Royal Family in chaos as Prince William's last minute drop-out causes 'nightmare'

ok.co.uk:

The Prince of Wales' last minute decision not to attend a service to celebrate the life of King Constantine II of Greece at St George's Chapel, Windsor has been called a "PR nightmare" by a royal commentator.

While Prince William - who was Constantine's godson and is godfather to his own grandson, Prince Constantine Alexios - was due to give a reading at the event, his absence was referred to as a "personal matter", with the palace quickly confirming that the cause was not to do with the Princess of Wales' recovery following abdominal surgery.TalkTV's Royal Editor Sarah Hewson gave her insight into William's decision to withdraw from a family event for personal reasons - saying the Royal Family would not have wanted the announcement to have been made public.

Speaking to Kevin O’Sullivan and Alex Phillips, Hewson explained: “They don't like to let people down at the last minute, and they certainly wouldn't have wanted that public announcement that he'd had to pull out, either because of the questions it stands to raise” On Kensington Palace’s “PR nightmare” over the event, Hewson added: “We wouldn't have paid any attention to this under normal circumstances. "Of course, there's a huge amount of attention in the latter years of the late Queen's life when she had to pull out of events because everyone was very mindful about what might this mean.

With the King and with Kate's illness, now we get this greater scrutiny and it's a PR nightmare, isn't it, for Kensington Palace. “On the one hand, they're being told by their principles that they want to maintain their privacy and on the other hand, we're all on the phone every day.