Is Duchess Kate lining up a ‘secret TV project’ with the BBC?

Princess Kate, Duchess of Cambridge at the balcony of  the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Whitehall in Londen, on November 10, 2019, to attend the National Service of Remembrance at the CenotaphPhoto: Albert Nieboer / Netherlands OUT / Point de Vue OUT |

As we discussed last week, the Duchess of Cambridge apparently had a “private event” at the BBC following an appearance at a Remembrance event. Private event meaning that it “counts” as some kind of event on her schedule, but there were no photos, only a confirmation that she did a meeting. Plus, some royal reporters promised that Kate would be announcing something big very soon. So what is this mysterious project?

Kate Middleton is thought to be lining up a secret TV project, after meeting with the director-general of BBC. The Duchess of Cambridge, 37, had a private talk with Tony Hall at the Broadcasting House, in London, on Thursday, the Mail reports. The meeting comes after her brother-in-law Prince Harry, 35, joined forces with Oprah Winfrey for a new show on Apple TV+.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss the content of the meeting,” Lord Hall’s spokesman told the Mail. Kensington Palace explained Kate met him in her capacity as a patron of The Royal Foundation, meaning any project would be for charity.

[From The Sun]

When Harry signed up for the mental health thing with Oprah, the British tabloids went into meltdown because he was suddenly so “Hollywood” and HOW DARE HE and he was breaking every single royal protocol. And when CopyKate does it, I imagine the headlines will be about how Savior Saint Kate’s BBC Brilliance. And we don’t even know what it is. Kate’s uncomfortable on-camera and making any kind of off-the-cuff remarks, so whatever it is… she’s either not going to be on camera, or it will be some kind of brief, rehearsed statement.

I’m brainstorming what Kate’s keen BBC project could be and I’ve made a list:

Inside Kate’s Keen Charity Garden
How to Make Kate’s Log Chair: A Tutorial
Little Drops of Heaven: A BBC Tribute To Buttons
How to Care About Mental Health, But Not When It’s Your Family
The Embiggening: Kate Sits Somewhere & People Praise Her For Existing

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 09, 2019 in London, England.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attends the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 09, 2019 in London, England.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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76 Responses to “Is Duchess Kate lining up a ‘secret TV project’ with the BBC?”

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  1. Mignionette says:

    She is literally DESPERATE to work now.

    How embarrassing, it’s like the super eager kid at the back of the class who keeps waiving their out-stretched hand to the teacher hoping to get the apple at the end of the day….

    • cubby says:

      I wouldn’t even say it’s like that. It’s more like the lazy vain girl getting sparked into competitiveness by the pretty new student.

    • Devon says:

      She is desperate to look like she is working. But none of her work is of any value. It’s vapid nonsense. There is just more of it than before Meghan showed up.

    • bobslaw says:

      I just…do not understand this. PICK SOMETHING. One through-line and promote the hell out of initiatives that relate. Go to local charity events, hold luncheons, tweet about it, travel to visit related charities in commonwealth countries. Food security? Youth mental health? Communicable diseases that can easily be prevented? Environmental causes? Clean drinking water? Malaria? Youth literacy? There are so many worthy causes. Literally pick one out of a hat and commit!

      • Mignionette says:

        She CAN’T pick anything because she has ZERO interests… and there be Dragons.

        Katie unkeen has had all the life sucked out of her by the Familia Real in favour of the current stepford consort late 50’s model who is fond of uber bottoned up tin soldier cosplay outfits.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Kate was like this before the royals, Mignionette.

    • Mego says:

      Kate IS NOT desperate to work. She doesn’t have to do much of anything because a. The press are willing to publish articles lavishing her with praise and vaguely hint that she does things like read and b. She’s white.

      So the Sun aka. The Dim (BTB) wrote about some secret BBC thing. NOTHING will come of it I assure you.

  2. Scal says:

    GAH that headband. Every new angle of it and I just can’t. You’re 37 and at a formal event. A glitter headband? Each time it just gets more and more on my nerves.

    I’ll believe the BBC show when I see it. We;ve all been keen baited so many times now.

    • ArtHistorian says:

      I just can’t with the head band. It ruined a perfectly good, if somewhat bland, look.

      It is the same with the black coat. The cut and fit are perfect – but it is completely ruined by those pseudo-military details, which make what could have been a very good ensemble immediately embarrassing.

      • Vava says:

        Kate never gets it quite right. Hate the headband, and the tassels are bad too. Her eye makeup looks especially bad that evening of the Headband.

    • Bella DuPont says:

      But I like the sparkly headband! 🎉🤷🏼‍♀️

      What’s really worrying me is that I like it more every time I see it….😅😅

      • MsIam says:

        No to the sparkly headband! She looks like a debutante from the ’60s.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Headband suited to a 4 year old headed to Christmas Eve services.

      • Person3514 says:

        We can hang in the corner of shame together Bella, because I love the headband! And forgive me my fellow celebitches, but I looove the coat dress from the article yesterday.

        Honestly I feel pretty crappy sometimes when I read Kate posts. For the most part I love her style, buttons and all. Her style is dragged so bad here sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with my fashion sense. She’s definitely had some fug ensembles, but I’ll be damned cause I really do like most of them. *hides in shame* even the theme outfits and lace =0

    • yinyang says:

      Every inch of the project will be scripted to a tee, the woman has michael jackon’s peter pan syndrome, she refuses to grow up. She lets the ‘grown ups’ do everything and is incapable of any independent thought, it’s bizarre.

  3. Nahema says:

    While I doubt whatever Kate is doing is going to be anything amazing, if it is indeed anything at all, there is a difference between a British Royal going off and doing a project for an American streaming platform with an American celebrity and one doing a project for the BBC.

    • Chelle says:

      I raised that issue on the other thread. Just for the looks of it, I wish H/M had hit the home court first, assuming there was interest and opportunity, then branched out to Oprah and Apple.

      The Cambridges are getting too many easy wins.

      • Devon says:

        The Sussexes care more about impacts and making change and Apple/Oprah is going to lend itself to a bigger impact than a BBC production. It just is. The Cambridges care about appearances and optics.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        “When Harry signed up for the mental health thing with Oprah, the British tabloids went into meltdown”

        With reference to the above quote, here is my Tinfoil Tiara expiation: In order to make money, the British Tabloids give their readers and online commentariat what they want. The readers of the British Tabloids and the associated commentariat do not like the following:

        Oprah Winfrey
        Gale King
        Barrack & Michelle Obama
        Hillary Clinton
        Sunshine Sachs

        Giving Harry hell and having a meltdown allows the British tabloids (The Fail) to stir up shit, produce revenue producing click$ and drive comments on all of the above.

    • MsIam says:

      Not really, it’s only an issue when a British Royal named Harry or Meghan does something for a streaming TV platform. Or have you forgotten that William is doing “something” with Netflix?

      • Ainsley7 says:

        William worked with Sir David Attenborough whose show is on Netflix. The tabloids made up that it was William’s show. William, Harry, and Charles all attended the premier.

  4. notasugarhere says:

    Is this going to be like the hype around the Big Project W&K were doing with the Love Actually director? Which turned out to be all four doing short voice overs.

  5. Keekee says:

    Normal Bill has sucked the life and charisma put of her… I remember she seemed like the life of the party during her Waity years. She is extremely guarded now.

    • Anance says:

      Yes, and she sported fashionable styles – miniskirts, tights and boots.

    • Lady D says:

      She’s probably guarded because she’s learned in the past eight years that she can’t trust anyone. e.g. good friend and neighbour Rose. I wonder if she thinks she can trust her mother, or if Carole would side with William?

  6. Jessica says:

    Where is that headband going? What a completely dumb thing to wear to an event like this.

    • Seraphina says:

      It’s symbolic of her crown. To remind everyone she will one day wear it. God help us all.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      The more photo’s I see of the headband the more childish it looks. Like the ribbons in the hair, she likes to present herself in a juvenile manner – it just reaffirms to me that she likes being treated like a child and behaves accordingly. Kate went from living in a bubble where her life was managed by her mother, to another bubble where her life is managed by her husband and a team of hired help.

      • Chelle says:

        It’s sad to say but some women want that and feel very supported, protected and loved by handing over the responsibilities to themselves and for themselves over to someone who they find more knowledgeable. In 2019.

      • cubby says:

        Flashbacks to the weird pink dress she wore to Archie’s christening. It’s like she wants to be treated like a nine-year-old.

      • Mignionette says:

        I feel like Katie is quietly communicating her Infantilization to us through the headbands and child like demeanor…

      • notasugarhere says:

        That pink dress was another SWF of her mother in law. Diana wore a very similar outfit while expecting Harry, and had it re-cut for Harry’s first Trooping in 1985.

  7. cubby says:

    If we try and look at this sensibly… what could it actually be?

    She doesn’t interview well so it’s unlikely to be a sit-down thing with her in a drawing room, whilst they examine her (meagre) charity work. She can’t do public speaking without sounding out of breath and scared so I doubt it’s a Ground Force type of thing where they’re creating more gardens. She isn’t great at meeting people without the shield of the kids – maybe it’s something to do with George’s school? I just don’t know.

    This will probably be a puff piece where she’s seen on camera mumbling through her false teeth and everyone else does the heavy lifting.

    • Becks1 says:

      Yeah, all snarkiness aside…….realistically what could this be?

      I’m sure its not a program “about” Kate, but it cant even really be about her work because she doesnt work. Maybe something mental health related but that seems too obvious in terms of copying Harry. Maybe the focus will be more on something like healthcare in the UK and one of her charities (EACH?) will be spotlighted and she’ll be interviewed for that.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        It has to be about mental health as that’s what the other TV projects from Harry and William are about and GF is clearly not happy about not being involved in them as after all she came up with the Heads Together concept all on her ownsome. The danger of all 3 of them doing the same thing is the message gets lost simply because of petty jealous behaviour from the individuals involved.

        I’ll bet good money on all of these TV programs being released at the same time.

    • Chelle says:

      Cubby said “mumbling through her false teeth”.

      Chelle says “please don’t make me shout out in laughter like that ever again.”😂🤣😂

      It will likely be baseline information and questions that Catherine Quinn and the knowledgeable people on the panel have come up with that they want communicated to the public at large. Kate will pitch the questions they will answer. Then, she’ll read a summary. So, I’m thinking that if it’s about trauma, it will probably be something about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). They’ll probably due lightweight attachment stuff talking a child needs at least one positive and consistent caregiver and kids are resilient. She’ll pitch her outdoor gardens and playgrounds and that will be it. Oh, she might throw in the names of her children. Emotional of crumbs parental relatedness to the plebs. Got to make them feel connected.

      She’ll be crowned queen of the day and as some sort of earth mother. I should send her a head wrap and a chunky bracelet. She likes blue, right?

      I’m serious, y’all. The campaign to embiggen her is working. To bring Meghan up, it’s like the time I felt really bad for Hilary Clinton when Sarah Palin was on the scene. It was like the smartest girl in the school losing the vote for class president yet again to the vacuous yet pretty and well-turned out head cheerleader.

      • Mignionette says:

        If she wants to learn about ACES she needs to speak to Nadine Burke Harris but I suspect that someone like Nadine would never humour a glory hunter like Katie.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      For me its painful to watch and listen to her speak she is clearly trying to sound more posh than her natural speaking voice is – she tries too hard to mimic William and does a ham fisted job of it. You can see her forcing herself to speak in that way.

      She does this weird thing of mirroring him whenever they are out at engagements together – right down to facial expressions.

  8. Jeanie says:

    Whatever Meghan does…Kate is sure to follow… Why on earth would a woman Kate’s age wear a headband! She looks ridiculous

    • Vava says:

      These headbands seem to be a fashion thing on Instagram lately. And they look ridiculous on grown women.

  9. Oh No says:

    Ya know, I really do wish the the Sussexes were actively competing with the Cambridges.

    Could you imagine the content Meghan would give us?!?! (Beyonce, Oprah, and Michelle oh, my)

    If Kate and Will just worked the way Anne and Camilla do, they wouldn’t be out here looking foolish.

    If you start punching above your weight, don’t be surprised when you get hit with that 1,2

    • BeanieBean says:

      You now, I watched the ‘what the Durrells did next’ thing on PBS last night. Princess Anne visited the zoo on Jersey when it first opened & got a personal tour conducted by Gerald Durrell. She then became the patron & has been patron all these years. Anne was interviewed as part of this program. She clearly listened to & learned from Gerald, and clearly was committed to the cause of conservation through her patronage of this zoo. I was very impressed by her. And I contrast that with Kate. I just can’t see Kate ever becoming this knowledgable, this committed, to any of her ’causes’. It’s a shame, it really is.

      • Sunday says:

        But, she IS that committed to her cause… except that her cause is explicitly and singularly being the Queen Consort and wife of the Future Future King of England, period.

  10. Flying fish says:

    Stupse.

  11. Sharonk says:

    Leave Kate alone. She trying her best to be non controversial and please the BRF.
    She’s stuck with lazy, entitled William.
    But if she hangs in she gets her mothers ultimate prize… queen

    • cubby says:

      Kate’s complicit in the appalling treatment of Meghan. She’s lazy, too. This is why we don’t “leave her alone”. She wanted Big Willy, well, she got him and all the rubbish that entails. I hope she enjoys that crown. I don’t think all the jewels in the world can replace a family that loves and supports you and doesn’t use or cheat on you.

    • Chelle says:

      One the one hand, I really want to give her her due. Who in the hell can put up with a man baby like she has for all of these years? That’s some real tenacity. The girl has staying power. I would have wept at leaving all the jewels and wide open access to any and everything behind as I walked out the door with the sh*t I came with. Crying and snotting and getting in last minute touches and glances of priceless art pieces as I was leaving his petulant, over-privileged ass.

    • notasugarhere says:

      Kate chose to chase, cling to, and take back cheating William for 10 years. This is the ‘prize’ she wanted, the royals had nothing to do with it.

  12. Sofia says:

    Let’s wait for more information first. I remember her fans getting excited when the thing with the Love, Actually director was just a one sentence voice over

    For all we know, she’s gonna do the same thing this time round except voice the whole thing or make a cameo or two

  13. carmen says:

    Surprised anyone would take anything from the Sun at face value…. Isn’t it the same tabloid cr*p as the Fail?

    • BayTampaBay says:

      The Sun is actually worse than”The Fail”. Most of the crap & really stinky shit in The Fail is generated by the commentariat.

      RRRs, like Piers Morgan, who really are stating their own opinions but have an ax to grind with some member of the BRF so act like they are reporting, stir up crap & extra stinky shit by taking the truth or a grain of truth and turning it inside out.

  14. Miriam says:

    BROKEN BRITAIN part 2 ???🤔
    She had the same meeting last year as did the Sussexs for anti bullying week! It’s basically a recording either for a show or clip advertising anti bullying week. Highly doubt it’d be LIVE as she can barely make out a sentence ex;CNN ”interview” with max 😂🙈
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6393207/amp/Prince-William-Kate-Middleton-BBC-Anti-Bullying-Week.html

  15. Mtec says:

    Do “meetings” count as events for every other royal as well or just for Kate?

    • notasugarhere says:

      Just for Kate. They started counting them for her early on, because her engagement totals were so awful.

  16. Snappyfish says:

    The whole Meg is great & Kate is awful is getting tiresome. They are both far more intelligent than the one they married. So that alone is a chore for each to deal with. I don’t like pitting women against each other & whenever they are seen together (Wimbledon or polo matches) they seem to get along just fine. Praise them for what they do. There is no reason to constantly rip people to shreds for sport. Bitchy gossip is one thing but nitpicking every little thing is quite another. My opinion. I like them both in case anyone is wondering. My favorite? Zara, because everyone knows I will always side with the horse girl

    • Jaded says:

      We don’t need to nitpick and we aren’t ripping them to shreds for sport, because it’s plain as the noses on our faces. Kate is lazy. Meghan is not. That’s all there is to it.

      • Snappyfish says:

        Meghan just got to the BRF and has been a breath of fresh air. The two women have very different roles & are married to 2 completely different men. Harry seems to want Meghan out front & is encouraging of her ideas & projects. On the other side with have The heir to the throne & his somewhat priggish nature & not wanting to be outshone by his wife. There is a very good example of what happened when Charles was over shadowed by Diana. The Duchesses roles are very different & the constant nitpicking is tiresome as I previously mentioned. I’ve been reading this site for more than a decade & enjoy it immensely but sometime its easier to skip a post than to read the often brutal attacks. I have my druthers about both women but I feel they are in a untenable situation much like dodging landmines. I personally would like to see them join forces and rule the world

      • notasugarhere says:

        Kate’s job is to work. Even if she worked 400 engagements a year, she’d never be newsworthy. She has no charisma and will never outshine her equally boring husband. And it doesn’t matter that she’s boring, it matters that she’s lazy.

      • Nic919 says:

        Why would Kate’s role be to work less than the other women who are further away from being consort than she is? This argument never made any sense. Kate won’t ever have any constitutional role like a monarch would and so she should in fact be working more than the other women. If William becomes King she won’t have any new responsibilities. William will, but Kate will be there to escort him and ostensibly be a mother figure for the nation, as the Queen mother was during the war. Can anyone see Kate being taken seriously in that way? She’s almost 40 and outside of the PR spin, she’s not taken as seriously at all.

    • Nic919 says:

      Criticizing Kate’s low engagement numbers going on year nine of being in the the BRF is not nitpicking but fundamental to the purpose of the BRF. Why do Sophie and Anne do hundreds of engagements, and Sophie talks about feminist issues, but we expect so little from the future future consort? She is going to have a prime role and yet she’s almost 38 and still infantilizes herself with the help of the media. Sophie has young kids to raise too but no one gave her leave to just disappear for months on end. Sophie almost died giving birth to Louise as well. You would think since Sophie will never be queen consort, but is also expected to be a full time royal for the rest of her life, she would like a break as well. It’s not even a comparison just between Meghan and Kate, but with Kate and all the women who are working royals.

    • Sass says:

      What happened with Diana exactly? What are you referencing? The divorce or her death? Both?

      • Jaded says:

        Diana became an overnight sensation when she married Charles. At first he seemed delighted that she was attracting so much positive attention to the BRF – but as her star quality grew, Charles became resentful. They really shouldn’t have gotten married, he treated her like a brood mare and fairly soon after William and Harry were born he started seeing Camilla on the sly again. When Diana found out she was rightfully upset and enraged and the war of the Wales’s started. She learned to manipulate the media and over the course of their marriage turned the public against him. She was no angel herself, she had several affairs while still married to him, and the war culminated in both appearing on TV to discuss their marriage problems and infidelity (in Charles’ case multiple infidelities). The Queen stepped in at that point and told them to get a divorce, that they were bringing shame on the royal family and hurting their children. When Diana died the Queen didn’t return to London from Balmoral and refused to lower the flag to half staff at Buck palace because Diana was no longer a member of the BRF and the Queen was not in residence there. It wasn’t until Tony Blair, then PM, urged her to return to London, lower the flag and visit the makeshift memorial that had been created that she relented. Say what you will about Diana – she was neurotic, self-obsessed and manipulative – but she worked bloody hard and wasn’t about to put up with “the Firm” directing her life or ignoring her entirely. She had a mission to help and despite all she stuck to it.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Diana manipulated the media before their marriage, before they were even engaged. She worked actively with a couple of RRs (James Whitaker and Arthur Edwards) to shape her image and get Charles to marry her. Go back and read the transcripts of some press interviews from the Princess and the Press documentary. Interviews were conducted a few months before her death, so they’re more honest than most.

  17. Charfromdarock says:

    “ Little Drops of Heaven: A BBC Tribute To Buttons” made me snort with laughter.

  18. Lory says:

    I agree: Kate is not desperate to work, only to give the semblance of it. I think in her mind her job is to be THE wife. Smile (but not too smiley) look pretty (but appropriate) don’t have strong (or any), ignore (especially your own), produce heirs (job done!), repeat.

  19. Chris says:

    Not wading into any other topic but the one thing I think crosses a line is “How to Care About Mental Health, But Not When It’s Your Family.” Not saying anything about her relationship with Harry and Meghan (because we really don’t know what Kate’s relationship with them is behind closed doors). But her brother publicly stated she was privately supportive during his struggles with mental illness. That may be the way she knows how to deal with things

  20. Sass says:

    Ok so somehow I didn’t see the headband in earlier photos and was like “was it so bad she removed it?”

    I see it now.

    Oh no.

  21. Izzy says:

    Sure she does 🙄

  22. A says:

    The BBC is BRITISH you see, so of course William and Kate are better for having teamed up with the network that is, increasingly, becoming the government funded propaganda piece for the Conservative party. It’s only crass and Hollywood if it’s AppleTV and Oprah.

    I’ve been following some of the Brexit news recently, and the stuff that’s being said about the BBC is just not good. Their latest stupid stunt with BoJo and the Remembrance Day garbage is the tip of the iceberg. In a fair world, the fact that the RF is teaming up with the BBC would be rightfully criticized. There is no doubt that Kate and William and the royal staffers chose the BBC as their outlet very carefully (vs Channel 4 for example) because of the optics. They know precisely which crowd this appeals to, and it’s the narrow-minded little England types who support the Tories and voted for Brexit. Not the weirdos who think the BBC is some type of leftist funded conspiracy, but the middle/upper-middle class who they still imagine sips their tea and 4 and speaks like Hyacinthe Bucket and thinks the poors and the immigrants are to blame for every last problem.

    They’re copying Harry and Meghan, but tailoring it to the audience they wish to appeal to. And it’s the WW2 Blitz cosplayers, the ones who rhapsodize nostalgically about the British empire being “not that bad really.” This is the direction the RF wants to take for their future. Not an open and inclusive one, but one where the definitions of what it means to be British are very clearly not on the side of white people. Maybe I’m being overboard on this, but I honestly don’t think I am.

    • Sunday says:

      You’re not being overboard in the slightest, you’re spot on and it’s disappointing but not surprising that these seemingly transparent moves from Will & Kate’s playbook are not more easily recognised. They are not being subtle! The most appalling PR stunt, to me, has been their recent reclaiming and Cambridge-washing of the Grenfell outreach that Meghan initiated – when you recall the ENTIRE COOKBOOK that Meghan published, the sales of which allowed the kitchen to expand their hours – the comments made by the future future king are even more passive aggressive and callous. It’s all so completely transparent and what causes the pit in my stomach to grow is that any PR intern could tell them all a few easy steps they could take to dissuade the press and the public of these conceived notions. Therefore, the fact that they haven’t done so means that, to someone *cough the Cambridges cough* the conceived notions are actually desired. It’s just disgusting.