The Prince and Princess of Wales must be prepared for their next international tour to prevent another disaster, according to the Mirror's royal editor Russell Myers. William and Kate have not been on an overseas trip together in several years, as the princess took time away from her royal duties while undergoing treatment for cancer.
It is believed Kate will be travelling with William to India later this month for the Earthshot Prize, which comes after King Charles wrapped up a successful nine day tour of the Caribbean. As the monarch's trip came to an end, palace aides said the King was being deployed as a 'secret weapon' by the government for 'politically charged situations', a task that will be handed to William when he ascends the throne.
Lessons from the 2022 Caribbean tour
Speaking on the Mirror's YouTube show Pod Save the King, Russell explained that William and Kate will have to be prepared to step up and handle difficult international conversations with care, something that did not happen on their heavily scrutinised 2022 trip to the Caribbean. The Mirror's deputy royal editor Jennifer Newton asked: "We were saying before and just how diplomatically sensitive this tour has been for the King, do you think that William and Catherine would be up to the job of doing something like this themselves?"
Russell explained: "Well, they haven't been to this part of the world since you know, the ill-fated tour of 2022. And I think that left them incredibly scarred, and it was controversial for a number of reasons. Everybody will remember the images of them shaking the hands of children through wire fences and riding around on the Queen's old Land Rover from 1963. And certainly when you come to this part of the world, you've got to be prepared."
Underprepared staff and delicate tours
Russell continued: "I think back to William and Catherine four years ago, they were so underprepared, their staff were underprepared, and it really, really left its mark. I mean, these tours are very, very delicate for a number of reasons. I think if William and Catherine are going to come to the Caribbean as Prince and Princess of Wales, or indeed when William takes the throne, they've got to be prepared to make a further statement."
During the 2022 visit, which was William and Kate's first major overseas trip since the start of the Covid pandemic, the future king and queen travelled to the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica. The eight-day visit to the region was slammed as "tone deaf" and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge received heavy criticism for the tour, labelled as displaying "heavy colonial undertones" after they sought to emulate the Queen's visit to the region in the 1960s.
Protests and criticism during the visit
The couple also raised eyebrows for travelling in an open top Land Rover driven by a Jamaican soldier to inspect the trips, with some suggesting it "looked like a scene from The Crown". William and Kate received a warm welcome in the Caribbean, but faced protests from those calling for an apology and reparations for slavery, and were criticised for certain elements of the tour deemed to hark back to colonial days.
