It cannot look doom ridden, reeking of mothballs. Princess Michael herself has in the past described the older royals as ‘boring’.

The royals are looking very dark indeed. Bring back the Fab Four, or even a Fab One.

We really cannot take any more bad news. Prince William needs to do his duty. Not just to his wife and children – but to us.